From lead gen to demand gen: how Backbase shifted gears with Unmuted

A shift in buyer behavior calls for a shift in marketing

Backbase is the world’s first AI-powered banking platform, well known for helping banks modernize their digital customer experience. But as the company scaled its go-to-market efforts globally, it faced a familiar challenge: the way buyers engaged with marketing had changed, while internal processes hadn’t caught up yet.

The campaigns were there, but the story wasn’t always consistent. Demand generation efforts were siloed across teams. And while leads came in, they weren’t converting at the expected rate.

Rather than chasing volume, Backbase decided to rethink the engine behind its marketing motion. That’s when the team brought in Unmuted.

“The Unmuted team has proven to be a silver bullet and marketing innovator. We had to step up, and we did. Together.” - Tim Rutten, CMO, Backbase

One demand gen strategy, many moving parts

We started by running a diagnostic across Backbase’s tooling, campaign performance, and organizational structure. From there, we worked closely with the global marketing team to co-create a demand generation approach that would work at scale, while still leaving room for local initiatives.

The collaboration, so far, has spanned several focus areas:

1. Funnel standardization and sales alignment

Before launching new campaigns, we helped redefine how the funnel worked, from first touch all the way to opportunity. Together, we built shared definitions around stages like Marketing Qualified, Sales Accepted, and High-Intent Revenue Opportunity (HIRO). That gave the team a shared language and improved conversion tracking across regions.

With the new structure in place, the handoff between marketing and sales became smoother. Pipeline forecasts were easier to make. And the team could focus more energy on the highest-intent leads.

2. Podcast as a media engine

To bring thought leadership into the market in a more human and consistent way, we co-created Banking Reinvented, Backbase’s podcast hosted by CMO Tim Rutten. Each episode featured voices from within Backbase and the wider banking ecosystem, covering digital transformation, customer engagement, and platform strategy.

The podcast became a central piece of the content engine. Episodes were repurposed into LinkedIn snippets, thought leader ads, and blog articles, fueling both reach and trust with the ICP.

3. LinkedIn Ads: from fragmentation to focus

Backbase’s global ad account had become complex and hard to scale. We worked with the team to design a new account structure: organizing campaigns by region, funnel stage, and audience size. We also trained marketers internally on how to plan campaigns using clear calculations based on audience reach, frequency, and budget allocation.

The result? A streamlined system that supported global consistency while still leaving room for local teams to test and tailor messaging. With this structure in place, campaign performance became more predictable and easier to manage.

4. Supporting global and local ABM

Beyond global campaigns, Unmuted worked alongside regional field teams to support demand capture and conversion plays, especially in high-priority regions like the US and LATAM. We helped plan and activate 1:few and 1:1 ABM campaigns, sometimes tied to major events like Money20/20 or partnerships with firms like McKinsey and Microsoft.

This hybrid setup (central support, local execution) allowed the demand strategy to stay consistent without slowing teams down.

“Unmuted brought the clarity and momentum we needed. Their hands-on support helped us speed things up and keep quality high, even under pressure.” - Mingus Mkubukeli, Head of Demand Gen, Backbase

What’s next

With the fundamentals in place, Backbase started seeing early signs of momentum: more relevant traffic, more efficient paid media, and stronger signals from its ICP.

Now, the team is focused on scaling the playbooks, rolling out personal LinkedIn strategies, launching retargeting via YouTube and Meta, and further integrating thought leadership into its advertising mix.

Unmuted remains involved as a sparring partner and enabler, helping Backbase scale what’s working and keep the strategy sharp as it evolves.