Using thought leadership to take a biometrics brand to number one media share of voice
In Stats
106
pieces of coverage
#1
share of voice
Key Results
1st place in media share of voice against its key competitors
106 pieces of thought leadership coverage in the first six months
Landmark coverage with the Telegraph, The Independent, London Evening Standard, City AM and Forbes
16 briefings in the first six months, including The Independent, The Telegraph, Forbes and The Economist
Tags
Date May 2018 - May 2020
Consumer demand is influencing business strategies now more than ever and the payment sector is no exception, having seen vast innovation and change in the last decade. People want to pay in seconds, but they also want to pay safely and securely. This conflict has created a true battle of convenience versus security for the payments sector.
IDEX Biometrics is at the forefront of this challenge, meeting both needs with its fingerprint sensors and related biometric technologies which can be embedded in smart cards. Fingerprint biometric-enabled payment cards allow banks to authenticate payments, reduce fraud and increase consumer trust. Retailers and users benefit from faster transaction times, increased payment limits and secure contactless payments. Users also benefit from a simple and quick remote-enrolment process to register their fingerprint and no longer need to remember their highly vulnerable PIN.
THE PROBLEM
IDEX Biometrics play in a complicated ecosystem – working with card manufacturers, card schemes and card issuers. Demand for biometric-enabled payment cards will also be steered by consumer demand. Education of all members of the ecosystem was our starting point. IDEX Biometrics realised it needed to raise its profile and position itself as an educator and a thought leader in the biometric payment card space. The company needed an agency that could create compelling stories to support its established investor relations.
It needed to educate the sector on the role of biometric fingerprint sensors, whilst also educating the market on the benefits. We used our established payments and finance knowledge and storytelling expertise to develop and manage a media relations strategy and research campaigns to help IDEX Biometrics grow brand awareness whilst educating the ecosystem and encouraging payment providers to listen to the voice of the consumer.
The solution
To address this challenge, Berkeley developed a two-pronged approach through a strong thought leadership approach and a hard-working press office team. We established a PR strategy with thought leadership at the core, that would resonate with the media, but also educate the market on this disparity through an annual ‘Voice of the Consumer’ research campaign, with Arlington Research, our sister research agency.
We found consumers to be wedded to their physical payment cards and the predicted fast-paced adoption of mobile payments to be slower than expected. The research also highlighted the reality that banks have misplaced their security focus on the wrong product.
The team also engaged with the general public for a London-based focus group to gather sound bites and first-hand opinions of the most prolific shoppers – Generation Z. To support the research, IDEX’s in-house experts provided commentary on the extent of the impact of fraud on the sector and why biometric smart cards are the solution.
We combined this wealth of knowledge to create thought leadership opinions and media assets for the market to highlight the key findings, drive media engagement and coverage to drive IDEX to be the number one ‘share of voice’ – up from number five – amongst its competitors.
