Maya Is Putting Its Money Where Its Mouth Is

“Three years from now, we are going to be the most loved brand in the realm of finance,” bets Pepe Torres, Maya’s chief marketing officer. It’s a good gamble. Even before he joined what was once called PayMaya, he laid out the groundwork for how to rebrand the financial application into something that didn’t just compete with the leading brand but resonated with its audience as well. He got the job after his pitch, and since joining Maya, Pepe—and to a larger extent, the company—has gone all in on its rebrand to become the all-in-one finance app we know today.

But for all the money the company put into building the app, the real currency any brand wants is the currency of cool. For that, Pepe went to one of the most sought-after graphic designers today—Dan Matutina. As a co-founder of Plus63, Dan is no stranger to rebrands. He reshaped the Summit Media logo into something sleek and sharp. He created the branding of some of the country’s best restaurants and has worked with global brands like Uniqlo and international publications such as Wired and The Wall Street Journal. Pepe had just come from a run at Airbnb, so he knew how important good design is to a brand’s overall perception and how it sets the tone for everything else you do. With a project as ambitious as rebranding PayMaya, he knew Dan would be able to offer something both substantial and sustainable.

“One of the things I learned during my time in Airbnb was a much deeper appreciation for design—and the distinction between advertising communication and design,” Pepe says. “Before, growing up as a marketer, it was all just lumped together, right? You would have a lot of advertising agencies working on brand identity, and that’s not necessarily what they’re great at. Advertising communication agencies tend to kind of fall back on the usual playbook. They tend to focus on execution, which is important—execution is the only strategy the customer ever sees. Whereas brand design work is far more foundational. It sets the tone for everything you do. That’s not always the case with advertising communications. Rarely do advertising campaigns start with the idea that this thing we’re addressing has to last us for the next five to ten years. That was definitely an expectation from the brand design work we were doing with Dan.”

Dan, on the other hand, believes that the most important part of undertaking a project of this scale and scope is to have that partner/client who “alam mong kakampi mo siya dun sa buong project,” he says. “Because even though I believe the designer is vital to the project, you still need someone from the client side who believes in the work you’re going to do.”

“We did something we don’t think has ever been done before. Our new name and brand were seeded into the market through a collaboration with the Philippines’ most talented rapper, Shanti Dope, whose music has been featured in the Marvel cinematic universe. We co-created a song with him called Maya to inspire his generation to make bolder choices. Our logo is even featured on his YouTube channel and Spotify before the app officially rebranded—we just wanted our new brand to be cool and out there.” – Torres

This past summer, PayMaya officially rebranded to Maya. Along with a new name and logo, the relaunch brought along a bold and brash music video from acclaimed Filipino rapper Shanti Dope to welcome a new era for the company. Directed by Joel Limchoc, the video highlighted two aspects of Maya’s new outlook: defiance and optimism, values both Pepe and Dan want to uphold beyond the initial rebrand campaign.

“We were very clear about what our brand compass was. Our why or our reason is to create a Philippines where you can make bolder choices,” says Pepe. “Sounds lofty, but it’s because money often spells the difference. So, our promise is to innovate, to make your money work with you, so that it can help you make those bolder choices.”

The custom typeface, Tuka Type, is modern and friendly, with subtly rounded edges, made unique by “bird pecks” cutting into the font’s ink traps. The typeface was designed by Jo Malinis with the Plus63 team.

Beyond the aesthetic upgrade, this rebrand symbolizes Maya’s more confident perspective. Not just in terms of one day surpassing the competition, but by being at the forefront of innovation and accessibility. These defiant ambitions are balanced by an equal sense of optimism. “We’re not being rebellious for the sake of being rebellious,” says Pepe. “We’re doing all these things because we believe that at least from a product or functional standpoint, it will genuinely make our customers’ lives better and easier. We should not forget that we are a financial company. Money is important to many people, and ultimately the experience you have with us does engender that ease and trust. We may have some really out there marketing, but if you use the app, it looks, sounds, and feels very welcoming.”

