ODA Brands New ‘Climate-Friendly’ Banking App – ekko
ODA has created the branding for ekko, a new debit card and banking app that aims to tackle climate change by matching customers’ transactions with environmental friendly actions such as planting trees.
The launch comes as new research from Mastercard shows two in five Brits (43%) see reducing their carbon footprint more important now than pre-pandemic.
For every five transactions a customer makes using their ekko debit card, one plastic bottle is collected before it enters the earth’s oceans and every 50 transactions will pay for a tree being planted; the company’s target is to plant over 50m trees and prevent over 500m bottles entering our ocean over the next five years.
Customers can also track their own personal forest, how many bottles they’ve collected and even monitor their own personalised carbon footprint using their ‘Carbonmeter’ in the ekko app. It also gives customers access to a curated list of sustainable partners, offering climate-friendly goods and services as part of the wider so-called ‘enviroconomy’.
“The brand idea is simple: every transaction has a positive reaction. This became the driver of the brand name and identity. Above all we wanted to create a brand identity that would become a talking point when a customer pulls the card of their wallet. It’s about making change effortless. It’s absolutely not about guilting people into taking action,” explains Sarah Westwood, strategy partner at ODA.
“We set out to design a brand with a really confident bold brand with bags of personality that’s fun and feel good. With this brand more is more so we wanted it to be the antithesis of the neo bank minimalism. People are easily switched off brands if they feel too green and worthy. This brand is joyful and doesn’t take itself too seriously. We were inspired by the bright and friendly peace and love idealism of the 60s and 70s and the idea of sending positive vibes out into the world,” comments ODA creative director, Grant Willis.
Adding: “The identity system is very simple and easily recognisible. The logo is rounded and lowercase for a friendly digital feel and contains the idea in the way that it echos-out from the double ‘k’s. The colour palette is vibrant and positive to bring energy and joy and work well as a sequence of colours in the ekko pattern. The use of emanating echo lines on hero statements adds a sense of dynamism making the brand experience cohesive across other media and channels. There’s also a sweet suite of icons to illustrate the tangible difference that customers are making through their purchases.”
The brand’s tone of voice, meanwhile, incorporates deliberate tongue-in-cheek statements like “Kermit was wrong. It is easy being green.”
“The tone is efficient and effortless but with some little nods to the peace and love inspiration with the odd sign off like ‘right on’ or ‘dig it?’,” says the agency.
ekko will start issuing its first cards in June on a first come first serve basis.
