Game Changers issue 45

Game Changers ISSUE #45

Game Changers speaks to Bas Kooijman about Boosting Asset Management with AI

GAME CHANGERS

DIRECTORY O1 Note from the editor View from the top. 03

O2 Bas Kooijman O3 Maria Izabela Lysowska O4 O5 Kent Riboe O7 Christina Iracleous O6 Denys Peleshok DHF Capital. 04-09

ADM Holding Group. 10-12

Vision Forex Forum. 13-21

MT Proxy. 22-23

28-29

CPT Markets. 24-27

O8 Holiston Media

Global Forex Awards - B2B. 30-34

O9 Omri Nir 1O Einat Etzioni 11 Marios Papachristodoulou 12 Dora Christofi 13 YMM and ZK Sports 14 GC:EAT 15 GC:GOING OUT 16 GC: HOMME 17 GC: FEMME 18 GC: CHARITY Panda TS. 35-37

ChargeAfter. 38-41

42-45

Orbex. 46-48

49-53

Captain’s Cabin. 55-57

Sherlock’s Home Bar. 58-59

Paul Smith. 60-62

Gucci Summer 23. 63-67

Limassol Donkey Sanctuary. 68-69

VIEW FROM THE TOP

Hello everyone, It’s my favorite time of the year in Cyprus when you really get all the benefits of living in an island paradise where you have a wonderful balance between work and having a life.

With that being said, since we first went to Captains Cabin to review in GC, we have returned about ten times leaving with full stomachs and varying levels of sun burnt skin.

We have on the front cover Bas Kooijman from DHF Capital, who we first met in what seems like forever in Dubai at one of the FX expo’s. It is always great to meet people from the funds industry, as it gives us a great alternative viewpoint on the industry as a whole.on the direction it is taking.

Thanks also for some great contributions in this edition from Maria Izabela Lysowska, Lilly Pavlou, Kent Riboe, Denys Peleshok, Christina Iracleous, Holiston Media, Einat Etzioni, Omri Nir, Dora Christofi, YMM and ZK Sports along with Marios Papachristodoulou.

We hope you enjoy it and a big thanks for your continued support!

Paul ORFORD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Game Changers

DHF Capital BAS KOOIJMAN CEO and Asset Manager of DHF Capital

Q How is artificial intelligence being used in trading today, and what are some of the most common applications within the use of this technology?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made significant headway in the trading industry, enhancing speed, efficiency, and precision. The global algo-trading market size was valued at $2.03 billion in 2022; it is projected to grow from $2.19 billion in 2023 to $3.56 billion in 2030. The technology is an already critical component of algorithmic trading which has opened a new dimension for investing and speculative trading alike. According to Wall Street, algo-trading accounts for more than 60% of overall US equity trading.

Furthermore, the global algo-trading sector is forecasted to expand by 10.5% annually through 2028, with the Asia Pacific region experiencing the fastest growth and North America occupying the largest market size.

At DHF Capital, we use AI and algo-trading to help us analyse multiple markets simultaneously, assess risk levels, forecast price movements, and execute trades at high speed. AI has allowed us to use large quantities of data to put trading and risk management strategies in place that ensure more efficient and precise decision-making. Overall, our improved computational infrastructure has helped in developing better financial services and trading capabilities such as better portfolio management and trade execution.

In this regard, AI-powered tools help us construct and manage investment portfolios based on an individual’s financial goals, risk tolerance, asset class preference and time zone.

Q Can you describe some of the benefits that AI offers to traders?

AI offers several benefits, including improving speed and efficiency and providing the capacity to handle larger volumes of data. These capabilities can be used to improve risk management, deliver better predictions, and maximise automation.

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Algorithms used by artificial intelligence can analyse vast amounts of data at high speed, making real-time trading decisions more efficient and helping to level the playing field between large asset managers and smaller investors.

This way traders can benefit from the data available to enhance their trading experience and get a more comprehensive view of the market.

Predictive capabilities are an interesting feature that helps us at DHF Capital to better approach the market thanks to suggestions derived from historical data. Since implementing AI more comprehensively, it has led to us using robo-advisors that have helped us manage portfolios better based on us being able to analyse specific investment goals, manage our risk tolerance better, and measure other parameters more accurately. These AI-powered advisors can monitor a vast array of assets, make predictions about future performance, and rebalance portfolios as needed.

Q What are some of the key challenges associated with using AI in trading?

Bas Kooijman

While AI offers the ability to handle large volumes of data, its outcome depends on the quality of the input provided and on the strength of the models used. The use of AI involves some technical challenges and various other risks that must be considered.

In this regard, AI models are heavily dependent on the quality and quantity of data available for training. Poor quality data or lack of sufficient data can lead to inaccurate predictions and poor trading decisions. In addition, the models’ reliance on historical data could result in overfitting where models could underperform when confronted with real-time data. This can affect predictions and trading performances.

Traders and firms using AI need to make sure that they truly understand the models they use to have a grasp of the predictions and trading decisions that are being made to be able to act on and improve on them.

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Q What are some of the ethical concerns that arise with the use of AI in trading, and how can these be addressed to ensure fairness and transparency in the market?

The use of AI in trading can raise several ethical concerns as it can potentially create an uneven playing field, where traders with more advanced AI capabilities have a significant advantage over others.

This could exacerbate wealth inequality. AI systems can perpetuate or amplify existing biases in the market if they are trained on biassed data - which can then in turn lead to unfair trading practices and outcomes.

and machine learning?

AI cannot replace humans but will rather change the way we work. Relying on algo-trading instead of human emotion should allow traders to make more accurate and consistent returns. AI allows finance professionals to focus less on manual and repetitive tasks and more on strategic decision-making, risk management, and oversight. In an AI-driven trading world, the most successful traders will be those who can effectively leverage AI tools while also applying their human judgement and intuition.

In addition to this, the vast amount of personal data used by AI systems for personalised trading decisions raises privacy concerns. Often traders and clients are unaware of the extent to which their personal information is being used. This lack of transparency can be problematic for traders and regulators alike who are trying to understand why certain trading decisions were made or personal data used.

As trading becomes more data-driven, understanding how to work with vast amounts of data and develop machine-learning models will become increasingly important. In fact, a recent study found that trading algorithms are currently responsible for 92% of Forex trades. Finance professionals will need to understand how to train, validate, and interpret models, and how to avoid common pitfalls. In line with this, knowing how to code will become increasingly valuable in a more tech-driven world.

Regulators have a critical role in ensuring the responsible use of AI in financial markets. Their primary goal should be to protect investors, ensure fairness, and maintain market integrity while enabling innovation. Overall, the goal of regulation should be to strike a balance between allowing for innovation and protecting market participants and the integrity of financial markets.

Finally, traders need to understand the limitations of AI and machine learning, including issues like bias in data and the challenges with interpreting some types of models. They also need to understand that AI models are tools that assist decision-making and not infallible solutions.

AI is a huge topic and I’ve only touched upon a few points in this interview - as for all industries involved the financial services industry will require ongoing efforts as AI technology continues to evolve.

Q How do you see AI evolving in the trading industry in the next 5-10 years, and what new applications or use cases do you anticipate emerging?

With the public data available being taken into consideration we expect to continue evolving and expanding its influence in the trading industry over the next 5-10 years. We expect to see even more personalised robo-advisors, better predictive capabilities in financial forecasting and the evolution of regulatory technology. Blockchain technology could also be integrated with AI to enhance transparency in trading and alongside this we anticipate smart contracts to automate transactions based on predefined conditions and AI algorithms.

While these trends are promising, they also underscore the need for robust oversight, regulation, and ethical considerations as AI becomes more integral to the trading industry.

Q What new skills will be required for traders to succeed in a world increasingly driven by algorithms

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Q What are some of the potential risks associated with relying too heavily on AI in trading, and how can these risks be mitigated?

Reliance on AI in trading indeed comes with potential risks. Overfitting is such a risk - this occurs when a machine learning model is too complex and learns the training data too well, including its noise and outliers. Overfitted models perform poorly on unseen data, which can lead to inaccurate predictions and trading decisions in the real market.

AI relies heavily on the quality of data it is provided with. Incorrect or biassed data can lead to inaccurate predictions. There are also privacy concerns when handling sensitive data, and regulations like GDPR require strict compliance. Trading systems that manage vast amounts of data could fail due to software bugs, hardware failures, or cybersecurity attacks. Such failures could lead to significant losses if not detected and addressed promptly.

As mentioned, a few times in this interview, non-compliance can lead to legal issues and fines.

Compliance with financial regulations can become more complex with AI systems. These risks can be mitigated but it’s important to remember that while AI can greatly enhance trading capabilities, it’s

essential to manage these risks to reap the benefits while minimising potential downsides.

Q How does the use of AI impact market efficiency and the broader economy?

AI has the potential to improve market efficiency by rapidly processing large amounts of information and making informed decisions quickly. This allows for faster price adjustments in response to new information - which is of course a key aspect of market efficiency.

Increased liquidity and price discovery are also benefits of implementing AI. By analysing vast amounts of data and identifying complex patterns, AI can contribute to more accurate price discovery (determining the price of an asset in the marketplace through the interactions of buyers and sellers).

Regulators and policymakers will need to carefully manage these potential downsides to ensure that the benefits of AI in trading are broadly shared and that financial stability is maintained.

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ADM Holding Group MARIA IZABELA LYSOWSKA

Tell me your name, I’ll tell you who you are!

How Online Reputation Can Make or Break You In today’s digital age, online reputation is more important than ever before. A strong online reputation can make the difference between a successful business or career and one that struggles to gain traction.

On the other hand, a negative online reputation can quickly damage the credibility of a business or individual, leading to lost opportunities and reputational harm.

The impact of online reputation is felt across industries, from healthcare and finance to hospitality and entertainment. As a leading Cyprus-based marketing company, one of ADM Holding Group’s highly sought after services has become our referral-only Online Reputation Management (ORM). From High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) to large enterprises and businesses in various industries, ORM has become an essential part of not only managing one’s reputation but also revenue.

In the era of social media, the term “fake news” has become ubiquitous. The rapid spread of false or misleading information through social media channels can cause reputational damage that can be difficult to undo, even if the claims are later proven false. This is particularly true for businesses and individuals, who may be targeted by deliberate attempts to spread false information or negative reviews online. The impact of “fake news” on reputation underscores the importance of online reputation management in the digital age.

It is essential for businesses and individuals to be vigilant in monitoring their online presence and responding quickly and effectively to any false or misleading information.

The phenomenon of “cancel culture” has become common practice in society. While it can sometimes be used as a tool for holding powerful individuals or institutions accountable for their actions, it can also be weaponized to target individuals who have made a mistake or had private information leaked. This is particularly common among High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) and public figures who are constantly under scrutiny. When such individuals are “canceled,”

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it can lead to swift and severe reputational damage that can affect their livelihoods and psychological well-being.

The most famous cancellation in recent celebrity news was that of Johnny Depp being dropped from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise because of the domestic abuse allegations made by his ex-wife Amber Heard. In a private matter that became very public (and ugly) very quickly, Depp was famously dropped from many lucrative deals because of the claims Heard made against him. Clickbait eager tabloids, such as London’s The Sun, labeled him a ‘wife-beater’, riding on the back of the #metoo wave, while Heard described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”

The impact of cancel culture on reputation highlights the importance of managing one’s online presence and taking steps to repair any damage that may occur, whether the claims against them are true or false.

In Depp’s case, the he-said-she-said public battle resulted in him losing a $22.5 million movie deal because of a vindictive and abusive ex-wife.

But did Johnny Depp survive cancel culture or did he have a little help with his online reputation management?

The truth is, you would never know, because Online Reputation Management (ORM) is such a highly confidential service offered by only very experienced agencies that have a team skilled enough to pull it off in the most organic way possible.

Crafting Your Online Identity Having a clear and consistent online identity is essential for managing your reputation. Whether you are an individual or a business, the information available about you online can shape people’s perceptions of you. Therefore, it is important to take steps to create a strong online profile. One of the best practices for creating a strong online profile is to optimize your social media profiles and personal websites.

Storytelling plays a crucial role in shaping your online reputation, whether you are an individual or a business.

The Impact of a Strong Online Reputation A strong online reputation can make you stand out among your peers, giving you an advantage in job interviews and business meetings. Additionally, a strong online reputation can lead to increased business growth, as customers are more likely to trust and do business with companies that have a positive online presence.

There are several case studies of businesses and individuals that have benefited from a strong online reputation. For example, Airbnb, a global vacation rental platform, built a strong online reputation through user-generated content and social media engagement.