The following interview was conducted over Zoom and has been condensed for publication.

Jonty Cruz: Hi, Dan and Pepe. Design is inherently about problem-solving. So, I wanted to first ask Pepe, what was the problem you were trying to solve with the relaunch?

Pepe Torres: What most people don’t know about PayMaya is we have this incredible B2B business powering payments for companies. We’re the number one processor of online and offline payments. A great example is McDonald’s. Be it their website, app, self-service kiosk, or over-the-counter, all that’s powered by PayMaya/Maya Business. So, our B2B’s doing exceptionally well, and we’re now number one. But B2C was clearly lagging. Being behind allows you to take a step back and reassess. And what we realized is the emerging problem to be solved over the past few years is there are just now way too many types of financial apps in the market for the average customer. In the pre-smartphone age, you only needed to go to one bank to get anything financial done, right? You didn’t have to go to three or four different banks to get it done. But for the past few years, it’s been different. Chances are, most of us here in this call have a banking app from one of your traditional big banks because that’s usually where your salary or your check comes in. And then, you probably have an e-wallet because there’s way more payment convenience and flexibility there. And then, if you’re interested in crypto, that’s another app altogether.

So, when we look at our competitor, on the surface, they’ll say, oh, yeah, we can do all these things. But for anyone who’s ever tried it, the experience goes like you open the app and open a savings account. And then ten minutes later, what happens? The bank they’ve partnered with—because they’re not the bank themselves—sends you an SMS saying hey, here’s your temporary username and password; download our app too, so you can use us more! So parang kumakalat siya lalo. So, it was clear to us that this was just a broken customer experience that we had a big opportunity to solve. And so, we got our banking license, we got our cryptocurrency license, and we were able to put together what we now call this all-in-one money app. We don’t want you to have to go to too many different apps and start tracking where all your money is.

Our vision is to be able to bring it all in one place, and we think this is a good start. We’re certainly the first in the Philippines, and I understand we’re the first in Southeast Asia to bring this range of functionality seamlessly. That was a problem we wanted to solve, which was also why it was essential to embark on that rebrand. It was not some cosmetic thing where you feel like, oh, “kasi luma na kami or laos na kami, let’s try to look younger.” It was strategic and meaningful.

And that includes the name, right?

Torres: We had to drop “Pay” from our name because we aim to do way more to help make money work for our customers. We’re going way beyond payments. And it was critical that we present ourselves in a radically different light. So, it did start with a design problem, a customer experience problem that there are way too many apps, and presenting ourselves as being the most comprehensive, all-in-one solution that was a big part of the brief that we had for the rebrand.

From a branding perspective, Dan, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what problem you were solving.

Dan Matutina: Obviously, because the name was going to be changed from PayMaya to Maya, there needed to be a change in identity, the logo, the wordmark itself, and the colors, which we discussed at length. I insisted that we be included in the research. I wanted to sit in and see how the interviewees would react or answer and how they would participate. Because there were questions that would relate to how we design and engage the consumers. It was clear what needed to be done and that everything would emanate from the brand identity.

I knew we had to get more people on board to solve some of the problems, so, to your earlier question, could we handle this scope? The answer is yes and no. Yes, meaning kayang simulan siya—we would start it. No, meaning we’d need to hire because we’re a small studio. So we suggested other people to work on the project.

One of the interesting things, which is outside of your question, is that I knew Pepe was building a team, so I helped them—their creative director and head of copy—I helped them put the team together.

Torres: Absolutely. I’m glad you brought that up. Kudos to Dan. That’s how deep his involvement was. That’s something I learned was so important when I worked at Airbnb. It was the first company I worked in that had a dedicated internal creative department. Of course, we still worked with external creatives as well, but it’s so important to have creative people embedded in your team that lives and breathes the product and the brand day in and day out and understand it intimately. You can really see the difference from working with an external creative department or creative agency. They don’t have 100 percent of the mind space dedicated to you, right? They’re thinking of five or ten other brands, so their understanding of your business and product is shallow. That’s understandable, but that’s why we had to build an internal creative team.

