The Financial Generation Gap

Editor's Notes

• #2: Holding slide
• #4: Agency works with some of the biggest brands in FS, particularly mortgages, wealth management and banking tech, as well as emerging FinTech. Also very interested in financial education – about which more later I’ve gone up a dress size since this photo was taken – I’m now 41 so give me a break. Why is my age relevant?
• #5: Why the title? I was born in 77 – the tipping point. The idea: everyone older than me is OK, everyone younger is in trouble
• #6: Launch of Institute for Social Renewal Howker and Malik blame neoliberalism – but the fact is indisputable: the generation younger than me WILL BE poorer than the one before.
• #7: If the wealth is held by the old, how can FS institutions remain sustainable when that generation (the bulk of their business) dies out? Or will they die when I do?
• #8: I can’t solve the economic problem – but for the problem of a DISENGAGED generation, PR holds a lot of answers.
• #9: All of this can leave clients and agency teams blinded by fear: uncharted territory
• #10: THIS is why PR is so important, always has been, always will be. These are the common factors in everyone’s decision-making process.
• #12: Crap PR: brands talking about their products and services. Press releases spamming journalists. A monkey with a typewriter could do it.
• #13: To borrow the name of a familiar industry bible. Let’s look at the word – what really makes a campaign? CHANGE. Perceptions, behaviours, transactional habits, commercial results.
• #15: You’re not Green & Black’s. But you ALL have things you can give away for free: insight, advice, expertise.See HML – shared its market data and analytics – market leader thing to do.
• #16: Don’t just bomb the FT all the time, or risk everything on the nationals showing an interest. Be more direct, targeted and micro-segmented. Example idea: campaign to target HR departments and employers, create value, accessibility, partnerships.
• #17: On the other hand, never forget your own industry – use and grow your share of voice amongst your own peer group, be de facto leader. Of course the consumer doesn’t read the trade press, especially the aforementioned millennial generation. But what do they find when they do their due diligence on Google? Reputation and credibility.
• #18: Aflatoun story. A global NGO we helped to campaign for financial literacy on the primary curriculum. This campaign is crying out for big FS institutions to back it, meanwhile big FS institutions have CSR and PR budgets and would massively benefit from throwing their weight behind something as obviously socially beneficial as this.
• #19: Don’t just send them a press release to TELL them: SHOW them. Eg Sutherland Global, inviting journalists in for one-on-one behind the scenes, not just telling them about it. Immersive, memorable experience will far better incentivise them to tell the story to their audiences.
• #20: Unisys a good example: can’t build a banking ecosystem without building a network of partners across the industry. Joint PR campaign with small FinTech to roll out Behavioural Biometrics. Use the PR contacts, credibility and reach of your partners to get your story to go further.
• #21: Be at vanguard of an industry movement One of our investment clients is doing this – talking about how whole industry (and his own) way of selling investments needs to change. Ballsy move – shows leadership
• #22: Look at bills through Parliament – be the first to spot things around the corner that will create real change – and first to tell everyone, therefore owning the story. Media and clients love this. Former get to be first to a new story, latter gets to be the expert spokesperson on it.
• #23: Talk about the future – make predictions, stick your neck out… What about risks and threats – how can you tackle them? Acknowledge controversial topics – you don’t have to offer a definitive position on them, but by at least being open to such subjects you’ll show your brand to be a brand that engages, not just self-promotes. Goldman Sachs – Lucas Van Praag, PR man considered one of best in world – willingness to comment substantively on the real issues of the day. This PR strategy is massive contributor to that bank’s dominance.
• #24: With all these communications tactics comes risk. But risk management is our game. Anticipate, mitigate compensate.
• #26: Holding slide
• #52: Holding slide
• #60: Holding slide
• #61: Hi guys, great to be up here today, thank you for having me So today I’m going to talk a little bit about the evolving app experience and what new technology has in store for apps and users. Previously we’ve done a talk called the Post App Era which focusses on what happens next in terms of apps and whilst we’ll talk about that stuff today we’ll also talk a little about the steps you can run through to figure out what it is you should do to meet your users need. Because whilst new technology is really cool and fun, ultimately we’ve got to create some value along the line and that’s got to be for both parties – both for the business and the user, afterall if it doesn’t work for the user then they won’t use it which means no value for business, and if it doesn’t work for the business, well, then why both in the first place!