This led to increased brand awareness and trust, resulting in a significant increase in bookings and revenue.

In terms of individuals, Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, has a strong online reputation due to his leadership and innovation in the tech industry. This has helped him attract top talent and investors to his company, as well as establish himself as a thought leader in his field.

Jeff Bezos has a strong online reputation, establishing him as a thought leader in his field. This has helped him attract top talent and investors for Amazon.

Maria Izabela Lysowska

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It is important to note that maintaining a strong online reputation is not a one-time effort but rather an ongoing process. Consistently creating high-quality content, engaging with your audience, and monitoring your online presence can help you maintain a positive reputation over time. By doing so, you can reap the benefits of a strong online reputation and achieve success in your personal and professional life.

At ADM, we serve a diverse range of clients seeking our ORM service, from high net worth individuals and enterprises in volatile industries to small businesses and individuals looking to establish and maintain a positive online presence. Our ORM clients have included forex companies, education platforms, businessmen, celebrities, politicians, and private individuals with a range of unique needs.

As varied as the clients are, so are their individual ORM needs - from doing damage control following a company issue leading to a slew of negative reviews from disgruntled customers to an industry crash to resetting public perception following a legal matter.

Our team of experts understands the ever-evolving nature of public opinion in today’s digital age and works tirelessly to protect and enhance our clients’ digital footprints. Through a combination of cuttingedge technology, strategic planning, and unparalleled industry expertise, we have helped countless clients achieve their goals and succeed in an increasingly competitive digital landscape. We take client confidentiality seriously and do not disclose specific case studies of our results. One of the founders, Alon Arel, jokingly says, “Give me enough time and money and I’ll make Escobar look like Santa Claus.” There is no single strategy to successfully change or manage one’s online reputation, which is why each case has a completely customized strategy.

The Risks of Ignoring Online Reputation Failing to monitor and address negative content online can result in damage to personal and professional relationships, loss of revenue, and long-term damage to brand reputation.

For example, United Airlines experienced a significant backlash after a passenger was forcibly removed from an overbooked flight in 2017. The incident was widely shared on social media, leading to negative publicity and a significant 4% drop in the company’s stock price.

At one point, nearly $1bn (£800m) was wiped off its value. (reference: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-uscanada-39563570)

United Airlines experienced a significant 4% drop in the company’s stock (that’s a $1bn value) after a video went viral of a passenger being forcibly removed from an overbooked flight.

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In another instance, Justine Sacco, a 30-year old public relations executive, sent out a tweet in 2013 that was intended to be a joke, albeit unintentionally racist and insensitive, to her 170 Twitter followers. Her tweet read, “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding.

I’m white!” Sacco boarded the plane. It was an 11-hour flight, so she slept. While she was sleeping, her tweet went viral for all the wrong reasons. By the time Sacco landed in South Africa, she had become an internet sensation for all the wrong reasons. She lost her job, her reputation was ruined, and she became the target of intense online harassment. Sacco’s story is a cautionary tale of how a single careless post on social media can have far-reaching consequences, both personal and professional. (reference: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccoslife.html) These examples demonstrate the importance of taking a proactive approach to online reputation management.

By monitoring and addressing negative content in a timely and effective manner, individuals and businesses can mitigate the impact of negative feedback and maintain a positive reputation.

The impact of a negative online reputation can be devastating, both in terms of personal and professional relationships. This article has explored the power of perception, crafting a strong online identity, and the risks of ignoring online reputation management. It is never too late (or early) to start managing your online reputation and protecting your digital footprint. We encourage all readers to take proactive steps towards building a bulletproof online reputation that accurately reflects their values and achievements.

ABOUT ADM Holding Group: ADM Holding Group is a full-service digital marketing agency that offers a wide range of services to help businesses grow and succeed online. We specialize in web design, social media management, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, funnel building, reputation management, and more.

Our team is made up of experienced professionals who are passionate about helping our clients achieve their goals. As an expert digital marketing agency, ADM is dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes accelerate their growth through customized digital marketing solutions. Our team of experts specializes in creating effective digital strategies that help businesses stand out in today’s highly competitive market. We work closely with each client to develop customized strategies that are tailored to their specific needs, and we are committed to delivering results that exceed their expectations.

For more information you can contact ADM Holding Group directly via their website admholdinggroup.com

Vision Forex Forum LILLY PAVLOU The prelude.

So how did this happen? How did I end up attending a Forex event which is something I am usually not forthcoming in doing. Normally this type of thing brings me out in psychological hives with the overbearing feeling that I am now two days behind my schedule.

Do you ever get the feeling that you have not really achieved anything more than standing in a corporate branded box, handing out bland branded literature to non playing characters whilst grinning at passers by attempting to entice them to your booth like the oldest profession in Amsterdam.

Now before the expo industry forms an orderly queue for a pile on, I would say that they can and perhaps do play a role in marketing. However, the venn diagram of money in, effort and results leaves me thinking that maybe it does not play such a significant role which is often portrayed by this industry.

Nowadays they act as venues for content pieces for excited marketing departments justifying to the CEO that the event was worth it as we will get paid in

clicks,likes and follows.Any event I have attended over the past couple of years, the auditorium can be challenging walking through the steamy boothed avenues of the venue, when you have one of the several camera teams from various brands competing to make the same tracking sequence through the middle of the event, which would perhaps rival any of Tom Cruises in the mission impossible franchise.

They often greet you with a scowling look as you mistakenly walk into their posse of ten people walking backwards, with the star of the show walking slowly speaking to the camera, trying incredibly hard to remember the alpha hand gestures they are supposed to replicate in this ten second ode to Martin Scosesse.

With that being said, I have never classed myself as a ball of excitement of attending these events. I couldn’t be accused of being one of those who advocate going, but really deep down we all know they love having a nice couple of days away from the family, and getting on the booze every night , or networking in the industry parlance.... then I met Lilly Pavlou..

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The last time I met someone in the Four Seasons for a coffee after a brief couple of comments on a Linkedin post, led to me moving from a slightly above average career in FX, to a lucrative career in banking. How could I turn down an offer to meet?

If you have not had the pleasure of meeting the whirlwind of positive energy that Lilly is, I suggest you do. Once you leave her presence you feel like you have been on a Tony Robbins deep dive, feeling incredibly energised and able to tackle any challenge in your life. I left our conversation doing a power walk through the golden entrance of the Four Seasons, enthused to attend the event. I was genuinely intrigued how someone could convince a self confessed expo agnostic that her event would be different from the others?

The event.

Different to the regular booth based metropolis type of events I have previously attended, although there were a couple there it was not the sensory overload that I normally receive. Moreover, with a heavy emphasis on watching the presentations in a calm and serene environment, I actually found the presentations of some use and I learnt something new from several of the discussions. I didn’t feel that the

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people were on stage using psychological warfare to break me and buy their product. Rather we had listened to people at the top of their game, and from their expertise you could see that they were experts in their field.

As myself and my dining companion found ourselves being the first into the food area (strategically planned by ourselves very well) the standard of food and wine was very good. We had a nice long buffet lunch with several glasses of wine to go into the afternoon session with the full stomachs and the wind at our backs ready to mainline more industry information directly to our brains.

The big pay off.

What really set its event apart from others was the actual pre-arranged meetings liased by Lilly and her team. I didn’t have to lift one finger in arranging any meeting, as Lilly and her team had a list of requirements from decision makers who wanted a particular service. Other events you attend, you are bombarded with linkedin messages to see how we can ‘potentially synergise’, which all of course could be done by looking at my profile and having a brief call before the event. A sceptic could argue that they are there booked to show their boss that they have activities planned.

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The real beauty of this event is that the attendee’s can see who will be present, and they can choose to meet you and discuss projects together. This is great as it gives you a definite structure to my day of meeting someone new (with a high probability of future business), which is quite hard to do in such a niche industry such as banking..

I was guided by the excellent Nour to our meeting area with the meetings confirmed beforehand, where we all knew the pain points that needed solving, and what we could offer. It cut out a lot of the faff and we got down to business.

Worth the entry price?

Having used the service, I would suggest that if you are serious about try to get business or at least start a relationship off is to go for the full package where you can choose to meet people.I say that as someone who has not been paid to promote, and I will confess am a very cheap person, to admit to saying full price is quite a volte face.

If you are one of those people who love attending events as an excuse to get out of the office, and have beers by midday then this is probably not the event for you. If you are looking to meet like minded people and

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like to have a laser beam focus on your day, then it is well worth it. From the arranged meetings that you have, the entrance fee pays for itself, as it is designed more as a venue to take in information from the presenters, hence the name forum not expo. Moreover, where the organisers are actively helping you network by actively introducing you as you are a good fit is fantastic.

I would look to attend another one which is not FX based and more banking related, on a personal level that would add more value for the brand I represent and naturally gauge a better ROI on the price of the ticket.

Lilly turned a cynic into a preacher!

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MT Proxy KENT RIBOE Managing Partner at MT Proxy

Your Leadership Checklist For A Successful Summer Summer is without a doubt my favourite season. But as a business owner and CEO, I’m also painfully aware of the risks of summer ‘downtime’. While summer is a great time for cultivating company culture and team spirit, it can sometimes be a tough time for driving revenue and growing businesses. It can also have a negative impact on company productivity, staff attendance, project delivery, and seasonal performance.

That said, with a little planning, you can manage these kinds of seasonal challenges, and avoid any long-term business setbacks. In fact, there are many businesses that plan ahead and enjoy more success all year round.

Here are a few tips to help you make the most of the ‘downtime’ and grow your business in the summer months.

Schedule A Summer Review While the frequency of business reviews typically varies from one company to the next, many successful businesses make time for a mid-year review. This is because it serves as both a status update and business plan for the remainder of the year. As a natural halfway point in the calendar year, summer is often the perfect time for company leaders to take stock of their work and schedule a mid-year review.

The review will give you the opportunity to refresh your targets and refocus on your long-term goals. It will also enable you to monitor your company performance, address any short-term business problems, and come up with creative ways to make more money.

From a leadership perspective, it will also give you the perfect chance to check in with your team, and set expectations for the summer months.

Get A Head Start On Projects Depending on your industry, there might be a fair amount of downtime over the summer. If your clients or customers are typically away on vacation, then it could be the perfect time to work on projects that have previously been put on hold. You can also use the time to get organised and stay ahead of the game for the rest of the year. Once autumn comes around, you’ll

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have a jump start on your competitors, and be more ready for the second half of the year.

Cultivate A Great Team Culture Now that you’ve lined up your projects, it’s time to get your team on board. The key here is a good work culture. Take the time to talk to your colleagues about their progress in the first half of the year, and encourage them to take ownership of their summer projects.

Ask them for their feedback on the targets you have in mind, and address any concerns they may have about seasonal performance.

Then, it’s time to start taking action. Summer is the perfect time to change up your leadership approach and try out new ways of working. Find fun ways to work together - whether that’s an outdoor meeting or a scheduled workcation. And try to encourage a collaborative and inclusive work culture where team members can easily meet to share ideas and work towards common goals.

Always Have A Contingency Plan While it’s important to have a vision for your business, and goals for the season, it’s also important to have a contingency plan! Many businesses experience staffing issues over the summer, as it’s generally the peak travel season. There are a few things you can do to prepare - like asking your colleagues to submit their vacation requests early and planning ahead for your staffing needs. This will ensure you have enough people to implement your business strategy all year round.

Reward Great Performance While meeting performance targets is important, you also need to make sure the workload is realistic and that your team is not at risk of burnout. Summer is the perfect time for your staff to rest and rejuvenate.

Reassure them that it’s okay to have a good work-life balance, and encourage them to relax and recharge.

After all, a rested team is a more productive and motivated team.

Final Thoughts While it may be tempting to enjoy the summer slowdown, it doesn’t have to mean losing your business momentum. These tips are just a few ways in which you can continue to grow your business during the summer months and prepare for a big finish. For more helpful tips, or a quick chat, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.

Kent Riboe

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CPT Markets DENYS PELESHOK Head of Asia at CPT Markets

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Q Can you tell us about your previous experience in leading and managing teams in the financial services industry, particularly in the Asian markets?

I’ve been in the financial services industry itself for almost 11 years, with 9 years of management experience in the Asian region.

I started my career in the Swiss banking system as a Sales Manager, then got promoted to Senior Sales Manager and eventually became part of the Senior Management team, taking care of multiple offices in Asia including Hong Kong, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo.

