Re-branding 26 million daily payments.

From face-to-face transactions, to online and phone transactions, they provide an effective, secure payment service. Yet few people really know of the brand. It’s one of the financial world’s best kept secrets. But that is changing.

Why Rebrand? Worldpay was owned by RBS. Bain Capital and Advent International bought a majority stake. In late 2013 they took full ownership, valuing the company at over £2 billion. This new ownership has lit a fire under the organisation who has now stepped up it’s operation, with a new focus and a newly energised management team.

Research showed that most people think they know of Worldpay. But when questioned — many simply think they know the brand. We needed to help create a way to raise the public profile of the organisation and it’s many services.

Working with the senior management team we undertook the huge task of connecting all corners of the business. Worldpay not only operates in over 40 countries — it offers hundreds of services, products and bespoke solutions to some of the worlds biggest brands. Each of these services and products had it’s own name, often it’s own approach and many have their own branding.

It was a large group of sub-brands, endorsed brands and products that had evolved, rather than been designed. Time had come to unite the many.

The solution

This is a big brand, with big ideas and big ambitions. So we created a big Brand World for them to work right away, and keep working for them across all platforms, applications, products, services and future challenges.

We’ve created hundreds of proactive and practical applications.

Lead designer Thomas Dabner explains, ‘Because Worldpay operate on such a large scale it was important from the beginning to develop a core idea which would tell their whole story through their branding. Yes they process transactions and provide payment solutions, but what they really do is connect people. They enable buyers and sellers to interact with one another from anywhere in the world, seamlessly and with ease.

We have developed a world based on the idea of fluid connections which takes different forms depending on where you come into contact with Worldpay. From a bold light based brand property which echoes the trails of digital payments, right down to creating an entire suite of iconography that carries the same depth as the rest of the brand. Everything has been designed to be recognisable as Worldpay even when you can’t see a logo.

It’s been an immense challenge, but one which hopefully has allowed us to help set a new precedent within the payments sector.’

There are many ideas behind the new work. Modern money not only helps pay people globally and at speed, it carries data with it about times, locations, sectors and frequency. This data is very useful to help build pictures that can help businesses better shape their operations. This idea of modern money inspired the creation of not only the loxodrome but a bespoke typeface, inspired by these paths that money create.

An exhaustive set of iconography to enable the brand to transcend language across the 40+ countries they operate in.

There’s a new logo, inspired by the data trails made by money as they travel around the planet seamlessly. (A loxodrome no less.)

Brand work for the new London HQ, including new systems for navigating almost 100,000 square feet of offices in the Lord Foster & Partners designed Wallbrook building in the City of London. The move to Wallbrook brings together 5 offices to one central state of the art London hub. We worked with TSK group on the interior design to bring the brand world into the space without it becoming repetitive badging.

“This is a significant step in evolving our business and our culture as we strive towards our goal of becoming the world’s leading independent payment processing company.”

We’ve created a full strategic approach to all of Worldpay brand communications.

Colour systems enable the brand to connect over many platforms — we’ve worked with Digitas LBi to launch an entirely new approach to the digital experience. The new website is a radical but logical departure for the entire sector.

New reporting documentation such as annual reports have been created using the new brand work and developed by Carnegie Orr.

“Our new brand reflects values that differentiate us in the market,” says Tony Catalfano, President and CEO of Worldpay US. “It is progressive, straightforward and authoritative, just as we are in the way we do business.”

A full photographic toolkit has been created with photographer Simon Warren, launched with an exhaustive photoshoot that took the team from London to Miami to a variety of UK destinations.

‘Creating a photographic library for Worldpay was a mammoth project in itself. Photographic subjects covered everything from whole Airlines to individual market traders in London, to horse racing in Miami.

Within each photo we set ourselves the task of always having something red – be that a bikini, a hot air ballon or sushi to tie in with the brands new colour. The scope was huge – we needed to cover everything you might purchase from a round the world Holiday to a takeaway’. said Laura Hussey Creative Director and Partner.

