Payabl. – Activate your money flow
Payabl.’s video opens with a strong idea: progress isn’t linear. The ladders, mazes and detours are more than visual props. They capture a pain point most fintech teams recognise instantly. It’s a smart bit of copywriting, and it gives the whole piece a clear emotional starting point.
The visual style has its own character too. The grainy gradients, chromatic aberration and slightly reduced frame rates give it a retro, almost analogue feel.
It’s distinctive, and the little guiding dot helps thread the story together. The sound effects in this section do a lot of heavy lifting as well, adding texture and hinting at the complexity behind different payment routes.
Where it wobbles slightly is in the shift to live action. The change in music is a nice cue, but the aesthetic doesn’t fully mesh with what came before, so the transition feels more abrupt than intentional. Things settle again once the UI animations appear — they’re clean, clear, and probably the strongest part of the piece in terms of communicating the product.
Overall, the messaging is solid and the foundations are good, but the style feels a bit pulled in different directions.
Rating: 3/5
Finom – Bye, Bureaucracy Monster
Finom goes for absurd humour here, and it works. The setup - pitting old-school paperwork and manual processes against a clean, simple mobile app - is a familiar fintech trope, but this is a fresh angle. There’s a touch of that early Klarna Smooooth energy in the tone: a bit surreal, a bit silly, and ultimately quite charming.
What stands out most is how confident the branding feels. This isn’t just a joke about receipts and forms; it’s a clear attempt to carve out a distinct personality in a crowded market. The humour is gentle rather than loud, and it leaves you with a sort of amused warmth, exactly the kind of feeling that helps a brand stick.
The storytelling is neat and efficient. A handful of well-composed shots, expressive faces doing most of the work, a tidy bit of VO to tie it all together, and a quick product beat at the end.
The music supports the tone nicely too, adding to that light, playful atmosphere without drawing too much attention to itself.
Overall, it’s a simple idea executed with confidence, and a strong example of how tone alone can help a fintech stand apart.
Rating: 5/5
Robinhood - Trade all in one place
Robinhood has gone all in on style for this one. The concrete architecture and sharp, high-contrast lighting give the ad a very deliberate car-commercial energy, which actually works well for them. It adds a sense of confidence and makes the brand feel more aspirational than functional.
Choosing to centre a real app user is a nice touch. It gives the audience someone to identify with and avoids the usual detached, floating-UI vibe that so many fintech ads fall into. It adds a bit of texture to a world that could have felt cold otherwise.
The drum and bass track is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. It gives the whole thing a cool, urban edge and nudges investing into lifestyle territory rather than dry financial decision-making. It is not subtle, but it does give the brand a distinct personality.
The product shots are clean and minimal, and the graphic overlays slot nicely into the live action. They feel considered rather than thrown on top.
Overall it is a confident piece of branding. Not especially deep on the product, but very clear on the mood it wants to create and the audience it wants to speak to.
Rating: 4/5
Wrap up
That’s a wrap! Hopefully, this has sparked some creative ideas.
If there’s a specific topic you’d love to see covered next, let me know.
And if you’ve spotted any standout fintech videos, I’d love to hear about them!
