Helping Bankrate put the person back into personal finance.
A rate is never only a number. It can mean buying a first home, growing your savings, clearing debt faster or simply feeling more confident about money.
As one of America’s best-known personal finance platforms, Bankrate already had the reach, authority and recognition. But its brand still looked and sounded like the category it wanted to move beyond.
Here’s how we helped Bankrate stand apart from traditional comparison sites and grow into a broader personal finance platform.
Industry
Finance
Location
New York, USA
The challenge
People use comparison sites, but they don’t always feel great about them. How are results ranked? Who gets their data? Will the rate they click still exist once they apply?
Bankrate needed to challenge those assumptions and give people a clear reason to see it differently.
Through stakeholder interviews, customer research, social listening and category analysis, we defined the brand’s central job: earn, protect and reward consumer trust at every step.
The strategy
Bankrate had the technology, scale and relationships. The challenge was putting that power to work for the person comparing rates at their kitchen table.
We positioned Bankrate as an active connector and advocate, helping people find products that fit their lives and make more confident decisions.
Every search and comparison also strengthens the platform, giving Bankrate more power to secure better rates and prove its people-first promise through every interaction.
The visual identity
The identity grew from one idea: financial decisions are about people, not numbers.
Hand-drawn elements and expressive illustrations bring warmth and real life into the system, helping Bankrate explain complex topics without defaulting to familiar finance clichés.
The new logo puts the consumer at the centre, while a softer beige balances the recognisable dark blue. The result feels trusted and established, but warmer, more human and far less institutional.
The tone of voice
Financial copy has a habit of hiding useful information beneath jargon, disclaimers and corporate waffle. That’s a problem when trust depends on people understanding what they’re choosing.
We created a clearer, more approachable voice, with a messaging system that gives their teams guidance, keeping the brand consistent without sounding like it’s been through twelve rounds of legal review.
Trust now comes through in how the Bankrate speaks, rather than simply being something it claims.
The digital experience
Trust had to live in the product, not gather dust in a brand deck.
We applied the strategy and identity across key desktop and mobile journeys, including the homepage, comparison templates, editorial content, partnership pages and trust-focused modules.
Clearer hierarchy makes dense information easier to navigate. Warmer visuals create a more recognisable experience. Helpful reassurance appears when people need it, without slowing them down or cluttering the decision.
The result
Bankrate now feels more human, distinctive and relevant, without losing the authority and brand equity it’s built over decades.
The identity brings warmth to a category dominated by data. The voice makes complicated subjects easier to understand. The digital experience gives people greater confidence when the stakes feel high.
Because behind every rate, there’s someone deciding what their life could look like next.
KOTA were incredible partners through and through. They were attentive, responsive, and communicative. They offered extra time to us to talk through decisions, and they revised the work eagerly when we had feedback or requests. They were flexible but dependable; willing co-collaborators that felt like a very capable extension of our own internal team.
Ricky Carlton
Have a new project you'd like help with?