With its cutting-edge innovations, fintech has completely changed the financial environment and put traditional banking to the test. Fintech’s influence is extensive, ranging from the convenience of mobile banking to open finance efforts, digital payments, and equitable wealth management. This paper examines its transformative power and highlights the necessity for a well-balanced regulatory framework to maintain its beneficial effects and manage this dynamic financial force as it continues to evolve.

People now utilize their phones for convenient banking, the ease of use is a standout feature, allowing users to manage various financial tasks with just a few taps on their phones.

Also, the ideas behind open banking are moving very quickly. Open finance uses open data to make it safe for different banks to share customer data. All of these changes are making the money system better for everyone. These changes have greatly affected how financial services are offered and used, giving users and businesses new opportunities.

Fintech’s Disruption of Traditional Banking

Since fintech changes how banks work, it’s one of the main reasons for its growth. It was hard for standard banks to keep up with the fast changes’ customers wanted because they used old methods and had difficult structures. The new problems that fintech companies didn’t have to deal with meant they could move quickly and use cutting-edge technologies to create quick solutions focused on the customer.

Online banking, a key aspect of fintech, has revolutionized personal finance management. With user-friendly planning apps and seamless fund transfers, individuals now have enhanced control over their finances. In response to fintech’s focus on improving customer experience, traditional banks have adapted their services and systems. This shift has resulted in robust competition, ultimately benefiting customers in the long run.

The Rise of Digital Payments

It’s clear that fintech is on the rise since there are more ways to pay online. Increasingly, individuals do not require cash. This can be because of apps, electronic installments, and peer-to-peer installment frameworks. With a tap on their phones, individuals presently anticipate purchases to be fast, secure, and straightforward.

Cryptocurrencies are another portion of fintech. It takes off the typical managing an account framework open to assault. Individuals think that cryptocurrencies will be the next enormous thing since they are an alternative to standard fiat monetary forms that are free and open.

It’s exciting to note that these developments affect a number of businesses, including the gaming and gambling industry. Advanced security measures have been established by platforms such as VegasSlotsOnline to protect user data and financial activities. These platforms accept cryptocurrency payments, enabling gamers to remain anonymous. Players can now enjoy the safety of playing online casino games, and the site offers thousands of free online slots with diverse themes and variations for those who prefer not to gamble with real money.

As fintech continues to shape the financial landscape, these developments are fundamentally changing how transactions are conducted and experienced.

Fintech in Wealth Management

It has also changed because of fintech in wealth management. These platforms make it easier for everyone to get access to wealth management services. They also make financial techniques that were once only available to wealthy people available to everyone.

Fintech has also helped crowdfunding and peer-to-peer loan platforms grow, which give people and companies access to capital that isn’t available through traditional banks. This change has given freelancers and small companies more power by letting them skip the lengthy loan approval processes that traditional banks have.

Financial Inclusion through Fintech

The growth of fintech isn’t just changing how financial services are given; it’s also a big part of making sure everyone can get money. Having bad credit, living in certain places, or not making enough money are just some of the reasons why many people can’t use standard banks. It’s easier for people who don’t have bank accounts or enough money in their accounts to use financial services with fintech choices like mobile banking and digital wallets.

Financial technology has grown in importance in emerging nations that don’t have easy access to regular banking systems. People can use their phones to make deals, get loans, and become financially stable with mobile money systems. It changes lots of things and gives people and groups the tools they need to work in the business and make their lives better.

Conclusion

The rise of fintech is a turning point in the history of the financial business. Fintech has changed every part of the financial ecosystem, from standard banks to helping more people get access to money. Its constant search for new ideas and dedication to user-centered design have led the industry into a new era of ease of use and speed. As fintech changes how we handle, trade, and deal with our money, it becomes more and more important to have a balanced regulatory system. Finding the right mix will make sure that the fintech revolution stays a force for good, giving people and companies around the world new ways to do things and new chances to grow. Fintech is becoming a more important part of modern finance, but the trip is far from over. The journey is ongoing, promising even more revolutionary changes as fintech cements its role as an integral part of modern finance.

