Precision targeting for affluent audiences

Effective audience segmentation is the key to any high-performing digital advertising campaign especially when the goal is targeting affluent audiences. For your finance brand, this involves identifying and targeting high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) with tailored messaging that resonates with their unique financial needs and preferences.

Speaking with Josh Frith the founder of finance marketing specialists The Dubs Agency said “if you’re chasing campaign engagement and conversions it’s important to set clear goals and KPIs.”

“Use data and analytics tools to gather audience insights and monitor this regularly,” Frith said. ” Research your audience and segment it by key criteria so you deliver personalised and relevant content.” he said. “Experiment with your campaign by A/B testing various elements to hone in on what works for your audience.”

“But don’t lose sight of your brand. Be consistent and aligned with brand messaging and values” Frith said.

Advanced tactics:

• Behavioural and psychographic data analysis: Utilise data analytics tools to segment audiences based on behaviours and psychographic profiles, including investment patterns, financial goals, and lifestyle choices. According to a report, 76% of companies see a major boost in business and customer satisfaction after implementing marketing analytics. Tools like Google Analytics and Adobe Audience Manager can help create detailed audience personas.
• Lookalike and predictive audiences: Deploy lookalike audience models using platforms like Facebook and Instagram. On LinkedIn, you can utilise a similar approach by using their Predictive audience features. These models expand your reach by targeting users who exhibit similar characteristics to your best existing clients, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion.

Re-engaging high-potential prospects

Retargeting is crucial if you want to nurture leads through a lengthy and complex buying cycle. By re-engaging clients who have previously interacted with your finance brand, you can guide them down the marketing funnel more effectively.

Advanced tactics:

• Sequential retargeting: Implement a sequential retargeting strategy where ads are served in a specific order, progressively educating and engaging the audience. This method ensures potential clients get relevant information at each stage of their decision-making process.
• Cross-device retargeting: Use tracking to retarget users across multiple devices to give a consistent and seamless experience. Platforms like Google Display Network and AdRoll offer robust cross-device retargeting capabilities.

Personalised and adaptive messaging

Dynamic ad creative optimisation allows your finance brand to deliver personalised and adaptive ads, enhancing relevance and engagement ultimately targeting affluent audiences.

Advanced tactics:

• Dynamic creative optimisation (DCO): Use DCO to automatically generate and test multiple ad variations based on audience data. This approach ensures each user sees the most relevant version of your ad, tailored to their preferences and behaviour.
• Real-time personalisation: Implement real-time personalisation strategies to adjust ad content based on user interactions and contextual data. This can be done through platforms like Dynamic Yield and Adobe Target.

First-party data integration for targeting affluent audiences

First-party data integration is key to successful campaign optimisation. Leveraging data directly collected from your clients ultimately allows for more accurate targeting and personalisation. By integrating first-party data from CRM systems, website analytics, and customer feedback, you can create more precise audience segments and deliver highly relevant ad content.

Ongoing cohort analysis and custom audience optimisation

Regularly performing cohort analysis and optimising custom audiences are crucial for maintaining campaign effectiveness. Ongoing analysis of how different customer cohorts behave over time provides valuable insights that can inform future marketing strategies. Custom audience optimisation, on the other hand, involves continuously refining and segmenting audiences based on the latest data to ensure ads remain relevant and effective.

Testing AI-based campaigns vs. manual optimisation strategies

As AI continues to evolve, it’s essential to test AI-based campaigns against manual optimisation strategies to ensure you’re campaign is successful. AI can automate and enhance various aspects of campaign management, from targeting to creative adjustments. However, manual optimisation allows for a more nuanced and strategic approach. By comparing the performance of AI-driven campaigns with manually optimised ones, you can determine the most effective methods for your brand.

Optimising digital advertising campaigns targeting affluent audiences requires a nuanced and data-driven approach. With a recent Forrester poll revealing that 65% of marketing professionals are concerned about data quality, put the time and effort into improving this. Embracing sophisticated campaign optimisation tactics positions your finance brand to better engage high-net-worth clients and achieve sustained growth in a competitive market.