Q What do you believe are the key trends and challenges currently affecting the financial services industry in Asia, and how would you address them in your role as Head of Asia Markets for the CPT Group?

I believe we should definitely pay attention to the regulatory issues throughout different jurisdictions worldwide, and Asia in particular.

We also need to pay close attention to the payment solution challenges we face here. The Crypto industry splash has shaken the Forex markets and created a diversification of the trends in the industry. The other challenge is multiple brokers (old and new brands) who are entering the Asian market. To me any new trend or challenge is just a new indicator of what I should be focusing on, digging into, improving and developing.

Denys Peleshok

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Q How do you stay updated on the latest developments and changes in the Asian financial markets? Can you provide examples of how you have applied this knowledge to drive strategic initiatives?

The short answer is: I talk to the right people and spend my time in areas where noteworthy things are happening.

I recommend that people localize themselves first and then localize the company they work for - this includes hiring local teams, joining local events, arranging your own events, talking to industry experts, meeting them and gathering insights. Once you have gathered and processed the scope of information you’ve received, start formulating the strategy that will fit your brand the most and then start developing it.

Q As the Head of Asia Markets for CPT Markets, what strategies would you implement to identify and capitalize on new business opportunities in the region?

The no.1 priority should be building a good team, to be passionate, ambitious, loyal and preferably well-connected in the industry. If you are a new brand - go sign up with opinion leaders, co-arrange mutual events, be present with the most powerful media and ensure you have the most attractive and relevant content in place - find partners and build trusting relations with them.

Be ready to go the extra mile, for example if your working week is Mon - Fri from 9am to 6pm - also be active throughout the other two days of the week and be available out of regular working hours. In the FX industry there is no such thing as a day off, or a vacation - your clients need you to be present 24/7.

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Q Can you describe your approach to managing relationships with key stakeholders, such as financial institutions, regulators, and industry experts?

Well, when you communicate with any institution or specialist (not only from the financial sphere) you should make sure you are well-prepared, educated, that you know what to expect from them and be clear about what they can expect from you. You should know what to say, and, most importantly, what NOT to say.

In my case, I have a sales and business development profile mixed with an international legal education and legal background - this helps a lot in negotiations!

Q What is your vision for the future of the financial markets? How would you leverage digital platforms and emerging technologies to enhance CPT’s reach and engagement in the region and on a global level?

I think companies should pay more attention to the development of artificial intelligence (AI). We have recently observed a big jump in the field of AI. I believe that this will lead to simplification and improvement of many aspects of our day-to-day operations.

So, as usual, those who will be the first to pick up and implement the latest trends will have more privileges in this race.

That’s one of the reasons we have an outstanding IT department at CPT, and we pay a lot of attention to in-house technical solutions that are in line with the latest market trends and requirements.

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CHRISTINA IRACLEOUS

Are CMOs the black sheep of the C-suite?

Maarten Albarda reported in MediaPost that only the CMO was held accountable for missed revenue targets despite five C-suite members sharing revenue responsibilities. With an average tenure of four years, half that of CEOs, the CMO job is considered the riskiest in the C-suite.

To begin with, let’s just look at the range of duties a CMO undertakes. CMOs are usually responsible for creating the marketing strategy, though this is heavily influenced by the CEO. The CMO is the one who leads marketing operations and, by extension, is responsible for upper-funnel activities such as building brand

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awareness and creating consideration, as well as mid-funnel activities like lead generation. To a lesser extent, and depending on the size of the organisation and its structure, CMOs are responsible for customer retention and loyalty, as well as P&L. Even though CMOs may not be leading the charge in sales, they are often the first to receive criticism if the business fails to hit its growth targets. This is where the issue really lies. Everybody has an opinion on marketing, the CEO, the HR manager, the ‘know-it-all’ colleague, even the IT guy, and yet the CMO and their team get the blame and rarely the credit.

Unfair. No? Valuable comments and input from others may be useful, however too many opinions can sometimes undermine faith in the project. It’s very common for people to complain about a new version of a logo or website when it’s presented to them, and some will even criticise which words are used in social media or blog articles. As a copywriter friend of mine once said, “Everyone thinks they can write.” Though marketing is expected to constantly generate fresh ideas and introduce new campaigns, the organization is often not aligning behind the change the CMO is expected to lead.

In short, the CEO must ensure that the CMO has the resources, trust and support to develop effective strategies. This way, by unifying resources behind their executives, CEOs can help their companies stay competitive and successful in today’s ever-changing business environment.

Instead of blaming their CMOs, CEOs must ensure that their executive team is working together to help drive the success of their business in the short and long-term. CEOs are responsible for setting the general tone, direction, and goals of a company. By having a clear sense of the company’s direction, and what marketing is expected to accomplish, CMOs will make sure that their marketing efforts and communication campaigns are producing tangible results.

Ultimately, the C-Suite must see themselves as partners in marketing’s mission and embrace its potential. Instead of pointing the finger, CEOs must permit CMOs to think boldly about marketing’s potential to drive growth.

Christina Iracleous

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Holiston Media Global Forex Awards - B2B Holiston Media The Global Forex Awards (B2B) presented by Holiston Media, have become a byword for t ransparency and kudos when it comes to receiving one of their accolades. Being completely democratic, it is always great to see who comes out on top as a bellwether for the industry.

Congratulations to all the winners!

“We are a boutique private investment firm offering the perfect environment for individuals and organisations to experience a customised level of financial services in line with personal needs. We are keen on innovation and authenticity, thus we fully support the Global Forex Awards’ commitment to celebrate and spotlight the success of businesses for supporting innovative environments.”

Lienite Baltina Channel & Analytics Officer, Exclusive Capital

“We are thrilled that GCEX Digital Prime Brokerage has been honoured with the Global Forex Awards for Best Crypto CFD Liquidity Provider for the second consecutive year! This remarkable achievement goes beyond mere delight for us. At GCEX, our liquidity providers are meticulously chosen based on extensive experience. When we select our liquidity relationships, it goes beyond spreads and volume share; we prioritize reliability even during volatile market conditions.

This award reaffirms the exceptional partnership we have cultivated with our liquidity providers. It underscores our dedication to providing unparalleled liquidity solutions and inspires us to continue pushing boundaries.”

Lars Holst

GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

Lars Holst, GCEX CEO & Founder

“We are incredibly privileged to win this award, as we feel it not only vindicates all of the hard work that Breinrock has taken over the past several years. Moreover, it is also a vote of confidence from our clients that we are on the right path. Thanks Holliston Media for making one of the most transparent and sought after awards in the Neo Banking sphere.”

Miljana Delic, Head of Compliance Breinrock

“Winning the award for best multi-asset trading platform 2023 is the culmination of all the hard work our team has done. The situation on the market is changing, but Match-Trader continues to strengthen its position - this is the third year in a row that we have been honoured with an award at the Global Forex Awards B2B. I would like to thank our clients and everyone who voted for us. It is with you in mind that we constantly improve our products, add new functions and develop the possibilities they give our customers.”

Mr Michael Nichols, Head of Sales Match-Trade Technologies Miljana Delic

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“We are thrilled to have won the Global Forex Award for Best Media and Public Relations Company for the third year in a row. Thank you to all our clients and contacts in the industry who voted for us - we really appreciate your support – and thanks also to the Global Forex Awards for providing this platform which has helped us raise the profile of our firm.”

Vanessa Green, Director Wigwam PR

“We are honoured to have won both the Best Bridge Provider and Best Risk Management System awards from Global Forex Awards – B2B 2023. We understand the competition was fierce for these 2 awards, so we are extremely glad about this achievement. What makes this even more special is that it is the 3rd year in a row when we receive this recognition for both our products!

We would like to thank everyone for voting for Centroid Solutions!

These recognitions are important to us as they validate our hard work to continuously improve our solutions and expand our global footprint, to offer localized assistance to our clients.

I’d like to dedicate these awards to my colleagues, who have worked tirelessly to enhance our systems and provide excellent customer service to all of our clients.

As a technology provider, we strive to provide high quality solutions to our clients. We are constantly speaking with industry experts and customers to bring the most sophisticated and flexible brokerage technology that they require to succeed in our ever-changing and innovative market.”

Cristian Vlasceanu GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

Cristian Vlasceanu, CEO Centroid Solutions

“We are delighted and honoured to receive the Global Forex B2B Award. It means the world to us to receive this recognition from Global Forex Awards and from our valued clients who voted for us. Our clients have always come first for us and have been our biggest motivation to deliver a great product and service for them. Thank you for your enduring support!

I would also like to take this opportunity to appreciate our team who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to deliver a top class experience for our clients. Without your effort, we would not be where we are today! ”

David Shayer, CEO Vantage Markets

“Winning these awards is a testament to the continued pursuit of excellence and innovative spirit of the oneZero team. These awards are also a reflection of the trust and confidence our clients have in us, and we are honored to be their ongoing tech nology partner of choice after more than 14 y years in business. This motivates us to continue pushing boundaries and raising the bar in our industry.”

Andrew Ralich, CEO & Co-Founder oneZero

David Shayer

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“We are very proud to have been voted Best KYC Provider – this is a strong validation that the market is starting to see onboarding the way we do, as more than just IDV, PEPs, Sanctions etc., but as an ever-evolving process that connects all the dots and triggers CDD, SD or EDD by automation and trigger points and conducts the all relevant client categorisation to continuous risk assessments. Through Muinmos, the financial institution can keep refining and defining this with our holistic, yet modular, lifecycle management platform.”

Remonda Kirketerp-Møller, Founder & CEO Muinmos

Remonda Kirketerp-Møller GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

Panda TS OMRI NIR Sales And Business Development

Artificial Intelligence Done Right. How Panda Incorporated A.I into its Business Intelligence Solutions Q Artificial Intelligence has been one of the biggest stories of 2023, but Panda has been working on A.I-based tools for the brokerage segment for quite some time now. What led you to focus so heavily on A.I before there was a demand for it and have you found it to be a fruitful endeavor?

At Panda we like to joke that we were into A.I before it was cool! Nowadays you’ll find random companies paying lip service to A.I in order to make the business seem more relevant, but our journey with A.I started purely from a functional point of view. We observed all the progress that was being made in machine learning, particularly in the open source space and we started realizing that these tools could be powerful game-changers for our own industry.

When you know an area so well, for instance the internal structure and workflow of online brokerage businesses, then you know exactly how new technologies can be utilized to create efficiencies that were not previously possible. I think our advantage here was the combination of being so deeply embedded in brokerage culture, combined with a genuine fascination with new technologies. Our engineers are true geeks in this regard and have been invaluable when it comes to thinking outside of the box and bringing new innovations to market.

As far as whether the focus has been fruitful, I would say it definitely has. Our flagship Panda CRM product was already one of the most flexible business intelligence suites for online brokers. Our continued focus on A.I has only made this product more powerful and allowed brokers using it to compete with much larger teams.

Q What does the process of experimenting with a new technology such as A.I and then bringing it into your core line of products look like?

In business development there’s always the question of whether you’re straying from your core competencies by trying something new. I would say the key is to start small. Don’t be too ambitious from the jump. Try and see whether there’s a glaring pain point among your

customer base that new technologies can go some way to solving. Have a small team work on a proof-ofconcept and see whether there’s anything there to get excited about.

For our customers the obvious pain point was document verification, which is a huge drain on human resources at the best of times, but can quickly become unmanageable during times of surging interest in online trading. Understanding that image detection technology had become sufficiently advanced some years back to really take a big bite out of the problem, we set to work on harnessing Google’s Vision AI algorithm to provide back office and compliance teams with a non-human helping hand.

The result is a document verification module in Panda CRM that can not only reject document submissions that fail to meet the grade and automatically request resubmission, it can also “read” the supplied documents and compare them to the information the client has already provided via the registration process. In this way, incoming KYC/AML documents can be graded according to how likely they are to pass, allowing back office and compliance teams to batch submissions most likely to do so and thus vastly improve onboarding efficiency. The success of this module showed us that we were onto something, and that further resources should be devoted to bringing A.I into other areas of brokerage tech.

Q What is it about the online trading segment specifically that lends itself so well to the incorporation of A.I and machine learning elements?

If you look at your average online brokerage, it’s really a big data-generating machine. You’re dealing with vast amounts of traffic and browsing data from incoming leads prior to registration, and then you have a myriad of data pertaining to platform and client area activity, as well as any touchpoints the customer may have had with various brokerage departments.

Previously this data mostly went to waste as brokerages didn’t have the systems in place to do anything with it. Nowadays, though, we’re able to use this data to inform how brokerage team members organise their activities.

