Rebuilding Trust and Unlocking Capital for Black-Owned Businesses.
Lloyds Bank
The Brief
Only 12% of Black business owners in the UK look to banks for advice or support. Just 40% report any level of trust in financial institutions. For Lloyds Bank, this wasn’t just a statistic it was a call to action.
They needed a partner with deep cultural understanding and real access to the country’s most exciting Black-owned brands. Translate Culture was the natural choice.
The Strategy
We developed a multi-layered approach that spoke directly to the needs and lived experiences of Black entrepreneurs. Instead of generic campaigns, we focused on building genuine trust and actionable insight.
Three pillars anchored our strategy:
- Cultural credibility: We leveraged our existing Direct to Culture platform to offer Lloyds access to a community they had previously struggled to reach authentically.
- Educational storytelling: We produced the Money Tree content series to highlight the real-life financial journeys of Black founders from mindset to growth strategy.
- Peer-led learning: We curated environments where founders could learn from each other, and from Lloyds, without the jargon or formality that usually defines finance events.
Key Activations
🎬 Money Tree Series
A 5-part digital content series exploring how access to capital fuels business, family, and community growth through the lens of Ama Amo-Agyei, founder of a multi-7-figure brand.
💬 Money Affi Mek Panel
At our 2023 Direct to Culture conference, Lloyds joined a finance panel alongside founders and funders, giving attendees practical insight into raising capital.
📍 "Ask Lloyds" Booth
Strategically placed at the event entrance, Lloyds staff connected face-to-face with over 500 attendees answering questions and sharing their Black Business Portal.
🌍 2024 Founder Retreat
In 2024, we deepened our partnership with a high-impact Founder retreat designed for 12 Black-owned 7-figure brands.
Lloyds Bank led workshops on funding international expansion and working capital strategy; empowering founders with the financial clarity needed to scale globally.
One standout outcome: Beard Surgeon used insights from the retreat to supercharge growth and build a multi-7-figure business.
The Results
- 🎥 122,000+ views across the Money Tree series
- 📊 61.5% of surveyed attendees said they were more likely to engage Lloyds for advice or funding
- 🧠 New awareness: Many founders discovered Lloyds’ support tools for the first time
- 💼 12+ 7-figure Black-owned brands engaged via the 2024 Founder Retreat
- 🚀 Business impact: Multiple brands now actively use Lloyds services to support scale-up ambitions
What We Loved
This partnership was more than visibility it was about shifting perception and building long-term value.
By embedding Lloyds Bank in culturally relevant spaces, we translated finance into something relatable, powerful, and future-facing for Black founders.
Reigniting the Unity Cup for a New Generation
The Unity Cup
The Unity Cup was once a powerful cultural moment for African and Caribbean communities in the UK but after a 20-year hiatus, it had little digital presence, no recent footage, and no engaged audience to retarget. The ask? Turn this legacy event into a viral moment and fill the stands in less than 60 days.
Scaling Profitably To 7 Figures
Myla's Moss
Mylas Moss is a leading seller of fresh, organic seamoss and herbs offering natural health solutions to wellness-conscious consumers. We partnered with Mylas Moss to develop a profitable growth strategy through paid marketing, utilising Google Ads and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) to target their core audience and expand their reach.
Building Brand Beyond Amazon
Soul Cap
SOUL CAP is a sportswear brand dedicated to making swimming inclusive by providing swim caps designed for people of all hair types. They approached us with a goal to build on their existing success on Amazon and drive growth for their direct-to-consumer (DTC) store. A key challenge was the lack of profitability in their Meta ads, and it was crucial to acquire new customers in a cost-effective manner.
Authentic Storytelling & Partnership
PLANTMADE
A partnership was formed between our company and Plantmade, a natural wellness brand, to help them expand their presence. The hair growth market is tough due to customer skepticism about regrowing hair after hair loss. Recognizing the need for a holistic approach beyond paid ads, Plantmade and our team collaborated. We used data and cultural insights to create a real-time communication strategy that built trust and boosted revenue. This strategy centered around authentic storytelling and involved various teams within Plantmade, including founder, partnership, retention, social, and creative teams.
Growth strategy
Oja
Oja is an e-grocer for African & Caribbean communities. We partnered with Oja to develop a growth strategy powered by direct marketing and authentic partnerships with hard to reach communities. We improved marketing efficiency by 400%, meaning we are getting four times more for every pound spent on paid marketing.
Business transformation
TRIM-IT
In 2021 mobile barbershop start-up TRIM-IT faced two challenges, re-introducing the brand after 8 months lockdown and having switched a B2B model, they needed to re-educate the barber community into becoming partners. We leveraged Digital PR campaign via popular cultural news pages, Brand partnership with Harry’s and celebrity barber Slider Cuts alongside a well refined paid and organic social campaign. We helped get 30 barbers on the road nationwide, 6 months ahead of schedule - taking TRIM-IT to 7 fig+ revenue.
Performance marketing
AVA ESTELL
Ava Estell came to us in July 2021 after delivering £1.2m in 9 month through social media and ads. Following the release of iOS 14 update they started to face some challenges around scaling. Using our in-house “Measure - Learn - Scale” approach, we were able to deliver a further £7 million in revenue in 9 months. 8 figures in 24 months, puts Ava Estell up there with some of the fastest growing DTC brands in the UK.
