During this time of global uncertainty, we have taken the time to talk (virtually of course) with our longstanding client, Marvin Moses, of American Express.

Marvin is Business Development Director of Pay with Bank Transfer, a new payment method powered by American Express, an authorised provider of the payment initiation service (PIS).

This service allows you to pay for any purchase made on a website directly from your bank account, securely and more efficiently than ever before.

We talk to Marvin about all things video, the tech industry, and what is so important in nurturing a successful client/agency relationship.

1. Tell me about your career history?

What people don’t know about me is that I started in recruitment.

After I graduated, I travelled around the US and when I came back it was just before the financial crisis and I got a job as a recruitment consultant.

I’ve since been at Amex for 9 years, working in account management, marketing and, most recently, business development director for the Pay with Bank Transfer product.

I’ve always loved being in front of clients, problem solving and that’s where I have spent the last 7 years.

2. Give us an overview of Pay with Bank Transfer.

PWB Transfer is an open banking payment platform.

3 years ago, the EU decided to allow 3rd parties to give customers access to their bank accounts to make payments.

PWB Transfer allows customers to pay for a product directly from their bank account using all the same security protocols their bank uses, enabling a direct bank transfer from their bank into the merchant’s account for the product or service they’re buying.

3. Why does the technology industry interest you?

I love things that change. I am somebody who always wants to see what’s next, always looking forward, always wanting to challenge myself, learn and develop. With technology, you are always doing just that.

We are at the very start of our payment innovation journey – even PWB is constantly evolving and the team and I are whiteboarding every day to see where we can take the product next.

To be involved in the inception and development of a truly novel payment product is very exciting and something I am very proud of.

4. What steps have you taken to market your solution?

PWB success is centred around driving cost savings for our customers. As a result, we are constrained by budget.

That being said, marketing is important for 2 reasons: 1) it’s such a new product so we need to get the brand out there and 2) the success of the product is all predicated on the customer knowing what it does and why it’s important for them.

So far, all the marketing we have done has been about defining the brand, educating the client on how it works via branded animation tutorials and using personalisation to engage the end merchant.

5. Why do you think video works?

The power is in video and I see more videos on YouTube and other online channels than anywhere else.

Video allows you to connect with the end user very quickly, make it relevant, make it interesting and most of all, allows you to demonstrate the pros and cons of any product or service you’re selling.

I have been a huge fan of video for a very long time – if you sent me a conventional email or direct mail, I will not react in the same way as if you sent me a video.

I think it’s a great channel and we will continue to see more and more people using video to market themselves or their brand.

6. How have your VideoSmart videos been received by clients?

We have used video as an educational tool so far – educating the customer on how they would use the product, but also demonstrating to the client how it would feel for the end-user.

Video allows our clients to really envisage their product or service being sold in a specific way and that’s why it’s worked so well. It has been incredibly positively received; we have been told on numerous occasions that our competition has not done it as well as we have and we have used it in our tender responses, which have been very successful.

They all comment on how easy and simple the video portrays our product and how much it makes them trust the technology going forward.

7. What marketing trends do you think will be prevalent in the next 18 months?

Certainly video, but I think more than that, is personalisation. I don’t think mass marketing works anymore. Customers want to be targeted 1:1 and that is going to continue.

Secondly, there is a lot of mileage in smartphone gaming and apps – marketeers need to be where their customers are and that’s on mobile.

Finally, I think there will be a boom in Augmented Reality and brands will begin marketing more and more using the technology, particularly in the gaming space.

8. Do you think that personalisation has become more accepted?

Yes, I think there is always a risk of sounding intrusive, so the pressure is on the marketeer to strike the right balance.

But it is certainly more accepted than ever before; in fact, I would go as far as to say it’s expected. People want to be spoken to with relevant messaging and when you get it right, it works.

9. How would you describe your partnership with Videosmart?

What I love about VideoSmart is they challenge us.

The relationship is open, fair, we can have a debate, they’re very open to feedback, yet are opinionated when they need to be. The beauty of them is they’re the experts; I know what I want but I don’t know how to deliver it, they do. It has been an excellent relationship so far.

What I’ve really liked is the fact they make the complicated seem simple. What I mean by that is, some things we’ve asked for in the past, we don’t know what we really want to do, but we know what we want the end product to look like and they’ve always been willing to give us just that in a timely manner. It’s worked very well.

Our business is quite separate to the conventional American Express and VS is our most valued agency, our first port of call for everything we do in the marketing space.

And that is mainly because they’ve taken the time to understand us as a brand and the product and it is not an efficient use of our time to go to anyone else now.

10. What do you think is most important when it comes to a client/agency relationship?

I am going to flip it on its head and say what doesn’t work well: An agency full of ‘yes people’. What’s paramount is a relationship that is open and honest, as cliché as it sounds.

When it comes to honesty, if you can’t do it or deliver it by a certain date, then be truthful. I want the agency to say ‘that is not a good idea’ or ‘this is not feasible’ but also follow it up with ‘have you thought about doing this instead?’

The agency must understand you as a company, and give you the confidence that it can deliver something that meets the brief in an innovative way. We need an agency that can think outside the box.

11. What does the future hold for PWB in the next 12 months?

I want every merchant that takes payment online to have this lovely little button on their website. PWB has got off to a brilliant start. We are one of the first open banking PISPs to be live with a merchant and that is continuing.

For us, we expect a steady flow of signing new clients from different verticals and getting them live so it becomes familiar and comfortable to customers.

In a nutshell: more merchant signings, more merchant go-lives and continuous innovation by the team to refine the product and make the user experience as easy to use as possible.

12. Would you recommend VideoSmart to a friend or peer?

Yes absolutely. I have seen other video companies and they have been so far from the mark.

I would recommend VideoSmart because they deliver great output within budget.

This is why they’ve had such success within American Express – one team uses them, another team asks ‘how did you do that and how much did it cost?’ and we’re able to say ‘VideoSmart did it for us, and it was reasonable’.

We have no doubt that the Pay with Bank Transfer solution will continue to evolve and we look forward to being a part of the process.

To all our readers: stay safe, stay home and look after each other.

The VideoSmart Team