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An example of how we’ve been able to do this within Panda CRM is our Next Call AI system, which provides sales and retention teams with top priority next calls to make based explicitly on customer actions. In this way a new client registration, login, deposit attempt, card decline, withdrawal request, and much more besides can be used as an opportunity to touch base with the client and provide pre-emptive customer support.

These event-based triggers are completely customizable so as to reflect each individual business’s priorities. Not only does Next Call AI ease customer support workloads and improve customer waiting times, it has also been shown to drastically increase customer re-deposits as well as the rate of successful outgoing calls made by brokerage team members.

Q Are there any other areas of the online brokerage business that you feel are particularly ripe for A.I optimization?

Definitely. As you can see from my description of Panda’s forays into A.I above, we started with the low hanging fruit of image and optical character recognition for use in document verification, we then moved into the more dynamic area of real-time client activity with Next Call AI, and have since moved on to more technically challenging areas.

I think call center activity is another highly rich source of actionable data that is currently being wasted.

Perhaps this has to do with the nature of audio. It is fleeting and, even when recorded, it’s costly to store and difficult to manage, unlike images, text, or event triggers as in the case of Next Call.

This is what led us to working on Call Control, another A.I-based module within Panda CRM that focuses

GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

specifically on call sentiment. The way the module works is by analyzing call recordings that are more than two minutes long. These recordings are transcribed and processed by a natural language processing algorithm, providing each interaction with a sentiment score. The system has proven to be extremely useful to call center managers who can use the data it provides to improve the performance of their respective teams.

Beyond sentiment, Call Control also provides a variety of highly useful data regarding each customer interaction, such as the operator’s talk-to-listen ratio, a “patience average,” as well as flagging when the operator talks for too long, or when a client has shared a great deal of uninterrupted information to the rep in question. Beyond its obvious usefulness in call center training, the system can be used to “listen” for specific keywords, which can then be used to determine the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, or even to conduct market research on client preferences.

Further, in order to help call center agents stay on track and communicate more effectively with clients, we’ve recently introduced Call Script in Panda CRM, a feature that provides agents with scripted prompts that are individualized to the client, and thus help call center operators stay on track and provide a more tailored service.

Q Considering that you have been actively involved in bringing A.I technology to online brokers for some years now, how do you view the overall A.I landscape as well as the future of the space?

As far as what we’re currently doing at Panda, I think we’re only getting started, and I anticipate that brokerages in the future will rely much heavier on

non-human intelligences in order to guide the efforts of human teams. It’s not so much about replacing humans with software because the human element is a crucial part of doing business, rather, it’s more about making human teams smarter by giving them access to the collective knowledge of the business itself.

As far as the broader landscape is concerned, I think there’s a parallel to be drawn between the early days of the Internet and the current situation in A.I. The interest is there, the technology has proven itself with the recent release of several large language models that have taken the world by storm, and there’s a tremendous amount of investment currently taking place. Not every A.I investment will lead to the killer app that everyone seems to be striving towards now, but this acceleration in interest and investment will definitely usher in a new era of progress for humanity, just like the world wide web did in a previous generation.

Omri Nir

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ChargeAfter EINAT ETZIONI EVP Marketing, ChargeAfter

Einat is one of the most successful tech marketers in Israel. She recently joined ChargeAfter to lead the company’s marketing as it scales its offer of embedding lending choices into omnichannel customer journeys.

Q Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

Sure! My background is rooted in the tech industry, where my career spanned various roles before transitioning to marketing. I honed my skills in operations as a COO for several years and as a Managing Director of a subsidiary of a global company. As a marketer, this experience has been invaluable, especially the ability to align marketing initiatives with overall company goals and grasp the impact of marketing on business outcomes.

Last year I joined ChargeAfter, a pioneering force in the Embedded Lending Network domain, to lead the marketing strategy. I’m very excited about how the company is using technology to redefine the role of financing within customer journeys which has lagged compared to other innovations in the retail space.

I’m also active in the G-CMO Forum—an esteemed community of CMOs from global companies, startups, and VCs in Israel. The forum offers a way to contribute my insights and educate myself on the latest developments in SaaS marketing.

As well as my day job, I am a public speaker on various B2B marketing topics. Additionally, I am deeply passionate about championing women in leadership roles and proudly serve as a mentor to aspiring marketing professionals.

Q You spoke about embedded lending, can you explain what it is? How mature is the market?

Embedded lending is when lending products and services are integrated into non-financial ecosystems, like at checkouts where shoppers pay for their purchases, also known as points of sale.

This model of financing benefits the entire ecosystem.

Shoppers gain easy and personalized access to credit, merchants benefit from increased average order values and a growing, more loyal customer pool, and lenders expand their customer base through partnerships with merchants.

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While the market for point-of-sale embedded lending is relatively new, adoption rates are growing exponentially. Analysts predict the market will reach $32.5 billion by 2032, driven by merchants responding to consumer demand and turning their embedded lending offer into a strategic priority.

Q Can you expand upon why point-of-sale financing is becoming a strategic requirement for merchants?

Unlike other areas of the customer journey which have evolved to enable choice and personalization, point-of-sale financing lags and is a very fragmented experience. The example I like to give is how the role of delivery has changed. In the past, it was retailers who controlled how and when to deliver goods to their customers, now shoppers control how and when to receive their goods.

Compare this to the experience of shoppers applying for financing at checkout. Currently, most retailers work with a single lender, maybe two. A shopper who is declined for a loan at checkout has limited options.

They either apply to another lender or abandon their cart. This can be an unpleasant and even distressing experience, especially when it happens in-store.

Meanwhile, for the retailer, not only is this a lost sale but a lost customer.

Point-of-sale financing opens the door to financial inclusion. Younger and underserved shoppers are adopting point-of-sale loans as an alternative to credit cards with their high-interest rates and stringent approval requirements. This is compounded by inflation. People who weren’t applying for financing at the beginning of 2022 are doing so now. At the same time, lenders are tightening their credit boxes and approving fewer loans.

By prioritizing point-of-sale financing, retailers benefit from higher conversion rates, more sales, increased average order values, and improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Q You mention how the customer journey is evolving. What are the main changes you see and how do they link to the embedded lending experience?

One of the strongest trends I’m seeing is the growing demand for omnichannel experiences. Today, shoppers expect to navigate easily between online and of-

fline channels and receive a consistent experience and level of service.

Another interesting change is the growing correlation between personalization and embedded lending. The search for point-of-sale financing is increasingly becoming an indispensable part of the customer journey. Shoppers who plan to make big purchases want to make sure they have access to payment options and alternatives to credit cards.

To meet this increased demand for financing, retailers are increasingly interested in offering multiple lending solutions to their customers.

While some have tried to stitch lenders into their point-of-sale offers, they simply can’t integrate and manage multiple lenders on their own, which isn’t surprising, they are retailers, not fintech companies. Their priority is to offer a seamless omnichannel experience that meets the needs of all of their customers and this can only be done through a platform.

Q How does ChargeAfter solve this problem?

ChargeAfter has created an embedded lending platform that enables merchants to offer their Einat Etzioni

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customers quick, convenient, and personalized financing choices at the point of sale.

Through our platform shoppers complete a short application and are instantly connected to multiple lenders that cover the entire credit spectrum. The platform matches shoppers to the best financing option/s based on their eligibility through a waterfall approach.

Retailers that integrate with ChargeAfter provide their customers with a seamless financing experience online, in-store, and at every point of sale, successfully providing personalized financing choices to all of their customers, regardless of their credit score What’s more, retailers easily manage the entire financing process, from early application to purchase, dispute management, chargebacks, and refunds on the platform.

It also provides essential data and business insights that enable retailers to optimize their lenders, marketing efforts, and more.

Our approach to embedded lending works!

According to our platform data, applications for consumer financing increased by 62% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2023, compared to the same period last year. What might not be so intuitive is that we have seen an increase in approval rates. We believe that this is a combination of two factors more applications from shoppers with high credit scores and the strength of our waterfall model and the multi-lender network.

GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

Q Can you explain a bit more about how the waterfall method works?

Q How easy is it to integrate your brand into my brand?

Sure. When a customer submits a financing application through ChargeAfter, it is checked against prime lenders for approval. If the application is declined, it moves to near-prime or “second look” options for approval, and then to sub-prime lenders, with products such as “lease-to-own”. This entire process is fast, only taking a few seconds, and results in a very high approval rate for applicants, often above 80%.

Extremely! Our plugin effortlessly integrates into retailers’ e-commerce and point-of-sale systems.

Depending on the needs of the merchant, integration can take a matter of days or weeks. Our experienced and dedicated team is on hand ensuring the process is fast and straightforward.

Q What is the benefit of embedding over 40 lenders onto the platform?

Lenders usually offer specialized financing according to different criteria, such as type of financial product, type of customer (prime, near-prime, subprime), industry specialty, and geography. Our network provides a diverse range of financing solutions for every budget and credit situation, whether the customer has a long credit history or is a first-time buyer. Merchants choose which lenders to integrate into their financing offer.

Each lender has its own set of terms and conditions, interest rates, and repayment schedules, giving consumers a wide range of options to choose from based on their needs and financial situation. There is a wide range of loans and financing options on the platform that cover different products such as leaseto-own, long-term and short-term installment loans, buy now pay later (BNPL), 0% APR, revolving- lines- of credit, etc.

B2B customers are an underserved market with limited POS financing options and extremely low approval rates, so we are focusing on adding B2B lenders to our portfolio to meet that growing demand.

Q What types of retailers use ChargeAfter’s platform?

Our platform is great for retailers who sell big-ticket items such as furniture, home appliances, fashion, and electronics or big-ticket services like dentistry, elective surgeries, and beauty and wellness treatments. These products and services can be out of reach for many customers and even financially resilient customers may prefer to spread out their payments over time instead of paying everything upfront. That’s exactly where ChargeAfter comes in with an easier and more accessible way to purchase these products and services.

Q How are banks responding to the rise of embedded lending?

Fintech companies have taken the lead with embedded financing which is currently diverting $8 billion to $10 billion in annual revenues away from banks. What’s more, banks are losing key demographics like younger or new-to-credit consumers who are turning to alternative financing options.

Banks are recognizing the need to adapt and provide more flexible payment options to merchants to retain their customer base. Similarly, just like retailers, banks have their own areas of expertise. And embedding their products into customer journeys isn’t one of them. This is why ChargeAfter white labels our platform for banks to provide their lending products to retailers at checkouts.

Q How is marketing ChargeAfter different from other companies you’ve worked at? What are the differences and challenges you face?

As the EVP Marketing, I am excited to play a pivotal role in carving a path to success in this new landscape.

I face the unique challenge of educating the market about the benefits of a platform-first approach to consumer financing without being confused as a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) or a traditional lender.

The main challenge is raising awareness around the concept of an embedded lending network and how it can revolutionize the way merchants provide financing options to their customers. This positioning challenge demands clarity in our messaging to prevent any misconceptions and ensure we are recognized as a comprehensive platform solution.

By focusing on the unique value proposition of our platform-first solution, and addressing potential misconceptions head-on, we can effectively navigate the challenge of educating the market and establish ChargeAfter as the go-to provider for embedded lending platforms for point-of-sale financing.

As we white label our platform, it is popular with enterprise retailers who can integrate it effortlessly into their brand, as well as mid-size and large retailers.

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MARIOS PAPACHRISTODOULOU

Q We first met many years ago when you sold me a car. How did you get into the used car sales industry?

in turn that puts me in a position where I can provide specific solutions to specific problems.

Indeed, many years ago! When I finished my studies in UK I was juggling different options of whether to come back to Cyprus or stay in UK. At the time, it was just months after the 2013 haircut that was imposed on Cyprus. One of the offers at hand, was from Mr. Andys Agathocleous (my godfather) who is the managing director of Andys Motors Ltd, to come back in Cyprus and assist with the business in the digital marketing front, which was my MSc.

2. Secondly, and I cannot stress this enough, is the fact that I had a great mentor (Mr. Andys Agathocleous). In an industry where one can easily get tempted into becoming the typical “pushy archetypal used car salesman”, I had a stellar role model of a sales person and a pioneer in the industry to look at, and turn to for guidance and support.

After a few months in, it was evident that I had a strong proclivity in dealing with people, and that sales was something that came naturally to me. That’s how my journey in car sales begun.

There is a big difference in “just selling” cars, and being “successful” in the car industry. Anyone can make one or two sales, sell one or two cars here and there. But doing it on a daily basis, selling stocks of cars, after stocks of cars, in the hundreds, from budgets across the spectrum, and clients from various market segments, that’s no easy task. That’s planning, strategy and execution!

