This article is written by Evelin, who is the Head of Brand & Content for Ferratum, a business unit of Multitude. Evelin is also the Chapter Lead for Content & Design, helping to set the brand professional standards across Ferratum and manages the creative team.
In this article, Evelin Ojamets explores the advantage of working with external agencies when building an in-house brand and how to leverage this partnership to bring best value for Ferratum. Read more to find out how Evelin and her team bring ideas to life and how to ensure brand consistency
How do you tell a great story that sticks with the audience?
We always have this question in mind when producing engaging content for Ferratum. It takes a team of professionals to produce great videos, photos and creative materials for any campaign. Our secret to success has been building a strong in-house creative team and a surrounding network of long-term external agency partners and freelancers to bring our ideas to life. An approach like this provides a healthy balance between the work we do in-house and the external freelancers or agency partners that support selected projects. This is what enables us to deliver fresh, scalable, and globally relevant assets for our markets worldwide.
Building a core in-house creative team
Working with an in-house team is a strategy that startups and fintech companies use instead of relying mostly on external agencies. This arrangement allows for more creative freedom in what we can accomplish while staying true to our brand. We have built a talented brand and a creative team together with a solid network of long-term, professional freelancers and selected creative agencies to seamlessly shift and pivot based on the needs of a particular campaign.
Wider support network of the lead agency and dedicated freelancers
We can accomplish quite a lot internally, but some niche tasks are better left with an external expert. For example, illustrators and animators are masters of their craft and imperative for specific campaign asset but would not warrant a dedicated full-time position in-house. We have a long-standing relationship with our lead creative partner, Wunderman Thompson Helsinki, they deliver the anchor video & TVC content for some of our key campaigns.
This additional creative arm provides us with much needed unbiased 3rd party consultation. They challenge us, if necessary, as well as provide our team with inspirational workshops to stay up to date with the latest creative trends and best practices. Working with the same external agency over several years allows them to get to know our brand and be a part of our brand journey.
Agile way of responding to changing market needs
Things are constantly moving and changing for many organisations. Our tight-knit team can shift quickly, delivering creative assets for changing markets or evolving customer needs. For example, we can conduct testing for different visuals or messages to land on the perfect idea. Having an agile team is truly an asset. Our creatives work on and produce a range of creative assets such as brand visuals, videos, CRM, and social media channels. We also work hard to deliver engaging and full funnel campaigns. It is worth emphasizing that having a trusted relationship between the core creative team, consulting creative agency and freelancers allows us to scale in scope and time. Having a trusted relationship allows to better maintain and optimize our costs and gain invaluable external expertise.

Learning from each other
Staying on top of trends and having creative ideas 24 hours a day can start to waver for anyone. Engaging in dialogues with our external network is inspiring and fundamental for conceptualization and provides a lot of creative motivation for our team. Fresh ideas come up through collaboration. One can quickly get stuck in an internal bubble and having trusted external partners allows us to see our work from various angles.
Ensuring the brand consistency
Consistency is key to telling a cohesive story. Our brand’s tone of voice and visual identity is core to who we are and guide all that we do. A key tool to maintaining consistency on a global scale is through the use of brand manual or the branding guidelines. Our in-house team developed the brand manual, and this means that we know the guidelines inside out. All the brand assets are produced internally, and this helps us stay on brand. It is imperative to adhere to a roadmap for what we put out in the world with care and consideration. Our brand is global, and it needs to be experienced in the same way throughout our different customer channels. This is how you gain brand value, and it helps customers recognise us across the globe and this eventually leads to lower customer acquisition costs.
Learning from mistakes
Knowing someone has your back is important when things do not go as planned. We all can, and at some point, will make mistakes. For example, we had an excellent idea for a Women's Day campaign a few years ago showcasing how women need to break the glass ceiling in many cases to achieve their goals. It was a great idea on paper with a strong message and a well-thought-through communication plan spread across different marketing channels. We started to produce it in icy Tallinn in February with a temperature of -25 degrees. Unfortunately, the outcome of the video was not what we expected. Engaging with our creative partner and our in-house team as part of this project was such an asset and we were able to brainstorm alternative solutions. We edited the video from the original length into a short, snappy one, delivering just the key message. This creative challenge provided an opportunity to take a different route, and through quick creative solutions, we ended up with a well-received campaign.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is intended for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to be, and should not be taken as, professional or financial advice.