Celebrating our 30th year with our 30 Series, this month we take a look at the stories that mattered.

Since Teamspirit launched in 1995, the UK’s financial services sector has been transformed. Not only are ways of working almost unrecognisable, accelerated by technology and changes in attitude, but the industry landscape has been shaped by headline-grabbing events, regulation, and product innovation.

As our timeline across the three decades shows, the journey to today has been quite remarkable.

[View the timeline here](/30-years-timeline)

To celebrate our 30th birthday, we're looking back at some significant financial moments over the last 30 years. Which stand out to you?

30 Series - 30 Events: 30 Years

While Spotify’s fascinating annual reveal of our music habits, or food retailers’ nudges of what we might enjoy next demonstrate how personalisation of communications and experience  creates win-wins for brand and customer, why is financial services late to the party?  

Over half of consumers state they’re more likely to repeat buy after a personalised experience[1]. Equally, 80% of financial institutions view personalisation as essential to meet the required Consumer Duty led standards[2].

So what do we need to do to play catch-up? That was the crux of our breakfast event, run in partnership with The Financial Services Forum, with three leaders in the field:
- David Conner, Head of Experience Design at Scottish Widows
- Simon Ripton, Director of Propositions at Open finance platform Moneyhub
- Richard Sullivan, Financial Services Lead, LinkedIn
- Chair - Fiona Couper, CMO, Teamspirit

Key take-aways from the event held at Mintel were:

- __Moments of truth.__ The importance of interacting with customers at key moments in their journey was critical - not just when providers wanted to sell to them
- __Enriching existing data was essential__ to deliver meaningful customer understanding. And how Open Finance enabled improved tailoring of solutions on dimensions including vulnerability, behaviour and risk
- __More creativity is required to achieve cut through.__  The panel discussed how personalisation needed to think bigger and go beyond the traditional
- __The need for a value exchange.__ How there was a need to provide value in terms of rewards, decision-making information and entertainment through content and gamification in exchange for customers’ data,  time and loyalty.
- __Generational tailoring.__ The meeting discussed that given given Gen X and Gen Z's preferences and expectations of channels, tech and communication, tailoring now needed to work at these levels too
- __The need for companies to  now deliver customer personalisation at Total Experience (TX) level not just UX__, spanning all customer touchpoints
- __‘Continuous engagement' as a marketing strategy.__ Speakers discussed how the impact of different engagements, nudges and interventions could and should be tested continuously to create learnings for later roll out and incorporation into experiences

Personalisation is just one of the emerging trends explored in our recent Signals report which you can view/download [here](https://www.teamspirit.co.uk/news-insights/2025-signals-report)

![FSF Feb Event](//images.ctfassets.net/sxw14dxmazhg/8yzOfsf3nVFljfjyNU1qb/cc45d9380b3a50f08a13626370a56d06/FSF_Feb_Event.png)

## Sources:

1. [https://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/announcing-the-state-of-personalization-2021](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/announcing-the-state-of-personalization-2021)
2. [https://www.dynamicyield.com/personalization-maturity-report-for-finance-2023/](https://www.dynamicyield.com/personalization-maturity-report-for-finance-2023/)

With high impact personalised customer experiences and communications on the rise, financial services is one of the slower sectors to the party.  What do experts from Scottish Widows, LinkedIn and Moneyhub feel FS needs to focus on?

How can financial services provide more personalised experiences?

From over there to over here, the typically US based The Gramercy Institute held their bi annual London event at Morningstar on Thursday 24th October to discuss 2025: Trends & Directions in Financial Marketing.

The packed half day agenda was a mix of panels and presentations, covering best practice and new directions across from content, brand, media and AI and the future of financial marketing (the latter of which I had the delight to be on the panel).

Content. Great content delivers insight that helps address audiences’ challenges. While the concept of the ‘9 lives’ of content ensures a constant drumbeat from the cascade of the content across the channels that meet people where they are.  Building on the perhaps more expected call for engagement, was the need ‘to move the conversation along’ - which provides a great reality check to avoid content spew.

Brand. The brand remains the differentiation and the competitive advantage, as well as the bedrock to customer and talent retention, plus cross selling.  Standing for something for the long term was a panel lightning rod. The perennial debate around purpose within asset management saw both sides reflected, from being the golden thread that unites (particularly during times of acquisition) to keeping purpose within community led marketing to ensure authenticity. 

Media. Sophistication in tools that measure audience engagement habits now allows far greater understanding of relevance, with the advice being not to ‘settle’ for good enough in terms of targeting. The co-ordination of earned, owned and paid was also highlighted as the starting point to better content optimisation, with smart data able to identify content multipliers.

