Canadian Debt Collection Leader MetCredit Rebrands, in a Surprisingly Friendly Way

EDMONTON, Alberta -- When you think of a debt collection agency, the first word that comes to mind is possibly not “friendly.”

But friendly is exactly the vibe MetCredit is going for with its entirely new look and feel.

The national collection agency, founded in 1973, has always done things differently, says President and CEO Brian Summerfelt. And with the dramatic impact of COVID-19 transforming the business landscape, it was time to put forward a face that projects MetCredit’s helpful, enthusiastic approach to receivables management. 

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“We’ve always been a people business,” says Mr Summerfelt. “The new look captures the proactive, think-outside-the-box professionalism and innovation you see daily in our offices across Canada. It stirs the feeling of moving people forward in a remarkably positive and empowering way.”

MetCredit has rolled out a bold new logo with an “M” icon that hearkens to the days when the brand was known as Metropolitan Credit Adjusters, conjuring a pair of dimensional high-rise towers with an elegant maple leaf unfurling from the negative space between them—this is a national agency, after all. The font is bold, modern and confident: it’s a stylistic nod to the big banks and telecommunication leaders who have long been key clients, without forsaking the thousands of start-ups, small businesses and midsized organizations MetCredit serves, in communities from coast to coast, to the northernmost reaches of Canada.

Where the friendliness really comes to life, though, is in the website and branded materials. Everything is built upon a set of playful 3D characters, styled to reflect the varied dimensionality of collecting debt across a vast and varied country.

The new MetCredit.com homepage features a bearded entrepreneur in a business suit and helmet—stopping a puck at the front of a hockey net. “Canada’s All-Star Collection Agency,” proclaims the copy. 

Gracing the BC page is a businessman sporting green-tinted shades. Alberta’s mascot dons a cowboy hat, and Saskatchewan’s a watermelon helmet, a tribute to a tradition celebrating the province’s CFL football team. The stereotypes are intentional, at once playful and a little campy, Mr. Summerfelt says.

“We wanted to show that we deeply love and ‘get’ Canadians, because as a nationwide team we live the differences from one region to another,” he says. “I was born and grew up in Saskatchewan, so to me the watermelon is not a stereotype. It’s an emblem of regional pride. These are the diverse places our employees and customers live, work and play. I think it all comes across with an authenticity no one else could pull off, just like how we collect. We first connect.”

The completely re-imagined website includes a French version for Canada’s Francophone businesses, and includes MyMetCredit.com, a unique AI-powered web application that assists clients in submitting accounts for collection easily and comprehensively, at any time.

“This is a new era, when businesses in Canada and around the world are going through a painful, unprecedented reset,” Mr. Summerfelt says. “It’s important not to take ourselves too seriously, to reconnect with why we are all in this business—to make some very bold changes and lead with marked conviction into the new reality. That is what our rebrand embodies.”

For more information, please visit MetCredit.com, contact media@graphos.ca or @metcredit.