There were two people that I asked for referrals. The first was Dan, and he gave an amazing list of people. The second was Buens (Cristina Buenaventura). She’s one of the most talented brand strategists or strategic planners we have in the country. She had recently left her lofty, comfortable head of strategic planning post at BBDO to go freelance. I convinced her to join me on this journey, and she co-architected the rebrand with me. Now, Dan had this fantastic list of referrals. Like, Apol Sta. Maria, I knew him from before. It just didn’t cross my mind to think that, oh yeah, I could work with Apol. But Dan strongly recommended him, so I was like, okay, great! And then our head of copy was also someone Dan used to work with. His name’s Miguel De Dios, and he was the one who wrote our tagline. I just love it so much because how do you say it’s an all-in-one money app thing, right? And he did it so elegantly. He had such a good range of options, but ultimately it was, “It’s everything and a bank.” So, you could even say Dan had a big hand in the tagline because he recommended the person to be our head of copy who ended up writing it and wrote almost everything you’ll see on the product. So, it’s Dan’s extended creative universe that we were able to benefit from.

Matutina: This is something I always tell clients—to always get an internal team. I don’t know how other design studios feel about this because it means less work for us. But I strongly believe brands need an internal team to partner with external creatives. As outsiders, obviously, you can offer something different from someone from inside. Still, you can’t offer more than the internal team’s expertise or understanding of the brand and doing everything they do. Because at the end of the day, when you’re done with your work, they’re the ones who continue the whole thing, not us.

Before my next question, I’d like to ask about Apol Sta. Maria, the creative director. I know him primarily for his indie comics. But going from indie comics to Maya is a bit of a jump, to say the least. So I’d like to ask what you guys like about Apol being in Maya.

Matutina: Apol’s temperament is perfect for Maya. He worked in advertising before; I have friends who knew people who worked under him. And when he was working with us in Plus63, I recognized his value as a senior creative. And it was just perfect that Miguel de Dios was also part of Hydra [a studio Matutina co-founded] before. That’s where Miguel and Apol first met and got to work together. When I look for people, the creative work is one consideration, obviously, and the other is character and how they work with other people. I was thinking of the job’s high stakes and intense pressure and knew Apol was super-duper suited to Maya.

Maya’s creative department head, Apol Sta. Maria, has over a decade of experience as an advertising art director and illustrates self-published comics. www.apolstamaria.com

Torres: I agree with Dan. In terms of skill set, aside from being able to make incredible comics—where, you know, there’s like poop on almost every other page—he’s probably one of the most holistically experienced creatives we have in the Philippines. He can comfortably straddle design and advertising communications. Another thing I learned from Airbnb was when I had a regional creative director and he was asking me for referrals, who else we could hire, he was so particular. He told me, “Pepe, the person you recommend to me, I don’t want some diva-type creative who’s not going to do any work. I might be the real creative director, but I get my hands dirty. I need people who can craft, not just direct.” And Apol is very much that.

The second thing, to Dan’s point on temperament, if you’re going to be an internal creative, you need to have the humility to listen and digest the perspectives of the different stakeholders around you. Cause he’s not just working with marketing, he’s working with product, he’s working on employer branding stuff—it’s so diverse.

And the reality is, a lot of advertising tends to be—there’s a lot of ego in it, you know? Oh, I want to win these awards or see my really cool idea or super cool tagline be said by this big celebrity or something. It requires humility and patience to want to see a brand come to life cohesively with a ton of attention to detail. And that’s what Apol brought to the table. I’m really grateful Dan recommended him to be our head creative, personally.

Is it safe to assume you two enjoy working together? Could you talk about that relationship a bit more?

