Advertisers Named Fintech Media a Sales Channel, Not Just Advertising

What the Bank Knows About Clients

The key feature of the banking ecosystem is the ability to see the audience beyond a specific business. "Internally, we know a lot about the client: we have an accumulated data landscape and a customer Future Store that is constantly enriched. What do we definitely not know? We don't know what the client does outside our retail platform. The bank knows users' life scenarios much better than we do," Andrei Skachek explained.

Signals about a client's potential interest in a purchase are of particular value to "M.Video." The company is expanding its assortment, and if the financial platform suggests that a specific person is interested in a particular product, that knowledge can be monetized.

Skachek also spoke about "Shopping" — a product showcase in T-Bank's mobile app with product cards and full integration with checkout. The user completes a purchase without leaving the banking app: a phone can be bought right in the bank's app with home delivery.

Not Just Advertising

Evgeny Ginzburg reminded the audience that in travel, the purchase cycle is significantly longer than it seems: people compare hotels, study reviews, and track prices. "Now the average online vacation purchase is 250 thousand rubles. And a person spends six months planning. We get a lot of touchpoints related to these plans: for about six months we see that a person is dreaming, browsing, choosing, thinking — the same country, the same hotel, or a neighboring one?" he shared.

For the travel business, it is important to be present next to the client at an early stage — when the person is just exploring options. Ginzburg named price shopping as one of the tools for this kind of interaction: people gradually form an idea of their future vacation. "Despite it being a one-time purchase, a person is engaged with it all year long," the speaker emphasized.

Daria Mishkina added that fintech media is gradually turning into a full-fledged sales channel. Previously, the model was straightforward — the business funded the placement, the platform provided the inventory. The growth of information noise forced a search for new approaches. "Naturally, everyone works for reach and creates a lot of noise. At some point, we asked ourselves: let's start from something else — from value for the end customer. How can we help them, integrate seamlessly into their journey, and solve a daily task?" she said.

"Gazpromneft Regional Sales" implemented this model in T-Bank's "Fuel" service: the banking platform became part of the user scenario, not just an advertising placement. For the client, it is a familiar action within a familiar ecosystem; for the business, it is a new sales channel.

The partnership also creates a new level of competition: companies begin to compete for a place inside the ecosystem and integrate their own loyalty programs there. The same competitive mechanisms operate here as in the traditional market.

What to Change So That Budgets Triple

At the finale, Evgenia Churbanova asked what banking advertising platforms need to change so that advertisers triple their budgets.

Irina Zernyshko named an advertising cabinet. "With a cabinet, it will be much more convenient to manage all the campaigns, which will increase transparency. It will also make it easier for us to calculate ROI," she said.

Evgeny Ginzburg added that one of the most difficult issues is the banks' security departments protecting personal data. "If we had our own bank, we would see the entire customer journey in real time and very quickly understand how a person's behavior changes before and after a purchase. We would really like to avoid that and not open our own bank, but to have a partner in synergy with whom we could evaluate the entire user journey," he noted.

In conclusion, Daria Mishkina said that "Gazpromneft Regional Sales" would like to develop, together with "T-Advertising," mechanics aimed at increasing LTV and working with cherry-pickers — people who save money on purchasing any goods. "Perhaps you, as a fintech, can't disclose certain data to me, but you can advise something: connect a tiered cashback or a game mechanic so that within your system it selects me as a cool supplier," she concluded.