Fiona Naughton - CoinZoom

In this conversation, Fiona Naughton, Chief Marketing Officer at CoinZoom, reflects on how brand growth has evolved across her career in technology-led businesses including PayPal and Robinhood. At CoinZoom, a regulated digital currency exchange and fintech platform operating across nearly 169 countries, Fiona focuses on bridging the gap between crypto and everyday financial behaviour. Drawing on decades of experience across mobile technology, gaming and financial services, Fiona shares her perspective on why brand growth has fundamentally “morphed”, how technology companies approach brand differently from traditional marketers, and why the next era of marketing will be shaped by credibility, community participation and the intelligent use of AI.

From Advertising to Experience: Why Brand Growth Has Morphed

For Fiona, the biggest shift in brand growth over the past decade is a reversal of where brand meaning actually lives. Historically, marketing’s role was to create desire through storytelling and advertising. Brands fought for attention through television spots, sponsorships or major campaign moments. But today, Fiona argues that product and service experience have become the primary carriers of brand meaning. “The role of marketing used to be to create desire and occupy a space in someone’s mind,” Fiona explains. “But that’s almost reversed now. The product and service experience are what people strongly associate with the brand.”

This shift has been accelerated by digital transparency and consumer scepticism. In a world where audiences can instantly research, verify and debate claims online, brand storytelling alone is no longer enough. Brands must demonstrate authenticity through behaviour.

A simple 30-second advertisement no longer satisfies consumers’ curiosity. Instead, audiences want a deeper understanding of the company behind the message — its founders, its values, how it treats employees, and where its products come from. “People don’t just believe what they’re told anymore,” Fiona says. “They want to know your founder story, how your ingredients are sourced, how you treat customers. They want proof that you are who you say you are.”

At the same time, marketers face a paradox. Organisations increasingly rely on measurable performance metrics such as clicks, sign-ups and active users. Yet the deeper elements that drive long-term brand growth — trust, respect and credibility — remain much harder to quantify. “We’ve defaulted to measuring the things we can easily track,” Fiona notes. “But the real brand signals — respect, trust, wanting a company to succeed — those aren’t measured in the same way anymore.”

“The role of marketing used to be to create desire and occupy a space in someone’s mind. But that’s almost reversed now. The product and service experience are what people strongly associate with the brand.”

The Tech Perspective: When Brand Becomes Product Experience

Fiona’s career spans both traditional marketing environments and the technology sector, and she highlights a key difference between the two worlds. For instance, companies in FMCG have historically placed enormous emphasis on brand-building. In contrast, many technology companies tend to treat brand as an extension of product experience. “The tech world doesn’t respect brand in the way traditional marketers do,” Fiona says. “They often think brand is product.”

In technology businesses, brand equity is often measured indirectly through user behaviour. Metrics such as adoption, ratings, reviews and daily active users become proxies for brand strength. The user interface, onboarding flow and ease of use carry the weight that advertising once did.

This perspective has advantages. By tying brand directly to product experience, companies focus on usability and customer satisfaction. However, Fiona believes it can also create blind spots. “Tech companies often see brand currency as how people review the product — ratings, app store feedback, things like that,” she explains. “But emotional trust and reputation still matter, even if they’re harder to measure.”

The consequences of ignoring brand perception can be significant. Fiona points to examples where technology platforms achieved enormous commercial success but struggled with public trust. “You can have enormous commercial growth,” she says, “and at the same time be distrusted or disliked.” As Fiona observes, growth and trust do not always move together.

“Tech companies often see brand currency as how people review the product — ratings, app store feedback, things like that, however, the emotional trust and reputation still matter, even if they’re harder to measure.”

The New Battleground: Communities, Tribes and Cultural Signals

If traditional advertising channels once defined where brands lived, today’s brand environments are far more fragmented. Social platforms, creators, review ecosystems and digital communities have multiplied the “surfaces” where brand perception is formed. As a result, brand growth can now accelerate rapidly — but it can also collapse just as quickly. “Brand growth can be built quickly, but it can also be killed in seconds,” Fiona warns.