The post Advanced strategies for targeting affluent audiences appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Benefits of each media strategy and when to use them

A paid, earned and owned media strategy balances three key marketing objectives: brand awareness, lead generation, and client acquisition and retention. Each strategy works together to ensure your finance brand has a winning shot at not only nurturing and converting clients but also retaining them.

Tara Cimino, Social Media Strategist at The Dubs, notes, “The benefits are endless when it comes to finance brands using paid, earned and owned media.” She explains, “Being seen as a thought leader in the industry will strengthen existing relationships and create new ones, reaching new audiences such as Gen Z, building brand awareness and developing community trust. All of these are key elements to building a social media presence as a finance brand.”

But what are the differences between the three?

• Paid media strategy – This is a marketing strategy that involves advertising your finance brand via paid placements, such as pay-per-click (PPC) or social media advertising. The benefits of a paid media strategy is that it can be scaled quickly and easily.
• Earned media strategy – This is a marketing strategy that involves gaining engagement or promotion through organic means. The benefits of an earned media strategy are that it continues to improve brand awareness, gain leads and convert clients even when your paid media strategy is over.
• Owned media strategy – This is a marketing strategy that involves any content that’s created and distributed via channels your finance brand owns, like social media or your blog. The benefits of an owned media strategy is that your finance brand has full control over the content that’s produced, helping you to create tailored messages that are targeted at specific audiences. In the same way, an owned media strategy lets you respond to events as they happen, helping your content remain timely and useful.

How to get it right

Identifying both your short-term and long-term objectives is critical to finding the right balance. Ensuring you find an equilibrium between long-term brand building and short-term activation will enable your finance brand to create a sustainable marketing strategy that’s successful in generating, nurturing and converting leads. Overall, paid media strategies are overall more effective when supported by both owned and earned marketing campaigns.

“Finance brands can strike a balance between paid, earned and owned media by utilising all areas equally over a period of time.” asserts Tara. “Paid media will reach a large audience quickly, encouraging brand awareness on a larger scale. Earned media comes from recommendations, building credibility and trust which can help reach multiple potential customers. Finally, owned media allows brands to directly control their branding and messaging.”

How to measure the effectiveness of your media strategy

An important part of any marketing strategy is ensuring you are measuring it correctly to identify what’s working and what’s not. There are several things your finance brand can implement and analyse to understand if you’ve achieved a good balance between all three media strategies.

As Tara says, “Measurement of granular data and KPIs, analysis and goal attribution are key to achieving an ideal balance for finance brands.”

Paid media can retarget audiences, it’s easy to measure, and when used in conjunction with earned and owned media, can be more successful.”

Overall, striking the right balance between all three strategies can be difficult, but once achieved can make a huge difference in your overall marketing success.

The post How to balance a paid, earned and owned media strategy appeared first on Financial Marketer.

What is the biggest mistake finance brands make when measuring a social media campaign?

“A big mistake finance brands fall into is putting large media budgets behind paid social media campaigns and driving traffic to a site with a poor user journey,” explains Cimino. “There’s no point driving users to your website if it isn’t ready for them.” Financial marketers need to strike the balance between a website that delivers a good user experience that also converts customers.

From Frith’s perspective, the biggest mistake financial marketers make is they collect campaign data and measurements, maybe put them in a report, with no interpretation or follow up actions. “The biggest mistake is failing to interpret measurements and turn them into practical actions that either improve the campaign in terms of its objectives (conversions, traffic, costs etc) or take on learnings that inform the next phases of work,” he says. “Whether that be making changes to messaging and content, changing user-journeys and UX or optimising channels. Measurement is about improving performance.”

What are best practice examples of how to measure and act on social media performance?

“We recently worked with Citi who took advantage of the precise audience targeting on LinkedIn to create a range of audience segments that were tested frequently and optimised for best performing over time,” says Frith. “Citi’s approach was a good example of measure often, optimise frequently.”

