"Get Different, Unique, and Specialized"

The Finance Magnates London Summit is almost here and multiple participating panel participants and speakers in the event have lent their perspective in the form of interviews, helping offer a preview of one of the year’s biggest events. Bart Burggraaf, Partner at MediaGroup Worldwide, outlines his role in the industry and his current perspective regarding a range issues including marketing.

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1. What is your position and what does your role entail?

I’m a partner in MediaGroup Worldwide, a niche-marketing agency specializing in the trading industry. Being a partner means I have P&L responsibility and ownership, so I work directly with clients to make sure they are all happy and everything moves smoothly. I really like the relationship aspect and to give clients advice about different strategic aspects of their business. I try to develop partnerships rather than transactional relationships.

2. What was the single most important event or development that the market has seen in 2016?

Well I could talk about the financial markets but let’s keep it to marketing related subjects. The last couple of years, advertising for brokers has shifted from direct buying to programmatic advertising in large measure. Brokers still buy niche industry sites direct, but anything outside that is usually now bought with RTB platforms. This is a big development because it brings all the advantages of Google Adwords/Baidu to banner advertising too.

3. What are the biggest challenges that the FX trading community is facing? How do they affect your field?

Trust is the biggest issue. Whether it is trust directly towards specific brokers, trust towards regulators or trust towards the asset class as a whole, the industry needs to work on presenting a more friendly and trusted image. More needs to be done in lobbying and public relations efforts to keep regulators from banning the asset class for retail traders, more needs to be done to make for instance Cyprus Regulation Regulation Like any other industry with a high net worth, the financial services industry is tightly regulated to help curb illicit behavior and manipulation. Each asset class has its own set of protocols put in place to combat their respective forms of abuse.In the foreign exchange space, regulation is assumed by authorities in multiple jurisdictions, though ultimately lacking a binding international order. Who are the Industry’s Leading Regulators?Regulators such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority ( Like any other industry with a high net worth, the financial services industry is tightly regulated to help curb illicit behavior and manipulation. Each asset class has its own set of protocols put in place to combat their respective forms of abuse.In the foreign exchange space, regulation is assumed by authorities in multiple jurisdictions, though ultimately lacking a binding international order. Who are the Industry’s Leading Regulators?Regulators such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority ( Read this Term a trusted regulation and more needs to be done to make FX brokers trusted financial services firms rather than an industry of churn and burn.

The industry needs to work on presenting a more friendly and trusted image

This is of course not just a PR and Marketing problem, fundamental changes need to be made, but then Marketing and PR will be invaluable to communicate those changes to the public.

4. What is the main message you’d like to convey to London Summit delegates?

Don’t start another vanilla MT4 Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Read this Term broker. Don’t be one if you already have started. Be different, unique, specialized. The only way a broker is going to grow to the size of the old guard is to either spend a ton of money to buy market share – which is not a healthy way of doing business – or to be unique and specialized.

Don’t start another vanilla MT4 forex broker

Find what unique selling points your broker can grow towards, find what works for your culture and your target audience and THEN spend a ton of money to promote your company.