Q What was it like when you began as it is a very hardcore sales industry?

“Hardcore” is the ideal definition to attribute to this industry. It is a very fast paced environment, where you are surrounded by other sales sharks (more experienced, wittier, savvier than you) so it is a mountain to climb until you can prove yourself and worth.

It is however, an industry I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn how to sell efficiently, and actually sharpen their skillset . It is an industry, where competition is both external and internal. In addition, you need to develop crisp communication skills, and also early on, a thick skin to be able to endure and keep going.

Q Were you the archetypal pushy used car salesman?

Looking back at it, I believe that I could be the archetypal pushy used car salesman (exactly as you see them on TV, if not worse). Much of the skills are the same, but the motivations vary.

There are 2 main reasons why I never really turned to the archetypal pushy used car salesman: 1. First reason, is the fact that the archetypal pushy sales person, is solely focused on the product (car) they are trying to promote, where as my main focus was never the actual product (in this case – the car). My focus is on whomever I am interacting with. I have a genuine interest in understanding what really drives each potential client, their motivations, concerns, and

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Q What skills do you need and learn in selling cars?

The two major sets of skills needed are people’s skills and communication skills. Remember that people will buy you, before they buy the product. These skills enable us to speak in a way that conveys expertise, respect, understanding, empathy. Above all else, we need to have the ability to “breathe trust”, much like a dragon breathes fire.

A major skill that one will definitely pick up in the car industry, is the ability to qualify potential clients quickly. One of the best parts of working at Andys Motors was that I would get to interact with multiple potential clients in a day. The ability to qualify these potential clients quickly and in prompt manner was of paramount importance on how much time, energy and effort you would allocate. By learning to ask the right questions, and getting to the point, within the first seconds you knew if you had a potential client in front of you, or a window shopper.

Another skill that is quickly picked up in the car industry, is the ability to negotiate. Nobody has ever purchased a vehicle from the sticker price! The clients are conditioned to ask for a discount when it comes to purchasing a car, and our ability to work around numbers and get the deal within a reasonable bracket that is not coming at a loss for the company, is something that you learn by practice and practice and practice.

And no, not everybody who asks for a discount, gets a discount!

Q You transitioned into luxury real estate, what motivated you to change after being incredibly successful in this area?

Whilst at Andys Motors, I had successfully become a Certified Marketing and Sales Coach, and had also become a Visiting Lecturer for the Cyprus Institute of Marketing, as well as an Accreddited Lecturer by the University of West London.

In the car industry, is where I fell in love with the art of selling. As I grew in the field professionally, my vision and direction shifted towards becoming someone who can train/educate people in sales, show them the ropes, explain to them how clients think and react, and avoid all the mistakes that I had done early on in my career.

It’s cliché, but they always say that “Growth comes once you step out of your comfort zone”, and car sales had become my “comfort zone”. My motivation was, and always has been about challenging, improving, and developing my skills.

Whilst immensely grateful for my incredible journey in car sales, I felt that the time had come to take the leap, and test my skills in a different industry with different potential and dynamics.

Q Was there ever any self doubt in moving from the safety of being established in selling cars, to a new and very competitive industry?

By the time I had decided to move from the car industry into real estate, I was clear in my mind about my vision and direction. My mindset was set to it, so there was very little room for self-doubt. I was concerned at the time about the fact that I was heading into the unknown, I had just taken a mortgage for our new home, but I had full trust in my ability to sell, as well as the support of my wife and family, and ultimately that is what has enabled me to enter a new industry and begin my incredible journey in real estate.

Marios Papachristodoulou

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Q How much of a psychological change did it take in getting the deal done with more variables in play compared to selling a car. With most people requiring a mortgage, and that takes time. Has this improved your focus and organization?

On a personal level, the fact that I had to get used to the slower speeds of real estate, never sat well with me. I have learned from the car industry to close there and then, with much fewer variables, so transitioning to the lengthier deals was a huge challenge (and still is to this day).

When dealing with larger budgets, more people, a magnitude of variables, focus and organizational skills are of significant importance. Luckily this was something that I begun to develop in my years in the car industry, and brough it with me to real estate.

Due to the complexity of certain deals, the psychological stress sometimes can be overbearing if you are going at it alone, especially if you are juggling many complicated deals at the same time. Early on I have come to realize that real estate is not a one man show, and to claim that, would be both arrogant and foolish.

I have been fortunate enough to work with a fantastic team of Real Estate Agents, Admin Staff, and Management at RE/MAX Cyprus, which provides me daily with the support, knowledge and resources required in meeting all these challenges.

Q Are there different skills required?

Real estate has a particular peculiarity which makes it both challenging and exciting, compared to other types of sales. In real estate you must sell and negotiate on two fronts (simultaneously), which means that there is a magnitude of factors that can make or break a deal. You might be able to close on one side, but that doesn’t mean anything unless both sides agree. And even after that, until the actual fruition of the deal, there are multiple ways, pitfalls, where a transaction might derail. The challenging part was to learn to anticipate these difficulties, and being able to provide solutions that keep the transactions on track until completion.

I do believe however, and this has proven to be the case repeatedly, that the skillset required to sell a home, is the same skillset needed to sell a car, to sell insurances, to sell boats, or to sell any other product or service, and that is effective communication and people’s skills. At the end of the day what selling is, is our ability to communicate and convey certainty, and that is why professional sales people can switch between industries and products, and succeed.

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Q You run an incredibly successful sales workshop.

How and why should people attend?

Thank you for your kind words! According to the feedback from the workshops, one of the main reasons the training programs have been successful, is because they come from real life scenarios, real life successes and failures, and not just textbook theories. Everything that is being taught, is techniques that have been tested, and proven to work, both in selling cars, and selling real estate.

The participants at the workshops are from various backgrounds, whether that would be insurances, car sales, real estate agents, merchandise sellers, service providers and even people who have had no previous experience with sales but would like to improve their communication and sales skills for personal growth.

Why should anyone attend? There are 2 main reasons: 1. If you are a sales person, then learning how to sell effectively, directly correlates to your income and success in your respective field.

2. If you are not in sales, then simply to improve your communication skills and in turn, your self confidence.

There are 2 types of training programs being delivered: The first, is the one on one coaching, where we discuss individually, and have tailor made 1 hour training sessions to help the individual become a better communicator, sales person and improve their business acumen.

The second format, is in the type of a classroom seminar. I have just recently partnered up with a well reputable training center in Limassol with which we will be announcing shortly a series of Certified Advanced Sales and Digital Marketing programs.

Q What’s the best way to reach you to learn more?

Once again, thank you for the opportunity.

For anyone interested in Real Estate, whether buying, selling or renting, you can connect with me directly via my LinkedIn profile.

Alternatively, if you are interested in updates on the training programs, then just visit my website on www.mariospapachristodoulou.com Lastly, you can catch me on the 29th of June on REALTYON Expo at Parklane Hotel, Limassol, where I will be talking about Digital Marketing and Real Estate.

P - 45

'ĂŵĞ ŚĂŶŐĞƌƐ /ŶƚĞƌǀŝĞǁ

DORA CHRISTOFI ŽƌĂ ŚƌŝƐƚŽĨŝ͕ ,ĞĂĚ ŽĨ ŝŐŝƚĂů DĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ Ăƚ KƌďĞdž Head of Digital Marketing at Orbex

,Žǁ ĚŝĚ LJŽƵ ĨĂůů ŝŶƚŽ &y ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ͍

Q How did you fall into FX marketing? to the growing number of traders who are mostly >Ğƚ ŵĞ ƐƚĂƌƚ ďLJ ƐŚĂƌŝŶŐ ŚŽǁ / ĞŶƚĞƌĞĚ ƚŚĞ ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ĨŝĞůĚ ŝŶ ŐĞŶĞƌĂů͘ tŝƚŚ Ă ďĂĐŬŐƌŽƵŶĚ ŝŶ ŽŵƉƵƚŝŶŐ͕ / ŝŶŝƚŝĂůůLJ using their mobile devices to engage with trading platǁŽƌŬĞĚ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ dĞůĞĐŽŵƐ ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ͕ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ZĞƐĞĂƌĐŚ Θ ĞǀĞůŽƉŵĞŶƚ ĚĞƉĂƌƚŵĞŶƚ͘ Ɛ ƉĂƌƚ ŽĨ ŵLJ ũŽď͕ / ƚƌĂǀĞůůĞĚ Let me start by sharing how I entered the forms. We have embraced mobile marketing strategies ĞdžƚĞŶƐŝǀĞůLJ͕ ĂŶĚ ĚƵƌŝŶŐ ŵLJ ũŽƵƌŶĞLJƐ͕ / ďĞŐĂŶ ĚŽĐƵŵĞŶƚŝŶŐ ŵLJ ƚƌĂǀĞů ĞdžƉĞƌŝĞŶĐĞƐ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ Ă ďůŽŐ͘ /ƚ ǁĂƐ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ marketing field in general. With a background in that have proven to be highly effective in reaching ƚŚŝƐ ďůŽŐ ƚŚĂƚ / ĨŝƌƐƚ ĚĞůǀĞĚ ŝŶƚŽ ƚŚĞ ǁŽƌůĚ ŽĨ ĚŝŐŝƚĂů ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ͕ ĞdžƉůŽƌŝŶŐ ƚĞĐŚŶŝƋƵĞƐ ƚŽ ĚƌŝǀĞ ŵŽƌĞ ƚƌĂĨĨŝĐ ƚŽ ŵLJ Computing, I initially worked in the Telecoms and engaging traders on the go. Push notifications, ƐŝƚĞ͘ / ďĞŐĂŶ ĞŶŐĂŐŝŶŐ ŝŶ ƐĞůĨͲƐƚƵĚLJ͕ ǁŚŝĐŚ ĞdžƉŽƐĞĚ ŵĞ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ŝŵŵĞŶƐĞ ƉŽƚĞŶƚŝĂů ĂŶĚ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚŝĞƐ ƚŚĂƚ ĚŝŐŝƚĂů industry, in the Research & Development department. instant messaging and SMS campaigns have emerged ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ŚĂƐ ƚŽ ŽĨĨĞƌ͘ As part of my job, I travelled extensively, and during as prominent channels for delivering timely updates, my journeys, I began documenting my travel market insights, and trading opportunities directly to

experiences through a blog. It was through this blog our mobile users. ƌŝǀĞŶ ďLJ ŵLJ ƉĂƐƐŝŽŶ ĨŽƌ ĐŽŶƚŝŶƵŽƵƐ ůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ͕ / ƐŽƵŐŚƚ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚŝĞƐ ƚŽ ƉƵƚ ŵLJ ŬŶŽǁůĞĚŐĞ ŝŶƚŽ ƉƌĂĐƚŝĐĞ͘ dŚŝƐ that I first delved into the world of digital marketing, ĚƌŝǀĞ ůĞĚ ŵĞ ƚŽ ũŽŝŶ Ă ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ĂŐĞŶĐLJ ƚŚĂƚ ƐƉĞĐŝĂůŝnjĞĚ ŝŶ ƐĞƌǀŝŶŐ ĐůŝĞŶƚƐ ƉƌŝŵĂƌŝůLJ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ĨŝŶĂŶĐŝĂů ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ͘ exploring techniques to drive more traffic to my site.

Q As a marketing outsider, the role of Google Ads and dŚƌŽƵŐŚ ŵLJ ĞdžƉĞƌŝĞŶĐĞ ǁŽƌŬŝŶŐ ǁŝƚŚ ĐůŝĞŶƚƐ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ĨŝŶĂŶĐŝĂů ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ͕ / ŐĂŝŶĞĚ ǀĂůƵĂďůĞ ŝŶƐŝŐŚƚƐ ĂŶĚ ŬŶŽǁůĞĚŐĞ I began engaging in self-study, which exposed me to Landing Pages seemed a pretty straight forward. ĂďŽƵƚ ƚŚĞ ĨŝĞůĚ͘ dŚŝƐ ĞdžƉŽƐƵƌĞ ŵŽƚŝǀĂƚĞĚ ŵĞ ƚŽ ƚƌĂŶƐŝƚŝŽŶ ŝŶƚŽ ƚŚĞ ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ͕ ǁŚĞƌĞ / ĐŽƵůĚ ĨƵƌƚŚĞƌ ĂƉƉůLJ ŵLJ the immense potential and opportunities that digital How has it changed lately? ĞdžƉĞƌƚŝƐĞ ĂŶĚ ĐŽŶƚƌŝďƵƚĞ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ͘ marketing has to offer.