“Our team here in London encourages clients to set up hard and soft onsite goal conversions and put monetary values to each of those goals,” says Cimino, whose work with Aberdeen Standard Investments has picked up more than 20 awards including the MFEA Best Social Media Campaign and Digital Innovation awards. “Attention time on site, +2 pages per session and scroll rate could all be softer goals, but a harder goal could be a user watching a certain percentage of an onsite video, downloading a PDF, completing a form submission or visiting certain pages of your website that aren’t the landing page of the ad.”

What tools would you recommend financial marketers use for social media measurement and tracking?

For Frith, the right measurement tool comes down to the level of understanding and sophistication of the marketer. “Native ad platforms (Linkedin, X, Facebook) provide good reporting which may work well for more sophisticated marketing teams, while easy to understand dashboard platforms such as Funnel or Google Data Studio can be useful when sharing metrics across the wider business,” he says. “Other tools such as SEMRush provide great insights into important aspects of campaigns such as keywords.” There’s a whole host of free and specialised SEO tools that every financial marketer needs.

“Google Analytics or Adobe Experience Manager are essential for tracking campaign activity on the destination website or landing page and for monitoring user behaviour once they have entered the branded digital environment,” says Frith.

How frequently should finance brands be monitoring social media marketing campaigns?

“The frequency of measurement depends on the objective, duration, budget and content of each individual campaign,” says Cimino. “For some of our clients, campaigns need to be monitored multiple times daily, while others are just twice a week.”

What’s one of the biggest misconceptions around measurement and ROI?

“Measuring the success or effectiveness of a campaign isn’t just looking at an ROI figure in £ or $ but looking at how users engage with the site and analysing the onsite soft and hard goal completions,” explains Cimino.

Frith adds, that attribution is still one area that isn’t well understood, which is made more difficult by the fact that it isn’t a precise science. “The full user journey for any digital offering needs to be mapped from beginning to end (which may include offline components) and the role of paid campaigns in that user journey needs to be understood so that any analysis of ROI is making accurate or at least well-informed attribution.”

How is finance marketing different to other industries in terms of measuring effectiveness?

“Most finance businesses are looking for long-term loyal customers versus other industries that may be more reliant on one-time customers or purely product-based activity,” says Frith.

“To gain customer loyalty, trust and transparency is crucial, and an ongoing effort finance brands must always work towards. This results in a heavier focus on content and social media marketing centered around education, expert insights and thought leadership as opposed to the product promotion favoured by other brands,” he says.

“While the impact of content on trust is far less clear cut to measure, trust is an important metric that can be quantitatively measured through engaging surveys and also tracked to a certain extent by engagement metrics.”

Wherever your brand is based in the world, The Dubs has financial content marketing experts who can help you implement a social media marketing strategy that delivers measurable results. Get in touch.

The post How to measure the effectiveness of social media marketing appeared first on Financial Marketer.

It’s been almost 20 years since Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute first coined the term “content marketing” (though brands had been creating content for decades). Pulizzi described it as “an approach where instead of distracting our audience with advertising that’s not relevant to them, we’re going to create valuable, compelling and relevant content on a consistent basis and build an audience over that time in order to see some profitable customer action.”

Now might be a good time to remind ourselves why content has become an essential part of the modern marketing mix.

1. People aren’t clicking digital advertising like they used to

In 2011, we laughed at a story that said web visitors were more likely to summit Mount Everest, survive a plane crash or birth twins than click a banner ad. In 2016, we learned that 50% of clicks on banner ads were accidental. Hubspot reports that in 2019 the average CTR for a search ad is 1.91% and 0.24% for a display ad.

People have learned to avoid ad placements – we skim web pages like pros. And the younger the user, the less likely they are to click on a paid ad.

In 2011, we laughed at a story that said web visitors were more likely to summit Mount Everest, survive a plane crash or birth twins than click a banner ad.

2. Content doesn’t interrupt people

Digital advertising is like outbound marketing – it interrupts what your customer is reading or watching or listening to. You’re invading their space with your brand message at a time you’ve chosen, which might not be a time when your audience is ready to hear it.

