In financial services, brand awareness varies greatly depending on the stakeholder and their business needs. So, we sought to enhance the way FIS works with influencers to raise visibility and drive conversation among new and existing audiences. Simultaneously, an industry insider learning informed us influencers were interested in not just FIS brand association, but FIS expertise and leadership, arguably the company's greatest asset aside from its technology.
With this in mind, we wanted to launch a global, relationship-driven, and long-term program rooted in co-created content because gone are the days of one-off brand partnerships. We wanted this program (named #Finpact), to be mutually beneficial and offer conversation around FIS’ three priority financial services verticals: Securities & Investments (S&I), Insurance, and Financial Institutions (FIs).
Our program goals were to:
#Finpact’s overarching strategy was content co-creation through pairs or small groups of experts to ultimately connect FIS’ brand with fresh thinking and outside perspectives. For each vertical, we matched/paired up at least one internal FIS subject matter expert (SME) with a reputable industry leader to co-create social-first thought leadership content for their respective categories.
How did we do this? The first step was to identify the appropriate FIS SMEs to represent each vertical. Once chosen, we conducted extensive social listening and research to find the top thought leaders for each vertical. We then narrowed the list by determining which influencers’ POVs and expertise would best complement our SMEs’ focus areas, setting the stage for intelligent, material conversations.
Budgetary challenges impacted influencer identification and contracting to ensure FIS got the greatest return on investment. The all-in budget could've impacted the number of vertical industries we covered, but through careful negotiations, we covered all three industries and secured LinkedIn and Twitter/X influencers with sizable followings (22.7K-179.3K) who are well-known and respected in their fields.
Additionally, identifying and engaging the right FIS SMEs was challenging. Developing meaningful content was heavily reliant on being able to harmonize the matches, delivering value for both their audiences. Further, the SMEs needed to have an active presence on LinkedIn to organically promote the content to their networks. Furthermore, some executives were not as comfortable speaking on camera as others–especially when compared to influencers who execute such tasks regularly–so small group practice sessions were implemented accordingly during the preparation phases.
Despite these challenges, #Finpact came to life through several social and digital mediums including LinkedIn Live, webinars, fireside chats, blog posts, podcasts, and joint bylines. Below is a breakdown of our matches per vertical, aka the faces of #Finpact:
S&I:
Insurance:
FIs:
Through #Finpact, we engaged influential leaders on FIS’ radar via LinkedIn, including:
#Finpact's organic-only campaign generated the following results from January and December 2023 among FIS, FIS executive, and influencer social channels:
Through #Finpact’s success, we're implementing its distinctive co-created content model in upcoming 2024 influencer programs across FIS. This will ensure diverse, authentic voices and perspectives are brought to FIS’ platforms, further establishing FIS as a convener of top experts in the company’s areas of focus.
Additionally, thanks to the positive reception in 2023, we are extending our FI vertical program with another fully-produced webinar between Andrew and Susanne, this time on harnessing the power of GenAI in wealth management, taking place in February 2024. We’re also discussing extending #Finpact relationships with other partners pending available budget.
