Branded content for fintech: Getting the tone right

As the world becomes increasingly digital, the financial services industry has been no exception to rapid technological advances. The rise of fintech, or financial technology, has disrupted traditional financial services by offering innovative digital solutions to consumers.

“Catch them young” is a well-established tenet in marketing. Moreover, the young are digital natives compared to the older generations. So it is quite obvious that more fintech brands are aiming to connect with Gen Z/young millennials as a TG via youth culture.

Many big brands take the conventional approach to marketing, focusing their budgets on advertising and highlighting the features and benefits of their products. But a handful of fintech brands are focusing on branded content that aims to build a connection with the youth audience.

Their channel of choice is influencers who speak heart to heart with their followers and a wider audience beyond their followers. Money and financial communication usually involves a lot of “education,” teaching audiences about the principles and best practices for managing money—whether it’s saving, spending, or investing.

In “educating” youth about money, these fintech brands follow all the principles of communication tonality that connect with Gen Z / young millennials. These are:

1. Authenticity – speaking your truth without hiding anything

2. Humility and humanity – admit mistakes and errors

3. Equality – influencers speak as equals to their audience, even though they are the leaders and are much more successful than their audience. They take great pains not to come across as condescending or lecturing or ‘advising’. In other words, the brands do not use a “parental” or “older” tone of voice. They use a “youth” tone, by getting Influencers to simply “share” their experiences, thoughts and lessons from their lives.

Beyond tonality, it’s interesting to see the insights and ideas about money and investment that these fintech brands highlight.

Small matterThe Worst Mistakes Made With Money – Clueless Conversation #1

Tanmay Bhat’s podcast series ‘Clueless Conversations’ was sponsored by Smallcase, in conversation with fellow comedians and Gaurang Sanghvi, a financial advisor. The conversation is free-flowing and covers the journey of young comedians with money.

The very title of the series indicates how ignorant most young adults are when it comes to the area of ​​money management. By featuring a financial advisor in the podcast along with other comedians, Tanmay Bhat intends to showcase how even the so-called educated comedians have a limited understanding of the area of ​​money and finance. The young comedians represent the youth in general, and the financial expert shows how only very few people have a good understanding of money and investments. It is time for this state of affairs to change and improve, with more young people becoming money savvy.

The stories of the different comedians in the show highlight the different feelings, beliefs and ideas that today’s youth have about money. Some of the more interesting ones are:

1. Money is complex, scary and stressful. Middle-class parents believe that it is the parents’ task to manage money stress and shield their children from it, thus freeing the children to focus on their studies. So this generation of youth has grown up without any teaching from parents about money management and what it takes.

2. Many young people are “money avoiders”. Because money management is a scary topic and their ignorance makes money management even scarier, they simply avoid thinking about the topic until it becomes absolutely necessary to do so, e.g. pay too much in taxes.

3. Money gives choices in life. For many young, creative people, the goal is not to become “rich” or to “accumulate” wealth per se. Money is the means to an end, and that end is freedom—freedom to work for passion, work according to one’s heart and values, without financial pressure forcing compromise. Money gives choice and shows the way out of coercion and compromise.

Upstox – Ranveer Allahbadia‘s My Honest investment strategy revealed

Upstox partnered with popular YouTuber and podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia. In the video titled ‘My HONEST Investment Strategy Revealed’, Ranveer talks about his journey as a Youtuber, how he started investing the money he earned as a creator, and the mistakes he made with money.

Ranveer is an effective story teller and with good visuals you are drawn into the narrative of this compelling story. But while narrating the story, Ranveer touches on one of his regrets – not investing in gold, which he now considers one of the safest investment options. Through a clever segue, Ranveer starts talking about digital gold as an investment option and integrates Upstox as a tool to invest in digital gold.

On first viewing, the audience does not consciously recognize the brand integration. Since the video was called an “honest” investment strategy, you don’t realize it’s a paid campaign until Ranveer starts elaborating on the benefits of using the Upstox app to invest.

Ranveer is not just making a transparent sales pitch for Upstox. He also shares his experiences and suggestions for budding buddies/media entrepreneurs. These include some basic principles of money management such as:

Start early and save at least 20% of your earnings to build a corpus, if you are in business, a significant portion of your savings will be plowed back into your existing business or help start a new business. Simply put, take charge of YOUR money and use it well to serve YOUR life goals.

Upstox collaboration with Barkha Singh

Upstox is an Indian online brokerage firm that offers retail trading services in stocks, commodities, currencies and other financial instruments. One of their collaborations is a tie-up with influencer/actress Barkha Singh, thus targeting the young woman TG.

The video depicts Barkha Singh playing the dual of her mother and herself. She gets into an argument with her mother, who always thinks Barkha is lazy and doesn’t do any work herself. However, the mother is surprised when she nags Barkha once again, thinking that she is lazy, but to her surprise, Barkha starts telling her how to invest in digital gold and starts listing the benefits of investing through Upstox.

The video aims to connect by accurately portraying how the Indian youth is perceived by their parents and vice versa. The nagging parent thinks the child does nothing all day, while the toddler is actually smart and well informed about the world through technology. It falls into the “generation gap” comedy genre, making the audience laugh at themselves while pitching the app.

CNBCits collaboration with Prajakta Koli

Prajakta Koli’s interview with CNBC talks about her financial journey. The interview is designed to integrate CNBC’s own brand as a destination for financial information for the youth audience. CNBC makes a conscious effort to highlight its own symbolism as a brand of journalism by setting the interview in its own office space. The viewer thus gets an insight into the CNBC office to build a connection with the brand.

Prajakta Koli touches on various aspects of her personal finance journey as she talks about her first paycheck, her wisest investments, her biggest failure and her dream investment. By talking honestly about investments and money, both CNBC and Prajakta are normalizing conversations about money in a country where you don’t necessarily openly flaunt your wealth with your peers.

Prajakta emphasizes her middle-class origins and learning about money management from her parents and sister, and that she is just beginning her journey into the world of money management. Buying her dream home (a flat in Mumbai) and car is the foundation of security, stability and lifestyle – hence the wisest investment she earns from her success as a YouTuber. She throws in a new dream/goal for Indian youth – not just to buy property in India, but to buy a flat in a historic and picturesque small town in Europe.

The ‘My Money Mantra’ series also features popular YouTuber and podcaster Ranveer Allahabadia, there is a clear emphasis on making CNBC a destination for financial information and insights for the youth.

Conclusion and practical insight:

A large portion of the youth today are ignorant of money management, as their middle-class parents thought it best not to “worry” them with money stress. Therefore, when they start earning, they need to learn about wise money management, including the basic principles and principles.

“Educating” your customers and users is a fundamental pillar of the communication strategy of almost all financial services brands. New fintech brands are no exception. Financial services and fintech brands are also heavy users of digital channels and platforms, creating a large number of ‘educational’ videos – product explanations and the like. They also work with large and small influencers to “educate” their customers and potential customers.

What brands like Upstox, CNBC and Smallcase do well is use influencers effectively, using the right tonality that connects with young audiences. Through their branded content, they stand in the shoes of their youth audience, see the world through their eyes, speak their language, highlight how young people think about money and then share nuggets of wisdom about money management. With this “sharing” tonality, they are more likely to build their brands in the minds and hearts of youth TG.