Crafting inclusive Fintech communication Campaigns

I recently served on a committee tasked with selecting an agency to run a campaign for one of Ghana’s interoperable payment services. After hours of listening to presentations from various advertising agencies, we finally settled on a campaign idea that everyone loved.

The agency’s big idea came with a beautiful soundtrack that would have been perfect, except for the opening dialogue. The conversation between a man and a woman featured the woman seductively asking the man to send her money. This was a red flag for me. Aside from the conversation reinforcing a gender stereotype, it felt inappropriate for a mass-market service like the one we were introducing.

I found myself asking: Is this the story we want to tell about the service? Is this the kind of use case we want to encourage? Do I want this service to perpetuate the long-standing stereotype of men as financial providers and women as beneficiaries? How would this messaging sit with more conservative audiences? The questions kept flooding my mind.

To cut a long story short, the dialogue was removed entirely, and we still conveyed the message effectively. The campaign’s final version highlighted the value proposition of the service without promoting any particular gender-based narrative.

Why am I sharing this story?

Every element in a piece of communication for a digital financial service campaign contributes significantly to how the message is received and acted upon.

The imagery, language, and tone used in a campaign can either build or break the trust of your target audience. This is especially true when launching digital financial services aimed at diverse and inclusive markets.

Representation matters. Consumers are more likely to trust a service when they can identify with the people featured in the messaging. If your product is aimed at, for instance, market women, and your campaign doesn’t reflect their realities or speak their language, you risk missing the mark entirely, regardless of how strong your value proposition is.

Here are key steps I take to ensure that campaign messaging and imagery are aligned with the target audience:

• Customer Insight: The foundation of any effective campaign is understanding your target audience deeply. This includes profiling how they look, where they are, how they speak, what media they consume, their pain points, and cultural nuances. This understanding should be the basis for developing a creative brief that agencies can easily interpret, sparking the right creative ideas. For example, when targeting the informal sector, understanding their daily challenges, cultural expectations, and financial behaviors will inform everything from the language used in the script to the setting of the campaign.
• Clearly Articulate the Story and Motivation behind the Service: There’s always a deeper motivation behind any fintech service or solution. In the case of our campaign, the primary goal was to accelerate financial inclusion. This core motivation should be clearly communicated to the agency during the briefing process, ensuring that all creative ideas align with the product’s mission. The original “conversation” in the soundtrack was an unnecessary excess that did not align with the goal of promoting financial inclusion. Agencies should understand that the story they tell must reflect the true purpose of the service, ensuring that the creative elements reinforce that narrative.
• Be Fully Involved in Model Selection: Since you’ve defined a specific audience, ensure that the models used in your campaign represent the people you’re trying to reach. Diversity in model selection is crucial—not just in gender but also in age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. If you’re targeting young professionals, for instance, it wouldn’t make sense to feature retirees as the main characters in your ads. Being involved in the selection process ensures that your vision is fully realized and resonates with the intended audience.
• Choose Authentic Campaign Locations: Ensure that the locations used in your campaign reflect where your target audience lives, works, or shops. For example, if your audience includes urban professionals, filming in a rural setting may dilute the message. Similarly, if your target is traders in the market, make sure the campaign is set in environments they can relate to, such as bustling markets rather than sterile office environments. Authenticity matters. When the audience sees their reality reflected in your campaign, they are more likely to trust the service you are offering.
• Pilot Test Your Campaign: Before rolling out a full-scale campaign, test your messaging with a small sample of your ideal target audience. This allows you to gauge their reaction and make any necessary adjustments to ensure your message resonates as intended. Focus groups or beta testing can reveal unexpected blind spots, providing valuable insights into how the wider audience might react.

In addition to the considerations mentioned above, it’s essential to involve a balanced representation of both men and women throughout the development of both the financial solution and its communication strategy. Men and women often interact with financial services differently, and their unique perspectives can shape a campaign that is more inclusive and impactful.

For example, in many households, women may be the primary financial decision-makers, yet financial products are frequently marketed primarily to men. Including women in both the product design and communication phases can help avoid gender biases and ensure that the service appeals to all relevant demographics.

?As fintech services continue to evolve and reach more diverse audiences, the importance of inclusive and authentic communication cannot be overstated. Every detail matters.

Ultimately, your communication strategy must be aligned with the needs and realities of your target market, reflecting diversity and inclusivity at every stage. By doing so, fintech companies can build stronger connections with their audience, foster trust, and drive financial inclusion on a larger scale.