CREATIVE WITH INVESTMENT? Addressing the need for creative transformation in financial services marketing

CREATIVE WITH INVESTMENT?A white paper addressing the need for creative transformation in financial services marketing.

This paper, published by marketing and communications agency, Dog, draws on a survey of 200 marketing and communications professionals working within financialservices organisations, as well as a roundtable discussion participated in by leading industry marketers.

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[email protected] 1 www.dogdigital.com

THE RESEARCH FINDINGSIn many ways, it has never been a better time for financial marketing professionals to consider using creative marketing strategies. According to the latest CBI industry report, overall optimism is gathering pace in the financial services (FS) sector and reaching new customers is named as a primary objective and area of spend in 2015. Add to that the raft of new marketing technologies and tools for gathering customer insight, and the future starts to look very bright for creative marketing teams.

On the other hand, some research takes the view that the financial services sector has lost its mojo, and that the B2B market in particular is struggling to claw back confidence and trust of its clients. Many remain convinced that differentiation in the FS world is nothing but smoke and mirrors.

Whatever your viewpoint, Financial services’ marketing is in a state of massive change. As technology and digital communication increase transparency and democratise the business/client relationship, marketing professionals must discover new ways to communicate with customers and garner loyalty as the wave of technology tools and communication methods becomesomnipotent.

Hoping to shine a light on the issues affecting financial services marketing, Dog commissioned research among 200 UK marketing, communications and digital professionals working within FS organisations. Responding to a number of questions exploring the role of creativity in marketing, the answers revealed key challenges faced by those working in financial services marketing and exposed a number of preconceptions around creative marketing.

The questions and responses below offer valuable insight into the collective sentiment among sector marketing and communications professionals.

1.WOULD YOU SAY YOU THINK THE FS (FINANCIAL SERVICES) SECTOR IS A CREATIVE INDUSTRY?

2.AS A CREATIVE PROFESSIONAL WORKING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES, DO YOU FEEL YOUR CREATIVE SKILLS ARE BEING FULLY VALUED AND UTILISED BY YOUR COMPANY?

3.DO YOU FEEL YOUR COMPANY ON A WHOLE VALUES CREATIVE DIGITAL CONTENT?

48% 27%NO YES

53% 7%NO YES

53% 9%NO OCCASIONALLY YES


The Research Findings

39%

4.ON A WHOLE DO YOU FEEL YOUR WORKING ENVIRONMENT IS CONDUCIVE TO CREATIVITY?

5.IN YOUR CURRENT OR MOST RECENT ROLE, WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BIGGEST BARRIERS TO YOUR EFFECTIVENESS AS A CREATIVE PROFESSIONAL ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS OUT OF THE FOLLOWING?

SELECT UP TO TWO MOST APPLICABLE BARRIERS.

A: Low levels of awareness across the business about the potential role for marketingB: Lack of support from the boardroomC: Poor intregration with other units in the business.

58% 9%NO YES

A28%

B30%

C55%



6.WHEN PROPOSING AND DELIVERING NEW CREATIVE CONTENT STRATEGIES.HOW WOULD YOU RANK THE LEVEL OF ENGAGEMENT AT BOARDROOM LEVEL IN YOUR COMPANY ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 5?

7.THINKING OF THE FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR AS A WHOLE, WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING BEST DESCRIBES THE MOST COMMON MISCONCEPTION ABOUT THE CREATIVE PROCESS?

SELECT THE SINGLE MOST APPROPRIATE RESPONSE

19%Creativity is restrictedto marketing gurus and

that only assigned departments



12% 23% 55% 6% 2%

1 2 3 4 5

11%A creative strategy is formed without a logical process

59%Creativity Is An Add On

Not An Essential Component Of A

Successful Business

8.THINKING ABOUT YOUR COMPANY, HOW INTEGRATED AND CONNECTED ARE COMMUNICATION FUNCTIONS (I.E MARKETING, PR, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL) WITH-IN THE BUSINESS?