Content is more like inbound marketing – customers find you through channels like blogs, search engines, social media, and they engage with you because you’re offering them something useful or entertaining. It’s customer-centric, delivering value to the consumer for free, sometimes in return for their contact information.

The good thing about content is that the people who are finding you and responding to you are already interested in the stories you’re telling, so they’re more likely to be a good fit for your product than if you’d hit them scatter-gun style with digital marketing.

And if you cover topics that are broader than just brand stories, that gives you an entrée into broader consumer conversations where you can find more prospects.

Note that the above only applies if you truly distribute “content”. Not thinly-veiled spam. A true value exchange is needed.

3. Content gives people a reason to re-visit your website

It’s pretty obvious but worth a reminder. When you’re publishing new content regularly, you have something to push out through your socials, your emails and your other channels. It gives you a reason to talk to people. And people have more motivation to visit your website if they trust there will be something fresh to consume.

4. Content shows your brand’s provenance

If you’ve got years’ worth of blogs, videos, podcasts and infographics sitting on the interwebs it gives you gravitas. It shows where you’ve been, the opinions your people have contributed, and that you’re not fly-by-nighters.

It builds your brand, painting a picture of who you are, what your product stands for. It can highlight your people as thought leaders and experts. It promotes trust and authority in a way that digital advertising mostly can’t.

And sure, it’s a longer-term play – you don’t get instant results. But if the Content Marketing Institute is correct, content marketing gets three times more leads than paid search advertising.

5. Content lives on

If you invest in quality content it still has value (and is worth pushing people to) years after your banner or a paid search ad is pushing up daisies. Money well spent.

6. Content builds organic search (SEO)

Since Google is always looking to deliver information that is relevant to people’s search queries, they’re more likely to rank you higher if what you have online is genuinely useful and not salesy. Particularly if you’re consistently pushing out this useful content.

Yes, the algorithms do change regularly but the principles remain the same.

One last thing

Brands were writing their own stories long before “content” became a thing that we wrote blogs about. Long before blogs or vlogs were invented. But we started really backing content when traditional ads started losing their power.

Ultimately though you don’t need to choose between the two because when you integrate them artfully, they can generate incredible awareness, and boost your engagement and sales. Shazam!

Related articles

• 5 ways finance brands should rethink Google advertising
• The changing shape of native advertising
• Combat fake news by becoming Google’s trusted source

The post Content marketing vs digital advertising appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Launching on 7 Feb 2019, the six-week Your Broker Behind You campaign aims to “remind Australians what a world without brokers would look like”. Promotional materials explain how proposed policy changes would reduce competition, choice and access to credit in home lending, while delivering a windfall for major banks.

The campaign aims to remind Australians what a world without brokers would look like.

Driven by the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) and a coalition of industry partners, the multi-channel campaign has been funded by 15 aggregators, brokers and lenders.

Mortgage brokers adopt a three-pronged approach

The first component of Your Broker Behind You is a public relations piece, telling the story through earned media in the lead up to, and after the royal commission announcement. In a media release distributed on 7 Feb, MFAA CEO Mike Felton talks of how the royal commission was set up to protect Australians from big bank power, ”but has simply entrenched it further.”

“How mortgage brokers can be front and centre of the recommendations is inexplicable to me,” Felton says. “A massive new bank fee added to the cost of buying a home cannot be a good outcome for Australians.”

The second component is a major media spend including television, newspapers, radio, billboards and digital advertising. In the 30-second television spot labelled ‘Don’t Kill Competition’, a couple with a small child approaches a door marked ‘High interest rate lender’. When they open it, a devilish figure in a suit stands waiting against a fiery backdrop.

The final piece is a call for people to support the industry by going online and signing a petition, or by entering their postcode and sending a letter to their MP.

Kyal and Kara Demmrich from The Block are key talent within the digital content.

No sob stories here

As part of its PR push, the campaign released some dramatic stats. A broker earns on average $86,417 before tax, according to Deloitte Access Economics research – not quite a banker’s salary.

