Case study · Wahed

A new category, four regulators, one voice

Wahed is a Shariah-compliant investing platform, SEC-registered, operating across the UK, US, Malaysia and UAE. Halal investing was new to most of the people it needed to reach, and every word had to clear compliance in four markets at once.

The problem

A new category and a regulated one. Explain too little and nobody understands what they are buying. Explain too enthusiastically and you are misleading people about money.

What I did

Rebranded away from the fintech default. Brought real colour in, past the blue and white every finance app defaults to.
Defined the tone of voice, then wrote every surface to it. Website, app and in-app copy, the journal, newsletters, ads and campaigns.
Put "capital at risk" on every caption. Not because compliance asked, but because a brand that overstates returns has nothing left to sell.
Chose the faces deliberately. I analysed who should represent us and pitched them: Khabib, Islam Makhachev, Paul Pogba, and later Mufti Menk as brand ambassador.
Turned fandom into accounts. Free tickets to Islam and Khabib's fights for people who opened an account.

Where the leads came from

Top

The Muslim Money Experts podcast, which took global brand awareness from 4.5% to 30%.

Middle

The journal and the newsletter. Market updates and plain-English education, built as the lead engine rather than as brand filler.

Middle

Ambassador reach, aimed at an audience that had been written off as uninterested in investing.

Bottom

Account opening, with events as the closing incentive.

Brand awareness from 4.5% to 30%.

One voice across four regulated markets, every word cleared through US SEC compliance, serving a platform with hundreds of thousands of investors.

What to take from it

In a regulated category, compliance is the brand. Saying less, and saying it identically in every market, is what makes a new category feel safe enough to try.

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