This year The Fintech Marketing Hub was an official media partner of Money2020 Europe. Here's a brief recap of our experience at the event in Amsterdam.
Money2020 Europe just passed and I thought it would be good to do a recap for the FIntech Marketing Hub!
This was my first M2020 going as the FMH, and it was an absolute blast. 8,000 people were there from around the world, from 90+ countries and over 350 speakers. I met some amazing fintech marketers and was able to do a lot of nerding out on my two favourite topics: fintech and marketing.
Let’s get into it!
My impressions and key takeaways
Key topics: There were a lot of embedded finance booths, which apparently wasn’t so much the case last year. Many of the companies there were looking to sell to B2B fintechs or were looking for partnerships. There was a lot less crypto (no surprise there). There were definitely more talks about AI, as well as dealing with the tech downturn and how that’s affecting companies.
First marketing panel: This year, M2020 Europe held its first-ever marketing panel! Speakers included Andrea from Zai, Lucy from Hokodo, and Payal from the Fintech B2B Marketing community. The session covered topics like:
Experiential marketing
How to get a seat at the table as a marketer
How marketing is becoming much more than marketing. It’s now about customer experience, branding, and lead generation. Today’s marketers have a lot more to do (which is why we’re doing a conference on this topic on the 4th of July!)
Partnerships seemed to be a focus: With a tech downturn and a more saturated space, a lot more people seem to be open to partnering with others. This seemed to be a recurring theme throughout the event.
More VCs and investors were going to the after-parties. I met many VCs and investors at the after parties, and practically none during the event. Apparently, it’s a thing to just come for the afterparties and not the M2020 event itself, and this was more evident this year.
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Which brands stood out?
As a marketer, it’s hard to not analyse other people’s marketing wherever you go. Richard Hudson, Head of PR & Comms at OpenPayd, asked the Fintech Marketing Slack group what stood out most to people attending.
Here are some of the group's thoughts:
Clearbank’s stand location
Geoff Whitehouse, Content Lead at Clearbank, told me himself that the location of his stand was in a prime location: right where the two largest spaces connect. Every time you went to the connections lounge you’d see the Clearbank stand. They were also nailing engagement with coffee, socks and great chat.
Terrapay’s stand
According to Richard from OpenPyad, everyone was talking about the Terrapay stand. That’s because it was relatively large and allowed for an informal area, as well as a focused meeting space that offered some level of privacy.
Enfuce and Rabobank
Multiple people in the group mentioned that any booth with a podcast space is a good idea because you can record episodes with guests from the event. People liked the Enfuce booth, even though many mentioned the messaging was a bit confusing.
Sopra banking and cocktails
After 4 pm it was clear that people were ready for drinks, which meant that people gravitated towards the stands that were serving drinks and they quickly dominated.
Sopra Banking hosted amazing cocktails from 4 pm and since they were right in the middle, they were well positioned.
Airwallex logo and machine
Irina Chuchkina, CMO at Thunes, mentioned that she liked the logo and booth of Airwallex.
Here are some photos:
Swag machine
The Swag machine in one of the wings attracted a lot of attention. It enabled a gamified session where if you had an M2020 coin, you could get swag from a robot machine.
The afterparties: yay and nay
I teamed up with CMO of Ctrl Alt, Ele Ward and Product marketer of Sopra Banking, Leo Burger for the after-parties.
We had a great time, but as Amélie Arras, Marketing Director at Zumo, said in our Slack group, there is a big gap for an after-party that lasts after 9 pm and accepts a lot of people. Two nights in a row, we couldn’t get into the location because it was over capacity, which was a terrible experience for us.
We didn’t want to go to parties at 6 pm, as Amelie says, we ended up arriving at 8.30 pm or 9 pm, and then we weren’t able to get in (there’s a gap there for the next M2020).
Conclusion
All in all, it was an incredible experience and (if you have the budget) highly recommended. It’s a great place if you want to catch everyone. As Amelie says, it needs proper preparation and you really need to invest in it to make it a success. As Irina says, it is a worthy investment if you sell to other fintech companies.
See you all next year!
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