Andrea Faleburle, TMGM, Discusses Sports Sponsorships and Marketing Campaigns

Andrea Faleburle, TMGM's Head of Global Marketing, underlined the requirements of a successful marketing campaign in the FX and CFD business. Faleburle just joined TMGM from IC Markets, where he worked for almost four years.

Faleburle's new job will include facilitating TMGM's worldwide development via creative marketing strategies. Furthermore, the newly hired Head of Global Marketing intends to raise TMGM's brand recognition via result-oriented sports sponsorships.

Faleburle has vast expertise in the financial services area. According to him, the correct amount of imagination and a bold mindset is required for the success of marketing and branding projects. In terms of TMGM's unique selling point, Faleburle said that a core group of enthusiastic, like-minded individuals distinguishes TMGM from its competitors.

Mr. Faleburle, we are delighted to have you here. In your perspective, how has marketing developed in the global financial services business over the past several years？

In recent years, we have witnessed the rise of a stronger dependency on technology for each of us; initially, for marketers like me, this was an endless horizon of opportunity and experimentation, but over time, this relationship with modern technology has been exploited and misused too many times, leading to a loss of trust and a natural tendency of the people to be suspicious and 'defend' themselves from marketing/sales messages and practices. The Global Financial Industry is one of the most vulnerable businesses to this trend of loss of confidence since it includes money and individuals who are naturally sensitive to the subject.

With this in mind, marketers in our business must re-invent themselves somewhat, shifting from entirely performance-driven to 'patience driven': the connection with prospective customers must be fostered and grown at the speed dictated by the client, not the marketers. There is a need for a more comprehensive marketing strategy. On the one hand, we have super-advanced algorithms for programmatic web advertising, and we tend to assume that the most essential thing is to give data to the algorithm, but ironically, the data we have today may be inaccurate, fuzzy on the edges, or simply telling us a portion of the reality.

As a result, marketers must have a strong investigative mind when it comes to statistics, and they must retro-engineer numbers to behavior to eliminate deceptive inputs to the algorithm that might undermine a highly sophisticated marketing strategy. At the same time, marketers in our business must be more creative, engaging, and produce more value in every engagement with individuals to develop a progressive flow of information with them and build trust.

What function do sports sponsorships play in today's financial marketing ecosystem？

Some of the large players in our industry played the sports sponsorship card a long time ago with tremendous success; since then, many brokers have placed their branding on a sports team or attached their name to a sports event, some with more success than others. The fundamental distinction is how effectively you can exploit the assets provided in the sponsorship arrangement while implementing a well-integrated activation of the sponsorship itself.

A large sponsorship is one of the most difficult things for a marketing team to do successfully, but it can be a lot of fun if you have the appropriate amount of imagination and a brave mindset.

At the very least, sports sponsorships are important for brand recognition, and they often serve as a mark of trust. However, when properly activated, they allow the financial institution to show a more human face to their core audience (reinforcing brand loyalty) and explore extended audiences using different types of content that would otherwise be unusual in the context of the financial industry, or at least compared to its expected type of serious communication.

How does TMGM distinguish itself from other brokers in the industry？

As a marketer, I might utilize some of our USPs to sell the brand or discuss our unique positioning in the minds of the customers. But, in all honesty, my job experience has taught me that what makes a firm stand out is always a core group of like-minded individuals who are united and enthusiastic about what they do.

When compared to some of its immediate rivals in the business, TMGM is a relative newcomer. However, in this context, new is equivalent to a 'new approach.' Many industry veterans now work at TMGM and recognize that the ultimate goal must always be the customer experience. This applies to every level of client connection with TMGM: trading conditions, the convenience of sign up, upfront openness, and honesty in interacting with clients, as well as caring and timely assistance with the capacity to help but also listen to their comments. To return to the original question, what is TMGM's key point of differentiation？ From my perspective, the attitude of those who work in it.

Is there a particular location you are targeting with TMGM's marketing campaign？

As you may have deduced from TMGM's multi-year sponsorship of the Australian Open in 2019, Australia is a critical market for us. However, rather than concentrating on a certain location, our goal is to concentrate on 'hubs' where individuals interested in trading online at any level (beginning or seasoned CFDs traders) may interact. We then try to give excellent multilingual service and online trading facilities to everyone who chooses to trade with us. By doing so, we can connect with a more receptive audience and engage on issues that are important to them.