Two in Twenty

Ahead of International Women’s day on Monday 8 March, we thought it would be a great opportunity to share with you this enlightening podcast on women in leadership roles. 

In this episode, Twink is joined in the virtual studio by Jayne Fieldhouse, Non-Executive Director at BlueBay Asset Management and Karen Brade, Director at HeiQ. 

Themes covered include:

1.       A reflection on careers from past to present. 

2.       Remaining motivated and thriving between dual roles.  

3.       The importance of being brave and bold in your career.

4.       Keeping curiosity alive as a leader – working through the pandemic. 

5.       Career growth advice for the next generation.

 Introducing the participants:

Jayne Fieldhouse is a highly driven global marketing and communications professional with a vast range of core expertise ranging from crisis management to media relations, Jayne’s primary focus is building formidable marketing and communication infrastructures to enhance the performance, exposure, and profitability of companies. 

Karen Brade has 25 years of experience in international finance, specialising in private equity investing, portfolio management and emerging markets. Since beginning her career in London with Citibank, Karen has held a number of non-executive board positions as well as leading international fundraising and investor relations for Commonwealth Development Corportation and Actis. 

2020 is the year that will stay in our minds forever. The year that impacted us all in completely different ways and that transformed all areas of industry, including marketing. Although predicting the future is difficult, 2021 holds more promise thanks to the roll out of vaccines, but for those of us in this industry one question still remains: what will the marketing landscape look like in 2021?

In our first episode of the new year, Twink is joined by Vincent Hooplot, Chief Strategist and Member of the Board at Fundamental Media and Managing Director at Hooplot Associates to discuss tactical trends and strategic plans for 2021. 

Themes covered in this episode:

-          The change in relationship between asset managers and media buyers

-          Strategic planning for clients in 2021

-          Challenges and opportunities for asset managers in 2021

-          How the market is responding to less long-term visibility but more fluid short-term planning cycles 

-          The change in media mix from 2020 to 2021

Vincent Hooplot is a business-driven marketing strategist with more than two decades of international industry experience at board level. Being educated in business administration and with experience across most continents, Vincent is focused on designing winning strategies followed by relentless execution. In addition, Vincent has had exposure to various industries, from energy to internet service providers and from fashion & retail to financial services. 

In a world where clients are faced with an array of content and choice, the businesses that survive in 2021 will be the ones that find new ways to engage and connect with audiences.

In this week’s episode Twink is joined by Lori Stahl, Strategic Brand Storyteller and Heidi Bryant, Author and Marketing Director at CRU to discuss the art of storytelling in marketing. An often overlooked idea in traditionally ‘professional’ industries, the untapped potential of storytelling can open up new areas for marketing teams.

Themes covered in this podcast: 

-          The importance and different types of storytelling

-          Adding this to your marketing strategy to influence and engage clients better

-          Positioning storytelling internally

-          Where it fits in the marketing mix

-          Tools and tips for improving and measuring the impact of storytelling

Lori Stahl is an experienced brand storyteller with experience working at creative agencies in diverse roles for almost 20 years. Lori prides herself on bringing together strategy and creativity to bring a unique perspective, translate and amalgamate inputs from diverse stakeholders for varied audiences in omni-channel environments. Taking a holistic approach to storytelling, Lori ensures that character and tone effectively tell the right story, for each target audience and deliver the desired outcome. 

Heidi Bryant is a highly motivated, experienced, international marketer with over 26 years’ experience growing businesses through the power of measurable, marketing strategies. Most recently Heidi has been consulting on marketing strategies for a number of different clients within varying business sectors; Financial Services, SaaS, Fintech, Arts, Domestic Services, and Tourism. In addition, In Heidi’s spare time, she’s a qualified translator from French and Spanish into English and in 2018 became a children's author.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected companies all across the globe and created a peculiar workforce environment where employees can no longer have in person conversations with their colleagues or clients. This has forced business leaders to develop new workplace operations to stay close to clients and continue to motivate employees.  

