The Brand Agency Pioneers a complete brand transformation in nine months

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The Brand Agency Pioneers a complete brand transformation in nine months

In nine short months Pioneer Credit has successfully undergone a complete brand revitalisation with the help of its partner agency, The Brand Agency.

 

Operating in a unique industry, Pioneer partners with leading financial institutions to purchase outstanding debt. Once purchased, Pioneer will engage with its customers using empathy and flexibility to offer a tailored solution and get its customers back on the path to financial freedom.

A nation in $2 trillion+ debt
There is no question that today’s society is built on debt. Housing, cars, study and plain everyday living – we all have it. While debt is a completely normalised part of society, falling behind on repayments simply isn’t. This underbelly of debt is a side that is not openly discussed, despite often being a result of unexpected life circumstances.

While navigating an increasingly complex landscape and undergoing a phase of rapid evolution, Pioneer engaged The Brand Agency to articulate its growing brand – both internally and externally.

Andrea Hoskins, Chief Operating Officer, Pioneer, said: “We partnered with the Brand Agency to build a sustainable long-term roadmap for both our Brand and digital evolution. In the space of nine months, we took a deep dive into our culture and strategy, forming a refreshed Brand platform, EVP and building out a new website. While these large-scale projects usually take years, we had big ambitions and made them happen in under 12 months. The partnership with The Brand Agency was critical to us achieving these results, and it was even more rewarding with the whole team committed to our new brand and bold plans.”

A brand centered on genuine care
The Pioneer brand was stripped back and rebuilt in a new direction to better reflect its values. Pioneer’s new purpose, “To put an end to debt stress”, and its promise of “Genuine Care” came to life in its newly defined brand world which is simple, transparent and simply more human – qualities that very much challenge the debt recovery industry.

A new set of bespoke illustrations were created as part of this process and have since become fundamental to communicating the Pioneer brand, with empathy at its core. This laid the foundations and set the tone for all other brand work that has since developed.

After creating the new brand platform, The Brand Agency fully redesigned the website user experience, information architecture and content to align with the strategic principles. Following a thorough digital experience evaluation process, the website development implemented Umbraco as the new content management platform. The website is now WCAG accessibility compliant and reflects a carefully curated experience that seamlessly guides customers through their journey with Pioneer. To view the new website click here.

Daniella Chadinha, Senior UX Strategist, said: “A great user experience goes well beyond the functional aspects of a product. A powerful, underplayed element is the overall emotional impact it has on the user. Central to Pioneer’s approach, we injected empathy in every corner of the website; using human-led illustrations, language that broke down industry jargon and hierarchy to guide customers who are often experiencing anxiety and fear due to financial stress.”

Paul Hamilton, Head of Technology, The Brand Agency, said: “At the commencement of the project, we worked in collaboration with Pioneer Credit to assist them evaluate CMS and DXP products before Umbraco CMS was selected to develop upon. We then took their new Design System and built out a library of accessibility compliant content components and composable layouts, to provide a flexible and highly scalable content management solution.”

Transformation Across All Touchpoints
While initially rolling out the revitalised brand across its website, The Brand Agency has helped reinvigorate Pioneer’s entire communications landscape; from investor presentations to attracting talent, and even bringing the brand to life across its office space. Pioneer’s journey with The Brand Agency reflects a true transformation that continues to flourish.

VIEW THE WEBSITE ANIMATION VIDEO

Credits
Pioneer Credit
Andrea Hoskins, Chief Operating Officer
Dee Franjicevic, Senior Manager Marketing
Joe Terribile, Chief Information Officer
Daniel Blake, IT Project Manager
Jasmine Seah, Marketing and Communications Manager
Connor Kirsch, Marketing Coordinator

The Brand Agency
Paul Hamilton, Head of Technology
Matt Popkes, Head of Strategy
Emily Colman, Strategy Director
Daniella Chadinha, Senior UX Strategist
Pete Boston, Project Manager
Stephanie Gotch-Martin, Account Director
Tim Everts, Technical Lead
Shahab Jalili, CMS Developer
Carmelo Rigoli, Frontend Lead (website)
David Woodward, Frontend Lead (Customer portal)
Dan Agostino, Head of Design
George Cooke, Designer and Illustrator
Carly Groves, Designer and Illustrator
Sydney Mumby, Production Manager
Julien Solecio, Content Creator
Tracey Kim, Senior Animator

The Brand Agency Pioneers a complete brand transformation in nine months The Brand Agency Pioneers a complete brand transformation in nine months