How to stand out? 3 Great Reminders from Money 20/20 2015
It’s no easy feat distinguishing yourself during a large conference like Money20/20, no matter what fancy portable chargers you are peddling out. This can be even more difficult for those new kids on the block trying to cut through the noise. On our tours around the hall, a few new ventures stood out to us the most and provided 3 great, simple reminders on how to catch and hold attention.
Qapital - Have a clear, outward brand personality.
These guys are just plain Euro cool. The Swedish born and now US-based online platform and app is a money saving tool that works seamlessly with your bank to give you bank-level security and FDIC-insured interest-bearing savings. At its core it is a really useful way to keep to an important life lesson that every grandmother has tried to instill, save your money, while still making it a nerdy-cool platform we all want to use. By rethinking how consumers are trying to save and get it done with more ease, Qapital is integrating applications like IFTTT and providing “saving rules” that users can easily adopt into their daily routine. It’s simple and smart and wants managing your savings to be too.
From a marketing perspective, the Qapital branding is on-point. Their quirky and friendly branding, app and web design, makes them visually attractive to their key demographic, millennials (the Marsha Brady of our modern day audiences). Qapital also knows exactly how they should be speaking to (and with) their customers, trading the scary, inward banking jargon for real people terms that make the process a little less intimidating. Branding and communication is what we are passionate about as marketers, but it’s also important to a consumer. Buying into a brand is a lot easier when they seem confident and have a clear identity. Most importantly, when they already talk your way. Job well done Qapital! (PS: Check out their website and blog too for a few handy money-saving tips.)
Travel Notes - Be nice. Manners matter.
If we were giving out awards, Travel Notes would definitely win Congeniality largely due to their CEO/Co-Founder Hudson Chilton. We swung by the Travel Notes booth and talked to Hudson for nearly an hour (talk about best in class bounce rate), but could have easily all day, about the company and his personal history. At conferences like these you talk to a lot of people and they can be a blur after four days, but we really liked Hudson, a good guy with a good idea.
Travel Notes was started by Hudson and his co-founder Jonathan Piccard in Ohio and helps to solve those oh so annoying problems with your credit cards when traveling. The system helps credit card companies to seamlessly put money back in the pockets cardholders who have been impacted by a delayed, canceled, or overbooked airline flight and automatically notifies of cardholder's travel plans, so their card is not declined. It’s a solid service offering that we see going places and would definitely be useful for cardholders who travel often for business.
But really, why did we bother to care? Because Hudson was just himself; a friendly, caring guy. So we cared more too. Sometimes it can be hard to be yourself -- whether in marketing or PR or working a trade show. Hudson reminds us that who we are is what the consumer is buying.
The Wocket - Provide something to touch and feel, and relatable to life.
And lastly the Wocket. Yes, for those of you Dr. Seuss fans out there, Wocket in my Pocket has come to life. We stopped by their booth because it looked so out of place that it was a welcomed change after a full day on the exhibit floor. The Wocket, retailed at $179 online, is a “smart wallet” that allows you to securely hold several cards on a stand-alone device by automatically transmits them onto one card interchangeably. In the world of the cloud and Apple Pay there have been huge advancements in payment solutions, but worry of personal security and fraud can make some users hesitant. For those not fully sold on the idea of mobile or P2P payments, the Wocket is a secure option that lets you leave your physical cards at home, while giving you the freedom to use any of them. Newer female friendly models are due to come out in the coming months.
From an event marketing perspective, kudos to Wocket for remembering the golden rule. Don't come empty handed. Sure, Wocket has a natural advantage as the creator of a physical product. Still, all of your great ideas do ultimately come to physical life. Perhaps as an experience for a customer. Find the way to give some tangible form to the bright idea in your mind. When you bring something with you, you give your patron something memorable to takeaway.
Qapital, Travel Notes, and the Wocket each had something special about them that made us engage and remember them in a hard to navigate conference. Qapital has unique and original branding and a platform that makes the act of saving just a little cooler. Being personable and providing a solution for the pains of traveling was the key differentiator for Travel Notes. And offering a physical go-to-market product that can slim down the size of your wallet in a safe and secure way, gave the Wocket greater presence. The most important take-away we gleaned from these new ventures is that being yourself will always make you the most memorable. We wouldn’t mind joining any of these players as they move forward with their plans and development. More importantly, we'd like to be their customers too.