• #62: So, my names Paul, I’m the MD at Sonin, we work with clients across various different sectors, including FS, to build the right offering in terms of mobile apps. I’ve been in the mobile space properly since around about 2009, prior to this I was still involved in mobile but I’m not sure you can call it a space back then! My personal background is as a developer, I used to write business continuity software for people like RBS and PMO software for Virgin Atlantic but I’m maybe slightly unusual in that the bit that I find most fascinating about tech is the users, so I’m very interested in the UX, CX and behavioural design So nowadays I get to spend most of my time talking to companies about what it is they’re looking to do, what their customers or staff members want to do and how it is that mobile and new technologies can help.
• #63: So what I thought we’d run through today is a little bit out where apps came from and the early days, through to what experiences look like now and then on to the post app era and what that means. Apps of course really started way back when with this device – the iPhone. Before this really all there was was the web and therefore when we looked at the app experiences we lifted what we knew about the web and designed for that.
• #64: And as a result we would build wonderfully crafted experiences aimed at keeping people in our own app for as long as possible. We would try and own the entire time spent on the phone and we wanted to capture people and pin them in. We’d do things like build our own calendars or contact books and try to own all of their phone time On the whole this produced frustrating inefficient experiences that were not particularly user focussed We had things like hidden menu’s, confusing navigation, too much content and lots of people basically including copies of their website
• #65: But as we watched app users behaviour it become clear that app users were very different to web users. They’re typically much more task focussed. When we’re opening an app we’re looking to achieve something, whether it’s checking our bank balance, sending a message, checking out what our friends and family are up to. And so focus turned to a user driven approach and we focussed in on these slippy experiences that help users effortlessly move from the splash screen all the way to their end goal with minimal effort. The focus became increasingly user centric and about their needs rather than ours
• #66: And that’s really where we are today. Customers are the ones driving the change of digital interactions through their expectations, this is true across all industries, but it’s particularly strong within the financial sector. In fact ‘Finance-Related Apps Poised for Most Significant Transformation in 2018’ according to global app research company App Annie And there variety of start ups already catering to our needs which are raising public interest. A report by Statista looking at the most popular app store categories in January 2018 – Finance sits above social media, photo & video, sports, news and even shopping. So, what makes a good app experience?
• #67: There is a running joke in the office that in any meeting it takes me less than five minutes to mention my children, my youngest is called Ollie and he’s just about 9 months old. He’s teething. For anyone that has kids they’ll be aware of the lack of sleep you get when your 9 month year old is teething. So when I wake up – if I’ve been to sleep, then that’s where Starbucks app experience comes to my rescue. I open the app, its already personalised with my favourite drink pulled from the loylty scheme, the nearest coffee shop is selected and with a couple of taps my drink is ordered, I pop in through the front door grab my coffee and I’m good to go – no queuing and delaying my caffeine hit! It sits perfectly aligned to the journey I’m going through and what I need at the time.
• #68: Similarly the PayPal app mirror the way that I interact with my friends, so on the rare occasion any of them are kind enough to offer to buy me a Starbucks, once the initial misunderstanding is cleared up and they ask for the money, I’m then able to ping them over the money straight away using their mobile number which has fast become on of the main identifiers we have for our friends. The experience is based around what I’m needing in my life using the identifiers I have.
• #69: So these couple of simple examples underline the main point here, which is about creating a synergy between what your providing and what your user needs. The reason I have the Starbucks app on my phone is that it’s useful and it provides a value to me as a user. It fits well inside my everyday helping me get to my coffee as quickly as possible without waiting – and in return I repay Starbucks by buying caffeinated beverage after caffeinated beverage. Similarly the reason we all use PayPal is because its easy to use and helps me transfer money and make payments in the way that I think about them, using what I already know. May sound simple but so many brands miss the mark…
• #70: The question over what people want from their mobile banking experience is a big one. But one trend that lies under all experiences nowdays is that we expect more immediacy ease and control. Now of course I want to be able to check my balances, but there are so many other parts of my day to day that I look for my bank to fulfil. When I’m trying to pay my friend back for a coffee I don’t want to have to go through a long process with requesting their bank details, opening the app, closing the app, heading to the website, starting my login, going back to my app for the auth code, back to the website to create the payee, then back to the app to make the payment…
• #71: Equally some services aren’t necessarily those you interact with regularly. Insurance isn’t easy, a lot of the time people only look to engage with their insurance company once a year when it comes round to renewal. As apps aren’t one off browsing experiences whatever you do needs to provide something of additional value to the user that will drive frequent use. Aviva’s app has attempted that by accepting claims through the app, showing quotes and details of your products. However when you go to use the app, or read the many reviews on the app store, many of these features direct you back onto the website which then push you through another login.