Torres: Dan said the word “seamless” a lot earlier, and I have a slight twist to that. I realized that after being here for a while. This might be a poor analogy, but I think the world I grew up in and where some design studios are still at is like classical music in approach. Here’s the sheet music; here’s the role each needs to play; hit these notes; then we move on, right? But I feel we were a lot more like jazz here. We were a lot more improvisational. We had different roles to play, but we had exceptionally healthy exchanges, tossing ideas between the internal and external teams.

Matutina: Yeah, that sounds right. We improvised, throwing and responding to each other’s ideas throughout the process. There were meetings I didn’t have to be there. I just enjoyed seeing the teams developing the music video, the shoots, all those things. I super appreciated that we got to see it, kahit na ‘di naman talaga kami kailangan doon.

Humility aside, Dan, I can see the value of you being in those spaces like the video shoot.

Torres: Absolutely.

I can imagine with you there, everyone will be like, ‘Fuck, andito si Dan. I have to step up.”  

Torres: Exactly! I tell you, even after eighty, ninety percent of Dan’s work was finished and we were in full swing developing the whole marketing campaign, we really did have this healthy pressure when Dan was there hanging over our heads that we have to live up to the standard he set. We all had to do justice to the brand foundation that we developed. Dan is being very modest; it was very helpful to have him around in those key sessions. That’s for sure.

There’s a sense that Dan is super zen as a designer. Very cool, calm, and collected, but was there ever a time he surprised you, Pepe? Was there, like, a side of Dan that suddenly surfaced while you were working together?

Torres: Dan knows exactly when to turn on his assertiveness. “No, this is what I like,” or “I really think that’s not a good direction.” I wouldn’t be surprised if some people unfairly underestimate Dan’s executive presence. But you’ll be surprised. He has it. And he’ll flex that when he needs to, to make sure that we hit the mark we need to hit.

Matutina: Defiance and optimism kasi! [Laughs] I don’t disagree with Pepe. I get assertive when I need to make a point, especially when it’s about the goal we’re all aiming for.

I get why clients and brands want to go to design studios for help. But Dan, ano yung nakita mo kay Pepe na you felt you could use in your work? Whether it was his way of thinking or how he managed things?

Matutina: I think I mentioned this earlier. I don’t know if you can call it radical thinking, but few clients think like him. I see myself as a risk taker, and I don’t know whether Pepe is more of a gambler than I am or more audacious. Medyo na shook ako. [Laughs]

In rebranding, so much of the weight of it is in the initial release, kailangan yung start, pasabog [an explosive start]. But how does one ensure longevity, so you don’t just start strong but keep going? Maybe a bit of your answer is hiring internal creatives but in terms of aesthetics or visuals, what are some tips to ensure longevity?

Matutina: If you keep the core intact, that’s actually one of the things that will make your brand last longer. Constantly tweaking or changing the core identity dilutes the brand. The strength of a brand identity is that it’s super flexible in a way that makes it easy to apply to different things or to create other expressions of it—it can exist in all those various permutations.

Hindi naman kailangan siyang pasabog or explosive. To be honest, when Maya launched, hindi pasabog yung identity, in my opinion. What I loved about the rebrand were the different communication materials, the music video, the app itself, and the design of the app. There was so much to be mindful of in a massive amount of work. And like I said, the brand has to live in those different touch points—I sound like a marketing person—‘touch points’ [Laughs]—pero diba, it’s true, right? Brand identity reaches everything, so it has to work in everything.

Torres: If I can add, Dan mentioned earlier that he would participate in the research, right? Part of that was he wanted to get a sense of design directions that may or may not resonate. And normally, right, take most marketers, probably even most advertising people, what do they do? They look for pegs. And then that’s what they present. Dan didn’t look for pegs for the focus groups to see. He made the stimuli himself; he made his own pegs. He designed all of them. That was really impressive, actually. The sense of originality in team Dan’s DNA, it’s profound. They were never derivative.

