ACI WORLDWIDE
The brief
Over 35 years of organic growth, acquisitions and regional development, the ACI brand had become fragmented and inconsistent. While it is the leading provider of payments software around the world, branding was not helping to develop greater awareness based on leadership and messaging to the market had become complex and the visual identity compromised and was beginning to look dated. New management and energy within the company established the need to review ACI’s brand positioning and develop a clearer set of messages, a contemporary identity and a common look and feel across the global organisation. Thinkfarm was asked to complete a major rebrand of ACI.
Our response
The project was sponsored and by the executive management team with whom we worked closely to capitalise on the potential of the global rebrand to support the strategic objectives of the business. The initiative was launched and announced to staff as the ‘ACI brand clarity project’.
Research
For such a strategic change to the brand positioning, messages and identity; we needed to conduct extensive research in order to base our strategy on sound inputs. Over the period of around a month we conducted interviews with staff from all corners and levels of the business, including customers, analysts, media and prospective customers. We also went back to the research population and a number of focus groups on a number of occasions during the project to seek feedback on the work as it developed.
Positioning
ACI’s reputation is based upon the success of its products that have consistently provided stability, scalability and reliability. Customers have come to trust ACI because of its products, expertise and dedication of the people in the business. The underlying idea of building one ACI, one Global company also became an important driver.
Using our brand mapping process, we developed a set of values and key messages that positioned ACI as a global company, specialising in payment systems whose core brand essences is ‘trust’. It was agreed that ‘trust’ resonated well in the financial services customer base and ‘building trust’ worked well as an internal mantra.
The previous ACI brand message; ‘Every second. Every day’, was very relevant when the company was focused on consumer payments but failed to offer a true vision of One ACI as a leader in Payments software in all the sectors in which it operates now. We needed to reflect the global business and present a clear message of what ACI provides to customers present and future. We kept the well recognized name and developed the tagline: ‘ACI Payment Systems. Trusted globally.’ Which everybody agreed fitted perfectly. Furthermore, when the tag line was tested, customers and prospects freely associated the tag line with ACI prior to the name of the company being disclosed.
Identity
We agreed that we didn’t want to change things so radically that it looked brash or like change for the sake of a new fashionable look. However, the new visual identity is sufficiently different to reflect the progress that ACI has made and the modern, integrated, global company that is there today.
Every element of the brand identity is carefully crafted to help tell ACI’s story from the first time somebody sees a business card, a poster or our website. It also allows works in electronic and print media, interior design and even provides elements that can be incorporated within our products.
The logo is an evolution of the previous mark. It is more appropriate for on screen display than the previous one and it presents a solid, reliable shape with an integrated description that describes confidently what ACI does. The colour system is modern but not brash or driven by trends. It comes with a palette of primary, secondary and tertiary colors to give provide range and depth of choices to meet many requirements.
The four colored brand mark reflects the areas of our clients’ businesses into which our integrated, agile payments strategy delivers value and efficiency to initiate, manage, secure and operate payment systems.
Brand mark
The slope of the brand mark is directly related to the ACI mark and shares the same angle as the left hand bar of the A. The mark leans forward; it is used to extend and open up the hierarchy of messaging and to independently ‘brand’ material in a recognisable and consistent way. The angle is used across a range of containing shapes, speech boxes and many other elements in the system and on communications tools.
Launch
We created a launch campaign that was made up of many components including a viral movie ‘teaser’; a launch movie explaining the rationale for the project and the thinking behind the new branding; an special Brand Clarity edition of the internal newsletter; new website design; brand booklet and an extensive range of collateral. Screen savers, a brand values guide and further components were developed for post launch reinforcement and exhibition stand schemes designed for the European and Global banking conferences where the brand was launched into the international market.
