Dead wrong
Being provocative is no excuse for being offensive.
Issue № 69 | London, Sunday 29 January 2023
Read on to learn why:
① Being offensive is not the same as being provocative.
② There is such a thing as bad publicity.
③ Introspection is the hardest leap of all for yesterday’s masters of the universe.
④ Fintechs need to better understand the organisations they’re selling to.
⑤ Knowing where to cut is as important as knowing where to spend.
⑥ Your happiness is your responsibility.
⑦ Care and wellbeing matter just as much as competition and ambition.
What's new
An advert, which first circulated on social media this week, bears the caption: "Life Insurance. Because you never know who your doctor might be" and features a large photograph of Murderer Harold Shipman. FT Adviser reports.
① In short:
“Shipman has featured in a life insurance advert from DeadHappy but protection advisers have suggested the move is ‘distasteful’ and goes beyond the ‘shock factor’ sometimes needed to get people thinking about life insurance.”
“Andy Knott, founder of DeadHappy, said: ‘We are called DeadHappy and our strapline is ‘Life insurance to die for’ so we are aware of the provocative (and to some the very shocking) nature of our brand. But being provocative is different to being offensive and it is of course never our intention to offend or upset people. It is our intention to make people stop and think’.”
“Knott also said: ‘Death is still a taboo subject in our society, which is why we feel so passionately about changing attitudes to death. We do take risks with our brand and sometimes we may step over the line, whatever or wherever that line may be, and whoever chooses to draw it’."
Why it matters
I’ll say what I expect you’re already thinking, Knott is wrong. He’s dead wrong.
There is nobility in forcing conversations about difficult but important topics. And there is marketing savvy in distinguishing yourself from your competitors with courageous, edgy content. But this advert is neither of those things. It’s a crass attempt to flog more life insurance without an ounce of thought or class.
Not only is it offensive to the relatives of Shipman’s victims, reopening deep emotional wounds, but to anyone impacted by murder. Indeed, I’d argue it’s offensive to anyone.
② You might be thinking that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, that if everyone is talking about an ad it has done its job. That’s true unless any right-thinking person who sees the ad makes a note never to deal with that brand. Ever.
What to do about it
Take action
*Sigh*
You don’t need any advice from me on this, do you?
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Top stories
The other articles that are worthy of your time.
FINANCE
The humbling of Goldman Sachs
③ Introspection is the hardest leap of all for yesterday’s masters of the universe.
“Investment banking combines the drawbacks of a regulated activity (capital requirements and red tape) with the vices of a speculative one (volatility and capture by employees). […] The real action in finance is outside regulated banking, where a new cohort of stars rules, including Blackstone in private markets, BlackRock in index funds, and Citadel, an investing and trading house that made its clients $16bn in 2022.”
“It is hard to compete in winner-takes-all digital markets. Goldman thought that brains and brand were enough. Not true. It has spent billions, but its customer base remains a fraction of that of PayPal or Amazon. JPMorgan reaches 66m American households, but maintains a vast physical network of branches. Goldman has achieved digital scale by teaming up with Apple to provide a credit card. However, given that the tech giant has almost a billion paying subscribers, Apple holds the whip hand in that relationship.”
“The stagnation of globalisation has shrunk Wall Street’s horizons. In the decade after Goldman listed, international revenues provided half of its growth, as its bankers conquered Europe and then broke into Asia. Today they supply a third of growth, as local competitors have emerged and some countries have become wary of foreign financiers.”
TECHNOLOGY
How can fintechs better engage with global brands?
④ Fintechs should understand the big, regulated organisations they’re selling to.
“Fintechs are agile and innovative, but they are also time-, funding- and human resources-poor, meaning they can’t endure long, pointless discussions. They need to make rapid decisions as to whether a relationship is a correct fit for the future of their business, or if they should pivot to adapt to the needs of their partner. One of the biggest challenges identified by numerous fintechs is finding the right person, or ‘internal champion’, within a huge business that can take decisions quickly. Large incumbent organisations, on the other hand, are slow to change and adopt new ways of working. However, many are looking to speed up their development cycles and partner with fintechs that can help them solve specific pain points and leapfrog the competition.”
“Paramount to addressing engagement issues is to have a clear understanding of what each side is trying to achieve through the partnership. From the position of the start-up, that means identifying which global brands one wants to target and what value one’s product brings to their business. This takes a lot of research into the target partner’s business, pain points and key performance indicators, as well as an understanding of their partner and customer ecosystem.”