9.THINKING ABOUT YOUR COMPANY, HOW WOULD YOU BEST DESCRIBE THE APPROACH WHEN IT COMES TO DEMONSTRATING YOUR COMPANY’S BRANDIDENTITY THROUGH CREATIVE MARKETING?

1%HIGHLY INTREGRATED

AND CONNECTED

80%ORGANISATIONS EITHER DON’T HAVE BRAND

GUIDELINES, ARE UNSURE AS TO WHETHER BRAND GUIDELINES EXIST, OR WHERE GUIDELINES EXIST,

THEY ARE OUTDATED



10.THINKING ABOUT YOUR COMPANY, HOW WOULD YOU BEST DESCRIBE THECURRENT STATUS WHEN IT COMES TO DELIVERING NEW AND INNOVATIVE CREATIVE MARKETING STRATEGIES?

78%PLANS HAVE BEEN DISCUSSED BUT NOT

COMMITTED TO, OR A PLAN IS IN PLACE BUT NOT YET BEING IMPLEMENTED



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SO WHY HAS THE INDUSTRY LOST ITS CREATIVE MOJO?A roundtable discussion with industry marketing experts from global financial organisations.

It’s all well and good uncovering statements and trends, but it’s also important to understand why they’re surfacing, asking ourselves why did marketers and communications professionals respond in the way that they did?

The study supports the notion that FS marketing is undergoing a huge amount of change, which centre around: The issue of boardroom engagement; organisational culture and business integration; and preconceived ideas of the value of marketing both organisationally and industry wide.

To identify the exact nature of these challenges and better understand the fundamental principlesholding back financial services firms from embracing creative marketing, Dog hosted a roundtablediscussion attended by the following members of the Dog team, and industry experts:

• James Cardew - Global Head of Marketing at Schroders• Stewart Conway - Head of Digital Marketing at Jupiter• Paul Fletcher - Managing Partner at Enabling Innovation Partners (Chairperson)• David Hamilton - Commericial Director at Dog• Mark House - Former Executive Director at Coutts now independent Client Service,Business Development and Digital Consultant• Adrian Jeffery - Head of Advertising at Dog• Gerry McCusker - CEO at Dog• Rob Sanders - Group Head of Marketing at Aberdeen Asset Management

The issues discussed centred on:

• Why do so few believe they have boardroom engagement?• Why do marketers feel disconnected from other departments? • Why do financial services marketing and communications professionals feel that their industry is not creative?

So let’s look at the issues behind the research responses, and decipher the barriers that marketers in financial services must overcome.


Q. WHY DO DO FEW FINANCIAL SERVICES MARKETERS BELIEVE THEY HAVE BOARDROOM ENGAGEMENT?

With a growing number of touch points available for customers to research and interact with brands – including B2B brands – creative marketing requires investment and alignment with wid-er business, digital and sales strategies. Necessary investment and full integration can only be achieved if marketers have the backing of the board.

So why do so few financial services marketers believe they have an excellent level of engagement for strategies at board level? The panel discussion revealed that one of the main causes is the disparity of language that exists between those seated at the boardroom table, and marketing de-partments. It’s neither side’s fault exclusively - and heightened by the legacy culture - but definitely something both need to invest in to rectify the situation.

Gobbledygook doesn’t help

The Board holding the purse strings, so it’s vital for marketers to gain credibility. With members of the board likely to hold finance backgrounds, it is the language of finance and business that will matter. The technical marketing jargon so often used by marketers deeply involved in their own work will simply not resonate.

A recent Econsultancy Value of Marketing report surveyed more than 250 senior marketers and finance directors. The research supports the notion that there is a disconnection between the language of the CMO and CFO - and indeed personalities - which impacts marketers’ ability to gain support for and prove the value of creative marketing strategies at board level.