ACI Worldwide powers electronic payments for financial institutions, retailers and processors around the world with the broadest, most integrated suite of electronic payment software in the market. Over 35 years ACI has built an unrivaled position in the payments business. It has accomplished much in evolving the company and the industry building a reputation across 89 countries. It has 750 customers including 19 of the top 20 banks and 6 of the top 25 retailers in the world. ACI’s customers process over 90 billion retail payments a year with its software and 65 percent of all U.S. Fed Wires.
The brief
Over 35 years of organic growth, acquisitions and regional development, the ACI brand had become fragmented and inconsistent. While it is the leading provider of payments software around the world, branding was not helping to develop greater awareness based on leadership and messaging to the market had become complex and the visual identity compromised and was beginning to look dated. New management and energy within the company established the need to review ACI’s brand positioning and develop a clearer set of messages, a contemporary identity and a common look and feel across the global organisation. Thinkfarm was asked to complete a major rebrand of ACI.
Our response
The project was sponsored and by the executive management team with whom we worked closely to capitalise on the potential of the global rebrand to support the strategic objectives of the business. The initiative was launched and announced to staff as the ‘ACI brand clarity project’.
Research
For such a strategic change to the brand positioning, messages and identity; we needed to conduct extensive research in order to base our strategy on sound inputs. Over the period of around a month we conducted interviews with staff from all corners and levels of the business, including customers, analysts, media and prospective customers. We also went back to the research population and a number of focus groups on a number of occasions during the project to seek feedback on the work as it developed.
Positioning
ACI’s reputation is based upon the success of its products that have consistently provided stability, scalability and reliability. Customers have come to trust ACI because of its products, expertise and dedication of the people in the business. The underlying idea of building one ACI, one Global company also became an important driver.
Using our brand mapping process, we developed a set of values and key messages that positioned ACI as a global company, specialising in payment systems whose core brand essences is ‘trust’. It was agreed that ‘trust’ resonated well in the financial services customer base and ‘building trust’ worked well as an internal mantra.
The previous ACI brand message; ‘Every second. Every day’, was very relevant when the company was focused on consumer payments but failed to offer a true vision of One ACI as a leader in Payments software in all the sectors in which it operates now. We needed to reflect the global business and present a clear message of what ACI provides to customers present and future. We kept the well recognized name and developed the tagline: ‘ACI Payment Systems. Trusted globally.’ Which everybody agreed fitted perfectly. Furthermore, when the tag line was tested, customers and prospects freely associated the tag line with ACI prior to the name of the company being disclosed.
Identity
We agreed that we didn’t want to change things so radically that it looked brash or like change for the sake of a new fashionable look. However, the new visual identity is sufficiently different to reflect the progress that ACI has made and the modern, integrated, global company that is there today.
Every element of the brand identity is carefully crafted to help tell ACI’s story from the first time somebody sees a business card, a poster or our website. It also allows works in electronic and print media, interior design and even provides elements that can be incorporated within our products.
The logo is an evolution of the previous mark. It is more appropriate for on screen display than the previous one and it presents a solid, reliable shape with an integrated description that describes confidently what ACI does. The colour system is modern but not brash or driven by trends. It comes with a palette of primary, secondary and tertiary colors to give provide range and depth of choices to meet many requirements.
The four colored brand mark reflects the areas of our clients’ businesses into which our integrated, agile payments strategy delivers value and efficiency to initiate, manage, secure and operate payment systems.
Brand mark
The slope of the brand mark is directly related to the ACI mark and shares the same angle as the left hand bar of the A. The mark leans forward; it is used to extend and open up the hierarchy of messaging and to independently ‘brand’ material in a recognisable and consistent way. The angle is used across a range of containing shapes, speech boxes and many other elements in the system and on communications tools.
Launch
We created a launch campaign that was made up of many components including a viral movie ‘teaser’; a launch movie explaining the rationale for the project and the thinking behind the new branding; an special Brand Clarity edition of the internal newsletter; new website design; brand booklet and an extensive range of collateral. Screen savers, a brand values guide and further components were developed for post launch reinforcement and exhibition stand schemes designed for the European and Global banking conferences where the brand was launched into the international market.