“While many panellists talked about being flexible and open in partnership discussions, Mr Hatherell counselled fintechs to stick by their unique selling point. ‘Big brands will often try to shoehorn you into what they want. But if you go too far to shift yourself to fit what they need, you could actually lose sight of the value you’re bringing to the partnership,’ he said. ‘So it's about being flexible but also standing by your USP, because if you end up promising something that you're not great at then you're not going to make your business look the best you can’.”
MEDIA & MARKETING
How CMOs can manage spending without harming the brand
⑤ Knowing where to cut is as important as knowing where to spend.
“If you don’t have a predictive engine in place—to accurately measure future revenue contribution from marketing efforts—then you are less prepared to push back when a recession comes. It’s so important to come to an agreement on an attribution model with a few key people to ensure they understand how you measure marketing and the formula you use.”
“There is a portion of brand spend most marketing organizations could cut that won’t have a huge impact—because it’s more like the research and development side of the brand. You’re not quite sure if it’s working or how it’s working, but you can certainly cut it back during difficult times while still spending in the areas of brand that are important.”
“In tough economic times, stop going so wide with your strategies and go deep on the ones that are going to make a difference and build value for the business. Exhaust all the features and capabilities of tech you already have; don’t bring in new tech and stretch your people thin. Look at going deeper on your website, SEO, your content strategy.”
WILDCARD
What do to if you hate your job
⑥ Your happiness is your responsibility.
Do not quit without a good escape option.
Spur yourself to action by adopting the following mantra: I am responsible for resolving the problem.
Identify the root cause of why you hate your job: audit how you spend your time, paying attention to the tasks that bring you misery and those that bring you joy.
If poor pay is the root of your dissatisfaction, find the courage to ask for a rise. Your manager may say no, but even that gives you a new piece of information to work with.
‘Job craft’ — work on the practice of altering your job to make it more meaningful to you, and to reduce the tasks you hate at work.
Increase the tasks that bring you joy by job crafting and/or initiating a new side hustle.
If the culture problem in your workplace is bringing you down, temporarily work more often from home, while planning your exit.
Invest in refining and developing your network: ask your ‘loose ties’ — professional acquaintances, former colleagues and contacts — for tips, advice and opportunities, rather than just benefiting from the sympathy that your close friends provide.
Off cuts
The stories that almost made this week’s newsletter.
FINANCE
⚖️ A recession will end the era of free money and tip the scales back to the big banks
💷 Open Banking: Ex-NatWest director Marion King chosen as new Open Banking Implementation Entity chair and trustee while doubts are raised about the UK’s ability to stay ahead
🚫 Bank branches: Barclays closes 15 while NatWest shutters 23
🧀 ECB executive board member becomes CEO of new bank CIC
TECHNOLOGY
🏦 CBDCs: As the UK Treasury looks for someone to ‘head’ them, and the Saudi Central bank researches them, it’s clear they’re set to transform how payments are made and even Visa’s CEO admits they might play a 'meaningful role'.
⛓️ Blockchain: What the financial sector can expect of it in 2023, how it can be used by asset managers, and what people said about it at Davos.
🤖 JPMorgan is spending and talking the most on artificial intelligence
🤑 Ex-UK chancellor Hammond to chair crypto exchange Copper
🙈 Wise under fire as London fintech accused of hiding prices of cheaper rivals
MEDIA & MARKETING
🎤 FCA names Theresa May's former spokesperson as comms chief
👋 Ex-Visa EU director and Checkout.com SVP joins Ecommpay as CRO
🪓 LinkedIn’s newsletter subscribers quadrupled as Meta, Twitter axed products
🔐 Substack launches 'private' newsletters
🦮 How B2B marketers can get more leads from content in 2023
The last word
⑦ Anne-Marie Slaughter, chief executive of the New America think-tank on Jacinda Ardern’s resignation:
“We must stop pitting women’s careers against bringing up children. It is long past time to move on to the far more interesting question: how can we rejig the metrics of success for all of us — whether individual leaders or entire economies — so that we can make room for care and wellbeing alongside competition and ambition.”
Don’t settle for marketing.
Strive for InMarketing: innovate, interact, influence.
Wishing you a productive week,
P.S. I’ve just finished Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge and recommend it to you. The writing is extraordinarily efficient: seemingly simple, yet hugely moving.