Many brokers are small business owners. The average broker has 14 years’ experience. Yet 58% of Australian consumers who intend to use a mortgage broker in future would be unwilling to pay a broker fee of any nature and only 3.5% of consumers would be willing to pay a fee of $2,000 or more, according to independent research released in January 2019.

Things aren’t looking good for mortgage brokers.

But Your Broker Behind You is not a sob story about brokers. Though research showed 94% of people are pleased with their broker, there wasn’t a huge amount of sympathy for brokers, unlike say, farmers. Consumers weren’t interested in helping brokers maintain the sustainability of their industry.

As a result, the campaign’s approach is to appeal to people by pointing out brokers’ systemic importance to the economy and to competition in the home lending market.

The campaign’s approach is to appeal to people by pointing out brokers’ systemic importance to the economy and to competition in the home lending market.

Grassroots approach to win trust

Campaign assets have been supplied to 13,500 broker businesses and aggregators like Connective, AFG and Loan Market to share with customers, stakeholders and friends, using their own social media channels to call for support. For most consumers, the story will come from a broker they already know and have a relationship with. And initial response is positive.

Within days of the campaign’s launch, thousands of letters had been sent to MPs through the ‘Email your politician’ button on the website; senders were evenly split between brokers and consumers. The thinking is this grassroots-style distribution will earn more trust.

Related articles

• Advisr: shining a spotlight on trustworthy brokers
• Content on LinkedIn: finance brands win back trust
• How to restore customer trust through content

The post Mortgage brokers use content to fight back appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Despite their enormous reach, music streaming services have yet to make it into the marketing mix of many big brands – but finance businesses should think about how they can tap into this precious opportunity to reach their customers.

Getting personal

People who stream music often do so from a number of devices – their mobile, their laptop or maybe a tablet or work computer. Using a streaming service to advertise allows you to create a single view of your busy customer and distribute your messaging across multiple platforms, telling your target audience a story at every time of day. The data collected by streaming services goes far beyond basic demographics as different playlists tap into a range of emotional and practical circumstances gaining insight into the lives of individuals. This data-driven intelligence gives brands the power to speak to exactly the right customer, using the right message at precisely the right time.

Streaming – a trusted platform

Advertising over a streaming service means that customers are seeing your messaging within a trusted context. Not only does this help you to maintain brand integrity, but it encourages listeners to feel comfortable as they take in your messages. Spotify was recently ranked the number one trusted platform for quality content and enjoyable experience so you know your ads are appearing in a ‘brand-safe’ environment. For more tips on how to build consumer trust through content, take a look at our blog.

Spotify was recently ranked the number one trusted platform for quality content and enjoyable experience so you know your ads are appearing in a ‘brand-safe’ environment.

Super efficient advertising

Streaming companies are very aware of the need to balance keeping their end users happy (and not bombarded by ads), while providing a strong proposition for brands looking to advertise. That’s why media buying models on streaming services include options like ‘active media’. This service allows customers to choose the advert they would prefer to listen to – self-selecting as someone interested in your message. Advertisers only pay every time a listener completes their ad, and with audio and video options available, brands can make the very best use of their budget.

So how should brands capitalise on the opportunity that streaming platforms provide? Some of the best campaigns in the past year have tapped into key insights revealed by the streaming platforms themselves.

For example, Smirnoff realised that none of the top streamed bands or artists in 2017 were female, so they set about levelling the playing field with their Smirnoff Equalizer campaign. The campaign offered users the chance to look at the gender split of their own playlists and opt to reinvent a playlist with equal representation. While not marketing a specific product, the campaign allowed Smirnoff to build on its values as a company that celebrates diversity, and earned the brand a great deal of positive press.

How finance brands can tap into the opportunity around streaming services

To make the very best use of ads across streaming platforms, finance brands need to consider their customer in great detail. Think beyond traditional demographics like age or gender and delve into individuals’ needs and wants to define a realistic customer journey.