The post A New Era in Financial Technology: Fintech’s Ascent appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Major hotels see a need for charged-up marketing via digital and social channels as they work to combat threats from Airbnb, Priceline, Expedia, and other actors in the extremely competitive hotel business.

How to stay “top of mind” with consumers? More hotel marketing professionals than ever plan to increase their budgets for digital marketing and social media strategies.

Evidence for this comes from a recent SiteMinder survey. When the hospitality marketing platform queried hotel professionals worldwide “about their projected budget allocations for the next 12 months, 48 percent of respondents said they planned high spending to go toward digital marketing, while 44 percent said they intended to designate high investment in social media strategy.”

The goal among hotels is to invest in marketing campaigns that encourage customers to “book direct.”

“One reason hotel professionals are doubling down on digital marketing and social is the growing market power of accommodations upstart Airbnb,” according to eMarketer. “Hotel operators must also compete with the deep pockets of online travel agencies Priceline and Expedia, both of which spend considerable sums on consumer marketing (and cut) into hotel profits by charging commissions for customer referrals.”

Review of the top 10 U.S. accommodation websites tells the tale about challenges confronting hotels.

“Airbnb ranked as the most visited accommodation website in Q4 2016, receiving nearly 88 million visits, up 42 percent from Q4 2015,” reports eMarketer. “Priceline Group’s Booking.com came in second, with more than 82 million visits and a 24 percent growth rate, while Expedia-owned Hotels.com was fourth, with more than 65 million visits, up 25 percent year on year.”

Did any hotel chains make the top five chart? Only two: Marriott and Hilton.

The post More Cowbell! Hotels See Bigger Digital, Social Budgets as Way to Counter Competition appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

That’s why it may be time for business leaders to take the initiative and start doing a little disrupting of their own, says Dushyant Sukhija (www.dushyantsukhija.com), a former executive with Cisco Systems and author of “The Cisco Way: Leadership Lessons Learned from One of the World’s Greatest Technology Services Companies” (www.theciscoway.com).

“We’re in an era of ‘digital disruption,’ ” he says. “As leaders, if you don’t transform to master the digital era to disrupt, you’ll get disrupted. And it will be a brutal disruption, where the majority of companies will not exist in a meaningful way 10 to 15 years from now.”

“Digital disruption” is how technology can transform everything about the way businesses are run and interact with customers.

Sukhija says those in leadership positions can guide their organizations through the new digital era by following a simple five-step operational blueprint:

• Build and execute a compelling vision. Focus on developing a vision that is disruptive to your industry and think three to five years out. Engage your customers and partners in the process. Clarify and articulate the value to your stakeholders. Ensure that your entire organization and ecosystem internalizes and drives in formation towards that vision. Build robust execution plans to work towards it, review your performance regularly and make course corrections when needed.
• Adopt a partner-centric model to deliver. Collaboration is core to delivering superior competitive advantage with speed in the new digital world. Pick the right partners to build unique and sustainable value for your customers. Convince them of your vision and strategy. Show them how you innovate and create new markets.
• Reinvent yourself. A nimble organization that can read market transitions and adapt itself to refocus on cheaper and faster ways to deliver new customer value is best suited to lead through the digital disruption. Deploy a governance process to listen, learn, execute, lead and adjust to changing market dynamics and competitiveness.
• Turn people into your secret weapon. Employees are the true intellectual capital of every company and that means businesses must invest in their people to enable them to become the catalysts to help you navigate the digital transformation. Align employees to a common goal and create a nurturing environment. Harness their intellectual horsepower to drive exceptional thought leadership and repeatability of proven leading practices.
• Accelerate the speed of innovation. Innovation is not just about the technology but also about how you organize yourself, how you engage your customers, and how you drive cultural change through your organization. Resource sharing and clustering talent should come into laser-sharp focus to get closer to your customers and streamline your business. Learn from your customers by engaging them in your innovation cycles. Become nimble to react to changing market needs and adapt to them.

