The Forum Buzz: the jury is still out on crypto

Alex Sword

Editor

The Financial Services Forum

Data, automation and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov: these were three topics that came up during our Martech conference a few weeks ago.

Featuring speakers from Aviva, TSB and GAM amongst others, the event saw marketing professionals discussing how to generate value from marketing technology and undertake the organisational change required. We’ve compiled the highlights of the event into a report, which you can download on the Knowledge Hub.

 

From the Forum

On the Forum’s Knowledge Centre this week we are excited to feature an interview with Starling Bank’s Head of Brand, Rachel Kerrone. Rachel talks about finding a middle ground between being professional and being “matey” when communicating with customers, as well as Starling’s ambitious plans for 2021.

Our opinion piece this week focuses on influencer marketing. Nicky Senyard, CEO of Fintel Connect, discusses how to determine whether influencer marketing is relevant to your brand and how to set KPIs in a segment of marketing where ROI is notoriously difficult to measure.

We also feature interviews with Alastair Pegg, Group Chief Marketing Officer at A-Plan Insurance, who discusses the shift to an omnichannel model during the pandemic, and Jim Moulton, Marketing Director, Property Finance Division at Shawbrook Bank, who discusses the firm’s new deal with Saracens and the continuing relevance of sports sponsorships.

As we begin publishing more regular content, we have lots of great interviews lined up for the next few weeks, so keep checking the Knowledge Hub and the weekly newsletter for updates.

 

Food for thought: Cryptocurrency

This week has seen a number of financial institutions making public pronouncements on cryptocurrency – but their opinions were mixed.

BNY Mellon lamented in a submission to the SEC that it had not had more exposure to bitcoin, while Fidelity has launched an analytics platform called Sherlock to help institutional investors navigate the digital assets space. At the same time, JP Morgan may be launching an actively managed cryptocurrency fund, according to reports.

On the other hand, T Rowe Price CEO William Stromberg said in an interview that it was “early days” for cryptocurrency and the company was still researching the potential upsides.

Clearly the jury is still out to some extent on the long-term value of cryptocurrency, when the current use cases for even the most popular cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are still niche.

It remains both a complex and noisy market, where explosive price rises can be triggered by something as simple as a tweet by Elon Musk. However, the returns on offer mean that the space is hard to ignore and soon it will fall to marketers to build trust and credibility around these products.

Those who are interested in learning more about marketing in the cryptocurrency space can register here for our June event, which will bring in speakers from the cryptocurrency industry to talk about why the sector is seeing such growth.

 

Alex Sword

Editor

The Financial Services Forum

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