AI & future of financial marketing. With AI now omnipresent and growing (spend levels currently £4.5bn in 2024 and set to grow to £64.3bn in 2030, and 46% of fs providers using AI to improve the customer experience), the panel shared how AI was helping in terms of communication creation as well as on the more futuristic developments including using avatars and tailored nudges. AI has become a useful tool that helps to save time and leading to new types of jobs from authenticators to predictive analysts to ‘Emily in Paris’s’.

Bill Wreaks, CEO & Chief Analyst, Gramercy Institute then shared the findings of some qualitative research within the US based Gramercy membership around what financial services brands are seeking from their agencies. Listen up:

-	Beyond the brief – understanding of the market.
-	Audience insight – outside in perspective.
-	360-degree ideas.
-	Innovation – the latest developments be that in media, content creation, partnerships etc
-	Key design principles – making sure every touchpoint is adding value to the brand through strong visual identity.

Striking is the similarity in challenges and needs that the financial service marketer faces whether they be US or UK based, particularly as the majority of the brands are global.

The Gramercy Institute held their bi annual London event at Morningstar on Thursday 24th October to explore best practice and new directions across from content, brand, media and AI and the future of financial marketing.  

The Gramercy  2025: Trends & Directions in Financial Marketing

While the summertime is typically considered a quieter period, it hasn’t been the case for our busy PR team who have been powering through the warm days and launching some fantastic work across a number of our clients. 

One of those campaigns has been Scottish Widows' landmark [Retirement Report](https://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/about-us/media-centre/reports/retirement-report.html), which is now in its 20th year. Examining how people think and feel about the future while charting the nation's preparedness for retirement year-on-year. This year, the findings show an alarming number of people aren’t on track for the retirement lifestyle they would like, people are having to work longer to save the money they need later on, and the heavy reliance on the state pension will continue for the foreseeable future. 

Working closely with the team at Scottish Widows and other agency partners, we launched the report at the end of July. Armed with the landmark findings, exclusive data, case studies, expert spokespeople and the support of sporting legend Paula Radcliffe as third-party spokesperson, the findings landed with a bang across broadcast, national, consumer and trade media. Coverage spanned from BBC You & Yours to The Times, The Telegraph and FT with over 100 pieces achieved to date, and more still to come. 

We love working on campaigns like this for a number of reasons. 

Firstly, engaging with a third party spokesperson, like Paula Radcliffe, added a different perspective on the findings. Paula was able to share her own experience of what it was like to retire from her ‘job’ at an early age, and the emotions she encountered. While this isn’t possible with every campaign, adding a third party spokesperson and well-known voice can really amplify the findings into a different space, to a different audience. And for us, the interviews coincided with the day that Andy Murray announced his retirement from tennis after the Olympics - a nice extra news hook. 

Secondly, Scottish Widows is forging a path in the financial services industry and spotlighting the experiences of marginalised communities. The team understands that we don’t all have the same experience and if we are to improve retirement outcomes across the entire population, we need to understand diverse experiences from those living with disabilities, minority groups and the LGBTQ community. And importantly, equip everyone with the tools, conversation starters and small actions they can take to make a positive change to their financial futures. 

Thirdly, with the formation of a new government we’ve been able to work closely with the public affairs team to call for changes needed to get more people in the UK on track for retirement. From lowering auto-enrolment age, widening the scope to bring in self-employed workers, and increasing contribution rates, these calls, if implemented, would have a really significant impact on people’s retirement outcomes - especially for the next generation of retirees. 

We’re incredibly passionate as an agency about transforming the world of finance for the better and these values align closely with Scottish Widows ambitions. And, with Pension Engagement Season around the corner, this certainly won’t be the last you hear from us! 

The warmer summer weather hasn’t seen our PR team down tools. Instead they’ve been busy launching fantastic work across a number of our clients including the Scottish Widows Retirement Report which is now in its 20th year! Read more here:

Marking 20 years of retirement insights with Scottish Widows

New figures show that the recent August bank holiday weekend saw a [new record](http://www.paymenteye.com/2016/09/05/bank-holiday-weekend-sets-record-for-atm-cash-withdrawals/) for amount of cash withdrawn and the number of withdrawals from cashpoints in the UK, with over £280million withdrawn on Bank Holiday Monday alone.

John Howells, Chief Executive of LINK, commented that “our demand for cash remains as strong as ever, showing that – despite much speculation to the contrary – notes and coins are very much here to stay.”

It’s interesting to see that while Britain leads the way across Europe for the adoption of new, digital payment systems, a spot of good weather and a day off work can have such a big impact on a nation’s spending behaviour.

Cash is still king – at the weekend

Related News

Fri 28 Feb 2025

30 Series - 30 Events: 30 Years

Thu 6 Feb 2025

How can financial services provide more personalised experiences?

Fri 25 Oct 2024

The Gramercy 2025: Trends & Directions in Financial Marketing

Thu 15 Aug 2024

Marking 20 years of retirement insights with Scottish Widows