This week / What’s new? | Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? | Quotable | One more thing
This week
Before we begin: In May, we discussed the bedlam at Basecamp caused by an ill-judged internal memo from the CEO. Sadly, as Churchill remarked, those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it: this week, it was Medium’s turn.
Now, read on to learn why:
① Apple’s war on targeted advertising is escalating and will impact all brands.
② Thoughtful, compelling, empathetic communications will shine brighter than ever.
③ Consent, value and rapport are key to getting close to clients and prospects.
④ Wealth management looks like a great business as the rich continue to get richer.
⑤ Clients are putting pressure on all financial services companies to cater to crypto.
⑥ No brand can afford to ignore social media and its unrivalled power to amplify.
⑦ The biggest threat to crypto’s credibility is its laughable ‘bitcoin bro’ proponents.
This week / What’s new? / Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? | Quotable | One more thing
What’s new?
Tim Cook took to the WWDC 2021 stage on Monday to headline the Apple keynote. And forward-thinking marketers everywhere shuffled awkwardly in their seats as the ramifications of Cupertino’s escalating war on targeted advertising dawned on them. The Verge detailed how Mail Protection Privacy will force the email economy to adapt.
① In short:
“Mail Privacy Protection will limit the amount of data that people who send you emails can collect about you. The new feature helps users prevent senders from knowing when they open an email, and masks their IP address so it can’t be linked to other online activity or used to determine their location.”
“93.5% of all email opens on phones come in Apple Mail on iPhones or iPads. On desktop, Apple Mail on Mac is responsible for 58.4% of all email opens.”
“The numerous iOS 15 features focused on user privacy combine to place more pressure on the digital ad ecosystem. Perhaps most notably, Private Relay will encrypt all traffic leaving a user’s device, making them harder for advertisers to track.”
This week | What’s new? / Why does it matter? / What’s next? | What else? | Quotable | One more thing
Why does it matter?
Apple’s announcement is just the latest signal that the days of harvesting people’s data and following them around the web without their knowledge are coming to an end. And that - despite what some second-rate marketers might say - is a very good thing.
② As they wean themselves off the plentiful 3rd party data they’ve relied on in the past, marketers have an opportunity to rethink their approach and double-down on building strong relationships with their audience. This is an opportunity for thoughtful, compelling and empathetic communications to shine brighter than ever.
Of course we’ll still track metrics - the traffic to our own sites, for example, and the growth of our mailing lists - but building trust will be even more important. The challenge is how to get close to our audience, how to provide more personalisation, without compromising privacy or appearing creepy.
This week | What’s new? | Why does it matter? / What’s next? / What else? | Quotable | One more thing
What’s next?
Take action
③ Whereas in the past, your marketing team could rely on personal data provided by third parties, from now on it must build its own trove. That means getting closer than ever to your clients and prospects. Keep three things in mind:
Consent: Clients will generally be happy to share their data as long as it’s a transparent process and they’re getting something valuable in return. So, be clear from the outset about your intent and the nature of the exchange.
Value: Perhaps the most important of the three. Some marketing teams have become so addicted to tracking and prioritising bottom of the funnel metrics that they’ve forgotten about providing great content. What makes content great? There’s a simple litmus test: is it providing value to your readers? If so, it will build trust and affinity for your brand - and, as a bonus, it will be shared more often too.
Rapport: Understanding your audience and communicating with them well is critical. Without tracking data, you’re going to have to get to know your audience in other ways. Asking them questions is an excellent place to start. Reader surveys, for example, can be a great way to build up profiles. You can uncover demographic information like this of course but think bigger: delve into their preoccupations, their pain points, their interests. This will inform the content you deliver to them in the future. As long as you’ve established consent and are offering value, then starting a conversation is a natural next step and your audience will likely be open to it.
