The winning brand formula.

Client
Cake DeFi

Solutions
Brand Transformation | UI/UX | Information Architecture | Customer Research | User Testing

It’s hard to be first and stay relevant. When Cake DeFi first started they had a vision to be the leading decentralised finance platform globally. This meant being approachable, informative and trustworthy. As the business grew, so did their customer base and the diversity of their needs. When Leticia Chua, Cake’s Head of Brand, joined the business she identified that the organic evolution of the brand had perhaps left some potential customers wanting. “Everything looked nice, but we felt as if the way we presented ourselves only spoke to a certain cohort, we were relying on inside jokes and our reputation which was a bit alienating to new customers, especially those new to Defi”.

In order to reimagine what Cake DeFi’s brand expression could be, Leticia engaged Aleph to run a brand innovation program. This included working closely with the internal team to build a new brand identity, clearly articulate the brand’s personality and how that would translate to new audiences whilst respecting the trust and credibility Cake DeFi has built in the defi space.

Collaborative Transformation

We needed to dramatically rethink the way brand was applied whilst retaining the personality and reputation that had been built. We started by talking to stakeholders internally, including Julian Hosp, Cake’s CEO and Co-Founder. Julian and the rest of the leadership team had clear objectives of what their brand needed to say about them. There were guidelines and guard rails that we needed to factor in during ideation.

“We know our customers really well and it’s important for us to make sure we are not alienating the people who have supported us as we grow towards a more mainstream audience” - Julian Hosp.

The Aleph and Cake teams worked together closely using a combination of design thinking methods and agile rituals, such as daily standups, co-creation workshops and weekly showcases.

Insight led design

In order to reimagine the brand we needed to understand not only the stakeholders vision and requirements but the industry landscape and customers’ expectations. We did this by looking at competitors, adjacent industry leaders and interviewing existing customers and recruiting research participants from the Cake DeFi target audience segments, including people new to the brand.

The findings from these research activities were synthesised into guidelines the Aleph creative team could use to start the ideation and concepting phase. Again, like the early workshops and research phase we did this collaboratively with the Cake team, with regular work-in-progress sessions used to explore concepts and capture feedback.

At key milestones we would conduct showcases with the Cake team, including leadership and present our latest work, using the sessions to discuss what was working and where we needed to pivot.

The winning formula

We realized that although Cake DeFi was a great product, it was not yet a household name. Our goal was to create a brand expression that stood out in the crowded decentralised finance and cryptocurrency space and appealed to potential customers who might be hesitant to invest. We wanted to tap into the 'fear of missing out' and make people curious about Cake DeFi's products and how they avoid some of the volatility of other investments.

To do this, we created a personality that leveraged the strength of the product offering and used simple, catchy phrases like 'We do crypto, you do you' and 'Bull or bear? Don't care, I'm with Cake'. The message was that Cake DeFi was set up to maximise the safety and returns of investing in the crypto space, so people didn't need to be experts to get in on the action.

Visually different, consistently awesome

To improve the brand personality and copywriting for Cake DeFi, we created a visual expression that was easily identifiable and versatile. We started by revising the colour palette, using the iconic ‘HyperBerry’ as the main colour and adding complimentary and supporting options.

We also created a unique image treatment featuring confident, striking individuals to highlight the independence and courage of early defi investors. The new brand identity included guidelines, image assets, and a brand system for the Cake design team. When the brand transformation was launched in November 2022, it received positive feedback. This project showed the power of combining creativity with insights and collaboration.