Bigmouthmedia has called upon the Financial Services Authority to introduce new rules to govern the selling of finance products online.

Speaking at the annual bigmouthmedia Finance Summit in London, finance strategist Chris Cathcart unveiled the results of a new consumer survey showing that 77% of web users believe that online financial advertising is neither honest nor straight-forward. The research – conducted in partnership with Financial Marketing UK – revealed that a clear majority of respondents mistrust the sector.

“The Financial Services Authority has to recognise that the web marketplace presents a unique range of challenges for the finance sector and that continuing to ignore the issue is no longer an option. They must step up to the plate and help organisations by providing a detailed set of guidelines governing selling online if we are to avoid what could end up as a compliance nightmare,” said Cathcart, bigmouthmedia’s senior finance strategist.

Consumers also displayed similar levels of mistrust and suspicion when it comes to the financial figures such as interest rates and potential savings gains displayed on websites. A resounding 65% of respondents categorically stated that they do not trust such numbers and cannot make decisions based upon them.

When asked to identify the product categories they found troublesome to research online, consumers identified the most significant challenges as arising when investigating investment opportunities. A compelling 65% said they found researching investment products either “fairly confusing” or “very confusing”, whereas 80% said they had little or no problems evaluating car insurance deals on the web.

Results from the research indicate that language could play a significant role in the confusion. An overwhelming 98% of respondents believe that the terms and conditions governing products and services sold online should be in plain English rather than the complex legal jargon currently used in the majority of contracts.

“The evidence couldn’t be any clearer: the majority of consumers distrust the finance sector and there is a lot of work to do to win that confidence back. Wording terms and conditions in a manner they can understand would be a major step towards achieving this,” added Cathcart.

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Bigmouthmedia has again been named the UK’s number 1 SEO and PPC agency in the New Media Age Marketing Services Guide for 2010.

This is the second year in a row that the agency has topped the prestigious chart, widely regarded as the definitive guide to the UK’s digital marketing landscape. The NMA league table is ranked on the basis of income, with bigmouthmedia’s range of big brand client wins, cross-channel expertise and experienced management team cited as being key to the company’s industry-leading status.

“Like every industry the search sector has faced a lot of challenges recently, but despite difficult economic circumstances the blend of effectiveness and measurable ROI that online marketing provides is still proving a winning combination,” said Phil Gripton, Managing Director of bigmouthmedia UK.

“We’re delighted that the company’s continued progress has been recognised. It is a tribute to the dedicated, skilled and passionate team that underpins everything we do at bigmouthmedia.”

Highlighting the international expertise offered by bigmouthmedia’s offices both in the UK and across the US, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, France and Spain, New Media Age attributed the company’s success, despite challenging trading conditions, to its reputation for digital marketing expertise and a strong social media offering.

Moving forwards the agency’s digital, technological and creative capacity is set to expand following bigmouthmedia’s merger with LBi, which is due to be completed in July. The combined agency will be the world’s largest marketing and technology agency. Announced in February the deal was brokered to address a changing climate where clients are increasingly looking for best in class agencies with the capacity to cover all aspects of digital marketing.

Europe’s largest independent digital marketing agency was unveiled as the winner of the Best Search Agency category during a packed ceremony at the exclusive Shoko club in Barcelona. The EComm Award, which is widely recognised as one of the most important prizes available to the Spanish online retail industry, was presented in recognition of the company’s innovative and successful approach.

“We’re both delighted and honoured to have won this award. We were up against some very strong competition and the fact that the judges selected bigmouthmedia as the top Spanish search agency for both serves to underline the commitment, hard work and talent our Madrid team puts into serving our clients,” said Manuel Jurado, Managing Director of bigmouthmedia Spain.

The awards, backed by the Spanish online retail publication Ecommretail, were established to recognise the companies contributing to the enhancement of the online marketing and ecommerce sectors with a blend of innovation and excellence.

Bigmouthmedia opened its new Madrid office in January 2009. Led by two of Spain’s best-known search professionals, the office offers bigmouthmedia’s full range of SEO, PPC and digital marketing services to the Spanish market.

“Despite having only opened its doors just over a year ago, bigmouthmedia’s Madrid office has already made a major impact upon the Spanish market. They have worked hard to earn an excellent local reputation in digital marketing in a remarkably short time, and I am delighted that their efforts have been recognised,” said Lyndsay Menzies, bigmouthmedia Group Chief Operations Officer.

“Bigmouthmedia brought something new to the Spanish industry. We offer a full range of digital marketing services, and with offices across the UK, US and the major European territories, we have the kind of international expertise that is vital to running a truly effective online campaign, ” said Jurado.

