At Enfuce, we’re all about delivering happiness – from our groundbreaking tech and our super talented people, to the way we create unique and immersive brand experiences.
Well… at this year’s Money20/20 Europe, the hottest show in fintech – both in reputation and sometimes literal heat (if you know you know), we’ve really taken things to the next level. With our “Ice Ice Baby” stand, we’ve truly embraced our Nordic roots: our groundbreaking two-floor stand featured a wall made of real ice and real snow falling – yes, you read that right! To give everyone visiting us a taste of nordic happiness and breath of fresh air.
Sounds unbelievable, right? Well, meet the dynamic duo who turned the impossible into a reality, our Regional Marketing Director Linda Essén and our VP of Brand and Communications Nicole Heringer and let’s dive deep into the behind-the-scenes of making all marketers’ dreams come true!
You need to tell us! How did the idea of Ice Ice Baby come along, how was the brainstorming process?
Nicole: We started thinking about Money20/20 2024, almost as soon as 2023 was over! We know our brief and we constantly iterate and ping pong ideas between ourselves and our CMO Vanessa Schotes on what our direction could be and seek inspiration from everywhere from art exhibitions or light installations. Our slack is wild with screenshots and pictures.
This year- inspiration for how we used screens and created visual impact came from a mix of sources from art galleries, and research to when Linda and I were on a flight landing at Heathrow and we could see the Piccadilly Circus video screens so clearly from the plane and we thought- that is how we want to stand out at Money20/20.
Other things are answers to specific challenges – our stand this year is structured like the flatiron building in New York to answer the challenge of venue requirements but also our sales team’s desire to have more downstairs seating space. The flatiron became the perfect architectural reference to answer the challenge but also build up these big city references to highlight Enfuce’s growth story – we were built in the Nordics but we are here for the world!
Linda: It’s not like we say hey, let’s brainstorm… It’s about spinning ideas off each other. The brainstorming process is constant across the year- whether for Money20/20 or any of our other curated events across the year.The ideation process never really stops between Nicole, Vanessa and I, there are always new ideas on how we can deliver happiness to our audiences.
The literal phrase ice ice baby came out of thinking of saunas and ice baths and how they create endorphins – the magic happiness chemical. From there we looked at how to make this cold endorphin effect fun and catchy and hence our nod to 80s rap music.
We gather all of these references and ideas and look for narrative red threads that become our overarching concept… from there we build the overall experience.
Ice cream made on site! Snow falling! 2-storey high screens! How did you balance creativity with practicality when designing such an ambitious stand? And how do you bring such big ideas into reality?
Nicole: Once we have a narrative, it is about layering things on, and playing with the improv theatre notion of “yes, and…” so you never block ideas but just keep expanding until the idea gets layered on, until it feels authentically Enfuce. To keep it truly authentic we keep the creativity in-house to develop our Money20/20 creative concepts. It’s also a massive amount of fun to build these experiences…
How far we go is also due to Linda’s amazing research into how to actually execute these things… and of course having a spectacular stand-building partner.
Linda: It’s about the heart of Enfuce being brought to life at an event like this, so it’s partly ideation and partly research to figure out how we actually create cold and a sanctuary from a hot event. You probably don’t want to see my browser history.
Seriously though, it is after a point, bringing the creative approach to life within the space and perimeters we have of the event. This is where having the best stand builders who get our creative thinking matter, without them we could not build a truly Enfuce experience.
What was your favourite part of the creation process – and of the stand – of course?
Nicole: I love the entire creation process- it honestly never stops for us. We do experiences across the year and across geographies so there is always brain candy for us to chew through and always the next opportunity to level up and find new ways to challenge the notion of what is experiential marketing and what a fintech brand can be for our audience.
What is my favourite part? It’s a tie between our in the Hot Seat sauna content studio (don’t worry the sauna is never on) and our use of video to tell our story. Using various shapes and sizes of screens helped us create a constant level of vibrancy, energy and motion at the stand.
Linda: My favourite part is seeing it all come together at the event. And the stand and the experience would not be anything without the amazing Enfuce team. That is like the cherry on top of the cake. I love how the energy of the team adds a new layer to the event experience and that is when magic happens!
It feels like you really stepped up the game from last year – what can we expect from Enfuce in the future from a creative pov?
Nicole: More fresh content with spectacular guests, new formats, more interactivity and more authentic Enfuce-experiences.
Linda: We will keep on raising the bar and come up with new creative ways of bringing happiness to our audience at events.
And that’s a wrap! Interested to hear more from other incredible Enfucers shaping the future of fintech? Check out other stories and get to know more awesome Enfucers.
