Sanne van Kuijk-Evertse - BUUT

BUUT is a newly launched Dutch neobank focused on teenagers and, soon, young adults. Built from scratch by the makers of Tikkie and backed by ABN AMRO, the brand has a bold ambition: to build the strongest financial generation ever. We spoke to Sanne van Kuijk-Evertse, Head of Growth at BUUT, about purpose-driven brand building, native content, and why financial brands need 13 touchpoints before conversion.

Purpose Embedded in the DNA

For Sanne, brand growth begins long before communication. It begins with clarity of purpose and the discipline to let that purpose shape every decision. “I think we’re in a unique situation because we could truly build everything from scratch. We were able to do it the way it should be done,” Sanne says.

BUUT’s ambition is bold: to build the strongest financial generation ever. Crucially, this is not a marketing strapline layered on top of an existing product. It is the organising principle behind the product itself. “It’s not just a story we tell externally. It’s embedded in the product, the organisation, and the features we build. If you truly want to make a generation financially strong, then you need to design functionalities that genuinely help them become financially stronger.”

This alignment between purpose and product creates internal coherence. It also builds credibility, which is a non-negotiable in financial services. When the brand promise is visible in everyday user experience, communication becomes reinforcement rather than persuasion.

“It’s not just a story we tell externally. It’s embedded in the product, the organisation, and the features we build.”

Recognition Without Feeling Like Advertising

Operating in a fragmented media landscape, BUUT is very thoughtful in distinctive brand assets. From colour use and typography to subtitles and subtle sound cues, recognisability is engineered across channels. As Sanne expresses it, “In today’s world, brands are active everywhere. If you don’t build distinctive assets and carry them through consistently, you lose mental availability.”

Yet consistency alone is not enough. BUUT’s target audience, which is teenagers and soon young adults, is highly sensitive to anything that feels overly commercial. “This generation will immediately reject anything that feels like advertising. The moment they sense it’s an ad, you’ve lost them.”

This insight has fundamentally shaped BUUT’s content strategy. Rather than relying heavily on polished, high-production campaigns, the brand prioritises native content and real user stories. Everything shown features actual BUUT users and fans, not actors.

“We see it clearly in A/B testing. User-generated and native-style content performs significantly better than highly produced commercial-style campaigns,” she says. Above-the-line campaigns still play a role in building awareness.

But deeper in the funnel, relatability consistently outperforms polish. The brand has to feel like part of the audience’s world, not an interruption within it.

“We see it clearly in A/B testing. User-generated and native-style content performs significantly better than highly produced commercial-style campaigns.”

Brand Building in a High-Trust Category

If authenticity drives engagement, structural brand investment drives conversion. Financial services operate under different rules than FMCG. “In FMCG, you might invest fifty-fifty in brand and activation. In financial services, it’s closer to 70% brand and 30% activation.”

The reason lies in the longer and more complex decision cycle. While some categories require six or seven touchpoints before conversion, financial institutions often require closer to thirteen. “You need many more contact moments before someone decides to download the app and upload their ID. That’s just the reality.”

For BUUT, at this moment aided brand awareness is their critical KPI. Since the launch in September, aided brand awareness has shown a clear positive upward trend, a significant achievement for such a young entrant in a mature banking market.

Visibility also plays a subtle role. With BUUT starting with a “B”, the brand appears near the top of the alphabetically ranked iDEAL payment lists. Even before the official launch, consumers were repeatedly exposed to the name. These small structural advantages can compound brand salience over time.

“In FMCG, you might invest fifty-fifty in brand and activation. In financial services, it’s closer to 70% brand and 30% activation.”

Testing Without Benchmarks

Unlike many established categories, BUUT operates without precedent. No youth-focused bank has previously launched in the Netherlands, which also means there’s no benchmarks for what we are doing. This has led to a culture of continuous learning and experimentation. Campaign assets are A/B tested, budgets are reviewed weekly, and underperforming channels are quickly deprioritised. Early results, for example, showed that display advertising was less effective for BUUT’s audience than native social formats.

Beyond quantitative testing, qualitative research plays an equally important role. The team regularly conducts in-depth sessions with teenagers and young adults, discussing topics that genuinely shape their financial reality: dropshipping, in-game purchases, turning eighteen, financial independence, and the impact of family situations. “We want to fully understand our audience’s world. You can only be relevant if you truly understand their lived reality.”

“We want to fully understand our audience’s world. You can only be relevant if you truly understand their lived reality.”

Growing Up With the Audience

The next chapter of BUUT’s growth introduces a new complexity: expanding from teenagers to an 18+ young adult audience. “Turning eighteen is a major life moment. Suddenly you’re financially responsible for everything. There’s still a gap there,” Sanne says.

While the opportunity is clear, competition intensifies significantly beyond the teenage segment.

At the same time, maintaining relevance across a widening age range requires nuance. Even within teenagers, the difference between an eleven-year-old and a sixteen-year-old is substantial. As the audience broadens, the communication strategy must stretch without losing coherence.

For Sanne, the answer lies in maintaining focus: “Have a strong, single-minded focus. Embed your purpose in everything. And test relentlessly.” Brand growth, in her view, is not about chasing trends or outspending competitors. It is about disciplined decision-making, consistent distinctive design, and ensuring that purpose, product, and performance reinforce one another over time.

In a category defined by trust, long decision cycles, and structural barriers to entry, BUUT’s journey demonstrates that building from scratch can be a strategic advantage, provided the foundation is strong enough to grow on.

“Have a strong, single-minded focus. Embed your purpose in everything. And test relentlessly.”