Using Google AdWords to promote our campaigns and

Driven by my passion for continuous learning, I sought send traffic to landing pages is challenging due to tĞ ĨŝƌƐƚ ŵĞƚ ǁŚĞŶ ǁĞ ƐƚĂƌƚĞĚ 'ĂŵĞ ŚĂŶŐĞƌƐ ĂďŽƵƚ ϲ LJĞĂƌƐ ĂŐŽ͘ ,Žǁ ŚĂƐ Ă ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ƌŽůĞ ĞǀŽůǀĞĚ several factors which induce compliance and regulaŝŶ &y͍ opportunities to put my knowledge into practice.

This drive led me to join a marketing agency that tions, the competitive landscape, approval process

specialized in serving clients primarily from the and the rapid change of ad policies. dŚĞ ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ƌŽůĞ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ĨŽƌĞdž ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ ŚĂƐ ǁŝƚŶĞƐƐĞĚ ƐŝŐŶŝĨŝĐĂŶƚ ĞǀŽůƵƚŝŽŶ ĂŶĚ ƚƌĂŶƐĨŽƌŵĂƚŝŽŶ ĚƵƌŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ůĂƐƚ financial industry. Through my experience working ĨĞǁ LJĞĂƌƐ͘ /ƚ ŚĂƐ ďĞĞŶ ĚƌŝǀĞŶ ďLJ ĂĚǀĂŶĐĞŵĞŶƚƐ ŝŶ ƚĞĐŚŶŽůŽŐLJ͕ ĐůŝĞŶƚ ŶĞĞĚƐ ĂŶĚ ƉƌĞĨĞƌĞŶĐĞ ĐŚĂŶŐĞƐ ĂŶĚ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ with clients in the financial industry, I gained valuable We must adhere to strict compliance and regulatory ĚLJŶĂŵŝĐƐ͘ insights and knowledge about the field. This exposure requirements, whilst make sure that we are creating

motivated me to transition into the industry, where I compelling ads. The most popular keywords often could further apply my expertise and contribute to the have high competition which results in higher CPC DĂƌŬĞƚĞƌƐ ŚĂǀĞ ƌĞĐŽŐŶŝnjĞĚ ƚŚĞ ŝŵƉŽƌƚĂŶĐĞ ŽĨ ƉĞƌƐŽŶĂůŝnjĂƚŝŽŶ ĂŶĚ ƚĂƌŐĞƚĞĚ ŵĞƐƐĂŐŝŶŐ͘ tĞ ŚĂǀĞ ĞŵďƌĂĐĞĚ ĚĂƚĂͲ industry. rates. When using GoogleAds, we must plan and ĚƌŝǀĞŶ ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ƚĞĐŚŶŝƋƵĞƐ ƚŽ ƐĞŐŵĞŶƚ ŽƵƌ ĂƵĚŝĞŶĐĞ ĂŶĚ ĚĞůŝǀĞƌ ƚĂŝůŽƌĞĚ ŵĞƐƐĂŐĞƐ͕ ƉƌŽŵŽƚŝŽŶƐ͕ ĂŶĚ optimise our campaigns to maximize our ROI. We ƌĞĐŽŵŵĞŶĚĂƚŝŽŶƐ͘ tĞ ůĞǀĞƌĂŐĞ ĐƵƐƚŽŵĞƌ ĚĂƚĂ ĂŶĚ ĂŶĂůLJƚŝĐƐ͕ ŝŶ ŽƌĚĞƌ ƚŽ ďĞƚƚĞƌ ƵŶĚĞƌƐƚĂŶĚ ŽƵƌ ĂƵĚŝĞŶĐĞƐ ŶĞĞĚƐ Q We first met when we started Game Changers about need to ensure that ads, landing pages and keywords ĂŶĚ ƉƌĞĨĞƌĞŶĐĞƐ͕ ǁŚŝĐŚ ƌĞƐƵůƚƐ ŝŶ ŵŽƌĞ ĞĨĨĞĐƚŝǀĞ ĂŶĚ ƌĞůĞǀĂŶƚ ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ĐĂŵƉĂŝŐŶƐ͘ 6 years ago. How has a marketing role evolved in FX?

are relevant to the target audience in order to achieve a higher quality score which means higher ad visibility /ŶĨůƵĞŶĐĞƌ ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ŚĂƐ ŐĂŝŶĞĚ ƉƌŽŵŝŶĞŶĐĞ ŝŶ ŽƵƌ ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ͘ tĞ ƚĞŶĚ ƚŽ ĐŽůůĂďŽƌĂƚĞ ŵŽƌĞ ǁŝƚŚ ŝŶĨůƵĞŶƚŝĂů The marketing role in the forex industry has witnessed and lower costs. ƚƌĂĚĞƌƐ͕ ĞĚƵĐĂƚŽƌƐ ĂŶĚ ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ ĞdžƉĞƌƚƐ ǁŚŽ ŚĂǀĞ ƐŝŐŶŝĨŝĐĂŶƚ ŽŶůŝŶĞ ĐƌĞĚŝďŝůŝƚLJ ĂŶĚ ĂƌĞ ĂďůĞ ƚŽ ďĞ ďƌĂŶĚ significant evolution and transformation during the ĂĚǀŽĐĂƚĞƐ͘ last few years. It has been driven by advancements in The approval process is another challenge we are

technology, client needs and preference changes and facing, mostly because of the delays in getting our ad market dynamics. reviewed and approved or rejected. Google is also tĞ ĂƌĞ ĂůƐŽ ŐŝǀŝŶŐ ŐƌĞĂƚĞƌ ĞŵƉŚĂƐŝƐ ŽŶ ŵŽďŝůĞ ŽƉƚŝŵŝnjĂƚŝŽŶ ďLJ ŝŶǀĞƐƚŝŶŐ ŝŶ ŵŽďŝůĞ ĂƉƉƐ ĂŶĚ ĚĞǀĞůŽƉŝŶŐ ŵŽďŝůĞͲ updating its policies on a regular basis to ensure user ĨƌŝĞŶĚůLJ ƵƐĞƌ ĞdžƉĞƌŝĞŶĐĞƐ ƚŽ ĐĂƚĞƌ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ŐƌŽǁŝŶŐ ŶƵŵďĞƌ ŽĨ ƚƌĂĚĞƌƐ ǁŚŽ ĂƌĞ ŵŽƐƚůLJ ƵƐŝŶŐ ƚŚĞŝƌ ŵŽďŝůĞ ĚĞǀŝĐĞƐ Marketers have recognized the importance of personsafety and prevent misleading practices. We have to ƚŽ ĞŶŐĂŐĞ ǁŝƚŚ ƚƌĂĚŝŶŐ ƉůĂƚĨŽƌŵƐ͘ tĞ ŚĂǀĞ ĞŵďƌĂĐĞĚ ŵŽďŝůĞ ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ƐƚƌĂƚĞŐŝĞƐ ƚŚĂƚ ŚĂǀĞ ƉƌŽǀĞŶ ƚŽ ďĞ ŚŝŐŚůLJ alization and targeted messaging. We have embraced stay updated and adapt our campaigns to comply with ĞĨĨĞĐƚŝǀĞ ŝŶ ƌĞĂĐŚŝŶŐ ĂŶĚ ĞŶŐĂŐŝŶŐ ƚƌĂĚĞƌƐ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ŐŽ͘ WƵƐŚ ŶŽƚŝĨŝĐĂƚŝŽŶƐ͕ ŝŶƐƚĂŶƚ ŵĞƐƐĂŐŝŶŐ ĂŶĚ ^D^ ĐĂŵƉĂŝŐŶƐ datadriven marketing techniques to segment our the new policies ŚĂǀĞ ĞŵĞƌŐĞĚ ĂƐ ƉƌŽŵŝŶĞŶƚ ĐŚĂŶŶĞůƐ ĨŽƌ ĚĞůŝǀĞƌŝŶŐ ƚŝŵĞůLJ ƵƉĚĂƚĞƐ͕ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ŝŶƐŝŐŚƚƐ͕ ĂŶĚ ƚƌĂĚŝŶŐ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚŝĞƐ audience and deliver tailored messages, promotions, ĚŝƌĞĐƚůLJ ƚŽ ŽƵƌ ŵŽďŝůĞ ƵƐĞƌƐ͘ and recommendations. We leverage customer data and Q Is it harder to acquire new clients in such a analytics, in order to better understand our audiences saturated market and with uncooperative social needs and preferences, which results in more effective media platforms? and relevant marketing campaigns.

The financial industry operates under robust Influencer marketing has gained prominence in our regulations, imposing strict rules and guidelines for KƌďĞdž 'ůŽďĂů >ƚĚ industry. We tend to collaborate more with influential promoting financial services and products. Adhering traders, educators and industry experts who have to these regulations creates limitations on the content Ground online Floor, The Catalyst, Avenue, 40 Cybercity, Ebène,of Republic of Mauritius significant credibility andSilicon are able to be brand and 72201 presentation advertisements on social media advocates. platforms. Navigating these restrictions with caution, t +230 467 2000, +230 464 4888 f +230 467 7456 e info@orbex.com

adds an additional layerw ofwww.orbex.com complexity to acquiring We are also giving greater emphasis on mobile new clients in the financial industry. While social

optimization by investing in mobile apps and media platforms offer advanced targeting options, developing mobilefriendly user experiences to cater reaching the right audience can be challenging due to +357 25588855

GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

+357 25588853

info@orbex.com

www.orbex.com

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the complexity of targeting parameters.

Moreover, the high level of competition among financial service providers on social media further amplifies the difficulty acquiring new clients.

I believe that with the right strategies and a proactive approach, we may overcome these challenges. However, it’s crucial to diversify marketing efforts across multiple channels. This includes utilizing other digital marketing channels like search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, email marketing, and targeted advertising on alternative platforms. By diversifying our marketing channels, we can reach a broader audience and mitigate the risks associated with relying solely on social media platforms Q How do you come up with new and interesting concepts for a brand, as FX is quite a dry industry?

Coming up with new and interesting concepts requires a combination of creativity and a deep understanding of the markets and what our target audience is looking for. These insights can then guide the definition of concepts and messaging that truly resonate with them.

Great ideas often emerge through collaboration and exposure to diverse perspectives. I would encourage brainstorming sessions involving cross-functional teams to leverage the collective creativity and expertise within the company. Additionally, seeking inspiration from successful brands other than the financial industry can help us come up with new concepts that can be adapted to our brand. Staying updated with industry developments and trends e.g. emerging technologies, regulatory updates, consumer behaviour and market dynamics, can help to identify concept opportunities that will align with current trends which are interesting for traders.

I also believe in the power of storytelling to create emotional connections with the audience. Even in our industry, there are stories waiting to be told.

By humanizing the brand and sharing stories of real traders, their journeys,

Dora Christofi P - 47

successes, and challenges, we can make the industry more relatable and capture the attention of our target audience. Whether it’s showcasing the transformation of a novice trader or highlighting the impact of the markets on global economies, storytelling can be powerful to our brand.

Q The new buzzword is Artificial Intelligence, are you using this for your day to day job?

'ĂŵĞ ŚĂŶŐĞƌƐ /ŶƚĞƌǀŝĞǁ In my day-to-day job, I actively leverage AI

today, in a rapidly evolving field like AI, is a must.

To keep myself informed and up-to-date, I actively engage in various activities and seek out opportunities to learn and improve. To deepen my understanding of AI, I follow reputable sources, attend webinars, complete online courses and gain certifications. These educational endeavours are aimed at enhancing my technical knowledge and equipping me with practical skills that can be directly applied to my role in marketing.

