Inside robo-adviser Wealthsimple’s content strategy

A visit to the online magazine of Canadian robo-adviser Wealthsimple can send a reader on a trajectory far beyond the usual tips and tricks that customers have come to expect from a bank or asset management company. Wealthsimple’s articles are targeted and edgy, with headlines such as “How to work in the gig economy and still save like a corporate lifer” or “How to blow your holiday bonus.” The articles go beyond just advice — interviews with popular personalities such as Anthony Bourdain and Kevin Bacon on personal struggles with money help humanize the personal finance experience.

“We don’t talk to people about oil prices and interest rates, we talk to people about interesting stories about money — we do a series of money diaries where we interview celebrities and interesting people to help break down the taboo of talking about money,” said CEO Mike Katchen.

Wealthsimple joins a league of brands that tell stories without the need to constantly link to a line of products and services. Other finance companies have also opted for organic storytelling, including Charles Schwab, whose magazines focus less on the nitty gritty of finance than the “shared values” that the brand has with its customers’ lifestyles. It’s an approach that’s worked for Wealthsimple, whose content has been cited as a credible source by mainstream media outlets, including stories from Business Insider, Money, CNBC and MarketWatch. The site gets 300,000 page views a month, according to the company.

Wealthsimple’s branded content shop is an in-house operation run by 10 full-time employees and headed by former GQ editorial director Devin Friedman. The team also includes two Wieden+Kennedy alumni, the agency known for its work for Nike. As Tearsheet reported in February, Wealthsimple’s move to bring in design talent is a trend among financial advisory companies seeking to add a human touch to customers’ experience with money. Katchen said the target audience is professionals between 30 and 45.

“It’s about how to create a brand that resonates with a younger audience and speaks to them in terms they understand,” he said. “The classic example is the person who knows investing is something they should be doing, but they don’t have the time or interest in doing it themselves.”

To marketers who develop branded content for banks and finance companies, Wealthsimple may be onto something.

“When you go there [Wealthsimple’s website], there’s a cohesive editorial feel to it, which I think really helps them as they are expanding to a new market,” said Michael Grimes, svp of editorial strategy at Hill Holliday, the lead creative agency for Bank of America. “If you look at their imagery, they could have taken stock photos, but a lot of them are hand-drawn illustrations or treated photos — everything feels like it’s coming from same place editorially, and it has the same visual identity as a magazine.”

Grimes said customers are less likely to shy away from branded content if it’s seen as useful and the information is accurate.

People want solid, accurate information,” he said. “If brands have the bench and the access to expertise to give that information, that gives them a leg up.” 

In the competitive market for millennial investors, content that’s not seen as useful can easily turn off customers, said one analyst.

“We see a saturated market of ‘tips and tricks,’ ‘five things you need to know about,'” said Jeff Baker, director of digital marketing for content marketing agency Brafton. “People want to read in-depth pieces of actual use cases of things that worked and things that didn’t.”

Wealthsimple, founded in 2014, hopes its approach to digital marketing, combined with traditional advertising and Facebook ads, will give it a needed push as it expands to new markets. The company, which is backed by a CA$100 million ($77 million) investment from Power Financial, expanded to the U.S. in February of this year and plans to launch in the U.K. this fall. Despite the challenges of growing the company’s reach in new markets, Katchen said there’s room for more players.

“We’re not building a business to solve the problem for early adopters only — we’re in the business to solve the problem that investing is complicated for the average person,” he said. “We’re trying to create a lifestyle brand around financial services that’s broadly relevant to the masses out there, and that’s informed our strategy and given us confidence that the market is wide open for a player like us.”

Image: Money Diaries series from Wealthsimple’s online magazine, courtesy of Wealthsimple

Inside T. Rowe Price’s Facebook Live strategy

While Facebook Live has been a boon for brands that emphasize customer experiences such as Dunkin’ Donuts, Benefit Cosmetics and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, finance companies are just beginning to explore its capacity as a marketing tool. Four weeks ago, asset management company T. Rowe Price launched an inaugural Facebook Live video with one of its financial planners. To the company, it’s a way to forge a stronger connection with customers.

“The goal is to create meaningful interactions with clients,” said Meara Ranadive, head of social media at T. Rowe Price, which also happens to be an investor in Facebook. “For T. Rowe Price to succeed in social, we need to be ready to meet the expectations of followers — and that means executing live video.”

