FinKit Case Study: IDAD SA
How IDAD structured products branding took them to market
ABOUT
IDAD is a UK structured products provider. In 2022 it opened a sub-Saharan African branch, IDAD SA, and needed a localised brand and a working literature production system in place before its first release.
We created structured products marketing collateral that meets the requirements and keeps the quality consistent – day in, year out.
SECTOR
Structured Products
LOCATION
Sub-Saharan Africa
TLDR
IDAD, a UK structured products provider, needed structured products branding for its sub-Saharan African launch that could stand on its own without breaking its link to the parent brand. We (then Halo Media, now CommsKit) built the identity, the literature templates, the asset library and the version control as one piece of work, because in this market they are the same problem. Ongoing since 2022.
What happens when a structured products provider opens in a new market?
IDAD is a UK structured products provider. In 2022 it opened a sub-Saharan African branch, and its Regional Head of Structured Solutions came to us before the first release went out. Structured products branding was what stood between the branch and its first meeting.
A structured products business is read through its literature before anything else. A distributor meeting a UK name for the first time has the fact sheet and the brochure in front of them and little else. The branch was starting from nothing: no local identity, no templates, no image library, and no naming convention for documents that would accumulate from month one.
The challenge, defined – what structured products branding has to carry
Structured products branding is the identity system behind regulated investment literature: the visual and verbal rules that hold across fact sheets, product summaries, brochures and distributor material, applied under monthly release deadlines and bespoke trade turnarounds. The brand is almost never seen on its own, but wrapped around a payoff diagram, a strike level and a page of risk warnings.
That gave IDAD SA two requirements pulling against each other. The identity had to read as local, made for a sub-Saharan African audience rather than translated for one, while remaining recognisably part of the UK business – the parent brand was the reason a distributor took the meeting.
A third requirement decides whether the first two hold. Releases are monthly and interrupted by bespoke trades, and a brand that lives only in a guideline document does not survive that rhythm. Under deadline, people reach for the last file they can find.
What we did
Strategy and direction
We began with a marketing analysis of the sub-Saharan African market and the audience the branch was built to reach, then agreed colour, typography, iconography and imagery as a set before anything was designed. Sign-off happened on direction rather than on a finished fact sheet, which matters when approval runs across two markets and the release calendar has started.
The identity
We built a monochromatic identity around a cool blue, with black and white photography of endurance sport and mountain terrain: summit approaches and finish lines. Reaching the summit is possible with the right skill and equipment, and attempting it without either is risk taken without return – a fair description of what a structured product is for.
Monochrome was practical as well as aesthetic. Financial literature is dense with charts and figures, and the data has to be the loudest thing on the page. A restrained palette keeps colour available for the data visualisation, where it carries meaning.
The production system
Alongside the brand we built what would keep it intact: a logo guide, a logo asset set, an image library and a document version system, held in one place the IDAD SA team could reach directly. In structured products, brand and version control are the same problem: an identity only stays consistent if the current version of every document is never in doubt.
Scope delivered
The IDAD SA engagement has covered:
- Market analysis and brand strategy for the sub-Saharan African launch – DesignKit
- Mood board and visual direction, signed off ahead of design – DesignKit
- Localised identity: monochromatic palette, typography, iconography and photographic style – DesignKit
- Logo guide and logo asset set – DesignKit
- Fact sheet and product summary design – FinKit
- Brochure templates – FinKit
- Emailer template – FinKit
- Data visualisation for product and payoff information – FinKit
- Image library, document version system and naming conventions – FinKit
They’ve gone above and beyond, and really are integral to our process now
“We were challenged to find a creative partner well-versed in corporate design, and also reliable and thoughtful, so we reached out to CommsKit.
They have invested themselves in learning our business requirements and supplying innovative and creative solutions for our marketing – reliably and consistently."
Ryan Sydow – Head of Structured Solutions
What changed for IDAD SA
The branch launched with a complete identity rather than a logo and a deadline. Fact sheets, brochures and emailers came from templates from the first release, rather than from whichever file was nearest. Brand assets sat in one library the client’s team could reach themselves, and every live document carried a version number from month one.
The engagement has run continuously since 2022, through monthly releases and bespoke trades.
How this work maps to CommsKit today
How does the IDAD SA work map to CommsKit today?
The IDAD SA engagement maps to two parts of the CommsKit suite: the system that produces the literature, and the foundations it runs on.
FinKit is the financial communications service in the CommsKit suite and the exception among the Kits, running as an ongoing subscription sized to a release cycle rather than to a list of deliverables. DesignKit is the fixed-fee foundation project behind it: the style guide, the template systems and the rules deciding which template is used for which job and where approved files live.
A launching business usually needs both. An established provider more often needs one.
Frequently asked questions
Launching into a new market, or rebuilding a literature library?
If you are opening a branch or working with a document library that has outgrown ad-hoc production, a scoping call covers your release cycle, how literature is produced today, and where the pressure points sit. Book a scoping call with the team at CommsKit today.
See how CommsKit can systemise your structured products communications and marketing.