One specific area of focus for me is automation and

ŽƌĂ ŚƌŝƐƚŽĨŝ͕ ,ĞĂĚ ŽĨ ŝŐŝƚĂů DĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ Ăƚ KƌďĞdž technologies to enhance my daily work and achieve optimization. By learning about automation tools, better results faster. It’s empowering me to leverage AIpowered platforms, and optimization techniques, I

data-driven insights, automate tasks, and optimize

can streamline marketing processes and make datadriven decisions more efficiently. This knowledge >Ğƚ ŵĞ ƐƚĂƌƚ ďLJ ƐŚĂƌŝŶŐ ŚŽǁ / ĞŶƚĞƌĞĚ ƚŚĞ ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ĨŝĞůĚ ŝŶ ŐĞŶĞƌĂů͘ tŝƚŚ Ă ďĂĐŬŐƌŽƵŶĚ ŝŶ ŽŵƉƵƚŝŶŐ͕ / ŝŶŝƚŝĂůůLJ empowers me to leverage AI technologies to their full ǁŽƌŬĞĚ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ dĞůĞĐŽŵƐ ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ͕ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ZĞƐĞĂƌĐŚ Θ ĞǀĞůŽƉŵĞŶƚ ĚĞƉĂƌƚŵĞŶƚ͘ Ɛ ƉĂƌƚ ŽĨ ŵLJ ũŽď͕ / ƚƌĂǀĞůůĞĚ From drafting content, analyzing data, and automating potential, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of ĞdžƚĞŶƐŝǀĞůLJ͕ ĂŶĚ ĚƵƌŝŶŐ ŵLJ ũŽƵƌŶĞLJƐ͕ / ďĞŐĂŶ ĚŽĐƵŵĞŶƚŝŶŐ ŵLJ ƚƌĂǀĞů ĞdžƉĞƌŝĞŶĐĞƐ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ Ă ďůŽŐ͘ /ƚ ǁĂƐ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ time-consuming tasks, to conducting comprehensive our marketing strategies. competitive analysis and market research, I can stay ƚŚŝƐ ďůŽŐ ƚŚĂƚ / ĨŝƌƐƚ ĚĞůǀĞĚ ŝŶƚŽ ƚŚĞ ǁŽƌůĚ ŽĨ ĚŝŐŝƚĂů ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ͕ ĞdžƉůŽƌŝŶŐ ƚĞĐŚŶŝƋƵĞƐ ƚŽ ĚƌŝǀĞ ŵŽƌĞ ƚƌĂĨĨŝĐ ƚŽ ŵLJ ahead of the curve and adapt my marketing efforts Q Can you tell us more about Trip Experiences that ƐŝƚĞ͘ / ďĞŐĂŶ ĞŶŐĂŐŝŶŐ ŝŶ ƐĞůĨͲƐƚƵĚLJ͕ ǁŚŝĐŚ ĞdžƉŽƐĞĚ ŵĞ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ŝŵŵĞŶƐĞ ƉŽƚĞŶƚŝĂů ĂŶĚ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚŝĞƐ ƚŚĂƚ ĚŝŐŝƚĂů proactively. you are involved with? ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ŚĂƐ ƚŽ ŽĨĨĞƌ͘

,Žǁ ĚŝĚ LJŽƵ ĨĂůů ŝŶƚŽ &y ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ͍ strategies.

Q Do you feel like your job will be threatened by Trip Experiences is a passion project I started 10 years ƌŝǀĞŶ ďLJ ŵLJ ƉĂƐƐŝŽŶ ĨŽƌ ĐŽŶƚŝŶƵŽƵƐ ůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ͕ / ƐŽƵŐŚƚ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚŝĞƐ ƚŽ ƉƵƚ ŵLJ ŬŶŽǁůĞĚŐĞ ŝŶƚŽ ƉƌĂĐƚŝĐĞ͘ dŚŝƐ Artificial Intelligence? ago that combines my love for travel, photography, ĚƌŝǀĞ ůĞĚ ŵĞ ƚŽ ũŽŝŶ Ă ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ĂŐĞŶĐLJ ƚŚĂƚ ƐƉĞĐŝĂůŝnjĞĚ ŝŶ ƐĞƌǀŝŶŐ ĐůŝĞŶƚƐ ƉƌŝŵĂƌŝůLJ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ĨŝŶĂŶĐŝĂů ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ͘

storytelling, reviews, and sharing valuable travel dŚƌŽƵŐŚ ŵLJ ĞdžƉĞƌŝĞŶĐĞ ǁŽƌŬŝŶŐ ǁŝƚŚ ĐůŝĞŶƚƐ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ĨŝŶĂŶĐŝĂů ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ͕ / ŐĂŝŶĞĚ ǀĂůƵĂďůĞ ŝŶƐŝŐŚƚƐ ĂŶĚ ŬŶŽǁůĞĚŐĞ Artificial Intelligence has undoubtedly disrupted insights. It serves as a personal journal and a valuable ĂďŽƵƚ ƚŚĞ ĨŝĞůĚ͘ dŚŝƐ ĞdžƉŽƐƵƌĞ ŵŽƚŝǀĂƚĞĚ ŵĞ ƚŽ ƚƌĂŶƐŝƚŝŽŶ ŝŶƚŽ ƚŚĞ ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ͕ ǁŚĞƌĞ / ĐŽƵůĚ ĨƵƌƚŚĞƌ ĂƉƉůLJ ŵLJ various industries and job sectors, including marketresource for travellers seeking inspiration and practiĞdžƉĞƌƚŝƐĞ ĂŶĚ ĐŽŶƚƌŝďƵƚĞ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ͘ ing. I don’t view it as a threat to my marketing job, cal information for their own adventures. instead, I see AI as a powerful tool that can enhance

and complement my skills and abilities.

Through my travel blog, I have not only immersed tĞ ĨŝƌƐƚ ŵĞƚ ǁŚĞŶ ǁĞ ƐƚĂƌƚĞĚ 'ĂŵĞ ŚĂŶŐĞƌƐ ĂďŽƵƚ ϲ LJĞĂƌƐ ĂŐŽ͘ ,Žǁ ŚĂƐ Ă ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ƌŽůĞ ĞǀŽůǀĞĚ myself in the world of travel, but also discovered the ŝŶ &y͍ While AI can automate certain repetitive tasks, such as power of digital marketing. As I began sharing my sto-

data analysis or content distribution, it cannot replace ries and insights, I realized the importance of reaching dŚĞ ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ƌŽůĞ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ĨŽƌĞdž ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ ŚĂƐ ǁŝƚŶĞƐƐĞĚ ƐŝŐŶŝĨŝĐĂŶƚ ĞǀŽůƵƚŝŽŶ ĂŶĚ ƚƌĂŶƐĨŽƌŵĂƚŝŽŶ ĚƵƌŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ůĂƐƚ the human touch when it comes to creativity and and engaging with a broader audience. This realization ĨĞǁ LJĞĂƌƐ͘ /ƚ ŚĂƐ ďĞĞŶ ĚƌŝǀĞŶ ďLJ ĂĚǀĂŶĐĞŵĞŶƚƐ ŝŶ ƚĞĐŚŶŽůŽŐLJ͕ ĐůŝĞŶƚ ŶĞĞĚƐ ĂŶĚ ƉƌĞĨĞƌĞŶĐĞ ĐŚĂŶŐĞƐ ĂŶĚ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ strategic thinking. Developing innovative marketing led me to explore various digital marketing strategies campaigns, understanding human emotions, and and techniques to enhance the visibility and impact of ĚLJŶĂŵŝĐƐ͘ crafting compelling storytelling are areas where humy blog.

man marketers excel. AI can provide recommendaDĂƌŬĞƚĞƌƐ ŚĂǀĞ ƌĞĐŽŐŶŝnjĞĚ ƚŚĞ ŝŵƉŽƌƚĂŶĐĞ ŽĨ ƉĞƌƐŽŶĂůŝnjĂƚŝŽŶ ĂŶĚ ƚĂƌŐĞƚĞĚ ŵĞƐƐĂŐŝŶŐ͘ tĞ ŚĂǀĞ ĞŵďƌĂĐĞĚ ĚĂƚĂͲ tions, but it is up to us, marketers, to leverage that Through this project, I have embraced the joys of docĚƌŝǀĞŶ ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ƚĞĐŚŶŝƋƵĞƐ ƚŽ ƐĞŐŵĞŶƚ ŽƵƌ ĂƵĚŝĞŶĐĞ ĂŶĚ ĚĞůŝǀĞƌ ƚĂŝůŽƌĞĚ ŵĞƐƐĂŐĞƐ͕ ƉƌŽŵŽƚŝŽŶƐ͕ ĂŶĚ information creatively and to connect with our target umenting about travelling and discovered the exciting ƌĞĐŽŵŵĞŶĚĂƚŝŽŶƐ͘ tĞ ůĞǀĞƌĂŐĞ ĐƵƐƚŽŵĞƌ ĚĂƚĂ ĂŶĚ ĂŶĂůLJƚŝĐƐ͕ ŝŶ ŽƌĚĞƌ ƚŽ ďĞƚƚĞƌ ƵŶĚĞƌƐƚĂŶĚ ŽƵƌ ĂƵĚŝĞŶĐĞƐ ŶĞĞĚƐ audience. world of digital marketing, which has become an inteĂŶĚ ƉƌĞĨĞƌĞŶĐĞƐ͕ ǁŚŝĐŚ ƌĞƐƵůƚƐ ŝŶ ŵŽƌĞ ĞĨĨĞĐƚŝǀĞ ĂŶĚ ƌĞůĞǀĂŶƚ ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ĐĂŵƉĂŝŐŶƐ͘ gral part of my journey as a marketeer.

Marketers have a responsibility to consider ethical

/ŶĨůƵĞŶĐĞƌ ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ŚĂƐ ŐĂŝŶĞĚ ƉƌŽŵŝŶĞŶĐĞ ŝŶ ŽƵƌ ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ͘ tĞ ƚĞŶĚ ƚŽ ĐŽůůĂďŽƌĂƚĞ ŵŽƌĞ ǁŝƚŚ ŝŶĨůƵĞŶƚŝĂů implications, such as privacy concerns and fairness, Dora Christofi when leveraging AI technologies. Moreover, creativity Head of Digital Marketing at Orbex ƚƌĂĚĞƌƐ͕ ĞĚƵĐĂƚŽƌƐ ĂŶĚ ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ ĞdžƉĞƌƚƐ ǁŚŽ ŚĂǀĞ ƐŝŐŶŝĨŝĐĂŶƚ ŽŶůŝŶĞ ĐƌĞĚŝďŝůŝƚLJ ĂŶĚ ĂƌĞ ĂďůĞ ƚŽ ďĞ ďƌĂŶĚ is a uniquely human quality that drives innovation and ĂĚǀŽĐĂƚĞƐ͘ differentiation in marketing campaigns. The ability to Dora is a highly skilled Digital Marketeer with a

think outside the box, take risks, and create unique strong understanding of technology and over 7 years tĞ ĂƌĞ ĂůƐŽ ŐŝǀŝŶŐ ŐƌĞĂƚĞƌ ĞŵƉŚĂƐŝƐ ŽŶ ŵŽďŝůĞ ŽƉƚŝŵŝnjĂƚŝŽŶ ďLJ ŝŶǀĞƐƚŝŶŐ ŝŶ ŵŽďŝůĞ ĂƉƉƐ ĂŶĚ ĚĞǀĞůŽƉŝŶŐ ŵŽďŝůĞͲ experiences is an invaluable asset that AI cannot of experience in the financial industry. She has ĨƌŝĞŶĚůLJ ƵƐĞƌ ĞdžƉĞƌŝĞŶĐĞƐ ƚŽ ĐĂƚĞƌ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ŐƌŽǁŝŶŐ ŶƵŵďĞƌ ŽĨ ƚƌĂĚĞƌƐ ǁŚŽ ĂƌĞ ŵŽƐƚůLJ ƵƐŝŶŐ ƚŚĞŝƌ ŵŽďŝůĞ ĚĞǀŝĐĞƐ replace. hands-on-experience in a range of marketing ƚŽ ĞŶŐĂŐĞ ǁŝƚŚ ƚƌĂĚŝŶŐ ƉůĂƚĨŽƌŵƐ͘ tĞ ŚĂǀĞ ĞŵďƌĂĐĞĚ ŵŽďŝůĞ ŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ ƐƚƌĂƚĞŐŝĞƐ ƚŚĂƚ ŚĂǀĞ ƉƌŽǀĞŶ ƚŽ ďĞ ŚŝŐŚůLJ disciplines which include marketing strategies, ĞĨĨĞĐƚŝǀĞ ŝŶ ƌĞĂĐŚŝŶŐ ĂŶĚ ĞŶŐĂŐŝŶŐ ƚƌĂĚĞƌƐ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ŐŽ͘ WƵƐŚ ŶŽƚŝĨŝĐĂƚŝŽŶƐ͕ ŝŶƐƚĂŶƚ ŵĞƐƐĂŐŝŶŐ ĂŶĚ ^D^ ĐĂŵƉĂŝŐŶƐ Ultimately, it is the combination of human creativity, content development, SEO, Social Media, Email ŚĂǀĞ ĞŵĞƌŐĞĚ ĂƐ ƉƌŽŵŝŶĞŶƚ ĐŚĂŶŶĞůƐ ĨŽƌ ĚĞůŝǀĞƌŝŶŐ ƚŝŵĞůLJ ƵƉĚĂƚĞƐ͕ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ŝŶƐŝŐŚƚƐ͕ ĂŶĚ ƚƌĂĚŝŶŐ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚŝĞƐ strategic thinking, relationship building, and adaptMarketing, PPC, ORM and Data Analysis. As the Head ĚŝƌĞĐƚůLJ ƚŽ ŽƵƌ ŵŽďŝůĞ ƵƐĞƌƐ͘ ability that will continue to drive successful marketing of Digital Marketing at Orbex, Dora is dedicated to outcomes.

using her knowledge and expertise to create targeted, effective campaigns that will drive traffic, increase Q What are you doing to learn about it? Are you engagement, and boost conversions. Dora’s enthulooking to learn any new skills? siasm lies in supporting businesses to flourish and thrive. She constantly seeks out new challenges that KƌďĞdž 'ůŽďĂů >ƚĚ The importance of continuous learning, especially can extend the brand’s influence and reach.

