Helen Astaniou

FOREX NOT BOREX

HELEN ASTANIOU

Chief Marketing Officer at TIO Markets

Those well acquainted with the forex industry will have heard the term Borex before.

Borex. Cannot be found on the countless forex glossary pages that pollute the web and whose sole purpose is to ram any given website with keywords rather than to adequately educate and inform clientele.

Borex in British. (ˈbɒ-rɛks, ˈbɒ-rɛɡz)

Uncountable noun. 1. Abbreviation for “Boring Forex”

2. Descriptive word for demotivating, uninspiring work environments in financial services

If you’ve not heard that term, perhaps you’ve actively participated in a conversation like this at an industry networking event:

Person 1: Where do you work?

Person 2: I’ve been working in FX company x for x years

Person 1: Oh, how nice. *Yawn*

This article promotes my view on why forex is not borex, via three myth-busting concepts.

MYTH #1: The 100-line mandatory risk warning kills creativity.

Not necessarily. Working in forex over the years has come to be connected with ritual, rite and rope, rather than with innovation and creativity. With the clamping down of financial regulators in the sector – as quite rightly, they should – it has become inevitable that innovation has been somewhat dampened.

What do I mean by this? It’s a marketer’s job to promote exciting messaging that is most likely to convert a viewer into a potential client. A three-line risk warning (on a banner not bigger than the size of your thumb), clearly stipulating that 110% of people have lost their investment trading with your brokerage, therefore isn’t the most attractive message.

Attractive, no. Necessary, yes.

With today’s regulatory restrictions on marketing specifically in the sphere of financial services, marketing teams are heavily challenged to market in an incredibly saturated industry, but in an ethical, transparent and responsible manner. Marketeers bear a responsibility to the consumers of their financial products. We are responsible for informing them of the risks and for educating clients on how to use such products safely. My favourite approach to marketing responsibly, given I’m overly eager not to sell false dreams, is to go down the road of authen

ticity. The people we market to are after all, people. They have worked hard for their investment, and don’t deserve to be misled.

By being honest about the risks - not because the regulator has asked you - but because investing is quite honestly and truly, a risky endeavour, you build a client base that is more considered in their approach to investing and have a likelihood of staying with you for longer, rather than getting burned too quickly.

We try to do this through all our comms, and notably through our blog, where we can expand on the topic at length without having to worry about length or character restrictions. We promote real offerings, produce truthful messaging. And we try to do this in an inviting, original way.

MYTH #2: Copycat culture

It may or may not (you decide) have been the case that forex companies emulate each other in order not to reinvent the wheel. Copying the campaign of a competitor because you know it works, for instance, is not a good way to foster good energy, goodwill and originality.

Person 1: We need more clients through the door, what shall we do?

Helen Astaniou Chief Marketing Officer at TIO Markets

Person 2: Well, I saw another company launch with a 1000% bonus a while back and I heard it bought them loads of clients.

Person 1: What a great idea, let’s do it!

Let’s just put it out there that - possibly - forex companies don’t necessarily have the best reputation for innovation. And while I may have fantastically embellished the above example, the point remains that the concept of copycats in FX is alive and kicking. They did this, we did that, they copied us, we copied them, and so on and so forth. The uncomfortable truth is that copying can be a pointless endeavour. The industry and client behaviour changes so often and so quickly that what may have

worked once may not work a second time. And who is to say really, if the thing being copied ever even actually worked the first time?

There are countless examples of forex promotions that are indeed innovative, creative and just downright fabulous. I put this down to two key factors:

1. Young demographic of fx industry. The average age-range of those at least who I’ve worked with, in the forex industry is between 25-35 years old. These are young people, with a limited work history, who are not victim to the ‘this is how we’ve done it before’ mentality.

2. Far-sighted management teams. Ultimately, it is the management team who decide whether new and creative ideas hit the print. The more experienced and data-led managers are far more likely to proceed with an original idea, than not.

MYTH #3: All forex companies are the same.

FALSE! I’ve had the pleasure of working in more than one forex company, and each one of these companies made valiant efforts to lift the morale of its staff in the hope that in turn, productivity would increase. One such company offered unlimited free drinks to its staff, which for a diet-coke enthusiast (addict) like myself, was heaven on earth. Another company arranged regular team-building events and days out. All great attempts at giving staff that little reminder that they are valued as humans who all need a little pick me up, from time to time. And let’s not be too harsh here – many a company will not or cannot afford to offer small luxuries to their staff corps. So, even small gestures such as a diet coke (example taken at complete random), goes a long way.

Despite my obvious biases, it would be remiss of me not to pull out TIOmarkets specifically as an innovator in forex. Through my example of TIOmarkets, I want to show that not all forex companies fit the rule. All those who work in forex, do not work in borex.

As a new company, TIOmarkets isn’t weighed down by the burden of age and allows small innovations to permeate the work environment, thereby improving morale and productivity. Ad hoc meetings on picnic benches, regular office barbecues, and an open-door policy for all, no matter where you appear in the company hierarchy, is rule of thumb. There is no greater way to show someone they are valued than by asking their views and actually supporting them to act upon their answer.

Having the start-up mentality also goes a long way towards helping staff feel that they have a stake in the success of the company. The staff here take pride in the progress that the company is making week-onweek, and feel like they are a significant part of the recipe for success. There is no greater satisfaction than in watching the company develop and seeing the fruits of your labour manifest, day in day out. This in itself breeds motivation and the desire to innovate. The work of our marketing team doesn’t stop, doesn’t slow, and just gains traction from day to day. It spans digital, offline, visual, content, coordination, project management and data analysis. We love what we do and we do it because it is not borex.