Welcome to our digital marketing round-up
Here at Kurtosys we fall down the digital rabbit hole so you don’t have to. We’ve pulled out some of the best reports, eBooks and articles from the digital sphere, ready for you to use for effective fund marketing.
This week’s round-up brings you the future of branding and marketing, some Christmassy bond data, cybersecurity concerns and Gwen Stefani.
Tech Solutions
Recode: Disrupting Payments, Africa Style
Steven Sinofsky gives an ‘American in Africa’ insight into the continent’s mobile payments boom. It’s a great read, particularly informative about life in the slums, and contains some devastating statistics showcasing how poor countries such as Madagascar are. Watching the beauty of Madagascar on the spectacular Planet Earth II recently seems far removed from the fact that many face difficulty even when having to phone the police in an emergency. We take mobile tech for granted in the developed world, but luckily most adults in Africa own a phone, and are embracing the smartphone as a most useful tool for both safety and personal banking. The two are, of course, mutually exclusive.
ClickZ: Eight creative ways B2B brands use Instagram
I wasn’t entirely certain what the 8 examples would be in this article before giving it a read through. 8 different selfies, perhaps? I kid, as Instagram has proved its worth beyond a photoshoot channel for tweens, and is actually an invaluable resource for B2B companies as Tereza Litsa dictates here. There’s a growing need for businesses to remain ahead of the curve with their creativity, so why not follow these examples of graphic art, emojis (not my favourite things in all honesty, but hey), strong brand awareness and storytelling? It’s always advised to stress positive relationships between company and customer, as well as promoting your top-class company culture. We pay particular attention to the latter at Kurtosys, so give our Instagram a peep to see what a fun-loving bunch we are!
Entrepreneur.com: Regulation Is Strangling Fintech Startups: 4 Ways VCs Can Help
Startups vs Regulation – it’s the David vs Goliath of the current climate. You know what that means: our focus is on the US and the UK again in the wake of Trump and Brexit, as both have clear implications for nascent fintech companies. As a little man myself, I can sympathise. It’d be like me pitting myself against The Undertaker. Scary stuff. Luckily, this article gives four specific ways in which venture capitalists can be “the slingshot” in this slightly tenuous allegory I have unnecessarily concocted. As the middlemen (or women), VCs are in the position to protect small businesses with their knowledge of the industry and all of its intricacies, fueling innovation for the future. Seriously, 5’6’’ isn’t that tiny, is it?
Infographic Nature
Newscred: INFOGRAPHIC: How Marketers Create and Consume Content
There is a surprisingly large gulf between what content marketers research and what they’d want to discover as a consumer. This is the main takeaway from a survey of 463 marketing professionals, although all of the number-crunching charts in this handy infographic are of paramount significance. Many of the results will surprise you, as will the fact that the infographic is animated (it most certainly caught me off-guard, but that’s a good thing). As bloggers, it’s reassuring that marketers value the production of good content, apparently spending at least an hour researching something before, say, buying a product. What may also reassure you is that I spend just as much time reading around each of these articles every week. We spoil you.
CityWire: The 12 bond slides of Christmas: what to watch out for in 2017
Does anything represent the spirit of Christmas quite as aptly as bond slides? Dalvinder Kular certainly had a bit of a task dressing this particular topic up as Christmassy, but the title does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s both fun and practical! Each of the 12 slides shows a graph containing fund-related data, each summarised by BlueBay Asset Management credit chief David Riley, as well his prophetic visions for 2017. What’s the outlook? More graphs presumably, but this post is vital for those speculating the forecast for bond managers.
Trends of the Times
Brandwatch: Brian Solis’ Thoughts on Disruption, Innovation and the Future of Marketing
Brain Solis: analyst, thought leader, author, visionary. There’s my Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace-style opener to this blurb, and the UK comedy allusions continue. The ‘Now You Know’ Conference mentioned in Natalie Meehan’s article brings to mind a particular That Mitchell and Webb Look sketch. Solis gives his respectable perspectives on marketing behaviour and the future of branding. His ‘accidental narcissist’ thought certainly struck a chord when I realised I’d spent the last three hours repeatedly refreshing an analytics page… There’s also a worrying example here of a baby crying when an iPad she’s playing with is replaced by a magazine. That’s the future. Just as I’ve said before, you can’t beat the feel of a good old-fashioned book, no matter what others in the Kurtosys office say. I’m standing my ground. Brian quotes Tolstoy in his assessment, and he’d better not have read that as an e-book. My Napoleon complex has now been confirmed.
AdWeek: The Year in Creativity: 20 Trends That Drove Some of 2016’s Best Marketing
Much like last week’s venture into the world of Wes Anderson-directed advertising, here’s more examples for B2B marketing to take as creative inspiration. Remember the ultra-long Nick Offerman whiskey commercial? There’s more, even longer examples here. What’s trending in the blogging world should be similarly produced by content marketers in video, with 2016 focusing on politics to AI to pranks as ways of going viral. There’s also a spot of the hyped ‘live video’ starring Gwen Stefani. Of interest to fintech, contained in Tim Nudd’s roundup are limitations of AI, positives of VR, a bizarre “Smoooth Payments” ad by Swedish e-commerce payment brand Klarna, as well as ING’s digitisation of fine art – “The Next Rembrandt” – showing how art can be constructed from raw data and algorithms. Who knew? If you were wondering if I prefer No Doubt or Gwen’s solo career, whilst both respectable, I’m sticking with the band. Fun Friday Roundup fact: I do love some 90s Californian ska, especially Reel Big Fish.
Industry News
VentureBeat: Yahoo Reveals New Hack: ‘Unauthorised third party’ stole data from more than 1B accounts
There really has been a spike in hacking activity recently, so 2017 is already shaping up to be a monumental year for cybersecurity, methinks. Under the spotlight this time is Yahoo, as Ken Yeung notes, for not one but TWO instances this year. I found it particularly striking that Yeung dubs them the “long struggling, but iconic” brand, with speculation about a deal with Verizon now looking slightly more dubious. As we all embrace the fact that the financial sector is going digital faster than ever, unfortunately the art of espionage is going down the same unpredictable path. Prepare yourselves, and make sure your security savviness is up to scratch.
Brave New Coin: Cannabis Revolution targets growing legal market
A few weeks ago, I’d have written off an assumption that cannabis and Bitcoin could be included in the same sentence as absurd. Now, the two topics are seemingly going hand-in-hand as legal and regulatory issues are allowing for a marketing and financial revolution within the marijuana business to take off. 2016 has thrown as many curveballs as it has Poké Balls. If you thought that straight-up financial regulation was a battleground, raising funds for a proposed operation called the Cannabis Revolution seems harder, as this articles identifies. But, it seems digital currency is the most viable option for the future of this industry, and interestingly the safest one too (muck like the first article on this list). News of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency constantly keeps us surprised and on our toes. The future of payments is looking more and more precarious.
That’s all for this week. Catch up with past Fund Marketing Fridays and don’t forget to return next Friday for more resources.
You can also tweet us with any resources that you’ve found helpful this week.