In today’s episode Twink is joined in the virtual studio by Marie-Laure Humbert, Senior strategist and executive director with the Business Strategy team of Strategic Advisory Solutions, to discuss engaging clients and motivating teams in the new normal.

Themes covered in this podcast:

-          Talking to clients about handling a crisis

-          The change curve

-          Tips for dealing with burnout and zoom fatigue 

-          Creating virtual relationships, both internally and externally

-          Learning from a crisis

Marie-Laure is an accomplished financial professional with over 20 years’ experience in financial markets gained in front line business development roles including cross-border sales. During her career, she gained international and multi-cultural experience working in Europe, Asia and the US with firms such as UBS, Citibank and Morgan Stanley.

Welcome to part two of our podcast series: Building an ESG Business & Brand. 

In part two, Twink is re-joined by Benjie Elston, Product Director at White Marble Marketing and Carlo Fassinotti, Head of Advisory Marketing at Nordea Asset Management to take a deeper dive into the fundamentals of ESG.

Themes covered in part two:

-          Dealing with trust issues and greenwashing

-          Balancing commerciality and resourcing ESG

-          Improving a brands authenticity with ESG

-          ESG measurement and reporting

-          How the market is evolving and the future of ESG

For those that missed the first part, where Carlo, Twink, and Benjie explored engaging people on ESG and clients understanding of ESG, SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement, check it out here.

Although ESG investing isn’t new, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of maintaining investment exposure to companies that pursue sustainable goals. Now more than ever, ESG is something investors can no longer afford to ignore. 

In light of the ever-growing prominence of ESG, we have produced a two episode series on building an ESG business and brand that saw Twink joined by Carlo Fassinotti, Head of Advisory Marketing at Nordea Asset Management and Benjie Elston, Product Director at White Marble Marketing. 

Main themes covered in part one:

-          Motivating, organising, and aligning a business with ESG investing 

-          Engaging people externally and internally on ESG

-          The danger of getting ahead of client demands

-          Understanding the scope of the term ‘ESG’

-          Clients understanding of SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement 

Carlo has been with Nordea since 2011 where he started off as a Product Specialist (2011-2013). In 2014, he opened the Madrid Sales Office and was part of the Iberia Sales Team (2014 – 2018). Presently he is the Head of Advisory Marketing, responsible for effective and focused marketing and communication efforts across Nordea Asset Management.

In essence, sales and marketing are both working towards the same goal, however, how they have traditionally done this has differed greatly. Marketers have focused on analysis and process, whereas sellers have focused on relationships and results. Fast forward to recent years to find sales and marketing teams are now starting to work together with greater cohesion. Understanding the benefits that each side brings is leading to better qualified leads, stronger relationships, and overall increased revenue. 

In today’s episode Twink is joined by James Smee, CEO & Principal Consultant at Bridge, to take a deeper look into the relationship between sales and marketing, with a particular focus on sales enablement, ABM and ROI.

Themes covered in this podcast:

-          Defining sales enablement, has it evolved into something different and more structural than the traditional role of marketing?

-          ABM (Account-based marketing) – fundamentals, best practice & effectiveness 

-          The increasing challenges in measuring ROI

-          How marketers can show effectiveness in their sales enablement strategies

-          How to align your sales and marketing approach – particularly as 2021 strategies and budgets are being debated.

James Smee is a highly successful and proven business leader with 20+ years commercial experience in hands-on, fast-growth organisations. Before launching Bridge back in 2018, James co-founded a highly decorated digital agency called Purestone with a final sale to global communications agency LEWIS in 2013. Having operated at C-level in a number of B2B sectors both client and agency side, James is a multi-award-winning digital marketer with a passion and highly creative flair for marketing and business development. 

Although the Asian asset management industry accounts for a mere 5 per cent of global investment fund assets, compared to Europe at 33 per cent, in recent years the Asian asset management industry has gained rapid momentum, outpacing growth anywhere else in the world. 