Stewart Conway shared the opinion that in order to gain the credibility necessary to drive innovation in marketing, financial services marketers must address the language issue: “We as marketers tend to talk another language. We talk about brand, tone of voice or click through rates, we need to adopt the language of the boardroom if we are to get buy in. This means quantifying contribution to sales and retention”


So why has the industry lost its creative mojo?

Creativity and the fear factor

The perception of the term ‘creative’ and ‘creativity’ in marketing presents marketers with a challenge when pitching creative marketing strategies to members of the Board. It is often seen as something fluffy, an indulgence, or as the survey uncovered, an “add on”, completely separate from sales and business strategies and processes. By using terminology that members of the board are not comfortable with, it is no surprise then, that creative marketing strategies fail to drum up support from the top levels of organisations.

There is the need to redefine the notion of creativity and creative marketing itself. As Adrian Jeffery, put it plainly: “I think if it doesn’t affect the bottom line in some way, it isn’t creative, it’s irrelevant.”

Creative marketing, rather than being seen as the most powerful way to communicate a message to a target audience, is perceived to be frivilous, and without value. Without the connection between impact and communication – marketing that is driven entirely by the aim of benefitting the business - the communication problem between marketing departments and the Board will prevail.

In order to gain buy-in and avoid losing the board’s interest as soon as creative marketing is seen as a talking point on the agenda, the issue of understanding language must be overcome. Not only to enable marketers to secure buy-in, resource and necessary investment for campaigns, but to ensure marketing is seen by all internal stakeholders and departments as a valuable endeavour that delivers a positive impact on the business.

Exploring the apparent lack of understanding of marketing by the boardroom and by other areas of the business highlighted in the research, uncovers the existence of silos and a lack of clear brand, and indeed a continuing widespread disregard for the importance of brand in today’s digitally connected financial services landscape.



Q. WHY DO MARKETERS FEEL DISCONNECTED FROM OTHER DEPARTMENTS? The research uncovered the feeling among marketing and communications professionals that creative marketing is perceived to have little commercial value and as a result is disconnected from other areas of the business. As discussed, the issue of boardroom engagement plays a huge part in this, but panel members attributed this lack of integration across the business to, in part, there being a lack of clear brand proposition that the organisation in its entirety can get behind and drive forward.

Financial Services industry has forgotten - or at least not updated – what defines marketing in the digital era. Modern marketing is about people. Without a clear identity – or brand – marketers will struggle to connect with target customers in meaningful ways. Rightly so, emphasis is shifting from putting products at the forefront of marketing strategies to championing the people and the story behind them, but there still remains the tendency to revert to product focused campaigns across the financial services industry.

This outdated outlook leaves marketers without the integration necessary in today’s market where business, sales and marketing strategies require full alignment to be truly effective. Everyone needs to be working from the same page, toward the same goal. And hopefully with the customer at the centre. Yet our research illustrates that this is not happening just yet among financial services organisations.

In 2007, the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) redefined its definition of Marketing for the first time in 30 years. It signified that, according to CIM, marketing was not what it used to be. To support this change, it created a 3000-word treatise ‘Tomorrow’s Word: Re-evaluating the Role of Marketing’. On the first page it claims that although marketing has become more sophisticated, ‘its status with the customer and the rest of the business has never been lower’. The research suggests this statement will resonate with a number of financial services marketers today, and stems from a lack of strong and meaningful branding.

‘The strategic business function that creates value by stimulating, facilitating and fulfilling customer demand. It does this by building brands, nurturing innovation,

developing relationships, creating good customer service and communicating benefits. By operating customer-centrically, marketing brings positive return on

investment, satisfies shareholders and stake-holders from business and the community, and contributes to positive behavioural change and a sustainable

business future. ‘

The 2007 CIM definition of marketing



Our panel of experts agreed that the importance of brands, and particularly the importance of differentiation between companies and brands within financial services is often something that is underestimated. The challenge for B2B financial services organisations is combating the struggle to build up brand equity capable of differentiating them from competitors.

