Marketing Maven: Ziad Melhem, Chief Marketing Officer, CFI Ziad Melhem, Chief Marketing Officer, CFI, reveals the secrets of CFI's outstanding marketing campaigns.

CFI has become a significant force in the online trading sector, offering traders seamless access to global and local markets with a physical presence in 15 countries and five continents. Plus, the online trading provider is globally regulated and locally trusted with 14 licenses from reputable regulatory bodies. It should not then come as a surprise that it is a go-to choice of traders around the globe - its clients' quarterly trading volumes on the platform exceeds US$1 trillion- just in Q4 2024, CFI saw a 27% increase from Q3 in active clients, and a 39% increase in client funding. The company's commitment to technological innovations, financial literacy, and partnerships with globally renowned icons positioned it as a leader in the competitive trading industry.

However, knowing that even the best of products still need to be properly marketed to the right audiences at the right time and place, we caught up with Ziad Melhem, Chief Marketing Officer, CFI, to learn how he has managed to enhance CFI's brand reach and truly engage and captivate audiences around the world.

Melhem's approach starts with clearly defining marketing objectives- market expansion, customer engagement, and delivering cutting-edge technological solutions. "Firstly, our market expansion objective is divided into two parts," he explains. "If it's a new market we're penetrating and aim for having the biggest market share in that particular market, we have a special playbook that we apply. Usually, the strategy is more challenging but exciting. At the same time, in other markets where we already have the biggest market share, it's about expanding our existing presence as well as solidifying it further." The second point, Melhem continues, relates to regularly enhancing customer engagement. "For existing clients, it's about strengthening, nurturing, and retaining that relationship," he says. "For new clients, we aim to establish a connection and retain it in the long term. This usually happens through our content marketing channels."

Melhem reiterates that CFI offers comprehensive market access with more than 15,000 instruments, enabling traders to access leading platforms and tools, such as CFI Trading App and Webtrader, MT4, MT5, C-Trader, CFI MultiAsset, TradingView, among others, and proprietary tools integrated with AI-driven solutions, like Kaiana AI. All this innovation serves the company's ultimate vision – to be the go-to brand for all things trading and investing, enabling financial inclusion by empowering everyone to achieve their financial goals, no matter their level of knowledge or experience.

"My third marketing objective is therefore about delivering technology and innovation, and it's maybe a bit weird to hear a marketing person talking about the product, because it is not us who built it, but it is us who package this technology and innovation and deliver it to the customers," Melhem explains. "It is us who make sure that the user experience is always enhanced. It is us who highlight the features of this technology and innovation to enable the users to use the best user experience as well as the best services."

Now, how do these strategic marketing goals align with the broader business strategy of CFI? "I think it's beyond alignment even, but that these goals are actually married to our broader, global business strategy."

Related: Charting The Future: Hisham Mansour, Co-Founder And Managing Director, CFI

In achieving these objectives, CFI often resorts to out of home campaigns, such as "Beyond Trading" that highlighted the comprehensive services CFI offers beyond just trading, "Drive Your Success" that featured Lewis Hamilton to draw a parallel between the precision and excellence required in Formula 1TM racing and the rigorous standards CFI upholds in its trading services, and "More and Better" that reinforced the brand's positioning by highlighting its superior offerings in online trading and financial services. "Personally, I'm a big fan of out of home campaigns, because I consider them a cornerstone of any 360 degrees marketing strategy," Melhem says. "I think that the way people consume out of home campaigns is really natural because it just happens within the flow of their lives. Like if you're driving, riding a bike, jogging, or walking in the mall, you consume these ads easily without being interrupted. If you look at other mediums, like digital ads for example, most of the time you get interrupted by an ad."

Source: CFI

The creative process behind CFI's out of home campaigns relies heavily on the deep understanding of client needs and the market itself. "If we get a solid grasp those, everything else becomes much easier, because from there it's all about aligning our brand goals and brand messaging with the audience/market needs in order to come up with these bold creative campaigns."

Source: CFI

The company's messaging is enhanced through strategic alliances, such as with Lewis Hamilton, AC Milan, and top institutions (FIBA WASL, Department of Culture and Tourism of Abu Dhabi, Jordan Basketball Federation, Jordan Football Association, Lebanese Basketball Federation), that are aimed at reinforcing CFI's commitment to world class standards. "For example, in our recent two campaigns, we worked our global brand ambassador, Lewis Hamilton, seven times F1 World Champion, to stress on our shared values - we're talking about trading like a champion, about success, resilience, advancement, execution, precision, and so on," Melhem explains. " And we also use our local or regional partnerships, for example with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, to deliver certain messages. These include that we are contributing to the community where we're based. This actually has been very helpful for us and we will continue to do that in the future."

CFI's 360 degree campaigns cover key countries with an objective that its appealing branding message is visible to people through the main central touch points, from major airlines to main central roads. "When it comes to the locations, we're very selective," Melhem concludes. "We target premium locations, and I'm a big believer that the location passes its exclusive value to the brand itself, meaning that you cannot display your campaigns anywhere."

Related: The 100: Hisham Mansour, Co-Founder and Managing Director, CFI