Next-generation reconciliation software specialists Aurum Solutions has this month
unveiled a complete brand transformation as part of ambitious growth plans throughout H2 of 2023 and into 2024.

The strategic initiative reflects Aurum’s commitment to continuous innovation and a refreshed brand identity that best resonates with the changing and evolving company.

To cement Aurum’s move towards the future, Tiago Veiga has been appointed as new company CEO – formerly holding the position of head of sales.

Coming to the table with an open and progressive mindset, Tiago has implemented an ambitious growth strategy, aligning the team behind an elevated, shared and common ambition for the future.

Since its inception in 2004, formerly known as Groupit, Aurum Solutions has established itself as one of the leading players within its space.

Today, Aurum works with companies that span sectors including banking, fintech, asset management, hospitality and insurance amongst others.

Attributing its success to a client-centred mentality and ability to develop purpose-built solutions, over nearly two decades the business has worked with hundreds of household brands both in the UK and globally, including Stonegate Group, Octopus Investments, Ladbrokes, HTB, Admiral and more, supporting finance teams and transforming departments’ data quality and operational efficiency.

As the business grows, the team at Aurum wanted to review and refresh the brand – creating a vision for the future. However, in order to best reflect the values, ambitions and identity of the team – and therefore the business – it was clear a comprehensive transformation was needed.

The result of a nine-month process, working alongside Unset Studio and Yambo Studio, who have worked with the likes of Microsoft, Apple, and the Tokyo Olympics 2021, the new brand embodies Aurum core values of transparency, honesty, partnership, and ownership.

Key changes include:

● Evolving and updating Aurum’s tone of voice throughout all communications – therefore updating the first impression and touchpoint which clients – both prospective and existing – will have.

● A modern and updated logo – the rectangle represents an Excel cell, with one corner different from the rest, a true visualisation of Aurum’s process of finding the exceptions.

● A new website which utilises glassmorphism – using the properties of glass to give a transparent look and feel, representing the financial transparency Aurum products bring to financial teams alongside Aurum key values of transparency and honesty.

● The website also uses imagery of people in the business today, vs generic stock images, to showcase everyone in the team, not just the senior members.

● A new colour palette with more colours to allow for growth of new products. For inclusivity, the full Aurum team was asked to share a word which for them best encapsulated Aurum. Each word was translated into a colour, creating the new colour palette for the Aurum brand.

● The development of a brand scent which needed to strike a careful balance between portraying authority and experience, alongside innovation and youth. The resulting scent combines Green Tea, Citrus, and Precious Woods with White Flowers and Musk to evoke peace of mind, body, and soul and a calm working environment.

● New company taglines – alongside ‘Next-Gen Reconciliation Software’, Aurum has also incorporated ‘Together with Aurum Solutions’, emphasising the partnership between Aurum team members as well as Aurum and its partners.

Chief marketing officer, Vasco Vaz Rodrigues, says, “What started out as a simple branding exercise has transformed into the start of a new era for Aurum Solutions. Once we started the process, it quickly transpired how Aurum was presented to the outside world no longer reflected who we are as a business.

“For us, it has been so much more than changing colours here and adding a new logo there – we have completely stripped back, evaluated every element of our business, and planned for the future.

“We are a very different team to the one which founded the company nearly 20 years ago. We want to both celebrate those in our team who have incredible and rich experience, whilst also recognising and championing our fantastic young talent. For us, ensuring everyone feels represented by our vision, branding and aspirations is of the utmost importance.

“In order to give our customers the best and most innovative solutions, we need to ensure our team is happy and working to our optimum levels. In the process of evolving the business, we feel our team has stronger and better unity than ever before.”

Following the rebrand, Aurum expects to launch a series of new products and solutions in 2023 which will further transform data management.

Allan Petrilli, VP of sales and growth at Intelitics, says AI will absolutely play a part in customer acquisition moving forwards but that marketers need to proceed with caution.

AI has hit the headlines hard in recent months driven by the rise of ChatGPT.

Of course, AI technology has been around for many years, and there are plenty of businesses developing platforms and tools that harness the technology and ultimately make certain tasks and processes easier and more efficient.

In this industry, AI is being used for a range of activities, from generating odds to responsible gambling and monitoring player behaviour.

Marketers are also keen to get their teeth into AI and use it to take creatives, campaigns and targeting to the next level.

It’s still fairly new in the marketing space but will become widely adopted moving forwards as the potential of AI is further explored and the efficiencies it can deliver better understood.

But what impact can it have on customer acquisition, and where will the greatest efficiency be?

Let’s take a look.

AI could be used to power the build of creative assets and significantly improve the speed of deploying campaigns.

