TIO Markets

Not the M word.

HELEN ASTANIOU

Head of Marketing at TIO Markets

There was once an time, when marketing was simple. Being involved in marketing meant f inding an innovative way to represent a brand either visually, or with a clever tag line. Some of the best and most memorable advertising taglines successfully influenced people’s’ widespread perception of a product of service. For instance, does anybody you know wear a diamond on their finger? Of course they do. Credit to DeBeers’ “A Diamond is Forever” campaign in the 1940s, which gave birth to the widespread and long standing trend of diamond engagement rings. How about the image of the happy fat, red-clothed Santa? Marketing again. This time, credit to Coca Cola who influenced us to visualise Santa in exactly this way, instead of in his previous green, elvish garb.

Source: www.forevermark.com

There is no doubt that marketing can heavily influence people and their perceptions. And if the powerful tool of marketing is used responsibly, there is nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately for marketing folk like myself, there are times when you look upon less ethical campaigns and cringe. Perhaps you’re at the supermarket with your young children and the tantrums won’t end until you actually buy the Peppa Pig yogurt, even if the ingredients contain unnatural, incomprehensible additives likely to give

your child an e-number high. (No disrespect meant to the much loved Peppa empire.) Or perhaps you remember the Benetton campaign of the 90s, which shocked people into noticing the Benetton brand, even though the resonating billboard photograph of a man dying of aids was entirely unrelated to its clothing brand.

Source: www.forevermark.com

Marketing has evolved (albeit not exclusively) into the online world over the years, because the offline for obvious reasons cannot be relied upon to deliver virality. A marketing team once challenged to simply come up with a clever tagline along with an accompanying image, is now tasked to produce a multitude of inspiring static, animated, and spinning visuals in order to speak directly to clients across many languages, countries and belief systems. In the same way that people learn in different ways – people accept ideas in different ways too.

Marketing in the forex world has its own additional and unique challenges. With today’s regulatory restrictions on marketing in FX, marketing teams are heavily challenged to market in an incredibly saturated industry, but in an ethical, transparent and responsible manner. Marketers 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. Whilst my own marketing style varies according to the need at any given time, my style at this current conjecture (if I had to choose one) is one of acceptance. I accept that I have a responsibility to the client and that any campaign messaging - no matter how short - must include the risk warning. I accept the limitations of promoting a highly risky product. I accept that the largest online platforms are prohibitive of speculative financial products. Once all limitations are laid bare, only then I can start planning.

The people we market to are after all, people. People do not want to be promised riches that they will never attain. They do not want to be fed fibs. They do not want to be deceived through clever trickery. They want to be either entertained or properly informed or both. Some of the most viral campaigns in forex historically, (I’m avoiding use of the word ‘best’, which is of course wholly subjective), have been those that are either funny enough to prompt a belly laugh at the end of the ad, or are sharing genuinely interesting, informational and sharable content.

No campaign of course can be evaluated on its success until the data tells you that it’s successful. Anecdotal feedback and even clicks don’t matter unless the money is in the bank to prove that your campaign was a success.

Where marketing can be a bit of a dirty word at times; synonymous with deception or exaggeration, we work hard at TIOmarkets to prove that rule wrong.

So what have we done to change perceptions and to influence? Marketing can often be the first line of fire when things go wrong so, we’ve been cautious in our marketing approach. And now for the shameless plug: We at TIOmarkets promote real trading environments, produce truthful messaging. And we try to do this in an inviting, original way.

So, what’s the best form of marketing? The one where you don’t feel you’re being marketed to at all.