Marketing to multiple jurisdictions, simultaneously, is always a challenge. Doing so across four, separate business lines, is even harder.
For Global Payment Services (GPS), live events coupled with the deployment of educational content have become the core ingredients of a successful growth marketing strategy that has driven the business’s growing footprint across the Middle East and Africa.
If you’ve yet to encounter the brand, prepare for that to change.
Regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain, GPS is authorised by payment networks such as Visa, Mastercard, Amex, JCB, UPI and PCI-DSS. It is a rapidly up-and-coming brand establishing a solid reputation on the payments circuit.
The company already holds the largest market share of any processing service provider in its home country of Bahrain, accounting for 80% of all services provided in the Kingdom. But it is now setting its sights on accelerating its expansion in Jordan, Djibouti, Cape Verde, Bahamas, Sudan and beyond.
The company operates in four core areas – acquiring, issuing, security and fintech services. In 2023, it has been using trade shows to explain its customised services to issuers and acquirers, alike.
Speaking to Financial Promoter in Dubai, Hadi AlSamerraie, senior manager of business development for GPS explained how the company was using events as part of a broader marketing strategy.
“Our target market spans the globe and participating in Seamless Dubai was to reach out to industry leaders, banks, financial institutions, payment service providers and acquirers from the MENA region, as well as participants and attendees from across the world,” he said.
“We also participate in other industry events such as Seamless Riyadh and Seamless South Africa to ensure we are present wherever our target audience is.”
Targeted conferencing
The company has used the Seamless group of conferences as a platform to educate potential clients and engage with other potential partners in their ecosystem. It has also embraced events across the Middle East and Africa including the Arab International Cybersecurity Summit (AICS) and the HPS event in Morocco.
AlSamerraie explained that these events afford the business the opportunity to discuss the company’s solutions with clients and allows them a specific platform to showcase their recent achievements. At Seamless Dubai, for example, the company showcased some of its recent tech innovations.
“Under our issuing services, we introduced ‘wearables’ such as bracelets and rings – offering an innovative way to pay.”
The introduction of wearables certainly captured the attention of the UAE audience at the event, but the innovation was much more than just a marketing gimmick, AlSamerraie said.
“We recently solved a case that had a positive impact on the education sector through ‘wearables’, customised for children to use in school as a means of payment.”
Keeping in touch
The new wearable technology – such as a ring or a bracelet – means children can make payments while parents keep control over the spending limit and have full visibility of their child’s transactions.
GPS has been keen to emphasise the speed at which it can implement new, innovative, technologies at recent events such as Seamless, highlighting its work during the Covid-19 pandemic as an example.
AlSamerraie said: “During the pandemic, the Central Bank of Bahrain mandated that all banks should migrate to contactless cards. Our team successfully achieved bulk personalisation of a large number of cards for all our clients within a short time frame, enabling our clients to meet the CBB’s requirements.”
As GPS looks to bring its growth story to more companies in the region, it is now turning its attention to the forthcoming Seamless Africa conference in September. When asked for the driver for this particular event, AlSamerraie quips: “we are present wherever our target audience is.”