With the pandemic affecting the entirety of the commercial world, it is vital for businesses to adapt and learn how to continue to service their customers. According to eMarketer, even amid the pandemic, display ad spending is projected to rise 5.5% in annual growth, mainly because of investments in video ads, mobile ads, CTV and programmatic transactions. Programmatic advertising is not slowing down, as now more than ever, more people are at home and in front of screens for work and entertainment.
With each industry and brand having their own marketing strategies, we find that it’s important to understand the landscape of how marketing is evolving as we head into the fall and winter seasons. This week, we are excited to speak with Yogesh Mehra, Vice President, Eagle Marketing at First Republic Bank, about how COVID-19 has reshaped the financial world, as well as what needs to be done in order to adapt to this economic shift.
Yogesh Mehra is responsible for a major chunk of client acquisition at First Republic Bank. Now that he’s working from home, he’s working significantly more because the lines between work and home have been blurred. While most of his time is spent working, he has been spending a lot more quality time with his family, especially during the evenings since he saves an hour of commute time. He’s been helping his kids with their academics and has been playing ball with them in the backyard. Yogesh also just wrapped up Star Wars with his older son.
OpenX: How has COVID impacted financial services? Have any areas of your business been more impacted than others?
Yogesh Mehra: COVID has impacted financial services in ways we have not seen before. Inspiringly, banks and other lending institutions have been a huge part of the solution this time around and have provided meaningful financial relief in the form of waivers and deferments to clients adversely impacted by COVID.
This article talks about some of the short-term impacts that banks will be dealing with. In sum: specific to consumer lending, I think there will be a lot of focus on managing credit risk and developing a COVID-proof customer service model for the future that includes changes in critical aspects of branch and back office operations. Before COVID-19, the banking industry did a great deal of talking about ‘becoming digital’, but less than 15% of organizations (source: financialbrand.com) considered themselves digital transformation leaders. All of that changed overnight with COVID. The digitization of banking that was already in progress has been supercharged.
From a business banking standpoint, the Payroll Protection Program created by the treasury in response to COVID has created some great lending opportunities for the banks to acquire and retain clients.
If you are interested in a more detailed context, check out this fascinating CNBC article explaining how trillions of dollars have flowed into banks during COVID and the future outlook.
OpenX: How are you navigating Acquisition Marketing through the current economic climate?
Yogesh Mehra: 3 things.
OpenX: What do you predict to be the new normal for companies and when will you get there?
Yogesh Mehra:
OpenX: What are you most looking forward to when the lockdown is over?
Yogesh Mehra: Seeing movies in the theater with my two little boys, going to our favorite restaurant and having friends over for a get-together.
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