Rob Sanders stated to other panel members that: “I think it takes time for people to understand that they can force through a couple of initiatives and go and do something, have the freedom to spend money and do something that might take a little risk and I think that’s culture rather than process.”

The CIM aimed to address the issue of marketing’s role in a business back in 2007 for the wider marketing discipline. It is becoming increasingly important that the Asset Management sector within financial services now looks to redefine what marketing and creative communication is striving to achieve for their business. Without the right environment in which to identify core values, define a clear brand proposition and filter the brand across the entire business, it is difficult for creative marketing to reach its potential in impacting the bottom line.

Our panel agreed that the business and the marketing department need to form a much better connection, James Cardew said: “What makes marketing successful is getting under the skin of the who and the why. We work hard to talk to other areas of our business and grasp how they operate so we are able to talk in their language.”

By not getting under the skin of the organisation, marketers cannot truly identify and drive a powerful brand, reverting to product marketing. And without collaboration or a brand to identify with, the organisation will be hard pushed to fully understand and buy-in to the value of a strong brand and marketing efforts.

Without cross-department collaboration, it’s difficult to see how marketing can possibly be held in the esteem with which it must in order to make a real impact on the business. And likewise, if organisations exist in silos where sales, client services, marketing and digital departments operate independently, marketers will fail to fully understand the business to the point that they are able to come up with creative marketing solutions of value.



Q. WHY DO FINANCIAL SERVICES MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSIONALS FEEL THAT THEIR INDUSTRY IS NOT CREATIVE?

The research uncovered underlying feelings of frustration and lack of confidence among creative marketing and communications professionals working in the financial services industry. Exploring the topic further with panel members, the issue of compliance and risk was raised as having a huge impact on the impetus and ability of marketers to push through more creativemarketing strategies.

For a number of reasons, people don’t want to step outside of their remit and remain risk averse. This can be attributed in part to the tight regulation within the FS as a whole, but perhaps more notably to the culture within the organisation, which appears to often leave marketers fearful of raising their heads above the parapet and following through with creative marketing ideas. The raison d’etre of compliance officers is focused on stopping marketers doing creative things or experimenting with new channels. Or at least that’s what many marketers may have perceived to be the case.

As content marketing and digital communications grow in their importance when it comes to connecting with target customers, this is an issue that must be addressed. Organisations are avoiding rolling out – or even pitching - truly creative strategies for brand, marketing and advertising because they simply don’t want to bear the execution risk of stand-out campaigns.

The shackles – real or perceived – placed by compliance on marketers is certainly a real threat to innovation. In fact, Conway explained to our panel that: “because many are afraid to be overstep-ping the mark, we [as an industry] don’t innovate, we nudge. We come up with a slightly new prod-uct twist and put it out there, but I don’t think we genuinely innovate.”



Lack of communication with compliance = coasting behind regulation

Of course regulation of financial services is necessary and complex. However, considering the FCA’s general statement of the fundamental obligations of firms under the regulatory system centres around businesses communicating clearly, fairly and acting with integrity, creative marketing campaigns – or at least the ideas behind them – should not pose a substantial risk. Yet marketers continue to shy away from innovating, while organisations press ahead with bland product marketing that coasts along behind regulation.

The direct connection between a failure to market financial services firms creatively, the challenge of compliance, and the prevalence of silo mentality point to the underlying issue: a fundamental lack of communication and understanding between the compliance and marketing departments. Collaboration between different departments is critical, and never easy to engender when organisations are large and dispersed. However if compliance truly understood the value of creative marketing and could see the strategy behind campaigns designed to deliver specific positive business impact, and marketing worked with compliance from the very beginning to develop a strategy that worked within the confines of regulation, then creative marketing would be a much easier journey for all.

A key component of this challenge is creating an organisational culture of collaboration. A change in culture or strategic approach (and investment) must come from the top to permeate all silos and unite a business to empower change through the individuals within its ranks that are required to enact that transformation.