• #72: Whereas we can have the opportunity to get inside what the users doing and tailor an app to their experience For example, the only other time I’ve recently contacted my insurance company is when I have bad luck and get a chip in the windscreen. This involves me digging out my policy number, calling an 0800 number, making a claim and then trying to sort a date for it to be fixed. It’s a faff. As a result we don’t get round to it, and like all insurance claims the longer we go without making it the more expensive the claims ends up being, as the chip turns to a crack and spread across the windscreen, changing a repair to a replacement. An easier route is to use geo-location to set where you are from the work car park, arrange a time slots and then receive push notifications throughout the process so you always know where you are.
• #73: With our expectations of immediacy we also tend to expect to plan less. When we go abroad now, we don’t have to change up money, a lot of our cards work abroad without charge courtesy of new challenger banks that we can use and increasingly travel insurance is a last minute step if we don’t have it.
• #74: As well as offering services like real time payment notifications and automatic savings by rounding up transactions Revolut also offers users day by travel insurance for such situations. The app fires up geolocation where you are and with a couple of quick taps you can be covered on a day by day basis.
• #75: And I guess going back to the original banking apps we mentioned this is maybe one of the changes in philosophy of late. I think anyone that’s been around digital products over the last few years will have come across the three letters MVP, minimal viable product – the concept being that you want to get a new product out to market as quickly as possible meeting the baseline needs of the user. This is fine in some circles but the issue with this philosophy for many users is that nowadays we none of us just want a baseline met. MDP isn’t new, but the concept of a minimal desirable product is an important but subtle difference. Getting to market quick is great, but users not being delighted enough to come back is not so. The reality is that when people try apps once and decide against them, it’s very hard to get them back – this is true of both consumer and enterprise apps. Users don’t care about the upcoming sprints, backlogs or how your velocity is picking up – they want a great experience.
• #76: Ultimately – increasingly we all want more for less They want to achieve more from wherever they are whenever they want to. Both your customers and your employees want to be able to do things quicker and easier than ever before. They want experiences that are much more crafted to our needs We don’t expect to have to do any work for this we just expect to make decisions and have it happen.
• #77: Back in the day when we wanted to watch a film we’d go to Blockbuster Video – we might do online research or ask friends to get an idea of what the right thing to watch. Nowadays at the end of a series of Stranger Things I expect Netflix to tell me what to watch – and to be honest I get annoyed when it’s suggestions aren’t right. The same tools I used to have in Blockbuster are there – search, view genre etc but my expectation is that Netflix will know me better than I know myself.
• #78: And so we come to the point of the post app era. Expectations keep rising and whilst providing a great user experience is vital, one that meet users needs and expectations and delights. But increasingly the people are suffering from screen fatigue and often experiences take us away from our environment and have us starting down at the floor. So what can we do to deal with this. The term post app era doesn’t really refer to the death of apps which is good news – the last 20 minutes hasn’t been a complete waste - but it refers more to a change in what they do and what we do with them. In the post app era people are looking for experiences that enhance their day to day rather than distracting from it.
• #79: So, in a post-app era do I need to open the app at all, or can we use location services as I switch my phone back on to prompt a push notification asking me if I need insurance for wherever in the world I am – then with a quick tap of a button I’m covered. The app already knows my details and a tokenised payment system is there so payment can be taken and covers sent straight back to internal system processing and I’m covered. I’ve not even opened the app. Of course this is still a tap of a button, for a zero touch experience we need to look at voice assistants. Voice is of course a much more natural experience – my son doesn’t really know how to do much in apps, but at three years old he tells Siri to turn the lights on and the heating up. The next billion as the expression goes will be using voice… so can I arrive at Heathrow and just say Hey Siri, can you arrange my insurance to Paris? Or better still can I say that and through an integration to my calendar can Siri automatically cover me for Paris?
