New York/London/Singapore – 6th June 2023 – Cognito, the specialist financial services and climate transition communications agency, today released “The Future of Finance and Technology: A 2023 Guide for Communications and Marketing Professionals.”

The report uses material from a survey conducted by Cognito of more than 100 senior leaders at global organizations in financial services and related industries to understand their strategic and communications reporting. The survey included CMOs and CMOs as well as CEOs and founders.

Artificial intelligence represents a significant opportunity. 58% of those surveyed said they see greater volume of delivery as the biggest way for artificial intelligence to make a difference in marketing and communications. Better quality of delivery, new ideas and replacing current staff all were far behind.

Given the higher interest rate environment, 38% of respondents said customer relationships would become more important this year, as opposed to 30% who said brand and reputation was important and 21% who mentioned balance sheet strength and availability of credit.

Content (60%) and digital marketing (56%) and Media Relations (48%) were the areas most organizations are looking to increase spend. Sponsorships (15%) and digital marketing (27%) were the categories organizations were least likely to spend more, with the majority in both cases either reducing  spending or keeping it the same.

 Other findings of the survey included:

• Respondents perceive that the media has the greatest understanding of investment and retail banking, along wealth management; with digital assets, crypto and institutional fintech being the least understood.
• Executives believed market volatility and credit stress would be the sensitive issue most likely to impact global communications 
• ESG labelling and taxonomy was the area where regulatory initiatives will have the greatest impact on communications strategy

Cognito founder and CEO Tom Coombes said: “Emerging technology will transform marketing and communications in the way it has many other industries. A major strategic focus for Cognito going forward will be finding tangible, measurable ways to super-charge our clients’ programs. Our combination of leading financial services advisors, experts in AI and emerging tech and new forms of delivery leave us well positioned in this changing sector.”

The report’s lead author, Jon Schubin, Director, said: “We see financial business leaders excited at the possibility of creating more content so they can speak more specifically and more frequently to increasing narrow customer segments. While budgets are increasing, rising costs and more competition mean there’s still not enough to do everything people want. We’re focused on using new tools to augment and accelerate marketing programs and drive our clients’ business growth and valuations.”

The full report is available for download on Cognito’s website.