In this live episode of The Connector Podcast recorded at the Trends Investment Summit 2023, host and CEO Koen Vanderhoydonk interviews Günther DeBacker, a veteran financial communications specialist and co‑founder of Backstage Communication, a leading Benelux PR firm focused on fintech. Günther explains how Backstage helps fintechs gain earned media by identifying each company’s unique selling points, crafting news‑worthy storylines, and matching them with the right journalists. He contrasts PR with marketing, emphasizing loss of content control in media relations, lower cost, and the importance of authenticity. The conversation highlights Backstage’s fintech specialization, built on daily market monitoring and strong journalist networks, which enables the firm to act as a demand‑supply connector. Emerging trends discussed include the need for speed, multilingual capabilities (Flemish, French, etc.), and growing client interest in ESG communication. Günther outlines the agency’s client engagement process: a communication plan, message definition, positioning, and tailored media training for print and audiovisual interviews. For early‑stage fintechs, he recommends a workshop to define messaging, analyse competitors, and plan market entry. Finally, he shares his curiosity about ESG practices at the summit and provides direct contact details for potential clients.
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Welcome to the Connector Podcast, an ongoing conversation connecting fintechs, banks, and regulators worldwide. Join CEO and founder Koen Vanderhoydonk as you learn more about the latest available trends and solutions in the markets. This episode is proudly sponsored by the Trends Investment Summit 2023, Welcome again to our podcast from The Connector.
And still we are streaming live from the Investment Summit. But now I have a new guest in front of me. His name is Günter. Günter works at Backstage. What do you do and who are you?
Thank you very much, Koen, for this opportunity. I would like to introduce myself. So I'm Günter. I've been in the financial communications business for more than 25 years now. And the main reason why I'm at the Trends Investment Summit today is that a lot of our clients are present here with a booth, and a lot of fintech companies as well want to present their services. And this is fully in line with our scope of work and our target group in general.
Because Backstage Communication, it's a PR firm, right?
Correct. So we are one of the leading PR firms in the Benelux. We have, we have a team of 10 people covering all kinds of services that are needed to create awareness for most of our clients.
And since we have a bit of a finance audience, maybe even a fintech audience, what would be specific methods that you would use to promote a fintech in what is a very competitive landscape, and especially nowadays?
Well, we need to find the USPs of each of these fintech companies and develop a very specific storyline for them in order to create awareness and a unique position in the market. The media are always looking for literally news. So that's what we need to, to find and to create. So we need to service the journalists and the media with on-demand content that is targeting their final audience. So to give you a specific example. In the Belgian market, if you have a reader of De Tijd, for example, well, if we come up with a fintech story, well, we need to first of all to find the right journalist who will be writing about the story, but we need to have a financial angle. It might be a launch of a new product, a capital increase, or any other story that might create some interest.
So are we talking about newsworthy almost?
Absolutely newsworthy. And that's what makes a difference from another marketing approach. We don't buy the space, we earn it. So we are talking about earned media and it's quite a challenge to find these newsworthy stories on a continuous basis. Yes.
Because that's often very much misconcepted, that marketing equals PR, but it's obviously a big difference. And you touched upon it a little bit, but if you would really explain it to somebody that doesn't know marketing, doesn't know PR, what would be the difference between both?
Well, both start from a content approach, so that's the main—
Content is king.
Yes, absolutely. The big difference is that when you start doing some PR, PR work that you principally lose control over your content because the journalist writes what he is wanting to write and he defines the content of his article. When you do some marketing, you buy advertising space, you define the content, look and feel of what you will be publishing. That's the first big difference. The second big difference is the price. When you do media relations, this is probably the cheapest way to create awareness for a company in the market.
When you talk about PR work, a lot of people link that to large organizations, almost like lobby work. But would then PR work for a starting fintech be different than for a more traditional company?
Absolutely. You need to find the expertise within the company, and even very small fintech companies might have a lot of expertise, and that can be used as a differentiator in the market. So even large companies struggle with the same issues. So a small company with a lot of expertise and a very nice story can create quite some awareness around the brand.
Well, you guys, what I particularly like is that you are specialized in fintech. So what makes that specialization? Is it because you're, you're in with the trends or how would I see that?
Well, we follow up the market on a daily basis, so we know what lives in the market. We are in contact with each of the journalists, so we are proactively contacted by the journalists to find stories as well. They are looking for information on regulations, on new trends, on evolutions, etc. And that's how we can connect them with the various fintech companies and clients we're working for.
So you're actually connecting demand and supply?
Absolutely.
If you think about trends, what are the trends that you see today, Günther? If you name a few.
The first trend is that speed has critically gone up in recent years. So you need to react quickly but with high quality. So you can just like in the past, you can't tell any story to anybody. You need to have the expertise and the right story and the quality that, that you need to bring to the, to the market. Secondly, the language skills are really important. So due to this speed, we need to act quickly in the right language. So meaning that If we have a radio or television interview, it needs to be, for example, in Flanders in Flemish and in the Walloon part in French. So you need to have these language skills. And this is often an issue with the various market players because if you want to express yourself in the right language with the right wording, it's a challenge.
It's never easy, especially if it's not your mother tongue, right?
Correct.
And these are trends that we see or that you see in the fintech landscape versus what is happening in the PR landscape, right?
Correct.
And are you helping these— are your customers also to overcome these challenges?
Well, what we do is actually we start with setting up a communication plan. So we define the messages, we define together with the client how they can position themselves in the market, and we offer them media training as well. Within this media training, depending on the media we will be targeting, either be written press or audiovisual press, it's a different approach. We prepare them for interviews and a very specific content approach.
If I would be starting a new company, which I basically recently did, but what would be then your advice to get started with public relations? I can imagine that in the very, very early stage, people won't make that reflection to come to you. Is there something they can do on their own or is it come to me as the first step? I'm giving it away.
The first thing to do is have a workshop where we define together what kind of messages we could bring to the market, have a look at the competitive landscape, look at what your competitors are doing from a communication perspective, and define how to approach the market in the most smooth and easy way.
Okay, very good tip. We're here today at the Investment Summit. You already mentioned that many of your clients are here, but what is it that you're willing to learn here today? What is it something you look forward to on the event?
Well, a lot of our clients actually talk about ESG in, in general. I would like to learn what that actually means, how they bring it into practice, how do they work around that, and from a communication perspective, how do they differentiate themselves within this specific market.
I think there's plenty of topics today on the agenda that cover ESG. It's somehow the hot topic of the moment. Last but not least, You talked about your company. You talked about the benefits for the fintechs, but then the obvious question comes: How do they best contact you?
Well, that's quite easy. You just Google my name. So that's Günther DeBacker, or you send me, or you just give me a call, and that's I think the easiest way. That's 0475.
That's extremely direct. And even, even better, if they don't know that still, they can also come to me. I'll happily connect you with you. Günter, it was a real pleasure to have you in my podcast. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Koen, for the opportunity.
And have a good day. And thank you also to the listeners. And please stay tuned for more news from the Investment Summit.
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