Background

The payment and banking industries are undergoing significant change. More and more transactions are being conducted electronically – whether via computer, smartphone or even smartwatch. With the increased digitization of finance comes the need for companies like Treasury Prime, which can connect enterprises and fintechs with banks, facilitating billions in commerce.

Treasury Prime hired Karbo Com to help the company break out of the crowded embedded finance market by highlighting new partnerships and differentiating products and services. For many, Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) is often simply referred to as “middleware” and can be seen as interchangeable with the key differentiator being price. Treasury Prime believes differently–the bank network is the real value. While most of their competitors only have one or two banks they partner with, Treasury Prime works with more than a dozen banks on their network, and that number continues to grow. This, along with their compliance-related services (currently a key topic in the industry), became key areas to highlight in the PR program.

But it’s also important to note that Treasury Prime is beneficial to the other side of the equation – delivering low-cost assets to the banks themselves. Community banks, many of which are seeing their holdings head off to major national brands such as Bank of America, Citibank, or Wells Fargo, need to find a way to secure Assets Under Management (AUM) cost-effectively, which Treasury Prime is able to do. In fact, industry experts estimate a new BaaS technology stack can lower the cost of acquiring a customer to $5-35, down from $100-200.

Treasury Prime looked to Karbo Com to increase its presence in the marketplace while appealing to both fintechs/enterprises and banks likely to join their network. At the same time, the company wanted to ensure that its offerings were differentiated and would lay the groundwork for future activities.

Within a year, Karbo Com had garnered upwards of 350 media placements for Treasury Prime with a UVM in excess of 5 billion, met with top industry analysts (who later referenced those conversations in a coverage report), secured key speaking opportunities for the executive team at the SaaStr, Fintech Meetup, Bank Director Acquire or be Acquired, Empire Startups Fintech Conference, fintech_devcon and other influential events, and landed the company “Best Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) Platform” by Tearsheet among other notable recognition from top awards. 

Objectives

• Position Treasury Prime as the leader in embedded banking among targeted audiences (fintechs, enterprises, banks, partners, VCs) via media channels and industry analysts/influencers.
• Reinforce brand messaging with a focus on differentiated offerings, including bank networks, best API, compliance services, high-touch customer service, and scalability.
• Build Treasury Prime messaging beyond traditional fintech with an eye toward insurtech, health, marketplaces, and B2B software.
• Educate potential customers on the value embedded banking can deliver to their business (e.g., speed to market) with a relatively easy-lift.

Execution

The Karbo Com team quickly dove in and spoke with key members of the company leadership team to better understand and align on objectives, messaging, targets, goals, competitive advantages, broader marketing plans, and sales process.  Leveraging this information, Karbo Com immediately developed programs based on active announcement of new partnerships, thought leadership (with a focus on differentiated services) and senior leadership hires.   

Additionally, Karbo Com launched a robust analyst relations effort, meeting with the likes of Forrester and Gartner to ensure these key third-party voices understood what makes Treasury Prime unique in the market. Karbo also provided strategic counsel related to Treasury Prime’s social media program, helping to identify high-value targets that could help influence potential customers and help position the company as a difference maker in the market.

Finally, Karbo Com set off to secure meaningful speaking opportunities and pursue awards for Treasury Prime. The objective was to garner recognition within the industry for Treasury Prime and help further the thought leadership of people such as Chris Dean, the company’s CEO.

Results

Within weeks, Karbo secured significant coverage in key verticals related to a partnership with FIS, one of the leading providers of technology solutions for financial institutions and businesses. Over the course of the coming months, Karbo Com would roll out a series of announcements related to bank partnerships, landing stories in PYMNTS, Crowdfund Insider, Fintech Futures, Finextra, and many others. All the while, Treasury Prime wanted to show company growth in addition to partner growth.  Karbo Com used significant senior-level hires/promotions to land coverage in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, and CFO Magazine, among others.  

The company also wanted to highlight the differentiation of its compliance offering.  Karbo advanced this message both by conducting proactive outreach on general topics and later, in response to comments by the Acting U.S. Comptroller of the Currency.  This resulted in favorable coverage in publications, including Bank Director and S&P Global, as well as briefings with industry influencers.  

Karbo Com also embarked on a campaign to highlight the company’s DE&I efforts, as the firm had made significant strides throughout all ranks to diversify its staff. The key win here was a byline about the benefits of a diverse staff penned by Treasury Prime’s head of DE&I, published in Built In, a key outlet targeting the startup community.  

With these programs all in play via aggressive, proactive outreach – organic coverage started to emerge. Features in InformationWeek and American Banker were scored, as was inclusion in the Bain & Co. report on embedded finance. Karbo Com helped Treasury Prime achieve the highest total coverage (71%) as compared to their competitors while also achieving nearly 90 percent positive or neutral sentiment from these pieces.