Brand Program

Challenge

As a longtime leader in payments processing, and an innovator in paperless deposit and payments capture, WAUSAU Financial Systems had a big opportunity, but one that involved risk. Growth potential was huge outside banking, the company's traditional base, in industries as varied as healthcare, insurance, real estate and retail. Still, as the company repositioned, it had to do it with utmost care — without alienating existing customers, including hundreds of leading financial institutions. For both targets, the organization needed the brand to match its message of innovation and currency.

Solution

Sequel began by modernizing the brand's look and feel, but without sacrificing elements old customers valued, such as a plainspoken directness. At the same time, we opened channels of communication with potential new markets, creating a clear communications architecture to show WAUSAU's value across a range of verticals. Key to this effort was a series of microsite-based campaigns that dimensionalized the benefits of WAUSAU's core offerings for corporate and financial-institution prospects. In addition, we reconceived www.wausaufs.com as a hub for exploring payments advances and demonstrating the ability of WAUSAU products and services to integrate seamlessly into existing clients' processing systems. Post-launch, Sequel continued to work on marketing and creative strategy, helping to extend a consistent voice across all marketing and sales channels as well as several major trade-show exhibitions.

Outcome

After two years of flat growth in leads, the launch of the campaign and microsites led to a large increase in interest — a pattern repeated with subsequent launches aimed at specific verticals. Traffic for the newly launched company website has grown significantly, with customers and prospects reporting both increased satisfaction and a willingness by prospects to consider offerings.