Avid Collective hosted its first financial masterclass with partner Are Media at Hotel CBD in Sydney on 15 August. It saw over 40 attendees from media agencies UM, Wavemaker, and OMD attend.
Attendees heard from the panel about leveraging native content to build genuine connections with audiences.
“We know that when finance brands partner with trusted lifestyle publishers, they are creating content that showcases the real-life value of their product. Financial services and products aren’t necessarily top of mind for consumers. By integrating into cultural and behavioral moments through native content, finance brands can create memorable connections through storytelling that aligns with consumers’ everyday conversations,” said Stalker.
“Finally, we know that generally, consumers find financial concepts complex and difficult to understand. Through the creation of educational content from trusted category experts, brands can enhance credibility and simplify that complex messaging, making it easier for consumers to grasp, reduce confusion, and build brand credibility,” she added.
Are Media’s strategy team, working across established mastheads such as Marie Claire, Gourmet Traveller & Women’s Weekly, discussed how finance brands can and should be leveraging publishers’ knowledge of consumer trends to help stand out by showing up where audiences are spending their time.
The panel discussed why advocacy through publishers with branded and native content is paramount to finance brands looking to build trust and relevancy and empower audiences through education.
The Q&A with Trent Peppercorn, head of Mediabrands’ content studio, and Leah Stalker, head of direct partnerships, Avid Collective explored how brands, agencies, and publishers can work together to navigate compliance and approvals to execute successful content campaigns.
Stalker showcased Avid Collective’s ‘Role of Native Content’ framework, highlighting the importance of why you are creating content being what underpins how you execute that content. They covered a range of best-in-class examples of content tactics in finance.
Ezechiel Ritchie, general manager, Avid Collective, said that attendees took a lot away from the evening, particularly how native content can be used to build genuine connections with audiences.
“When we kicked off our masterclass series with travel in June, we were blown away by the response of attendees on the night, and that was no different this time around for finance,” he said.
“We were thrilled to hear so many incredible insights from our panel and have such a robust Q&A that centred around trust and connection with audiences. This is particularly important in the finance space at a time when people and businesses are tightening their belts, and finance brands are looking for ways to build greater trust among their consumer base. We are looking forward to the continued rollout of our masterclass series which is having huge benefits for brands within these key verticals”.