Maya brand reel. Custom typeface by Plus63, motion branding by Acid House, sonic branding by Diego Mapa

Matutina: Glad you noticed, Pepe! Kasi, as much as possible, we don’t use pegs when we present to clients. Because when the client falls in love with the peg, the expectation is that’s exactly how it would look. We really disapprove of using pegs. Cause why have something made that’s already been done by someone else?

That’s how invested we are in all our projects. This isn’t unique to Maya. Some clients might not see that right away. They may think, what? This designer must be really expensive! It’s when we start working with them that they see our level of investment, our level of commitment.

I think it’s safe to say that graphic design, in general, is seen as a young person’s game. I’d like to get Pepe’s take on how you harness that energy—especially if you want to be the most loved fintech app or brand. How do you make that happen when there’s growing concern over late-stage capitalism and distrust over banks and financial institutions? How can that spirit of creative collaboration help a brand’s reputation?

Torres: Okay. Firstly, for what it’s worth, we are one of the countries where banks genuinely enjoy a very high level of trust. Filipinos trust banks twice more than they trust the government. And in the Asia Pacific, Filipinos trust banks way more than anyone else. I don’t think the average Filipino has the same negative sentiment toward banks as Westerners do in terms of the role they play in causing recessions or because of extremely irresponsible financial decisions.

Having said that, the average bank is cold and distant. And I think a lot of it has to do with a static understanding of what people look for in financial institutions—note the kind of words they would typically use, right? “We’re a financial institution; we have to be trustworthy. Therefore, why would we ever work with a rapper?” That’s a static way of looking at things.

We have these executional values of defiance and optimism. And what we mean by that is we try to defy the conventions about money that we think hold people back from having better experiences or better relationships. Some of them can be really deeply functional and obvious in hindsight, like the seamless integration of banking, crypto, and wallet. Some may appear superficial to the average banker, like our upcoming launch of native dark mode to the app. But we know this is also truly meaningful because dark mode is easier on the eyes for a lot of customers and even helps save battery life. For us, it’s defiant against what is normally expected from banks.

Matutina: I think one of the things why I believe it’s achievable, is because I know the people Pepe’s working with for their future stuff. And from my experience working on Maya with different people, maybe nakita lang nila ‘to as raket at first, but when they started working on the project, they became really invested.

One of the reasons why I think people want the Maya hoodie or the Maya merch is because of that connection they have to all the different creators and creative people who are part of Maya, like si Shanti Dope. It goes beyond the logo or the branding. It’s the vibe. [Laughs]

Torres: Yeah, so we always aspire to keep passing the vibe check. [Laughs]

So, Dan, what do those key values of defiance and optimism mean to you, being a designer in the Philippines? Which of the two are you more now?

Matutina: One of the things I’m defiant about is when people always think that when you work on big design projects, it has to be done by a design agency abroad. I don’t believe that because we’ve worked on big projects before. We worked with those big brands before. They don’t care where you’re from or where your studio is based. I think for local clients, hindi mo kailangan pumunta sa Singapore to work on a project this big. That’s what I’m defiant about kasi may ibang creatives na nahihiyang sabihin na galing silang Philippines kasi pag nalaman ng iba nasa Pilipinas baka hindi sila mabibigyan ng opportunity. Hindi kami nahihiya kung saan kami galing. Nandun nga sa deck namin, “Plus63” at “Made in the Philippines.”  Yun yung one thing na I would like to say as a designer.

Are you still optimistic about being a designer in the Philippines?

Tingin ko naging jaded nga ako for a time, but I think I’m still on the side of optimism. Hindi ko alam kung bakit. Di ba? Why? What’s here? Pero, I think it’s one of the reasons why even up until now, andito pa rin ako sa Pilipinas, I haven’t left the country. Apart from being defiant, if the fight for creativity and the fight for a better creative community is here, then yun, dito pa rin ako. I’m staying. Optimistic pa rin ako dun sa things that can be done here. •

Jonty Cruz is the publisher of Out of Print and a creative director at FleishmanHillard Manila.