This week / What’s new? | Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? | Quotable | One more thing
This week
A couple of weeks ago we discussed why ESG is such a powerful driver in financial services. I was interested to read this week that most financial planning clients don’t know what ESG means. That’s a timely reminder to banish acronyms and industry jargon from our communications.
Read on to learn why:
① Digital events can’t replicate the value of physical exhibitions.
② The real reason we love events is the opportunity to connect as human beings.
③ Content from events should be disseminated widely and smartly.
④ A sizeable minority of investors are chasing thrills and cheating on their adviser.
⑤ US-style free trading apps are coming to the UK.
⑥ Crypto enthusiasts are finding ever more inventive ways to spread their gospel.
⑦ Mark Zuckerberg’s naïveté allowed Donald Trump to play him.
This week / What’s new? / Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? | Quotable | One more thing
What’s new?
On Friday, the FT looked at how conferences are returning to Las Vegas’ convention centre.
① In short:
“Las Vegas removed restrictions on large gatherings on 1 June, and with more than 40 per cent of the US population fully vaccinated, events organisers who have spent the past 14 months struggling with online conferences are feeling confident enough to resume in-person trade shows.”
“Each one will matter to Nevada, which estimates that conventions contribute $11.5bn in a normal year to a state with a gross domestic product of about $178bn, and to its best-known city, where April’s 9 per cent unemployment rate was second only to Los Angeles out of 50 large metropolitan areas.”
“Organisers such as Informa and Emerald moved many of their events online last year to try to keep that business alive, but ‘virtual exhibitions are honestly not yielding the kind of value our customers are looking for’, Hervé Sedky, chief executive of the events group Emerald, admits.”
This week | What’s new? / Why does it matter? / What’s next? | What else? | Quotable | One more thing
Why does it matter?
I fondly remember my time working at SWIFT, during which I was a member of the team that put on Sibos. We always thought of that event as having three pillars: the conference, the exhibition and the networking. The conference was ‘the content’. And, even though a huge amount of effort went into making it the best it could be - senior speakers, great production values, technical rehearsals and so on - in our hearts, we always knew that the content was really just the excuse delegates used to justify the cost of attending, so they could take part in the exhibition and the networking.
② This FT story matters because it confirms something many of us have perhaps thought but not said: as slick a content delivery channel as digital platforms are, they can’t replicate the real reason we used to love events: meeting face to face, having a drink together, and connecting as human beings.
As conferences start to return to our marketing calendars, the challenge will be how to apply the lessons we have learned during lockdown about online delivery to an in-person event.
This week | What’s new? | Why does it matter? / What’s next? / What else? | Quotable | One more thing
What’s next?
Take action
When it comes to events, like so many aspects of life post-pandemic, you’ll need to combine the advantages you’ve reaped during lockdown via digital alternatives with the benefits of more traditional ways of doing things.
③ Your marketing team will need to:
Brush up on event management: They may have been resting for the last 12 months but it’s time to flex those experiential muscles again. Marketers will have to apply creativity to making delegates feel welcome, facilitating networking and sharing knowledge. A glass of wine always helps but the best marketers know that events needs careful planning and some innovative thinking if they’re really going to delight and create engagement. Some of the digital tricks we’ve learnt recently can help (build anticipation on social media with announcements, polls and content in the run-up to the event; then consider how to leverage smartphones to encourage debate during the event itself). But focus on the human element. Create welcoming environments, pay attention to visuals, consider your use of music. In short, think more like a restaurant owner.
Stay open to remote audiences: Just because an event may be in-person doesn’t mean it should be closed to delegates who want to attend online. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Continue to offer access to your content digitally for those that want it.
Sweat your content: Once your content is digital, you can slice and dice it for use on a variety of channels. From your own website to social networks, the content of your in-person events should be repurposed to increase its reach and drive new leads. This is a step beyond point number 2. Those conference sessions are a goldmine of insight and knowledge that should be disseminated over the weeks following the event, to amplify your message far beyond the audience of in-person delegates.
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
19% of UK advice clients have a DIY investment account
④ A sizeable minority of investors are chasing thrills and cheating on their adviser.
“Advised clients in the UK are investing in ‘side-hustle’ accounts, alongside their main portfolio through their financial planner.”
“19% of advised clients also hold an account with one of the big DIY investing platforms.”
“9% of investors using a financial adviser also hold some cryptocurrency assets, while 4% said they had a peer-to-peer or crowdfunding platform account.”
TECHNOLOGY
Ex-Wise employees found commission-free trading app Lightyear
⑤ US-style free trading apps are coming to the UK.
“The fintech, founded by ex-Wise duo Martin Sokk and Mihkel Aamer, combines multi-currency accounts and ‘unlimited access to global markets’.”
“Lightyear says its flagship offering will launch with unlimited access to over 1,500 global stocks and ETFs. It promises no trading fees, no account fees and no FX fees up to £3,000 per month.”
“‘I believe retail investing in Europe is still very much the ugly – we’re talking about sneaky fees, less access and complicated products remaining as the status quo,’ says Aamer.”
MEDIA & MARKETING
Coinbase just wants to tell the truth, its own truth and nothing but the truth
⑥ Crypto enthusiasts are finding ever more inventive ways to spread their gospel.
“Coinbase is launching its own ‘fact-checking’ service because, as CEO Brian Armstrong said in the blog post announcement: ‘Every tech company should go direct to their audience, and become a media company.’”
“Cynical types would say that sounds remarkably similar to traditional corporate propaganda, but this is different because it is about decentralising information, remember?”
“Rather than going through biased intermediaries like journalists who are paid in fiat and so must have a vested interest in crushing crypto (or something), a company can get around this by just speak its own truth. And what greater truth is there, after all?”
This week | What’s new? | Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? / Quotable / One more thing
Quotable
⑦ Kara Swisher, in a must-read opinion piece for the New York Times on Facebook:
“No one can turn the clock back on what Mr. Zuckerberg has wrought by indulging Mr. Trump, who never met a Facebook regulation he did not desecrate.”
This week | What’s new? | Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? | Quotable / One more thing
One more thing…
The Reynolds Journalism Institute published this list of six ways to incorporate Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces in your audience strategy.
They are:
Audio as a reporting tool
Interactive conversations
Discussion around events
Instant reaction
A test ground for future audio projects
Make the case for a subscription
Off cuts
The stories that almost made this week’s newsletter:
🐦 Monday: Twitter may start labelling your tweets based on how wrong you are
📈 Tuesday: Revolut will “inevitably” get into asset management, says chair Martin Gilbert
🏦 Wednesday: Deutsche tells US bankers they must be back in office by September 6
👮🏻♂️ Thursday: Crypto firms failing to meet AML standards, say FCA
🐦 Friday: Twitter officially launches 'Twitter Blue,' its new subscription service
Events are back