Do you love a buzzword? Well, one of the best ones going around at the moment has to be Fintech! And, as Fred Schebesta, co-founder and director at finder.com.au, says in this opinion piece, rather than fear it, there’s actually a lot savvy marketers can learn from it…
“Fintech” – I can guarantee you’ve heard it before, you may have even reached your quota for this buzzword already (if you haven’t, you’ll be close by the end of this piece). But there’s been a few key movements in the fintech sector over the past few weeks that translate to the wider digital marketing audience, and they need to be addressed upfront. Marketers, take notes – here’s what we can learn from our financial counterparts
Target audiences are nearly broke by comparison
In a recent article around ‘Robo-advisors’ I came across an acronym that addresses the target market many digital marketers are now lasering-in on, and the acronym is as ridiculous as the reality is brutal: HENRYs.
HENRYs are the millenials that have grown up as digital natives, with the acronym meaning “High Earning, Not Rich Yet”. In this piece, this group is being targeted for their comfort in the disruptive fintech space, but the problem now sits in the lap of marketers in every industry. With more digitally-savvy audiences sitting on the fickle end of the savings and assets scale, the question remains: can you keep your audience’s attention long enough that they’ll remember your brand when the cash cows come home?
Disruptive marketing is likely to happen away from our shores
Target markets are connected in a multitude of ways thanks to the tech tools available to us, but cross-industry indicators are suggesting the connected world may play second fiddle in some of the biggest upcoming innovations. Instead, it’s looking to be the disadvantaged that will see the most attention.
In the same way that Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of a satellite Wi-Fi project for sub-Saharan Africa, multinational financial services giant Barclays are about to launch a three-month accelerator program to bring digital financial services to Africa-based fintech start-ups. Marketing to the connected globe is easy, but marketing to the previously unmarketed? That’s where we’re headed, people, and only the best in the marketing business will be able to deliver the goods. When we decided to launch US comparison site finder.com, the same lesson rang true: when you open your direct pool of influence, you widen the second and third-tier associations new audiences have with your brand.
The big guns are quaking in their golden boots
“Technological competition would would reduce profits from non-mortgage retail lending, such as credit cards and car loans, by 60 per cent and revenues by 40 per cent over the next decade.” That’s the gauntlet laid down by management consulting firm McKinsey, and you can bet the big banks are waking up in a cold sweat. Sure, this is already happening across industries in Australia, but it was just 10 years ago that the banks were both pillars of traditional process and someone you didn’t challenge. The rising trend of fintech is giving our money-managers the night terrors, and the question now sits with you: how long can you sleep soundly?