The 25-minute live event was a how-to guide on retirement featuring in-house senior financial planner Judith Ward. The video was shot at the premises of IMRE, the marketing agency that led the company’s Facebook Live outreach. Ward took customer questions that were sent through the company’s Facebook page in advance, moderated by Tara Coates, avp and senior editor of retirement and financial education at T. Rowe Price. The discussion focused on how to devise a savings and investment strategy to achieve financial self-sufficiency in retirement. Twenty-eight thousand people tuned in and there were 23 comments.

T. Rowe Price isn’t unique among finance companies dabbling in Facebook Live, with firms using it for a variety of purposes to enhance customer interest and build brand image. For instance, just last month, Charles Schwab live streamed a talk on technology in finance on its Facebook page, and Bank of America hosted a live interview with author and television personality Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Using live video involves additional steps for finance companies, including meeting legal requirements, said Ranadive.

“The considerations are the same as for other brands — we have to be authentic and share meaningful information, but we have some unique challenges in financial services industry, because we have to involve more partners like the legal team.” Ranadive said the effort involved about 10 T. Rowe Price staff members, while the production was handled by IMRE.

Despite the obstacles to delivering live content, analysts in the space expect use of Facebook Live by banks and finance companies to continue, especially since Facebook is no longer a platform used exclusively by young people. And the ability of Facebook Live to keep customers engaged sets it apart from other platforms, with users spending three times more time watching live videos than traditional ones.

Marketers have been drawn to the format since the start, with 50 percent saying that they planned on using live video in 2016, according to Social Media Examiner’s 2016 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.

“The demographic breakdown of Facebook is everything from 13 years of age to over 65,” said Ryan Barr, managing director of Cognito, a marketing firm that specializes in banks and financial services companies. “There’s a savings crisis in the U.S. now and financial services companies have realized that they can help educate different demographics.” 

Barr noted that interactions with a finance company on Facebook Live offer the customer the convenience of not having to leave their home while continuing to feel connected to a bigger community that shares similar concerns about money.

Financial institutions are going to continue to reach customers where they need to be — the best ones are focusing on financial literacy and education, helping customers realize that there’s a path forward for savings and that the individual customer is not alone in the journey.”

Tradestreaming Trends: Understanding Gen Z’s relationship with money, fintech patents, marketing optimism to investors

tradestreaming weekly trends

[x_alert type=”success”]Every week we publish stories on marketing and behavioral trends in various sectors finance, drawing inferences and connections across various global trends. This summary looks at top trends. [/x_alert]

FinTech-Ing in ETF space: Growing AUM, shrinking fees, and crypto-currencies (Daily Fintech)
Tradestreaming Tearsheet: The first major ETF was launched in the early 90s with a tracker of S&P500 on the NYSE and since then, the global ETF market is close to $3 trillion. Efi Pylarinou has an interesting take on the fintech-ness of the ETF market and what we can learn from its maturation.

TD Ameritrade invests in optimism (WARC)
Tradestreaming Tearsheet: TD Ameritrade, the brokerage firm, is tapping the power of optimism to stand out from the approximately 9,000 financial-services brands which are battling to effectively reach consumers. In this case, a positive message and a bet on the future may actually make for a better future for the online broker.

Gen Z and The Future of Money (The Financial Brand)
Tradestreaming Tearsheet: The results of a unique, “co-creation” focus group reveal what banking providers must do to remain relevant with Gen Z consumers. These are the future clients – it’s important to understand what makes them tick.

Fintech patents: where finance meets technology (Lexology)
Tradestreaming Tearsheet: This interesting research piece benchmarks the patents help by large financial institutions and categorizes them according to their technologies. Wait, why is Hitachi one of the largest IP holders in fintech?

How Fintech Can Win On Financial Crime (TechCrunch)
Tradestreaming Tearsheet: “Fintech firms are technologically equipped to understand the activity occurring through their products in a way that banks simply are not, and thus they are better positioned to provide law enforcement with useful intelligence as opposed to scattershot reporting.”

Most Asset Managers Still Generating Positive DCIO Net Sales Amid Mounting Obstacles to Growth and Profits (Hearts and Wallets)
Tradestreaming Tearsheet: The fundamentals underlying Defined Contribution Investment-Only (DCIO) growth remain solid. Hearts & Wallets projects the DCIO market will grow from $3 trillion (47% of the DC market) today to $4.1 trillion (51%) in 2020.

“There remains a great opportunity to manage the workplace savings of millions of Americans via a dedicated DCIO sales and marketing effort. Today the stakes are higher, product requirements stricter, and sales more difficult to earn.“

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