Dog’s Commercial Director, David Hamilton, argued the case that: “It really depends on the organ-isation’s attitude towards the risk when planning and implementing more creative ways to engage and increase your customer base. With some companies, there’s a silo of trying to paint a new external façade to the organisation and the rest of the organisation is not ready to go.”

A creative transformation is necessary, across the organisation. Yet, there is hope. With the right attitude, collaboration and buy-in from the right people, we can seek to cultivate creativity within financial services marketing, and develop campaigns that deliver truly valuable rewards. Powerful and meaningful communication with target audiences across relevant channels that compliance teams are happy with. Now that is creative.



THE FUTURE IS IN ALL OF OUR HANDSTechnology will be the real driver for creative transformation.

Marketers are being forced to change, but by what? The impact of digitalisation and technology on customer and colleague behaviour has led to a lot of industry change already, forcing FS businesses to respond. With the rapid uptake of mobile devices customers have more information in the palm of their hand than ever before, making them more powerful decision makers.

Rob Sanders recalled that from his experience: “People are much more aware of asset manage-ment firms than they ever used to be due to technology.”

Adrian Jeffery told the panel that: “Technology’s going to drive them [financial marketers] to look for clear points of difference, because if they’re not there – customers will know it. Technology has meant that the customer’s got even more opportunities to discover that they’re all the same.”

The impact of data capture and analysis is another driver for change. Industry leading companies and high-end investment managers are mining data through very complex systems to mitigate risk where possible and manage what they consider to be interesting financial instruments. There is also a huge potential within the FS industry to aggregate customer data in order to help marketers with their strategies, so that they target the right people with the right message in a nuanced and elegant way. The potential is there for more applied ‘machine learning’ - a scientific discipline popular with tech start-ups, whereby you make bottom-up predictions and decisions based on data analysis – within the FS sector, to challenge established perceptions of risk attributed to customer behaviour.

On the use of technology to improve the customer experience, James Cardew confirmed his view that: “the challenge in the current marketplace is people want to understand what makes an asset management company tick, beyond the numbers and simple profit metrics.

Cardew believes that: “Technology is going to allow us to massively improve that pre / post pur-chase experience,” which is one way in which technology can form an important part of a brand’s ability to deliver great service.


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AFTER ALL THE QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, SOME ANSWERS, ANSWERS, ANSWERS.Ideas to help financial organisations turn creativity into profit.

If embraced, new marketing technology tools are a trigger for more creative, innovative marketing strategies that have tangible business benefits. However, it’s clear that there are a number of key challenges facing marketers seeking to branch out of their traditional marketing remit and elevate their campaigns - these must be addressed if they are to prove their business value.

If the key challenges are tackled and opportunities harnessed, creative marketing offers three op-portunities:

• Nuture existing client bases through improved relationship management

• Grow the organisation by connecting with target clients in meaningful ways

• Maintain the quality of the business through a creative culture and awareness of the brand that attracts and retains industry talent.

Dog and the other members involved in our panel debate have identified a number of solutions to the specific issues highlighted in the research and panel discussion. The following set of recommendations will ensure creativity becomes more engrained in the culture of organisation, ousts the competition and leads to sustained improved business performance.


TIP #1: TALK THE SAME TALK, WALK THE SAME WALK

With respect to the language barriers, there are two paths to take which can help gain the credibility and therefore buy in from both board and across the organisation to ensure creative marketing strategies are seen to be aligned to wider business and sales strategies. Use language as a tool to prove value.

For most marketers working within B2B financial services, they can choose to change the language being used to drive more creative marketing strategies.

Let’s discuss the first path: change your own language to fit with the boardroom. For those of you working in an environment where creativity is alien, where the term “creativity” is seen by many as an indulgence, an “add on”, then there’s an education job to do.