“Digital disruption is bound to propel the rise of new companies that master the digital transformation and bring about the demise of those that fail to do so,” Sukhija says. “As a business leader, you can either take the steps to embrace it or risk being left behind.”

The post 5 Ways Leaders Can Take Charge In An Era of ‘Digital Disruption’ appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Part of the battle is a generational one. In fact, a new eMarketer report — “Television Update Fall 2016: Is the Surge in TV Ad Spending a Normal Shift or a Trend?” — points to fresh Nielsen data revealing that U.S. viewers under the age of 35 spent roughly half as much weekly time in front of the TV than their older counterparts.

“The sum of weekly time spent with apps, desktop internet, video, game consoles, and multimedia (over-the-top) devices by U.S. consumers ages 18 to 34 exceeded their time spent with live TV,” notes the eMarketer report. “Ad experiences can differ greatly across these platforms. For example, TV commercials fill an entire screen, multiple internet display ads might run on single pages and in-app ads may appear within a game’s background scenes.”

Data from Magna Global (July, 2016) shows that U.S. digital and TV ad spending are in a dead heat for a share of available advertising dollars, with each medium expected to garner about 38% of average media plan budget allocation this year.

“But digital’s share of media ad expenditures was projected to surpass 50 percent by 2020, while TV’s portion is forecast to fall to about 33 percent,” according to eMarketer. “Unless the entire advertising pie increases dramatically over the next few years, the expectation under the Magna Global scenario is that TV ad spending will either flatline or decline.”

Magna Global’s figures jive with eMarketer forecasts projecting that U.S. digital ad spending’s share of total media ad spending will exceed TV’s share for the first time this year.

As advertisers decide how best to allocate spending across media given the surge in digital media use, some things are clear. Digital will increase and fairly dramatically going forward. In the meantime, TV is holding on — and it’s clear its share of ad spend has largely come at the expense of print media, whose share has been in steep decline.

“Print brands are now digital brands and all traditional media are becoming video media,” explained Brian Hughes, senior vice president of audience intelligence and strategy at Magna Global. “So you have the Condé Nasts or the Time Incs. of the world investing heavily in video now.”

The post Battle of the Titans: TV and Digital Go Head to Head to Grab U.S. Media Dollars appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Yep — it’s the back-to-school season and online shoppers are crowing on social networks (you can’t blame them for their excitement — after all, the kids are going back to a classroom instead of the basement to play video games!)

Now an infographic from RadiumOne reveals what drives back-to-school shoppers.

“Around Labor Day, kids across America will start the school year sporting freshly purchased outfits and educational gear,” notes AdWeek. “And a new report shows just how much parents are turning to their mobile phones to find –and brag about — those deals.”

To find out what’s happening, RadiumOne went to the chalkboard — er, oops — it surveyed 1,452 adults from a wide demographic pool to determine how school shopper parents behave (digitally, that is) during the back-to-school shopping season.

What do we know?

At least 45 percent said they plan to buy online. That’s huge, actually.

And 82 percent said they would share their purchases on Facebook, which appears to be the most popular social platform for such sharing. Another 40 percent said they would share via a text message.

For more insight, check out the visual shared below.

The post Promote That No. 2 Pencil, Peeps! Social and Mobile Impacts Retail as Back-to-School Shoppers Post Details appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

In a report by Standard Media Index, cable TV networks were down 7%, with broadcast networks off 8%, representing 80% of the market.

Broadcast networks saw an 18% gain in scatter revenue but at 12% decline in upfront money placed in April all while cable improved 5% in scatter but was down 9% in upfront dollars.

The report states that total upfront revenue placed for April was off 11% with total scatter gaining 10%. Other TV result saw national spot up 2%, syndication down 7%, and local advertising dollars 5% higher.

Digital media gained 21% in the month with pure-play video up 44%, social media 70%, and ad networks gaining 35%. Two lower-performing digital areas were ‘TV network, digital’ and ‘pure play content/search,’ each rose 3%.

Out-of-home media gained 7% and magazines lost 4%. Radio sank 12%, with newspapers inching up 1%.

Overall, media dollars inched up 1% during the month.