Get help
I’m looking for a full-time, in-house role but in the post-Covid age of depleted marketing budgets and remote teams with skills gaps, many organisations need marketing and communications support that’s agile, flexible, and risk free. That’s why I founded WhatsNext Partners.
Whether it be as a permanent member of your team or with 'on demand' support, let me know if you need my help.
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This week | What’s new? | Why does it matter? | What’s next? / What else? / Quotable | One more thing
What else?
Three other articles that are worthy of your time.
FINANCE
Global wealth reached record high of $250trn in 2020
④ Wealth management looks like a great business as the rich continue to get richer.
“Global wealth has risen to an all-time high last year. It went up by 8.3% to $250trn (£177trn, €205trn).”
“North America, Asia (excluding Japan) and western Europe will be the leaders in wealth generation, accounting for 87% of new financial wealth growth worldwide between now and 2025.”
“There are three areas of opportunity for wealth managers: individuals with simple investment needs, retirees and the UHNW who currently hold a combined $22trn in investable assets, making up 15% of the world’s total.”
TECHNOLOGY
State Street sets up digital unit to capitalise on crypto craze
⑤ Clients are putting pressure on all financial services companies to cater to crypto.
“State Street, a US custody bank that oversees more than $40tn in assets, is setting up a new digital division.”
“The bank was seeking to keep up with customers who had increased their crypto exposure by 300 per cent in the past two to three months.”
“This follows similar moves in recent months by competitors including Bank of New York Mellon, Northern Trust and Standard Chartered.”
MEDIA & MARKETING
Social media are turbocharging the export of America’s political culture
⑥ No brand can afford to ignore social media and its unrivalled power to amplify.
“Social media amplifies new voices, accelerates the rate at which ideas spread, and broadens the scale at which both people and ideas can win influence.”
“Established newspapers and television channels also retain immense influence, even online. CNN is the second-most-visited English-language news website in the world, after the BBC. The New York Times is third.”
“Some 50m people outside America, spread across every country on Earth, read the New York Times online. Of its 5.2m digital subscribers, nearly a fifth are outside America.”
This week | What’s new? | Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? / Quotable / One more thing
Quotable
‘Nico ZM’, CEO of BitVolt Mining, in Jemima Kelly’s gloriously snarky report for the FT on the Bitcoin 2021 conference that took place in Miami last weekend:
“Not only do I think bitcoin toxicity is important, I think it’s absolutely necessary, and if you are against bitcoin toxicity, you are against bitcoin. And if you are against bitcoin, you’re against freedom. Period.”
This week | What’s new? | Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? | Quotable / One more thing
One more thing…
Investment Week carried a sensible opinion piece by Andrew Pitts-Tucker of Apex ESG Ratings & Advisory, busting the top five ESG myths within private equity.
They are:
ESG just a passing fad
ESG is only about climate change and carbon footprints
Only public companies need to report on ESG
We're too small to worry about our ESG impact
Collecting ESG data is too hard
Off cuts
The stories that almost made this week’s newsletter:
🍎 Monday: Apple to introduce A/B testing and in-app events to the App Store
💸 Monday: UBS ramps up ‘Netflix’ of banking to tap into stream of millionaires
🦄 Tuesday: There are now 30+ fintech unicorns in Europe. Who are they?
🤖 Tuesday: Is human 'hybrid' advice set to succeed where the 'robos' failed?
💰 Wednesday: European neobroker Scalable Capital raises $180M+ at a $1.4B valuation
👩🏼💻 Wednesday: Facebook says it will expand remote work to all employees
🐦 Thursday: Twitter is bringing Revue newsletter signup buttons to profiles
📊 Thursday: Fintech giant Klarna raises $639M at a $45.6B valuation amid ‘massive momentum’ in the US
📈 Friday: Private capital industry soars beyond $7tn
🇨🇳 Friday: BlackRock wins Chinese approval for mutual fund business
💹 Saturday: Foreign asset managers are eyeing China’s vast pool of savings
Apple's war