How do you build a credible brand in a sector often defined by volatility and complex jargon? Today's guest has spent the last few years answering that question by focusing on the fundamentals: regulation, clear communication, and real-world utility.
In our latest episode of Strategy, Story & Stakeholders, I sit down with Katie Evans, Chief Business Development and Communications Officer at Swarm. Katie's career has taken her from base metals trading at the London Metal Exchange right into the heart of decentralised finance (DeFi).
We discuss Swarm's recent acquisition by Inveniam, how they are tokenising real-world assets, and why she believes a strong PR strategy is actually more important than ever in the age of AI.
Simplify complexity to build trust
When communicating about frontier technology, there is a common misconception that using big, fancy words will automatically make people trust you. Katie argues that the inverse is actually true. Using simple, jargon-free language that is easy to understand is far more likely to build a user base that trusts you, ultimately leading to conversion.
Furthermore, you do not always need to educate your audience on exactly how the complex technology works behind the scenes. Katie points out that most people do not understand the underlying mechanics of the internet or Apple Pay, yet we use them daily because we trust that they work. The goal is to educate people that the platform can be trusted to deliver results.
Tokenising the real world
Swarm builds infrastructure that allows people to transact traditional financial market assets—like gold, stocks, and fixed-income products—on a decentralised basis. To explain the complex concept of "tokenisation" to audiences, Katie uses a highly tangible analogy: designer shoes.
If you spend your cash on physical assets, you might become cash-poor but asset-rich. By tokenising a pair of Louboutins into a single digital "bearer document" that holds the receipt, photos of the condition, and current market value, you can pledge that idle asset as collateral to secure lending. This brings everyday physical items into the financial system, putting your assets to work for you.
Communicating an acquisition and an AI-ready future
Swarm recently announced its acquisition by Invenium, a move aimed at building AI-ready financial market infrastructure. When communicating this complex deal, Katie relied on the "power of three" to keep the story palatable:
Commitment to public markets: Swarm will continue applying blockchain technology to public assets like Apple or Tesla stock.
Moving into private markets: By combining Invenium's unstructured data valuation with Swarm's execution layer, they are opening up access to private markets.
Getting ready for AI: They are preparing for a "agentic shift" where an AI agent can independently build and rebalance a global portfolio for you.
For an AI agent to execute these trades, assets must be "on-chain" and machine-readable, which is exactly the infrastructure Swarm is building.
Internally, Katie stresses that when planning M&A communications, you must not overlook the importance of telling your employees first. It is bad manners for staff to find out about an acquisition by reading the press.
Why PR is more important than ever
While Katie relies on AI tools daily to help workshop messaging, she firmly believes AI will not replace the role of a public relations professional. In fact, a PR strategy is more critical now than it was before.
Large AI platforms (like OpenAI) are actively striking deals with major publications, such as the FT and the Wall Street Journal, to pull paywalled results into their algorithms. The only way these Large Language Models (LLMs) acquire brand new information is if journalists publish it. Therefore, if you want to directly influence what AI search agents pull back about your brand, engaging with the press is essential.
For comms leaders moving from traditional finance into digital assets, Katie's advice is simple: do your own research, and use your traditional market knowledge as a superpower.