The post National TV Ad Dollar Decrease as Digital Increases appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“A month after YouTube added interactive cards to its skippable TrueView ads, retail advertisers can now use those card overlays to include product information, images, and links to purchase a product on a brand’s site,” reports AdAge. “They can also use these ads to remarket to people who may have checked out a product on a brand’s site without checking out.”

True, Google (which owns YouTube) intends to equip its search ads with buy buttons. On YouTube, people won’t be able to buy an advertised product directly, but it will make the “path to purchase” shorter, according to YouTube’s senior product manager Lane Shackleton.

“One of the things we saw was people going off YouTube and searching on Google.com for that product [seen in an ad on YouTube], and then clicking the product listing. In this case we’re just reducing the friction,” Shackleton explained.

“The new TrueView for Shopping ads are also a move to bring more direct-response dollars to a video service typically viewed by marketers as a way to raise their brands’ profiles but not necessarily to push product,” noted AdAge. “Last year eMarketer estimated that 59 percent of the $50 billion U.S. brands funneled into digital advertising were used for direct-response campaigns that are designed to get someone to do more than just observe an ad, such as clicking through to an advertiser’s site and buying something.”

Interestingly, a Google study in 2013, “Digital Drives Auto Shopping,” revealed that more than half of auto shoppers watch 30 minutes or more of videos during their shopping journey; about 25 percent watch an hour or more.

Like all TrueView card-carrying ads, advertisers will be charged only if people click on any of the product elements or watch the full ad (or at least 30 seconds of it).

“People will still be able to skip an ad after it has played for five seconds, which is also when a button will appear in the top-right of the corner of the video player that will display the card overlays when clicked,” according to AdAge.

The post YouTube Adds Shoppable Ads in Bid to Inspire Action appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The NAB Show, taking place at the Las Vegas Convention Center this week, brings together hundreds of cutting edge digital companies and suppliers.

WideOrbit is anticipating a good reception for its recent work in this arena. The company has spent a decade and a half fine-tuning and improving its wares, as well as invested more than $50 million in recent acquisitions of digital advertising technology companies.

What will the company showcase?

“WideOrbit’s robust multi-channel multimedia platform enables effective and profitable management of linear and digital advertising, and features the media industry’s premiere solution for yield optimization across linear and digital programmatic sales,” according to a company news release. “(Our) platform is designed to enable media companies to adopt a single solution and unified interface for managing every aspect of advertising operations – ranging from sales and traffic to program management and business intelligence – regardless of media type or selling method.”

WideOrbit claims more than 3,000 stations, including more than 70 percent of U.S. television stations (as well as a third of the top ad supported cable networks) now use its products.

“$30 billion in annual advertising spend is managed with WideOrbit’s software, making WideOrbit the industry’s preferred sell-side processer of premium advertising,” notes the firm.

Since appearing at the NAB Show a year ago, the company has added “WO Programmatic,” the first sell-side exchange for automating local broadcast TV, digital radio and digital display transactions; “WO Digital Hub” which enables seamless integration of linear and digital ad sales operations; and “WO Media Sales” (v.6.8) which seamlessly connects sales team activities and traffic systems.

Showcasing these and other offerings — including WO Streaming and WO Analytics — will be on the show agenda.

“Everything we do at WideOrbit is based on one fundamental principle: make it easy for our customers to make money and run their business,” said Eric R. Mathewson, Founder and CEO, WideOrbit. “There’s no question that the media business is evolving quickly. Audiences are consuming media in new ways on new devices, making a broadcaster’s cross-media capabilities critical to maximizing revenue. WideOrbit’s primary mission on behalf of our clients is to anticipate these changes and deliver technology that makes it painless to maximize revenue, reduce costs, fully value audiences and anticipate advertiser demands.”

The post WideOrbit Exhibiting Linear, Digital, Programmatic Ad Sales Solutions at 2015 NAB Show appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

It focuses on publisher Tribune’s efforts to rebuild what it sees as a lackluster digital operation and to ramp up revenue.

