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Nika

What way would you market/present a "serious" business?

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Okay, this will be very honest, so hopefully, if they read it, they will not kick me out. 😀

With a client from a fintech, we are trying to come up with ideas on how to present a company (tone of voice, type of posts) in the industry, that is "serious".

Their idea was to be "transparent" in payments.

Such a serious business cannot be, e.g. transparent about contracts with clients, about new features that will be integrated beforehand + I do not think they like the idea that serious business would be MEME-rized.

Despite that, I know very morbid businesses that took the fun aspect as their main competitive advantage and differentiator (the funeral service used MEMEs)...

What were the best examples of serious businesses that knew how to work with marketing very creatively/innovatively? (according to you)

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Aleksandar Blazhev

Oh, Nika! I’d say there are plenty of serious companies that do fun marketing.

Just take a look at Ryanair’s latest posts. Absolute trolling content. But people love it, and they go viral.

Duolingo as well, think about it. They’re in EdTech, yet they’ve basically become a category of their own.

From a fintech perspective, check out Wise. I wouldn’t call their page serious at all.

Amrani Yasser

@byalexai Yeah, Ryanair is probably one of the best examples of this !! @busmark_w_nika their social media feels like it's run by people who really understand internet culture and memes 😂

Nika

@byalexai  @amraniyasser Yes, I know about Ryanair, but forgot about them :D but definitely must have a look at Wise, because it is the closest one to the industry :D

Sumit Khanna
Stripe. Serious product, zero boring marketing. Their error messages have personality, their docs are fun to read, and they built developer trust through tone alone. Serious doesn't mean stiff — it means consistent and credible.
Nika

@voizematic What about their LinkedIn? Because it feels like any other corporate profile

Sumit Khanna
@busmark_w_nika Exactly 😄 LinkedIn is where great brands go to be boring. Their real personality lives in the product — the docs, the error messages, the onboarding. That's where Stripe actually marketed itself.
Adana Marukhyan

Want to share funny marketing story, that came out from the ,,mistake,, of programmer's team.

It is a big Bank in our city, which is very popular.

Recently their programmers team were trying sms marketing system and for local try they wrote flubdub question, like ,,would you like to not be a bald man any more?,, (whisper voice: the head of that bank is bald).

Accidentally that message was sent to all bank customers via sms - nothing to undo, nowhere to run )

All the city started to talk about that , and they turned it out to a big marketing. The banners, buckeyes, ads - everything started to go out with a bald man on. All social media was flooded with the baldMan hashtags.

So this is the funniest marketing of a serious business I know.

Nika

@adana LOL, it could sound a bit offensive :DDDD but such an accident is a really cool thing to make an awareness :D

vishal

@busmark_w_nika I think “serious” doesn’t mean boring, it just means trust first, creativity second

Best ones I’ve seen keep the core message clear and reliable, but still show personality in how they explain things or tell stories

People don’t mind creativity, they just don’t want to feel confused or misled in serious domains

Nika

@vishal7017 do you have any exact examples?

vishal

@busmark_w_nika Stripe is the best fintech example. Clear, developer friendly, never casual but never cold either. Trust through clarity, not formality.

Monzo did the same for banking. They explain fees and outages like a human would and people trusted them more because of it.

The pattern is that serious means consistent and honest, not stiff. Creativity only becomes a problem when it starts hiding information instead of explaining it.

Janne Vakkilainen
I think we have enough boring serious businesses in the world. I foresee a total change since now even just a one person or a small team can vibe code a serious product or a product suite and pull their weight 1000x with current tools and do clever fun and unorthodox marketing and with a "serious" and great product making the "we mean business" and professional statement, start competing with the current sloooow to adapt corporations and personality having finally access to high impact marketing strategies in terms of reach and quality that I think the obvious route is personality, fun, unserious, "not boring" approach to marketing, but this is just my take and there's so much new products and businesses popping up that I need to investigate the current landscape more to point to a product or a business that has already done it on a bigger scale... As an anecdote I have a friend who is working for a big worldwide entertainment corporation and he sends messages outside of working hours and his mails has huge letters and and small letters all with different colors and no-one would even think that anyone could do that, but he's the only guy hanging out making deals and partying with the corporations another continents CEOs making insane contacts and moves totally against all the conventions and unstoppable at his game. World and business is in a total shift. We could very well be past the boring part.
Nika

@janne_vakkilainen why does he use such big fonts? :D like for fun or? :D because it is actually good for disrupting patterns :D

Joshua Herrera

I don't think they need to do meme content. Traditional marketing approach like "Company saved $50K by switching to us" or comparison breakdowns like "our fees vs. competitors" side-by-side should ideally be enough

Nika

@joshua_herrera In terms of that they wanna present it transparently, it would be great, but as soon as I mentioned number, they rejected it :D

Jinji Huang

For “serious” businesses, I think creativity works best when it improves clarity, not when it tries too hard to look funny.

Stripe, Wise, and Monzo are good examples in different ways. They do not feel stiff, but the trust signal is still very clear: plain language, useful explanations, transparent tradeoffs, and a product experience that feels reliable.

For B2B, I would keep the core promise boringly credible, then add personality around the explanation. Serious does not have to mean corporate. It just means people should never feel confused or misled.