Telum caught up with Widyananto Sutanto (also known as Wiwid) from Visa as he shared about social impact and how financial businesses could benefit from purpose-driven communications​​​​​​.

How is social impact more a necessity for businesses, and why is communicating it crucial for reputation and business growth?
I’m a firm believer of the “doing well by doing good” mantra and have been fortunate to work in companies that walk the talk. I think it’s becoming more of the norm whereby purpose-driven companies position social impact as a strategic pillar within the organisation, and the actions foster consumer and other key stakeholders’ trust, which in turn propel the business forward. 

Communication professionals play a key role in telling the stories of how their organisation is exhibiting responsible behaviour; that giving back to the market where they operate is a priority.

On the flip side, when businesses don’t communicate this enough, then the company can be perceived as being negligent, hence affecting their overall reputation.

Any tips for PRs to connect financial businesses with the public through purpose-driven communications?
Three things come to mind. I found in my experience that when you believe in what you write and tell the story of the organisation’s core values and how it impacts society, this will resonate much stronger rather than just ticking off the boxes in the list of corporate achievements.

Secondly, there’s a saying that I like, “don’t ditch the data”. In the financial sector we need to present facts and figures compellingly with a healthy dose of sensitivity towards the target audience - the “how does this benefit me?” part that readers look for. I am still learning to effectively frame data in my storytelling to provide angles that may be of interest to the wider public.

Also crucial is the omnichannel ways that the business needs to communicate through. The pandemic has made us shift to fully online, and then to hybrid types of communication platforms. It might change again soon, but I think as communicators we should try to adapt and keep adjusting to what the target audiences are most comfortable with.

With the many fads in the financial industry popping up, especially with the rapid progression of FinTech, how do you make sure you keep up and how do you communicate new trends to consumers, especially to an older demographic?
That’s a good question. First of all, on the keeping up part, honestly, there’s no way in my personal limited capacity that I can comprehensively keep up with all the different trends and latest tech in digital payment, much less in the broader e-commerce space. What I’ve tried to do is focus on the big themes and topics to communicate about, and ask these questions: what does my organisation want to say about this, and how does that matter to the target audience? For example, on digital contactless payment, I may want to focus on the benefits of tapping to pay with your credit or debit card rather than about a whole host of solutions and form factors. I’ll zero in on that solution and how it benefits the consumer.

This type of topic should not be age-specific, seeing that paying seamlessly, safely, and conveniently is in everyone’s interest. Granted that when positioned as a trendy thing to do, we gravitate towards the younger generation and utilise the communication channels where they are. However, we cannot communicate alone in this shared mission towards a cashless society. Hence the need to ask for support and synergise with other stakeholders, for example, banks who in turn communicate regularly with their cardholders, and with merchants who communicate with their customers. 

Any comms trends you're keeping an eye on in the financial industry?
The pandemic has transformed consumer payment behaviours, and we see an acceleration in the usage of digital commerce and payments, including the overarching need for a touchless experience at the point of sale. Based on our research, many people are opting for virtual engagements such as online banking, paying online and getting the goods they bought delivered. People across the globe are more and more using contactless payments, and a good percentage believe they will continue this new habit beyond the pandemic as their preferred lifestyle.

Insights like these are what I think we as communicators should adjust and look forward to when reaching out to our audiences. So for me it’s not so much as trends in communications styles and tools per se, but as I alluded to earlier, continuously adapting and adjusting to where our target audiences like to be and the channels they are most comfortable communicating with.