CONVERSION PROS has been a mainstay in the industry for over four years now, offering marketing communication services as well as creating brands such as the iFX EXPO and the Financial Partners Expo. However, the Leadustry brand was formed in a bid to focus on creating a specific brand and identity that effectively offers a comprehensive suite of marketing communication services. Finance Magnates' spoke with John Lewis, CMO of Leadustry, for his perspective on the genesis, rationale and scope of Leadustry as well as its role in the industry.
According to Mr. Lewis: “The idea behind Leadustry is a full service marketing communications and innovation agency helping clients from around the world become leaders within their respective industries. We create emotional experiences that inspire and engage our clients' target audience. We are ready to take on the challenge of taking your business to the next level and become a leader in your industry.”
Ultimately, “...the same team members that have been offering marketing services under the CONVERSION PROS hat will continue to do so under the Leadustry brand and we will be rapidly growing this unit”, he added.
The idea behind Leadustry is a full service marketing communications and innovation agency helping clients from around the world
Mr. Lewis categorized the components of Leadustry into the following units:
Brand Engineering- this covers all aspects related to the brand, such as Identity, Language, Visuals and Environment, as well as developing Brand Books. Once you have a structured brand we move onto
Marketing Communication- this division offers Web Design, Development, Landing Pages, Banner Development, Campaign Design, Concept & Messaging, Mobile App Design, Print Collaterals, Advertising Print, Packaging, Video & Film, Email Design, and Presentations & Copywriting.
Channel Marketing- this division offers all aspects of digital channels such as Search, Display, Social, Mobile, Affiliate, and Video & Event marketing
Business Intelligence- this division works within the Reporting, Analytics and Key Performing Indicators aspects of analyzing results, going back to the band marcomms and channels to optimize funnels.
John Lewis, CMO, Leadustry
Shifting focus, Mr. Lewis explained Leadustry’s dynamic focus on the FX industry and beyond: Finance Magnates is collaborating with Conversion Pros and providing the content for the iFX EXPO.“CONVERSION PROS has been involved in creating a series of events such as the iFX EXPO in Limassol, Cyprus and Hong Kong, China. However, we have also created the Financial Partners expo, together with IGB Affiliate, who has been in the gaming space for a while – Leadustry joined forces to help build and expand the affiliate sector within the retail finance space, in particular binary options and Forex. Moving forward, there will be more brands launched by CONVERSION PROS Group in 2016 and we at Leadustry look forward to developing these new initiatives with the same veracity as we have done with the other brands we work with.”
Leadustry itself has maintained a pivotal role in marketing and showcasing the iFX EXPO. According to Mr. Lewis, “The iFX EXPO was something we focused on very much from the ground up. Structuring the brand and creating all communications, which also included channel marketing to enhance the activity, and targeted marketing channels. We also utilized advanced reporting to make sure everything was measured accurately. Consequently, iFX EXPO has become one of the most well known brands we have helped create, and obviously this is something we can do for other companies with their respective brands.”
Ledustry’s work has expanded beyond the realm of expos, and has begun servicing clients throughout Europe as well. “We just finished a project with VALUTRADES on the retail side that came to us with the challenge of breaking into European markets. The company had a brand structured for Southeast Asia market, however we worked with them for over 3-6 months and redeveloped their brand and built a unique digital experience built for the European audience and they have had great success because of this,” he said.
Leadustry’s background has maintained a focus on retail finance, with a particular penchant for FX. “We have an extensive focus and experience in the retail finance sector – for my own part, I have been working within the retail finance sector for over 10 years since 2005 and have experienced in-house and agency side the rapid growth of many retail financial brands within the Forex and binary options space. We were able to see how FX companies can grow and scale, so when companies come to us we utilize our industry insights and knowledge to help them gain more market share within this aggressive industry.
We rely on our strong team that focuses on creating experiences that build an emotional connection with the user to tell a story that brings value to the brand and creates more trust and connection with the audience. We work with a very local approach and make sure that each brand we work with have a set of unique elements that can set themselves apart in this very crowded market,” he added.
Trust is a huge element within this industry
Like any other marketing firm or initiative, the company must exude trust in order to garner support from a client. “Trust is a huge element within this industry and we see many brands just get a white label, throw up some images of a business man holding cash, and believe they will become a top 5 broker, and that is just not the case. We make sure our clients understand the reality of the market and explain to them the importance of investing in not only the platform, technology and licensing but in their brand, marketing communications as well.
We have passed this insight and knowledge into the work we do and we work with companies as if they were partners. We believe the years of experience we have in retail finance cannot be found anywhere else as we have a high level of focus in the sector itself.”
Leadustry presently maintains its base of operations in Cyprus, which has of late developed itself into an important center for commerce and finance. “Cyprus is amongst the largest base for operations in the world for brokers and the country has just reached 196 FX approved brokerages at the present via CySEC (Cyprus Securities And Exchange Commission),” he noted.
The country also boasts a number of advantages that are seemingly increasing every month due to good tax infrastructure, human resources, licensing costs, etc. “In particular, licensing costs are much lower relative to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) so it's also a cost element. Cyprus is a base for Leadustry and it's a great fit, however we have aspirations to grow into the UK and the US as well as Asia. Ultimately, for us Cyprus is key and we have a distinct plan for our business in the country.
Our goal is to work with as many clients as possible in as many ranges, not just related to retail finance so we can bolster and build up our comprehensive showcase which is growing weekly. Now that we are creating our own identify we believe it will be a lot clearer to our clients exactly what it is that we do which is leading our clients in their industry. We do prefer to work with our clients on a case by case ground up approach making sure we understand our client’s objectives, target markets and we provide custom solutions for our clients to achieve their goals.
Ultimately, client demand and interest at Leadustry is on the uptick and we have an active strategy in getting business. We will be in London at the Finance Magnates summit and have a fully-fledged marketing strategy in the works. We will still continue focusing on the retail FX sector as a value added service, however we also see strong interest from other sectors."
