Rapid changes in regulation, a significant spectrum of customer understanding and persistent issues of trust present crypto asset marketeers with distinct challenges.
That was the conclusion from speakers at this year’s Financial Promoter Live! conference, which took place in London this Spring.
As interest in crypto currency and digital assets is growing – expanding from niche investors to the mainstream – marketers must deal with aspects not present for peers in other areas of financial services, explained Myles Harrison, chief product officer at Swiss-based crypto specialist Amina Bank.
“There’s a lot of jargon in the financial services industry, but you also now have jargon coming in from crypto. It can be very challenging for potential customers of ours to understand all that. There’s a real split: there’s the traditional investor who’s trying to get into crypto alongside your crypto natives as well,” said Harrison.
“It’s not different from traditional marketing but it’s even more important to be sure that you really have those different personas and types of clients [in mind].”
James Redgrave, VP of thought leadership and editorial at State Street, agreed: “There’s a gamut from people understand absolutely nothing [about crypto] to people who understand it well.
“I’ve had to work very hard to segment the communications I put out so I’m not sending one page explaining what blockchain is to the chief technology officer of a hedge fund that invests purely in blockchain-based assets or 20 pages of coding language to the lay trustee of a pension fund.”
Redgrave said getting that level of complexity right was essential to build trust, which was the second distinct challenge raised by panellists. Sebastiaan Opschoor, chief marketing officer at technology services group Zaisan, was frank about the trust challenge.
“Building trust is more difficult because the [crypto] space is surrounded by scams and will be for the next couple of years. But there’s also a lot of good stuff happening. So, we need to be there as a thought leader and as a trusted company,” said Opschoor.
Acting as an educator is an important part of the job, Opschoor added: “There’s a lot of crazy buzzwords that nobody understands. So, it’s also a matter of education trying to get people to understand how to use this technology. There’s a big gap there still.”
Fast-changing regulation
On top of a wide range of expertise among clients and significant trust issues for the sector, crypto marketing also faces one of the fastest changing regulatory environments in finance, which also varies significantly between geographical markets.
Harrison said this added another dimension to communication segmentation and could require specifically targeted campaigns for different jurisdictions.
Discussion of the regulatory environment also revealed the differing approaches and requirements on companies operating in crypto. Opschoor emphasised the constant evolution and uncertainty of the sector.
“When the car was introduced, there weren’t rules and there were no traffic regulations. We had to figure it out. That’s a bit how we approach it. We adhere to all the regulations that are coming, but we also have to be a little bit in the grey area. Just do it and then suffer the consequences later, because otherwise you can’t really go anywhere,” Opschoor said.
Yet, for a bank such as State Street, designated a Globally Systemically Important Financial Institution (G-Sifi), regulation can never be a grey area.
“We don’t buy or sell crypto assets or advise our clients on the subject, so we swerve that particular problem,” said Redgrave. “We’re a globally systemic organization in terms of the assets we have under administration. We’re a bank and we’re an American bank. All of which adds up to us being as regulated as an organisation gets and as conservative as it gets about not getting on the wrong side of regulation.”
Unlike upcoming digital asset organisations, State Street has built a sense of trust amongst customers across its over two-hundred-year history. With an established and conservative brand, however, comes strict legacy landscapes for marketing teams to navigate.