The Story

2019 was a year of a lot of progress regarding the growth and global expansion of GoCardless. From raising $75 Million in funds, the launch in the US and now teaming up with TransferWise would position GoCardless as The First Global Network for Recurring Payments while offering the “real” exchange rate.

The Campaign

Using the learnings from previous announcements to craft a campaign that best reflected this important achievement. I built the campaign around the concept “We’re not done yet…”. These were words Hiroki Takeuchi (CEO of GoCardless) mentioned in an interview, and I knew they were punchy and perfectly described our relentless progress. The announcement was being made at WebSummit Lisbon 2019 by Hiroki and Taavet Hinrikus (CEO and Co-founder of TransferWise) and we wanted to let the world know that we were going Borderless!

We ran a social campaign pre, during and post the Borderless announcement. To spark curiosity and intrigue ahead of WebSummit, we ran a social media blackout using six cryptic posts on all channels (Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook) and all geos (UK, FR, DE, SP), as part of a teaser campaign. During the event we had an Instagram Stories takeover to share key moments at the event.

In addition, we used Twitter and hijacked #WebSummit for all content, to promote Hiroki and Taavet’s slot. TransferWise also promoted the slot. We aligned all our activity with TransferWise, including announcement assets, a promotional video and media coverage.

As we knew Twitter was a conversational channel, particularly during live events, we set up a well segmented and geo-targeted paid campaign around the event venue. This way we increased the exposure of our announcement and capitalised on key channels.

The Goal

Drive awareness, spark curiosity and boost engagement before, during and after the Borderless announcement, all while encouraging those in the WebSummit venue to attend Hiroki and Taavet’s talk.