“When industry veteran Dan Hickey joined Tribune Publishing in January to head up digital marketing services, he saw great promise in the nascent division’s work, which last year included creating an online video series for Jewel-Osco and a multimedia website for Hangar 1 vodka,” writes reporter Robert Channick in the Tribune story. “That didn’t stop him from purging the entire sales staff, reassigning some and cutting loose dozens of others in a sweeping reorganization. Such is the urgency of his mission: Turn the legacy newspaper company’s online marketing expertise into a major profit center.”

Hickey’s view?

“We were doing work for Jewel, we were doing work for several other clients that were really pretty impressive programs, but there weren’t enough of them,” he said.

“The newspaper industry, which has seen its advertising revenue cut in half since 2005, is embracing digital marketing services as a crucial alternative revenue stream,” according to Channick. “Web development, paid search and social media strategies are the core offerings, with the related category of content marketing helping clients create everything from videos to stories in a bid to engage customers.”

The problem? Chicago-based Tribune Publishing, which includes the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and eight other daily newspapers, is trying to catch up.

“Building digital marketing services has been a priority for (Tribune publishing CEO Jack) Griffin since taking the reins last April,” says Channick. “The former CEO of Time Inc. launched a leading marketing services company now known as Meredith Xcelerated Marketing during his previous 12-year tenure at Iowa-based magazine publisher Meredith Corp.”

Though with 435 Digital, Tribune Publishing’s digital marketing services built 99 websites and generated $24.8 million last year, the 55 percent YOY increase was not enough for Griffin, who then brought in Meredith alumnus Hickey to “speed the process.”

“I’m here to accelerate this business, and make it so that it’s enduring and it’s profitable, and that it is serving our best customers and best advertisers,” Hickey said.

Acording to Channick, 435 Digital’s campaign last year for Jewel-Osco — “Something Fresh” — was a video series showing young “influential” Chicagoans shopping, preparing and serving foods from the grocery. The videos appeared on Jewel-Osco’s YouTube page and on chicagotribune.com, where they remain posted with a small advertisement disclaimer reading, “This content isn’t produced by the newsroom.”

Now, reportedly, Hickey expects readers to “see a lot more sponsored content on chicagotribune.com.”

“Not many people can create great content on a regular basis, and we can,” Hickey said. “We look at that as really the growth opportunity.”

It’s a story of how a modern day publisher is struggling to tap into the only remaining revenue source for former print giants: digital.

To read the whole thing, click here.

The post Tribune Publishing Rebuilds Digital Marketing Crew, Aims to Rev Up Revenue appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

NinthDecimal is a leading mobile audience intelligence company.

“The partnership introduces offline attribution as a major form of measurement for mobile and cross-device to accurately quantify marketing ROI,” according to a company release from NinthDecimal. “These insights complement the ZenithOptimedia LiveROI planning process, a dynamic, real-time approach to improving the effectiveness of advertising spend.”

The company says that seven current Fortune 500 ZenithOptimedia clients, such as Kohl’s, are currently “benefiting from this new solution with 19 mobile campaigns. These brands have started to measure omni-channel partners to demonstrate true in-store conversions lift by audience type, location, and media channel partners.”

“Engagement is not the only measure of effectiveness, which is why NinthDecimal’s LCI product provides our agencies and clients with a holistic view of consumers’ pathway to conversion along with actionable intelligence,” said Julian Zilberbrand, EVP for Activation Standards, Insights, and Technology at ZenithOptimedia. “These insights will empower brands to affect the customer path in real time.”

The joint partnership is being deployed across all of ZenithOptimedia’s media partners, representing the leading publishers and ad networks in the industry.

“We’re excited to partner with ZenithOptimedia to introduce this revolutionary platform that will change how the industry determines omni-channel campaign ROI,” added NinthDecimal CEO Michael Fordyce. “Uniquely sitting at the intersection of physical-world behavior and digital-world behavior enables us to provide the first omni-channel measurement platform utilizing mobile as the glue that connects all media.”

The post ZenithOptimedia and NinthDecimal Partner for Industry-First In-Store Measurement Platform appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.