Ground Floor, The Catalyst, Silicon Avenue, 40 Cybercity, 72201 Ebène, Republic of Mauritius t +230 467 2000, +230 464 4888

f +230 467 7456

e info@orbex.com

w www.orbex.com

YMM and ZK Sports SPORTS MARKETING: HOW FINANCE BRANDS ARE PLAYING THE GAME

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Elizabeth Rayment, Director and Founder of YMM, the marketing and PR agency for financial services, has been at the forefront of sports marketing since she started her marketing career in finance over a decade ago, she commented: “Sports marketing in the financial services industry can be an effective way for companies to differentiate themselves in a competitive market, reach a passionate audience, and build strong brand connections. We’ve also found that by working closely with our clients when forming these types of partnerships we have helped them overcome issues such as a lack of consumer trust and negative brand perceptions. By leveraging the emotional appeal and widespread popularity of sports, financial services firms can enhance their visibility, engage customers, and establish themselves as trusted partners within their communities. We recently partnered with the sports marketing agency ZK Sports for the Formula 1 in Monaco and it was an unforgettable experience from start to finish.”

GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

Elizabeth Rayment

As July arrives and we are quickly approaching summer, a quieter time of the year starts for financial services, investors and traders. Many will take this time to review their Q1 and Q2 strategy and realign their goals and objectives for the second half of the year. Sports marketing will be included in many of these plans and conversations.

SponsorUnited, one of the leading global sports and entertainment intelligence platforms, mentions that sponsorships and activations within Consumer Financial Services are on the rise up 25% YoY in terms of the number of brands activating.

With that said, in recent years we have witnessed a more diverse mix of sports events, teams, athletes, and related content used to

promote and enhance a brand’s image including (amongst others) F1, sailing, golf and polo. All of these sports are becoming more popular in terms of related imagery being used to enhance visibility amongst a certain audience and customer e ngagement being streamlined within financial services marketing strategies. Marketing departments are focusing on the strategic integration of sports-related activities in their marketing campaigns in order to broaden their reach and connect with target audiences in specific sports communities. Whilst in the realm of increased use of social media, we see brands concentrating on brand identity and focusing more on digital activations and creative content.

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Oliver Kent, Managing Director at ZK Sports & Entertainment has been running his agency for over a decade and commented on how he has seen the sports sponsorship industry evolve over the years: “I’ve been working in the sports marketing and sponsorships industry for over 13 years and have seen an increase with financial services brands moving away from the popular football team branding to widening the field to other sports such as F1 - FXPro is a perfect example of this. Through these partnerships, companies gain exposure to a wide range of sports fans and create brand association with the excitement and passion of sports which is very closely linked to the adrenaline that can be felt when investing in the financial markets.”

Oliver Kent

GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

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Game Changers Magazine

Lifestyle

GC: GOING OUT Captains Cabin Limassol, 3080 00357 25 211 655 captainscabinbeach.com

Like all good food reviews they begin with giving your pre teen child a driving lesson along one of the many deserted beaches that Limassol has to offer. Now for those that worry about safety, worry no more. I have the pedals, it’s a private road, she has extensive experience in driving fast getaway vehicles in Grand Theft Auto 5 and this is a very slow car.

Driving from Columbia Sun we saw the newly redeveloped Captains Cabin, where we decided to go and visit the following week (with me taking the wheel) As it was just after Easter we got lucky and didn’t need to pre book a table, however after returning a couple of times after the first visit it is critical to book a table if you are visiting at the weekend.

Prior to its extensive refit last year, Captains Cabin sadly always took an age to get food served to you, in what seemed like a kitchen in chaos, which was always a shame as the location is first rate. So I was initially reluctant to visit in case we experienced the lethal duo of being incredibly hungry and taking forever to get served.

However, it is great to see that this has been radically changed with not only fantastic waiting staff, where the food comes quickly. They have also changed the menu to a manageable amount of choices, where each choice seems to be a winner.

Over a couple of visits we ate the lamb kebab which was incredible and seemed to reflect a more arabic influence rather than a greek one. Pork chop, well marinated and good quality. This can be one of the easiest dishes to cook, along with one of the easiest to also mess up.

Squid which was incredibly fresh which went well with some very well made sushi.

GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

When you walk in the entrance, it reminds me of a Dubai beach club with its new facade and concierge to meet you at the front desk to take you to your seat. Also they have made a really nice upgrade to the beach bar area, where the coordination between luxury beach beds and bar works very well.

Having moved to the beach bar area the cocktails are very well made, and can be brought to your bed. You are paying more than your standard 2.50 EUR for a bed. However, it is worth it as you are having drinks and food brought to you without having to move from what is perhaps Limassol prettiest beach.

Well worth booking for the entire day, but book ahead as summer is coming and it is going to get crazy.

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GC: EAT Sherlock’s Home Bar Anexartisias 57C, Limassol 3040 25 550200 With perhaps the longest Limassol winter I can remember since last year’s winter, this review was written in what seemed like I was working in a rep office in the North Pole. Because it is only a fast walk on a cold night from the car park, we found ourselves drawn several times to Sherlocks in the dark winter months. If you have no idea where Sherlocks is, you can find it by the traffic lights at the base of Anexartisias Street (beach end), opposite one of the 8000 Coffee Islands you can find in central Limassol For this in-depth investigation on behalf of the Game Changers viewing public, and to give it scientific validity, we undertook base level human activity readings of attending on both a Friday and Saturday evening. If it is not as lively on Monday night as Friday, don’t get angry at GC. We are not Monday evening drinkers just yet.

I had always walked past this place thinking it was just another fancy frappe emporium with not alot going on to people who do not have large beards. I could never see what was going on inside. Perhaps this was their ruse to keep me away from what appears to be a very nice booze based Narnia when you enter.

GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

When you walk in, the place opens up like a whole new ecosystem in the city centre with a large tree as the centerpiece of the outdoor bar. It gives it that dark bar vibe which is nice when you just want to unwind with a couple of cold drinks.

My fellow researcher ordered what the British National Health Service would classify as ‘a classic Scottish breakfast’, consisting of a glass of whiskey along with a plate of chips (French fries for those who regularly holiday in Monaco.) Based upon the enthusiasm both were consumed I would say that the food and drink was of a good standard, or early onset of alcoholism. Who knows, either way we were having fun.

Although a cold beer did look incredibly inviting, I chose a vodka based fruit drink which I have no recollection of the name, only that it tasted incredibly good. With each inhalation via the eco-friendly straw, this alcohol delivery system did its job and deposited its wares into my stomach, gently releasing the alcohol into my stomach, ready to make me a certified leading opinion maker on any subject to be discussed.

What I love about this bar is that there is a nice energy to it with no overly loud music (yes I am that old). You can definitely go there and talk without having to use be able to lip read what your cocktail compadre is attempting to communicate to you.

Although it is always busy whenever we have visited, you do not feel like you have to consider inserting the table in your stomach to sit down.

Some places they are looking to squeeze every available square centimeter of floor space to accommodate as many as possible. I think we can all agree this is one upside of covid, no longer having to sit so close to mouth breathers on other tables...small victories.

It is highly recommended to call ahead and get a table, you can get one for a couple of hours if you are early between 4-6pm . But it will get rammed by 8.30pm and you will be politely reminded that the table is booked for the forward thinking drinkers of Limassol.

Well worth a visit, see if it reminds you of a 1920’s speakeasy bar with it being hidden so well in plain sight. Moreover, whilst writing this I just realised the interesting play on words for its title.

As clever as your table arrangement.

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GC: HOMME PAUL SMITH With summer fast approaching, and with it time to replace your old beachwear. Game Changers features a pillar of the male fashion industry, Paul Smith, with some amazing designs to look a step ahead of the rest this summer.

BRAND: PAUL SMITH NAME: Kraken swim shorts COST: $175 USD

BRAND: PAUL SMITH NAME: Hot Summer swim shorts COST: $175 USD

BRAND: PAUL SMITH NAME: Palm Trees swim shorts COST: $225 USD GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

BRAND: PAUL SMITH NAME: Tropical Floral swim shorts COST: $175 USD

BRAND: PAUL SMITH NAME: Blue Paint Swim short COST: $175 USD

BRAND: PAUL SMITH NAME: Abstract swim shorts COST: $175 USD P - 61

BRAND: PAUL SMITH NAME: Artist stripe swim shorts COST: $175 USD

BRAND: PAUL SMITH NAME: Glow polka swim shorts COST: $175 USD

BRAND: PAUL SMITH NAME: Blue Floral Swim shorts COST: $225 USD

BRAND: PAUL SMITH NAME: Collage print swim shorts COST: $175 USD

GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

GC: FEMME GUCCI

BRAND: GUCCI NAME: Cat eye sunglasses COST: $390 USD.

BRAND: GUCCI NAME: Sparkling Jersey bikini set.

COST: $1100 USD P - 63

BRAND: GUCCI NAME: Horsebit platform sandpit sandal COST: $1100 USD

BRAND: GUCCI NAME: Medium interlocking G tote bag COST: $2490 USD

GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

BRAND: GUCCI NAME: Large interlocking G tote bag COST: $2600 USD

BRAND: GUCCI NAME: ennis 1977 sneakers COST: $790 USD

BRAND: GUCCI NAME: Striped cotton cropped t-shirt COST: $850 USD

BRAND: GUCCI NAME: Jumbo GG cotton jacquard beach blanket COST: $495 USD

GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

BRAND: GUCCI NAME: Striped boat print silk dress COST: $3300 USD

BRAND: GUCCI NAME: Heart framed sunglasses in gold COST: $535 USD

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GC: CHARITY

For those that have lived and worked in Cyprus, you would have had the pleasure of dealing with some of those who work in one of our dynamic local government departments. So with that being said, after a couple of dealings with them between issues, GC thought it was apt that we feature the Donkey Sanctuary in Limassol.

Please do not confuse this with the place where many of these workers are put out to graze on a full salary pension at the age of 55. quite the opposite. The is home to abused or old donkeys who come to live out their days in the peace and safety of the sanctuary having perhaps lived a life of incredibly cruel conditions.

The charity was first formed in 1969 by Dr Elizabeth Svendsen which has now become the largest sanctuary with homes in 27 countries, with Cyprus opening in 2004 just outside of Limassol.

For those who are not aware, in this part of the world donkeys are worked incredibly hard, often to be seen carrying around people who have massively overstayed their welcome at the all inclusive buffet.

Moreover, they appear to be used as an ancient type of four legged disability vehicle, often found in the towns and cities of the UK shuttling people between various fried chicken emporiums.

Based in Limassol, sadly due to spiralling costs and ever growing regulations you can no longer visit and feed them, unlike the camel park.However, you can go to their website and see how you can help from there.with a number of ways to contribute to their upkeep.

The best way is to go directly to their website donkeysanctuarycyprus.org where you can find some fantastic merchandise, but perhaps the thing which intrigued us the most is the ability to sponsor a donkey for a year.

GAME CHANGERS Issue #45

Surprisingly it is very cheap to have a year long sponsorship of one of the residents. Furthermore, a great marketing tip for them is to perhaps be able to name them for one year after your favorite politician, and definately under no circumstances after one of your colleagues as the ultimate passive aggressive secret santa.

One of the easiest ways to help without any financial commitment, is to sign the petition against the skinning of donkeys. It only takes a moment to do this, and can be done via the link below.

To find out more about how you can help, click here.. donkeysanctuarycyprus.org

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ISSUE #45

THE JOURNAL FOR INDUSTRY LEADERS

www.gchangersmag.com info@gchangersmag.com