It will also make A/B testing much easier.

It could allow for lightning-speed data analysis while also building predictive models on player lifetime value and behaviour.

This will allow operators and their marketing teams to drive the highest ROI from their ad spend.

AI has the ability to take over small tasks from humans, such as data entry and report building.

This frees up talented marketers to spend more time developing campaigns that engage new players instead of carrying out mundane (but important) data entry and reporting.

Then there is the personalisation it offers.

AI can gather tons of data on the end user and not only personalise the ad they are hit with but then the experience they receive on the site ahead of and post-conversion.

Finally, speed.

It will allow operators to test and iterate much faster than they can without it.

This will allow them to make data-led decisions based on massive data sets, so no more making decisions based on a hunch.

Everything will be actioned using cold, hard empirical data.

At this point, there will be some readers who remark on how machines are taking over and that there are many pitfalls to using AI, especially for customer acquisition.

And to some extent, they would be right. AI needs to be approached carefully.

It can do many things, but it can’t replace the human component of creating a strong brand and creative concepts (yet…).

This requires a talented marketing team.

My fear is that with the help of AI, many operators will rely on rinsing and repeating what is already out there and will fall out of touch with potential customers as a result.

Leveraging the power of AI will require significant effort to ensure the operator is properly set up for it.

Clean, accurate data is a must as data-bias is a real thing, and decision-making means mistakes can easily be made.

Some operators will undoubtedly look to AI as a way of reducing costs but the increased use of AI while the technology is in its infancy could see mistakes made that ultimately lead to some brands falling behind the curve.

Then there is the responsible gambling aspect to consider.

Internal oversight will be required as AI can be blind to offensive and/or illegal, non-regulated content.

This means compliance teams will have to have a clear understanding of the technology and how it’s being used across the business.

That’s not to say AI can’t play a meaningful role in customer acquisition, and savvy operators and marketers will want to get to know the technology now so that they are ready for when its use becomes more widespread.

So how can they do this?

The best way is to spend time with different products to see what does and does not work for them.

This includes content creation platforms, as well as data and tracking platforms such as Intelitics.

Set aside a budget for this and be aware of what new technologies are coming.

This means taking a keen interest in the tech – it’s still early days, but operators and affiliate programs that get ahead of the curve will win.

As with any new technology, it will take time for widespread adoption to happen but once some of the big players embrace it, the rest are always quick to follow.

This means there is an opportunity for smaller brands to get in now and be among the first to leverage AI’s potential.

Of course, while it’s important not to ignore AI, operators and marketers must be careful with it.

This is certainly the case for those active in regulated markets and with players and licences to protect.

Affiliate group Better Collective has appointed former Kaizen Gaming chief strategy and business development officer Petra Zackrisson as its new senior vice president of growth.

Prior to her role with Kaizen, Zackrisson spent almost five years with Betsson Group, first as chief business development officer and subsequently as vice president of corporate development.

Zackrisson has also spent time as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co and as global manager of business development and sales global for Business Sweden, an organisation jointly owned by the Swedish state and business sector that supports and promotes investments in Sweden.

She continues to serve as a non-executive board member for online operator Casumo.

Better Collective said Zackrisson brings a range of valuable insights to the business, having helped many organisations to build solid foundations for international growth in terms of product, strategy and operations.

In her new role, she will be tasked with fueling local awareness of Better Collective while developing the group globally, with a particular focus on emerging markets.

A focal task for Zackrisson will therefore be expanding Better Collective’s representation at strategic events.

Better Collective co-founder and COO Christian Kirk Rasmussen: “There is no doubt that Petra’s expertise on how to drive growth and implement organisational change will become valuable to Better Collective.”

Zackrisson has been advising Better Collective as an external consultant for the past five months, the firm said, and will officially begin in her new role on 9 January 2023.

“I am excited about this new opportunity and I look forward to joining the team at this stage of the group’s amazing growth journey,” Zackrisson commented.

“Scaling globally while supporting Better Collective in transforming its business to secure long-term sustainable performance are the type of challenges I excel at and am passionate about. 

“As a senior leader I find it important to bring in the diversity angle in my work. I look forward to continue to raise awareness and make incremental changes so that Better Collective can become an even more diverse, profitable and sustainable business”

Better Collective co-founder and COO Christian Kirk Rasmussen added: “I am pleased to welcome Petra to our management team where her focus will be on how to further scale our business. 

“Roughly six months ago, we signed Petra as a full-time external consultant for Better Collective, so she already has a deep understanding of our operations and objectives. There is no doubt that Petra’s expertise on how to drive growth and implement organisational change will become valuable to Better Collective.”