You need to decide on a few things

1. What mood do you want your customer to be in when they hear your message? Are you trying to capture their attention at a moment of optimism, or a time of reflection?
2. Where do you want your customer to be when they hear your message. On the bus to work? Leaving the office on a Friday? On a road trip with friends?
3. Next, make sure the message they hear is tailored to their circumstances – the more effort you put into making your advert fit their lifestyle, the more engaged your target audience is likely to be, and the better their perception of your brand.

Streaming services provide you with the opportunity to test and learn. Move out of your comfort zone and trial a small scale ad to a specific target audience to see how effective this type of marketing could be for your organisation.

The post Music streaming – the new frontier of finance marketing appeared first on Financial Marketer.

John Lewis – #EltonJohnLewis

Oh John Lewis, you never disappoint. Year on year, the population of the UK wait with bated breath for the next campaign. From boxer dogs to penguins, adverts for this department store are guaranteed to make an impact – usually bringing audiences to tears. This year’s campaign, leveraging the star power of the great Elton John, tells the story of how giving a gift can change a life.

Finance brands should consider if this values-driven approach to marketing might make an impact with their audiences.

What can we learn?
John Lewis knows how to work with emotion. Exceptional production quality, impactful soundtracks and heartfelt stories grab the audience’s attention in a way that sticks. Finance brands should consider if this values-driven approach to marketing might make an impact with their audiences – brands like Westpac are already venturing into this space with long-form video campaigns like ‘Help. It’s what Australians do.’

St George – Festive Finances

St George has taken a more humorous approach with its Festive Finances ad. With a clear product plug and a cheeky jibe at New Zealanders, the campaign shows Santa worrying over his finances. Thanks to the St George dragon and his Spend Tracker, there’s enough money for Christmas presents all round.

What can we learn?
Only 30 seconds long, this campaign steers away from the cinematic ad style, making the most of audience attention by providing them with a quick chuckle. What’s especially effective is the clear call to action at the end of the advert as viewers are encouraged to search for ‘festive finances’ to find out more. This advert provides finance marketers with an alternative option to the ‘brand building’ style of the John Lewis ad and shows how Christmas campaigns can be used to effectively promote products as well as increase brand awareness.

NRMA – Don’t drive naughty drive nice

With almost 42,000 fines issued to drivers over the festive season last year, this Christmas campaign from NRMA attempts to change behaviour by encouraging motorists not to use their mobile phone behind the wheel. Featuring a little girl and her animated toy rabbit, the advert sees a family driving home for Christmas and learning an important lesson along the way.

What can we learn?
This ad uses creativity and emotion to try to change behaviour. Finance brands should consider how behavioural change campaigns could contribute to their overall marketing mix. Not every piece of communication needs to be product specific. Think about how changing your audience’s attitudes towards finance could help the greater brand cause.

For more tips on the different types of campaign video you can create and how to distribute them, check out our blog on video formats.

Related articles

• The right video platform for your finance brand
• Master the art of the influencer marketing campaign
• How – and why – to use emotional intelligence in your content marketing

Image: John Lewis

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Oobah wasn’t trying to cheat anyone; he was trying to prove a point. One of his early freelance gigs was getting paid to write fake reviews and he saw sites like TripAdvisor as presenting a ‘false reality’ to people. In the new climate of misinformation triggered by the last US presidential race, he decided to see how far he could take his fake restaurant. Worryingly, he was able to take it quite far.

Fake it ‘til you make it

According to Statista, 42% of all fake news is generated through social media, and most of it is political in nature. It makes sense. With so many people turning to their X and Facebook feeds for news and updates, it’s easy to get swept into an ‘echo chamber’ where users choose to believe stories that reinforce their views. These shared stories are usually instigated by fake websites. The following headline, shared by ABCNews.com.co was Facebook’s most widely shared fake news story with over 2 million shares, comments and reactions: “Obama Signs Executive Order Banning The Pledge Of Allegiance In Schools Nationwide.”

This is the current climate of ‘fake news’ in which we find ourselves. No doubt ABCNews.com.co garnered a lot of traffic, but how can people separate fact from fiction? It could be argued that this heightened sense of scrutiny and cynicism will serve audiences well, but what about those brands who work hard at being truthful and honest? It’s presenting an unwelcome challenge for media outlets who want to get on with the job of ethical advertising.