• #80: So of course IoT is no new concept and neither is the idea of integration systems. But if you run back to the early days of apps when we wanted to own everything and the whole experience – well on the whole now we wouldn’t think of building our own contact book or calendar – we integrate with those on the device. We’re aware that we create more benefit to the user by integrating the ecosystem and creating more value. And as systems and data opens up then the value in that data can be drawn out
• #81: In the post app era the data generated from various apps in our Phones has the power to drive decisions in our environment. Mint is a US budget app, rated as one of the best apps in the US. Because it can help you quickly identify where you are spending your money, so you can see where to trim your current expenses as you make a budget.  Moving forward, with an understanding of your favourite coffee shops and personal targets, could mint help you drive down your spending with a helpful nudge as you get nearer a coffee shop or the like?
• #82: A key trend of post app era is the ability to personalise the environment around us We often joke that your phone probably knows you better than anyone else and what does that mean for post app experiences.
• #83: Increasingly we’re used to use our biometrics through touch Id or face ID to identify us for payments and logins Using this in combination with data generated from other services could enable us to personalise our interactions with all manner of services in the real world
• #84: And no presentation about what comes next would be complete without a slide or two about AI! There are of course a million options for how AI will improve app experiences, from personalised budgets, better search, voice recognition, sentiment analysis – there are more ways than I could have drawn slides for, some of these create so much more natural experiences
• #85: So for instance when we’re reporting an incident or similar can we just use the camera and a combination of computer vision and ML to pick apart key details like the other vehicles number plate to ensure we don’t lose important information? This is of course a much higher fidelity more natural way to look at these things than trying to type of long winded reports by the road side.
• #86: So how does any of this relate to crafting the right app experience, why have I spoken about My children and lack of sleep My holidays Or my bad luck with cracked windscreens It all comes back to the parity between what the business needs and the user wants. We were running a workshop at a clients innovation lab a couple of weeks back and throughout the day we had to keep pulling things back to the fact that using tech for tech’s sake is pointless It doesn’t generate ROI and in the case of an innovation lab nothing will ever get spun out into the business. Comes back to the point that It has to be beneficial to the user to be beneficial to your business
• #87: So the change of pace in the industry is pretty fast and well, it’s certainly what makes it exciting for us! It’s what drives us as a company. The first step is of course understanding what do you want to achieve? Is it Revenue/CX/improve efficiency? What’s your business goal? After this we typically we look at things in two halves
• #88: So when you look at some of the brands that are maybe thought of as the fastest moving or technologically advanced they’ve all typically been through a similar process where they have set about understanding the interactions people are going to want to carry out with their brand – creating accounts, ordering pizza etc and then making sure that these are facilitated through a sensible well documented API strategy. This means that as new technology comes along you’ll be better positioned to iterate fast on top of an established robust, secure core. Finance industry = heavily regulated.
• #89: The other side I’m sure you’ll be surprised to hear is user focussed Approaches vary from case to case - from B2C to B2B but the key thing is to engage around the user and build understanding and empathy. By using combinations of observation, quantative and qualititive research you can really get to the bottom of what the landscape for your users is. When we do this we like to look for the gaps between users expectation, fulfilment and also what the business thinks they’re achieving. It produces some interesting results.
• #90: So this can then be used to produce graphs showing expectation and delivery back by evidence and detail. Taking the areas that most align with business goals and where the gaps are biggest you have the start of your roadmap and then the fun begins!
• #91: [What is this picture?!] So, we’ve run through apps, where we came from, talking about my children – all important, talked about how important the alignment of goals between the user and the business is, talked a little about the post app era and then very briefly run through how you might get to know your users more.
• #92: So I guess, if there is one key things that runs throughout all this is that whatever the technology your looking at is the main thing is a perception that
• #93: Thank you, (time dependant – Questions) Thank you again for having me, come and find me after if you have any specific questions, enjoy the rest of the day.
• #94: Holding slide
• #114: Holding slide