Marketing Communications, Gamification & Digital Engagement

A practical 5-CPD-unit MiFID II course on marketing communications, gamification, finfluencers and digital engagement practices for investment firms.

Marketing communications are no longer limited to brochures and product pages. Investment firms now reach clients through banners, mobile adverts, social media, influencers, trading apps, push notifications and gamified digital journeys. The core MiFID II test stays the same: information addressed to clients must be fair, clear and not misleading, and marketing communications must be clearly identifiable as such.

What this course covers

The course explains how MiFID II marketing communication rules apply to modern investment-firm marketing. It works through Article 24(3) of MiFID II and Article 44 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565, then connects the legal framework to ESMA's 2023 Common Supervisory Action on marketing communications, ESMA's Discussion Paper on digitalisation, and the FCA's behavioural evidence on digital engagement practices.

The course goes beyond legal text. It uses three real enforcement cases to show how the regulatory concerns appear in practice: Robinhood (gamification and trading-app design),Kim Kardashian / SEC (paid crypto promotion and compensation disclosure),and Lynx (risk-warning prominence under Article 44(2)(c)).

Key topics

• The fair, clear and not misleading standard under MiFID II
• Article 44 requirements for investment-firm marketing communications
• Risk-warning prominence and the Lynx test
• ESMA's 2023 findings on marketing communications across the EU
• Finfluencers, affiliates and social media compliance
• Gamification, gamblification and dark patterns in trading apps
• Digital engagement practices and their effect on investor behaviour
• Trading-app design and product-governance concerns
• Practical compliance checklists for marketing approval teams

Who should attend

The course is designed for compliance officers, legal teams, marketing approval staff, senior managers, product governance officers, risk managers, internal auditors and client communications teams at EU investment firms, CIFs, credit institutions providing investment services, online brokers, trading platforms and firms distributing CFDs, ETFs, structured products or other financial instruments.

Practical tools included

The course includes a Core Reading Lesson and Practical Compliance Workbook containing:

• A marketing communication pre-publication review checklist
• A short-form and mobile marketing review checklist
• A finfluencer and affiliate approval checklist
• A digital engagement and gamification review checklist
• A post-publication monitoring and record-keeping checklist
• A Lynx-style risk-warning prominence test
• Worked review examples

Format and CPD value

5 CPD units, delivered online with video lessons, a Core Reading Lesson, the Practical Compliance Workbook, and a final quiz. The course counts towards CySEC CPD requirements for Basic and Advanced certificate holders.