The Copernican Revolution Comes to Financial Services
734 Solutions was a wireless banking and brokerage innovator with a functional spec three inches thick and a very big problem set:
- 724 didn't yet have a robust proof of concept
- Client banks and brokerges couldn't charge more for the service
- Clients couldn't hope to steal customers from the competition by offering the service
- The big cost of implementation would likely impact the bonus structure of the executives charged with deploying it
Needless to say, signing up new clients was an uphill battle – until they turned to us.
The first thing we did was toss out the spec book. Our insight: this solution wouldn’t be bought by engineers. It would be driven by visionary CEOs who didn’t want their financial institutions left behind by the future. And so we simply made the case for the future as compelling as possible.
Our argument was enough to sign up customers like Citigroup and Bank of America and partners like Nokia.
Brand creative fuelled a $6 billion IPO that led to a $12 billion market cap at 724's peak. Incidently, 724 Solutions never did launch a full wireless banking, brokerage and shopping service. But they did make history and some people very very rich.
The Team
Brand strategy, slogan development, visual concepts and copy: Harry H. Cornelius, Cornelius & Co. (Sideren Inc.)
Design: Ove Design and Communications Ltd./Jeffrey Vanlerberghe, Creative Director and Designer
