The World Media Group was pleased to partner with CIM for its annual Financial Services Marketing Leaders' Summit yesterday hosted at Reuters. CMOs and senior marketers from leading financial institutions convened to share knowledge and best practices with their peers. Below is an overview of the event. We’ll be taking a deeper dive into some of the topics from the summit in the coming weeks including Generative AI, ESG and Data Personalisation so please keep an eye on our website.

 

Host Josh London , CMO of Reuters, opened precedings with a warm welcome and the day began with Simon Murray FSI Strategy lead at Adobe and Jim Clark , Commercial Research Director at Econsultancy presenting the latest Financial Services Digital Trends Report. Simon and Jim discussed the trends driving customer experience, identified some of the common issues facing financial service providers, and offered recommendations on how to make the best use of the rich data that the sector has access to.

 

ESG’s effect on marketing

Nicky Owen , Head of Strategic Sustainability Marketing at Standard Chartered and Santosh Sethumadhavan , ex Global Head of B2B Marketing Programmes, HSBC , took part in a fascinating panel discussion moderated by Alison Harbert , Marketing Director, Investec about whether ESG has changed the way we do marketing. The panel addressed some of the challenges that come with implementing a global ESG strategy. One of the key take-outs was the need to establish common goals when trying to impose western sustainability standards on developing parts of the world.

 

The editors’ perspective

In our own World Media Group panel, three of the world’s leading financial editors – Elisa Martinuzzi , Editor - EMEA Finance & Markets, Reuters , Faisal Islam , Economics Editor, BBC News and Jason Karaian , International Business Editor, The New York Times , came together to discuss the key trends in the markets in the current economic climate. The conversation covered issues such as why the predicted sharp recession has failed to materialise; the demise of SVB and the decline of Credit Suisse; and how social media and technology is impacting consumers’ trust in the banking system.

 

What does the marketing team of the future look like?

That was the question posed to Natalie Spearing, CIM FCIM , Marketing Director, CIM and Jasper Martens , CMO, PensionBee UK , in a panel moderated by moderated by Christoph Woermann, FCIM , CMO, Deutsche Bank Corporate Bank. The discussion revealed that routes into marketing are changing, with fewer people coming from traditional marketing backgrounds. The lines between marketing and areas such as data and analytics and CX are becoming more blurred, impacting on the marketer’s role. As complexity increases along with the speed of change, it’s becoming apparent that skills/knowledge competency frameworks need to be refreshed to remain relevant.

 

Brand versus demand

The next session, moderated by Tony Jarvis , Global MD and Co-founder of EI ADVISORY LIMITED , was about finding the right balance between brand marketing and demand generation in modern financial services. The panel included Patrick Burton , Head of Marketing and Communication, EMEA, J.P. Morgan and Pauline Bush , Head of Marketing and Communications, Lombard Odier Group and Harriet Rosewell , Senior Director – Head of Financial Product Marketing, CME Group . The lively discussion covered how to deal with investment bankers who think they don’t need marketing; addressing C-suite demands – from “make us famous” to “make me revenue or nothing,” along with each panellist’s view of what makes a great integrated campaign.

 

Are marketers’ jobs at risk from AI?

Should marketers be worried about whether new technologies like AI and the Metaverse will make their role redundant? According to Amir S Jan Malik , MD – Digital Marketing, Accenture and Lindsay Herbert , Global Chief Innovation Officer, IBM Garage, AI won’t replace marketers but will allow us to “wield power” if we use it correctly. This eye-opening discussion, moderated by Christoph Woermann, CMO, Deutsche Bank Corporate Bank, highlighted how we can leverage Chat GPT’s power to create content at speed, or how we can use AI Chatbots to drive efficiencies. Nonetheless, AI still requires “human piloting” to make it unique, so marketers’ roles are safe for now.

 

The summit closed with a keynote from Becky Moffat , Chief Marketing Officer, HSBC UK, interviewed by Alexandra Delamain , Head of Global Client Partnership, The Economist . Becky talked about having to adapt to become relevant to the younger generation who have no idea what HSBC is, as well as simplifying banking to enable customers to become more financially confident and resilient.

 

Alex finished by asking Becky what the single most important leadership hack was to turn a good leader into great leader. Becky’s advice was, in stressful times, not to add to the stress as a leader: “Take a deep breath; say ‘this too shall pass’ and have a laugh about it.” Wise words from an inspirational female leader.