Suspicious minds

Network Research surveyed 1,000 adults in the UK and found that in the past year, over 48% of consumers have been suspicious that a story they have read may be fake, with 75% losing faith in the media outlet that carried those stories less as a result. A whopping 63% believed that the media industry, in general, needed better regulation.

48% of consumers have been suspicious that a story they have read may be fake.

This is creating a headache for all brands, and even more so for those in the financial sector who are held to a higher standard of trust and transparency. These brands risk being devalued in what is becoming an increasingly toxic landscape.

In an open letter to mark the 28th anniversary of his invention, Tim Berners-Lee even marked Fake News as one of the three big concerns he has for the future of the World Wide Web.

So what can brands do about it?

Advertising in a fake news era

Contrary to what you may think, traditional media sources and news outlets like The Times newspaper in the UK have actually seen trust from their audience base increase. What this tells us is that many people are going back to advertisers and publishers who have a legacy and long-standing reputation, instead of paying mind to flashy headlines on Facebook. This is good news for financial brands who already have a reputation to lean on, but may prove troublesome for younger finance brands who are trying to get a foothold in the market.

Despite all of this, the same survey from Network Research tells us that media consumption, on the whole, is going up quite dramatically, with nearly 25% of individuals saying they consume more media than they did a year ago. More good news. This means that the audience is still there, they’re simply becoming more selective about what they read and more importantly, where they read it.

This means that the audience is still there, they’re simply becoming more selective about what they read and more importantly, where they read it.

For advertisers in a ‘post-truth’ landscape of ‘alternative facts’, it’s all about context. The last thing any brand needs is their advert appearing alongside fake news or in other non-desirable areas of the web. With the best will in the world – and even the best advert in the world – the message would be lost by association. Until the gatekeepers of published content such as Facebook and Google learn how to curb fake news for good, brands should tread very carefully and choose their advertising networks even more so.

The post Is Fake News a threat for financial services? appeared first on Financial Marketer.

The partnering sites – Vox Media, BuzzFeed, ATTN, Group Nine Media and others – cater to a primarily young, mobile-first audience. And these sites are themselves reaping the benefits of being a collective devoted to the creation of digital content. Group Nine is the holding company for The Dodo, Seeker, Thrillist and NowThis. Vox is a brand house that includes Curbed, Eater, and Polygon; to name just a few that contribute to its more than 800 million monthly content views. When Facebook acts it’s worth paying attention, so, what relevance does this have for finance brands looking to capture the attention of the same millenial audience?

The future of advertising is video marketing

Facebook’s latest move is in perfect harmony with countless pieces of research proving that video marketing is on the rise. According to Contently, by 2019 video is expected to account for 80% of all web traffic. While Facebook’s VP, Nicola Mendelsohn predicts that Facebook itself will “probably” be all video within five years.

With Facebook investing more into the creation of compelling video content, and tapping into brands with an existing social following to do so, there’s new opportunity for brands to access, influence and engage potential customers. In the same way that Netflix has users hooked on its content – characteristically spending hours binge watching its original and curated content – Facebook hopes to capture and keep the attention of Facebook users for longer.

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What Facebook’s move means for finance brands

Facebook is looking to invest in video content that captures the attention of the millenial market, and while most finance brands aren’t in a position to compete with the likes of click-bait masters BuzzFeed for Facebook’s dollars, there are takeaways for brands at all levels. By prioritising engaging and shareable video content as a means to connect with existing and potential customers, finance brands have an opportunity to extend their reach outside of their owned channels.

As they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery, and when it comes to video it will pay for finance brands to follow in Facebook’s footsteps.

The most important thing for finance brands to remember is that if you want to connect with your customers, be it through video or any other type of content, the conversation needs to be centred around their needs and interests. And one area where finance brands are already proving their video content has a place is in the world of sports. Just as Facebook is making moves to livestream sporting events, so too have brands such as PayPal seen the value in positioning themselves alongside key events such as the Super Bowl.