Also, one of the biggest misconceptions in modern marketing is the claim that segmentation is no longer relevant. Fiona disagrees strongly. Instead, she argues that segmentation has simply evolved. Rather than relying primarily on demographics, modern segmentation is behavioural and cultural. Audiences form clusters based on shared habits, digital platforms and cultural signals. “You’re not just looking for someone who’s the same age or income level,” Fiona explains. “You’re looking for the people who have the same apps on their phone, who follow the same creators, who behave in similar ways.”

In other words, communities now move more like “swarms” around shared digital experiences. A new game, cultural trend or platform feature can rapidly pull large groups of people into a common behaviour pattern. “You need to understand how these swarms form and where they move,” Fiona says. “Because that’s where the conversation is happening.” For marketers, understanding these patterns is critical.

In sectors like crypto, this dynamic becomes even more pronounced. Crypto communities operate with their own language, norms and identity markers. Brands cannot simply broadcast messages into these spaces — they must participate.

“You’re not just looking for someone who’s the same age or income level, rather you’re looking for the people who have the same apps on their phone, who follow the same creators, who behave in similar ways. You need to understand how these swarms form and where they move because that’s where the conversation is happening.”

Brands with a Point of View: Why Credibility Matters More Than Ever

Another major shift in brand growth is the expectation that companies articulate what they believe. For Fiona, this doesn’t necessarily mean taking political positions, but it does mean having a clear stance on issues such as data privacy, ethics, inclusion and technological responsibility.

Consumers — particularly younger generations — increasingly evaluate brands through these lenses. “You have to be clear about what you stand for,” Fiona says. “Gen Z and Millennials judge brands based on their point of view.”

This heightened scrutiny is amplified by social media. Online communities can mobilise quickly to challenge brands when their actions appear inconsistent with their messaging. “There’s now a grand court where consumers hold brands to account,” she explains. “Even if something isn’t fully true, people can still put a brand in the dock.”

This dynamic reinforces the importance of authenticity. Brands that demonstrate credible values can build powerful loyalty and advocacy. But brands perceived as hypocritical can face immediate reputational damage. The result is a more volatile but also more transparent environment for brand growth.

“You have to be clear about what you stand for, as Gen Z and Millennials judge brands based on their point of view.”

AI and the Future of Marketing: Superpowers and “Content Pollution”

Like many marketing leaders today, Fiona is watching the rise of generative AI closely. Her outlook is cautiously optimistic.

She believes AI will significantly enhance the capabilities of skilled marketers — particularly those who excel at asking the right questions. “The smartest marketers were always the ones who asked the best questions,” Fiona says. “Now we’re superpowered because we have generative AI.” AI tools can accelerate research, analysis and experimentation. They can also help uncover insights faster, enabling marketers to iterate strategies more quickly.

However, Fiona also sees a major risk: the dramatic expansion of low-quality marketing content. “Most marketing content is already rubbish,” she says bluntly. “And AI means we can produce even more of it, even faster.”

This “content pollution” could flood digital environments with generic messaging, making it harder for meaningful communication to stand out.

At the same time, Fiona believes the best marketers will benefit enormously. “The great marketers will become greater,” she says. “But mediocre marketing will multiply.”

This shift may also reshape the agency landscape. Fiona expects strategy roles to expand beyond campaign planning into broader business thinking — helping organisations navigate what she calls the “attention war” and the “credibility war”.

“With AI, the great marketers will become greater but mediocre marketing will also multiply.”

Looking Ahead: Creativity in an Era of Technology

Despite the challenges posed by technological change, Fiona remains optimistic about the future of marketing. For her, marketing has always thrived in environments of rapid change. New technologies may disrupt existing practices, but they also create opportunities for creativity and innovation. “Marketing has to live in the world of change,” she says. “That’s what makes it exciting.”

While large technology platforms will likely continue to dominate digital ecosystems, Fiona believes there will always be room for entrepreneurial creativity and niche communities. “There will always be people who want to do things differently,” Fiona says. “For every person doom-scrolling online, there’s someone reconnecting with something more human.”

For marketers, this balance between technology and humanity will define the next chapter of brand growth. Success will depend not only on data and automation, but also on credibility, creativity and a genuine understanding of communities. “Brand growth is still as important as ever,” she concludes. “But now it’s built through experience, community and trust.” As Fiona puts it, the rules of branding have not disappeared — they have simply become more demanding.