Bigmouthmedia senior retail strategist Finlay Clark will tell an invited audience of senior executives at the 2nd Annual bigmouthmedia Retail Summit this month that UK retailers are set to face fresh challenges as ecommerce consumer habits keep evolving rapidly. According to Clark, retailers face multiple opportunities and challenges posed by a shifting approach to the market, a raft of new technological developments and the entry of new players from overseas will have a major impact upon the sector in the coming months.

“With increased competition coming from various angles, retailers are about to face some of the biggest challenges in their history. Big overseas competitors are coming to the UK knowing consumers are sophisticated online shoppers, and the likes of Best Buy will be aiming to make its mark on an increasingly competitive consumer electronics market in 2010. Similarly, in fashion we have seen a shift with the likes of Ebay become clothes shopping destinations in their own right, whilst Amazon has allowed big high street brands to retail on their own platform,” said Clark.

“Nowadays independent fashion designers are launching exclusive collections on Ebay – far removed from the second hand and grey market sales that they made their name on – and in many ways they’re now a direct competitor to the retailers themselves.”

Clark will be joined by a panel of industry-leading online retail experts speaking on a range of themes including current consumer trends, cross channel shopping habits, the shape of UK internet advertising and the impact of social technologies upon web retailing.

Taking the podium at the Bigmouthmedia Retail Summit will be Benjamin Ensor, VP research director at Forrester Research, Google Retail Industry Leader Peter Fitzgerald and Tony Stockil, CEO of Javelin Group. Hitwise research director Robin Goad and Enders Analysis Founder Claire Enders will also join Clark on the rostrum.

In a presentation designed to identify the 10 key events set to hit Ecommerce over the course of the next two years, Clark will also highlight the challenge presented by the growth of online applications. Although a relatively new phenomenon, he predicts that retailers will be forced to place increasing focus upon keeping up with rapidly developing new marketing technologies.

“Some of the best content in the future will be delivered through applications like those found in Apple’s iPhone Apps Store. Retailers are only beginning to get to grips with the value of applications at the moment, and ensuring that theirs stands out and can be found easily by consumers will be a crucial challenge over the next few years,” said Clark.

“We’ll also see a lot more made of mobile marketing, which is only just beginning to make an impact upon retail, and expect there to be much greater correlation with the way retailers are able to market to consumers based on location-aware technology. Operators like Debenhams are already experimenting with such systems, but we are likely to see rapid developments in the field over the next 24 months.”

The bigmouthmedia Retail Summit takes place in London on March 25th and is a free event aimed at senior marketing and ecommerce executives. Places are limited, but those wishing to attend can register at http://www.bigmouthmedia.com/signup for an invitation.

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A bigmouthmedia survey has identified the UK Finance sector’s biggest users of online social networking tools and confounded many expectations by revealing that the Finance sector has embraced the social media phenomenon more readily than those in other established industries. Some 74% of the leading executives surveyed regularly engage in the use of tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, a statistic which demonstrates the extent to which a normally conservative sector has adopted the latest working trends.

Their performance compares extremely favourably with that of leading executives in the FTSE 100. In a bigmouthmedia survey earlier this year, of the FTSE executives sampled only 25% actively engaged in social networking, compared to 85% of business leaders representing companies from the Sunday Times Fast Track 100.

“The evidence clearly shows that the Britain’s financial businesses are rapidly coming to terms with the social media revolution. However, there is still over a 10% gap between the use of social media by finance execs and those in Fast Track companies,” said Chris Cathcart, Senior Finance Strategist at bigmouthmedia.

“I believe it is key for finance execs with a focus on digital marketing to understand the social sphere more. A targeted and strategic social media campaign can not only help build better brand relations with customers, but can also highlight easily fixed customer based issues and create greater brand loyalty, not to mention a beneficial impact on organic search results.”

While the social media has been one of 2009’s most hyped phenomena, little evidence exists as to what extent businesses are deriving benefits from the plethora of available services. However, bigmouthmedia’s survey indicates that leading industry players are increasingly using social networking as part of the essential business toolkit.

The research revealed that former Lloyds TSB Head of Innovation James Gardner is the finance sector executive who has most readily adopted social networking as a means to communicate with colleagues and the public. Gardner, who recently moved to the Department for Work and Pensions, uses LinkedIN, Twitter, Facebook, Plaxo and a blog to reach out to past, present and future customers.

Gardner emerged as eventual winner in front of a field that included Martin Peterlechner at Tesco Personal Finance, HBOS head of banking Mike Regnier and Stephan Daquaire of Swiftcover.com.

LinkedIn emerged as the finance executive’s networking tool of choice, with 76% of those surveyed using the service.

Linus Gregoriadis, research director at internet marketing research and training company Econsultancy, said: “It’s great to see financial services company executives really involved with social media. This sector has historically been quite slow to engage in new digital channels but, in recent months, there are some great examples of financial services brands who have been really dynamic.

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