The USA’s most-watched ads air during the Super Bowl, and last year five of these coveted spots were held by financial companies, including, after measuring brand recognition and likeability, the year’s top ad. PayPal’s winning video positions paper dollars as a stuffy “old money” antique and Paypal’s “new money” as fresh, hip, progressive – and even good for the environment. The video captured attention at the Super Bowl and now has nearly two million views on YouTube.

Halifax is another financial player that has realised the value of using video to engage. The British bank produced a series of social videos that aimed to capture consumers’ short attention spans and help them to overcome their reluctance to discuss financial topics. The campaign reached 13.5 million people, resulting in a 23% increase in public perception of Halifax as a bank that makes money easy to understand. According to a Nielsen report, people considering Halifax for a mortgage rose from 56 to 62% after watching the videos.

Similarly, Bank of America spruiked its banking app with its #LLOVEYOURAPP series featuring a smart-talking, app-loving and rather goofy llama that gained hundreds of thousands of views and inspired the hashtag #lloveyourapp. Bank of America now has 22.2 million app users, which represents a 76%t increase since 2013.

Can finance brands follow Facebook into the millenial market?

While finding news ways to engage with your audience is important at any time, there’s now a particular opportunity for finance brands to benefit from Facebook’s efforts to attract more viewers to their platform. If Facebook succeeds in capturing the attention of more millenials, finance brands would be wise to be right there alongside them with shareable and addictive content that appeals to their audience.

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The growing demand for quality content has led to a boom in the number of specialised studios and agencies dedicated to this form of marketing. This is creating fierce competition for traditional advertising agencies as they try to adapt to the rapidly evolving digital media environment – and compete for a piece of an increasingly fragmented pie.

As Content Marketing Institute founder, Joe Pulizzi, sees it the shift in the way we consume media definitely represents a threat to ad agencies, which are being forced to adapt or risk becoming irrelevant. “Content agencies aren’t taking over, but traditional agencies are scrambling,” he explains. “More and more traditional agencies are adding a content marketing component or are outright buying content marketing agencies. There is no doubt in my mind that a stand-alone traditional agency, without expertise in ongoing editorially-based content creation, won’t be able to make it in 10 years.”

Change across the board

This is also true for ad agencies that have been working in the digital space. Ad blockers are becoming more popular with online consumers who, at the same time, are demanding more personalised, compelling content in order to remain loyal. Marketers have had to find increasingly innovative ways to communicate brand messages, which is one of the key reasons content has become an increasingly dominant marketing tool. “The power shift has moved from media companies and brands with big budgets to consumers,” Pulizzi says. “Consumers can now ignore every piece of interruptive content we put in front of them. That means, in order for brands to break through, they need to deliver valuable, relevant and compelling information to customers. When done right, consumers begin to know, like and trust the brand, and we see behaviour changes.”

“a stand-alone traditional agency, without expertise in ongoing editorially-based content creation, won’t be able to make it in 10 years”

Content and advertising hand in hand

But does that mean brands should only focus on content marketing? In spite of his status as something of a content evangelist, Pulizzi thinks not. “Innovative brands look at all approaches, including content marketing,” he says, mentioning the fact Red Bull is one of the most successful examples of content marketing yet still advertises traditionally. “Content marketing is not a replacement for traditional methods.”

The powers at American Express seem to agree. They still advertise their credit cards on billboards, on highways and in airports, but were was also an early adopter of content marketing. Their branded newsroom OPEN forum launched in 2007 and is considered a trusted source of information for businesses. Needless to say, it also doubles as a marketing strategy and represents a way for American Express to generate leads.

As a discipline, marketing is always reinventing itself with the advancement of technology. With print advertising spend on the decline, it’s clear traditional agencies have to keep up in order to survive. But dedicated content shops are not immune to change either. They have to follow what customers want right now and understand the challenges ahead if they want to stay afloat once the next big wave rolls in. An awkward 19-year-old is doubtless inventing it in his mother’s basement as we speak.

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