In the battle for assets and customer allocation, understanding the “why” and the “how” is as important as the “what” for marketers.
Happily, then, the latest report on consumer attitudes and behaviours released by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) provides an interesting insight into what is driving the sustained growth of popularity into cryptocurrencies and other assets.
The regulator has been running this survey since 2020, and – in association with YouGov – has established an important historical document that shows just who is buying what, how and why.
Alongside the many other drivers cited by respondents to the survey, the FCA has a handy section dedicated to marketing and advertising, and their impact on allocation decisions. Let’s not forget that since October 2023, the FCA is responsible for regulating cryptoasset promotions and all marketing to a UK audience.
The results make for interesting reading, and should help those tasked with promoting the burgeoning area of financial services to get a handle on what works, what doesn’t and how those trends are changing.
One of the standout points is that those who have or currently are invested in crypto found out about them initially through friends and family. This figure – now 32% — has grown steadily since 2020 (26%), showing how word-of-mouth promotion, which presumably is based on positive experience, is still key.
Importantly, the role being played by online news, including blogs and forums, has fallen significantly over the past four years, from 32% to 23%, which should give marketers something to consider.
Conversely, social media has stepped in to fill this internet-based gap, rising from 9% to 19% since 2024.
Traditional media and advertising, along with online ads, don’t really trouble the numbers, in single figure percentage points — 7%, 2%, 5% respectively – and, in some cases, are declining too.
Yet, marketing is cutting through, with 38% of respondents who are aware of the asset class (93% of the whole survey population) saying they had seen an advert in the previous year. This was up a notable 11 percentage points since 2020.
Sponsorship of music, sport or other entertainment event was included in the survey for the first time in 2024, demonstrating the increasing spend in this area. Some 12% of respondents who had seen an advert said it had been through this medium. It will be interesting to see how this area develops.
Potentially even more interesting for marketers, however, is the impact of these adverts: the majority said it would not change their mind about investing – for good or bad.
As ever, the figures are just the top level from which marketing and comms teams can start to investigate and initiate their own approach to promotion, but it does provide important and presumably independent data.
With the FCA kicking off its roadmap towards regulation, which has been a long time in coming, crypto finally seems to be being brought in from the cold and those financial services companies that are still on the fence need to decide whether to enter the market or not.
In the US, there seems to be little doubt that the digital investment world is about to get a huge boost from the incoming Trump administration, which is likely to drive continued global interest.
No longer just defined and contained by currencies, nor fad-like instruments such as NFTs, the world of crypto is growing steadily and should soon have the stable regulatory footing many have been demanding for years.
Indeed, some 27% of current users said they would invest more in crypto if it was better regulated.
For marketing and comms teams, this report not only makes for interesting reading, but could contribute to our part of the industry’s own roadmap towards an expanding opportunity set to develop a new revenue stream.
Head to the FCA’s website for more information on how to access the survey.
See also: FCA reveals crypto regulation roadmap