Use the quantitative and qualitative research at your disposal

Big data is the good cop of creativity. The board want proof, so try using marketing data to your advantage to prove the strategic demand for marketing initiatives – perhaps the absence of customer loyalty, or negative perceptions of your brand vs. that of the competition.

Carry out qualitative research. Using data points and intelligence gained from analysis of target audience behaviour to prove the value and potential encased in creative marketing strategies will be incredibly important in this environment. Putting forward the value and business impact of such activities, and of course, its impact upon business performance and return on investment is integral to generating internal buy-in.

The analysis of Big Data is a challenge, but, as Rob Sanders explained, “it’s not a marketing challenge and it’s not a sales and marketing challenge, it’s a group challenge for us.”

Don’t be afraid of discussing data with peers across the organisation.


After all the questions, questions, questions, some answers, answers, answers.

Likewise, exploit the quantitative research available. Talk to fund managers, client services and business development teams to understand their issues and main objectives. Every day they speak to clients and potential clients, working in areas of the business and the industry that you might not yet be fully aware due to departmental silos. Break down those silos. Make time to gather feedback from them and use that feedback to inform marketing strategies that engineer impact, focusing on how marketing whether a more intuitive digital journey, improved interaction with key fund managers or an iPad app that delivers information efficiently to key clients for example - can deliver a better experience and service for existing or potential clients.

Stewart Conway put it simply: “the fact is we need to graft onto the relationship building process, not talk about ‘content strategy’ but how we’re breaking down elements that support the sales and servicing process.”

If you can join up the dots between marketing and business the board – and the organisation in its entirety - will begin turning a corner, from adversary to advocacy.

Balance the rational with the emotional

The second path allows for more creative communication. Safe in the knowledge that the board have bought in to the value of creative marketing strategies already, you have the flexibility to create an emotional attachment between them and the brand.

Like in any commercial interaction, whether internal or external, emotional attachment is key. Marketing professionals are inherently seeking new ways to create emotional attachment with customers, so why not use this in the boardroom.

Think about the way in which you’re presenting content and pitching creative marketing strategies. For example PowerPoint is not always the best option for generating an emotional response – video and images can work just as well. Or use a story to facilitate your strategy. One of our panel members, Mark House presented a strategy using Ironman as his protagonist. Selling a vision, a set of beliefs, or more specifically the why of a campaign will help ensure that senior decision makers get on board the creativity train and remain loyal travellers.

And for more enlightened companies who are already embracing creativity across their business, marketers can align themselves with the business more closely to ensure their strategies add value and support, rather than standalone in departmental silos.



TIP #2: DO NOT FEAR COMPLIANCE. TALK TO YOUR TEAM FROM THE BEGINNING

Some see the FS industry as one that is hamstrung by regulation and many layers of bureaucracy, which limits innovation. Yet, the reality is that the two departments exist to ensure the truthful communication of brand and message to existing and potential clients. They stand for a very similar thing and are seemingly working toward the same goal, yet a battle seems to rage on.

However if marketers communicate with their peers in compliance from the beginning, and work within defined parameters, then creative marketing strategies will flourish. By working within the confines of compliance and regulation, rich ideas and creative solutions can be the overall focus.

To avoid the incremental chipping away of strategies, or indeed to avoid creative strategies never even leaving the drawing board, communication between departments is key.

TIP #3: IDENTIFY THE BRAND. AND LIVE IT.

Financial Services is a continually innovative industry but currently it is not a creative industry in terms of marketing. It’s true that you’ve got to live within what your brand is and what core clients value and recognise, but innovation and creativity should complement each other and drive your customers’ experiences and gains further.

Challenges revealed by our research led us to explore the issue of brand, and the tendency of marketers in the financial services industry to lean towards product marketing, rather than focus on brand marketing. This has produced an industry of anodyne messaging focusing on product performance, and a lack of differentiation between brands.

This is an area that must change if B2B financial services brands are to succeed in an increasingly digitised market where people are interacting with brands directly. The future of differentiation is brand and engagement, rather than product.