Every part of how the business represents itself has been reconsidered.

“Because we are at the heart of global commerce, Worldpay offers a distinctive approach and the power to instantly accept payments across boundaries,” says Patti Newcomer, Chief Marketing Officer of Worldpay US. “Our new brand highlights the worldwide nature of our business and our obsession with delivering outstanding performance to our customers.”

SomeOne worked for over a year to create a strategic approach to the newly invigorated brand analysing and redesigning hundreds of touch points. Everything from how the brand speaks to people, the imagery it uses, iconography it employs, to installations in the new and existing offices have been created by SomeOne.

‘With so much of the financial world languishing in a sea of blue and grey, we’ve employed a careful balance of reassurance and innovation to form the foundations for the reinvention of this sector — led by Worldpay ’ explains SomeOne co-founder Simon Manchipp, ‘It’s been a real privilege to be part of the brands reinvention — and refreshing to work with people who really see the value of considering every part of the customer journey.’

From the FT — 18 March 2019

Fidelity National Information Services has unveiled plans to buy Worldpay in a $43bn deal to make the US financial technology company one of the largest providers of financial infrastructure that underlies the bank payments system.

The deal by FIS, an acquisitive Florida-based company, is the latest in a string of mergers and acquisitions by payments providers, spurred by the sector’s rapid growth in recent years as customers shift from using cash to paying with cards or online. In the UK, where Worldpay is the leading processor of payments, more than two-thirds of payments are now made digitally compared with less than 40 per cent in 2007, according to figures from UK Finance.

The growth in online and card payments has triggered a wave of dealmaking as companies seek to consolidate the fragmented industry. Most recently, US payments processor Fiserv agreed to purchase rival First Data in a $39bn deal in January.

The combined group would have generated revenues of $12.3bn and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $4.9bn in 2018. “Scale matters in our rapidly changing industry,” said FIS’s Gary Norcross, who will remain chairman of the board of directors, president and chief executive.

FIS said it aimed to reap $700m of ebitda synergies from cost cutting and cross-selling over the next three years. The deal marks the second time that a US group has taken over Worldpay since it was spun out of Royal Bank of Scotland as a condition of its state bailout in the 2008 crisis.

Last year Worldpay was taken over by US-based Vantiv in a $10.4bn deal, after which the US company took its name. Several private equity-backed companies are also planning initial public offerings in the coming months, including UAE-based Network International, which last week named former Worldpay chief Ron Kalifa as its new chairman.

Separately on Monday, Italy’s Nexi confirmed its intention to float on the Borsa Milan next month with an expected valuation of about €8bn, in what is expected to be one of the largest European IPOs of the year. The latest deal would mean Jacksonville-based FIS retains its headquarters and can name seven directors to a 12-member board, while Worldpay can name the other five.

Worldpay boss Charles Drucker will become executive vice-chairman. Recommended Lex: premium commentary FIS/Worldpay: thrust and parricide FIS develops technology ranging from the core banking platforms that power retail lenders’ systems to software for asset managers. The company has grown through more than a dozen acquisitions in the past 15 years.

Worldpay specialises in services that enable merchants to take digital payments. It processes some 40bn transactions annually in 146 countries and 126 currencies. The New York and London listed group is based in Ohio after the Vantiv deal, though it retains an international base in the UK. FIS made no mention of the UK base in its announcement.

Shareholders of Worldpay will receive 0.9287 FIS shares and $11 in cash under the terms of the offer. The bid values Worldpay’s shares at roughly $112, a premium of just over 13 per cent from its close last week. Worldpay shares rose 10.4 per cent to $108.94 on Monday morning.

The combination values Worldpay at about $43bn, which includes its net debt of $7.7bn. FIS shareholders will own about 53 per cent of the combined group, while Worldpay holders will own the remainder.