Apoorva Dwivedi, Head of Digital Marketing & Communications - Cash Management, Trade Solutions & Factoring, BNP Paribas

What was your first marketing position?

I started my career as an ‘International Associate’ in Brussels in what was then Fortis Bank. The Fortis International Associate Programme was a high-profile graduate traineeship lasting 18 months where an associate would spend three months at a time in various departments of the bank, in different countries. For me, because I was keen on building my career in the marketing function, this meant going from one marketing department to the other.

So, after 18 months, I ended up having worked in six totally different marketing departments in four countries. I started out in the marketing department of Fortis Global Markets, and I still remember my first projects being setting up a brand new CRM system and the classification of Global Market products into newly defined risk categories. I then moved on to the marketing departments of the bank’s trust business, the asset management business, corporate and private banking divisions, and finally the leasing business. Honestly, I could not have asked for a better start in marketing.

What do you like about your current role?

In my current job, I am responsible for global digital marketing, content & strategy at the competence centres of BNP Paribas Cash Management, Trade Solutions, and Factoring. I also serve as the driving force behind the international client advocacy initiatives of the businesses as well as lead international media relations and partnerships.

It is a fascinating space to operate in for more reasons than one. For starters, in my opinion and experience, over the last decade, transaction banking has steadily earned its rightful place in the financial services world. Therefore, working in a global marketing department supporting this activity affords me the possibility to see the sector up close and interact with both sales people and clients.

Getting to know the changing needs of the market through these interactions and having the freedom to adapt marketing and communication strategies accordingly are some of the biggest pluses of my job. This, in the middle of the biggest churn in the industry leading to rapid digitalisation and new product development, makes it doubly interesting.

Also, the fact that marketing as a whole is changing has had a quite significant impact on the interest quotient of my job. Up until a decade ago, digital marketing, for those who had heard about it, wasn’t much to worry about. Now, we have whole digital marketing and communications departments; and channels and technologies like corporate LinkedIn pages, podcasts, and marketing automation form the backbone of the function. Also, what makes it very interesting is the fact that this landscape will have evolved to something totally different in the decade to follow.

Can you explain a particular project you are proud to have worked on - in particular the challenge that was being addressed and the target audience?

In 2016, BNP Paribas, SAP, PwC, and the European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT) joined hands to produce a unique collaborative report to look at corporate treasury challenges and opportunities from four different perspectives- that of the bank, the technology provider, the consultant, and the industry association. The report, called ‘Journeys to Treasury’ (JTT), was released at the 2016 Eurofinance conference in Vienna and has since become an annual feature. I have led the marketing function of the Journeys to Treasury project from the year of its inception, and it has been one of the most enriching experiences of my marketing career.

Corporate treasurers have a wide range of responsibilities with a number of internal and external factors influencing their agenda. Hence the report started with asking corporate treasurers themselves for the choice of topics on which to focus. As we look forward to the tenth edition in 2025, in the last nine years, the JTT report has continuously followed its target audience, the corporate treasurer, closely and has gone from strength to strength.

Now in its ninth edition, Journeys to Treasury remains the only report, indeed initiative of its kind, offering pertinent yet diverse insights that are shaping best treasury practices. I am proud to say that the success of Journeys to Treasury has led to several exciting developments. We have been able to branch out into a podcast show, where top corporate treasurers and industry experts share their views on the latest industry trends. Additionally, we have launched a regular and exclusive international event called ‘JTT Live’, which brings together top treasury voices to discuss topics that are both locally and internationally important, and is held in different cities around the world.

One last point I am particularly fond of: The JTT COVID special edition, which we worked day and night to publish within months of the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was very highly appreciated by the corporate treasury world.

In terms of the lessons learnt, I would say that Journeys to Treasury has been a fabulous, one-of-its-kind experience of marketing a product with four different sponsors.

The most important lesson I learnt from this experience is that when it comes to marketing strategy, the importance of a clear definition of and a well-defined approach towards the marketing goals of a product cannot be overstated. In the case of JTT, the sponsors being on the same page and committed to common marketing goals allowed us to carefully build the brand over the years. This in turn afforded us the possibility of successfully applying a host of new and creative elements in the execution of the marketing strategy every successive year.

What does the future hold for financial marketing? What excites you about it?

We can be nearly sure that the financial marketing space will have evolved to something totally different in a decade’s time. It is a fact that this transition will be driven by factors we already know about (e.g. the changing demographic profile and hence the expectations of the client, ever-evolving business models driven by digitalisation and emerging marketing technologies) as well as unexpected and unknown factors like the Covid pandemic. All this is very likely to cause the marketing function to evolve into a much broader and dare I say, a much more important function in the future.

Over the last few years, financial marketing has been moving closer to the client and will likely evolve into a function that, through its proximity to the client, has significant control on how the brand is perceived in the market. Also, financial marketers will have to prepare to play the role of business change officers to be able to respond to sudden, unexpected changes in the landscape.

In conclusion, the future of financial marketing will be significantly impacted by new marketing technologies and changing demographics. Furthermore, investments in innovative and creative channels and technologies will also play a crucial role in shaping the industry, particularly in terms of improving client experience.