Each B2B financial services organisation needs a point of difference and it must ensure that the brand is consistent across each touch point, from a letter to a film, an email through to online banner ads. Technology and the ubiquity of digital communications mean that financial services organisations cannot control where or how an individual researches or connects with a brand, so ensuring absolute clarity of purpose is vital if brands are to control and grow their relationships with clients.

For too long, the brand has been perceived as something that only those organisations involved in B2C marketing should worry or invest in. Times have changed and so must the mind set of financial



services marketers. And with that, so must the mindset of the Board, playing their part and support brand building marketing as a tool to differentiate and communicate messages. Identify a set of values, an identity that resonates with each individual. Driving creative marketing that is aligned to a strong brand will be a much easier sell both up to the board, and across the organisation.

As the financial services industry begins to embrace the creative transformation of marketing that places brand and client at the centre, Mark House stated: “There are people chipping away at the sides of things but there isn’t anyone killing it, so you need someone to lead it and differentiate and prove to the rest that differentiation matters.”

Be that leader. Prove that a strong brand works for the business.


After all the questions, questions, questions, some answers, answers, answers..

CONCLUSIONFinancial services marketing is at a crossroads. Only harnessing the power of digital communications will set the industry on the right path.With the digital transformation well under way at the vast majority of financial services organisations – changing sales processes, relationship and client service management, and of course marketing and communications forever - the time has come for marketing to embrace the creative transformation necessary to connect with clients and potential clients in meaningful ways that positively impact business. Technology has fundamentally shifted the way people interact with financial services brands – including B2B brands – and has opened up new ways to increase engagement throughout the sales funnel and client relationship lifecycle. On the one hand, marketers are able to mine and interpret data to prove strategic demand or potential engagement, giving strategies that all important credibility in the boardroom. On the other hand, technology is forcing organisations to pay closer attention to their brands. Identifying the fact that as people demand transparency and crave meaningful relationships with brands that they trust, organisations – led by the board – must nurture and build a strong brand that represents a clear identity to target audiences.

In an industry that still struggles with image and trust, and a market that has greater access to organisations than ever before, the ability to connect with people has a fundamental role to play in the health of the industry as a whole, and the growth of organisations against their competitors.

With opportunity, value, risk and investment intertwined and often clashing to the point that innovation is abandoned and creativity dulled, creative marketing in financial services is a complex story. As a result, too many financial services firms continue to rely on bland product focused marketing that, once the logo is removed, could be for any number of organisations. This is undoubtedly the biggest challenge for the future of the financial services industry. Harnessing the digital marketing opportunities is the answer. Collaboration between teams is key.


The creation of the whitepaper was made possible by those who participated in the industry roundtable. Dog would like to acknowledge and thanks the following people for their input:

• James Cardew - Global Head of Marketing at Schroders• Stewart Conway - Head of Digital Marketing at Jupiter• Paul Fletcher - Managing Partner at Enabling Innovation Partners (Chairperson)• David Hamilton - Commericial Director at Dog• Mark House - Former Executive Director at Coutts now independant Client Service, Business Development and Digital Consultant• Adrian Jeffery - Head of Advertising at Dog• Gerry McCusker - CEO at Dog• Rob Sanders - Group Head of Marketing at Aberdeen Asset Management


INTERESTING RESOURCES

PWC: Stand out for the right reasons. How financial services lost its mojo – and how it can get it back http://www.pwc.co.uk/financial-services/financial-services-risk-and-regulation/how-fi nancial-services-lost-its-mojo.jhtml

Financial Times: Restoring Client Trust: 2014 Report http://ftcorporate.ft.com/asset-management/

CBI / PWC: Steady growth continues in financial services http://www.cbi.org.uk/media/2635428/cbi_pwc_financial_services_survey_31_ march_2013.pdf

Econsultancy: Value of Marketing: 2014 Report https://econsultancy.com/reports/value-of-marketing-2/