The Asian asset management industry is very unique. There is no common regulatory framework, culture and language significantly differ from country to country, and the landscape to reach your audience is complicated by the wide ranging media popularity in a saturated market.

In this week’s episode, Twink discusses the nature and fundamentals of marketing in Asia, as she is joined by Lydia Lee Head of Marketing, APAC at UBS Asset Management and Catherine Hooper, Head of Marketing, Southeast Asia at Janus Henderson Investors, APAC.

Themes covered in this podcast:

-          Challenges of executing an integrated regional marketing strategy 

-          Key considerations when building a presence in Asia

-          Challenges in leveraging globally produced concepts for developing content or campaigns for Asia

-          The prevalence of ESG in the Asian market

-          The impact of covid-19 and marketing trends that have emerged since the pandemic 

Lydia Lee is an experienced Head of Marketing with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. An all-round dedicated marketing professional with a Bachelors Degree in Economics from Murdoch University Lydia is skilled in asset management, management, leadership and marketing,

Catherine Hooper is a broad marketing communications expert within financial services and retail sectors across Asia Pacific and Europe. Degree educated at Aston University, Catherine specialises in communications, campaign development and brand management for both product and service-led businesses. 

The US asset management industry is the largest in the world with assets under management totalling over $50 trillion, double the size of Europe’s assets of between $26 - $30 trillion. With products so similar but audiences so different, each market requires a different approach and strategy.

In this week’s episode Twink is joined by Cynthia Holahan, Marketing Director of North America at Ninety One, and Gabriel Altbach, Head of North America at White Marble Marketing, to discuss the essentials of the US asset management industry and managing the need for localised campaigns for successful cross Atlantic marketing. 

Themes covered in this podcast: 

-          The major differences between the European and US markets 

-           Industry localisation beyond semantics

-          The prominence of digital marketing as a visible strategic function for US asset managers

-          Trends and challenges for US asset managers 

-          The slow progression of ESG in the US asset management industry 

Cynthia Holahan is a financial services marketing and communications professional with more than 17 years’ industry experience. Prior to joining Ninety One, Cynthia held roles as Vice President, of OppenheimerFunds and Goldman Sachs where she was responsible for brand, digital and content strategy, innovative cross-channel marketing techniques and corporate strategy.

Gabriel Altbach is a well-recognised expert with over 21 years’ experience in the global asset management industry working predominantly in the US, with additional stints based in Italy and the UK. His experience spans a wide range of roles, from his start as a Financial Advisor at UBS (then PaineWebber), to serving as Global Head of Strategy and Marketing for Pioneer Global Asset Management and Amundi Asset Management. 

Understanding your target market is crucial for marketing success, yet, so many companies fail to take their clients’ needs into consideration when they plan marketing activities, and focus on their product. An effective segmentation process should always start with the customer, identifying their needs and building a product or service that satisfies these. 

As segmentation becomes an increasingly important role in a marketer’s strategy, today’s podcast episode focuses on the challenges and practicalities of this often-neglected field. Twink is joined by Babatunde Awopetu, Group Strategy and Marketing Director at Optegra, and Tabra Trezise, Digital Services Manager at White Marble Marketing.

Themes covered in this podcast:

-          Defining segmentation

-          Best practice segmentation 

-          Challenges for effective segmentation

-          The practicalities of segmentation

-          Tips for marketers thinking about their own approach to segmentation

Baba Awopetu is an experienced marketer with a natural gift for developing strong marketing strategies. Having completed his master’s degree in strategic marketing at the University of Greenwich, Baba went on lead marketing teams in the healthcare industry. Currently working as Group Strategy and Marketing Director at Optegra Eye Hospitals, Baba was formerly Marketing Director, EMEA, at Leica Microsystems where he was responsible for delivering vision, strategy and tactics with clarity and precision.

Tabra Trezise leads White Marble’s digital practice, helping clients define their digital strategy, launch their websites, as well as develop and establish their social media channels. As a skilled digital professional, Tabra has a broad foundation of experience across digital strategy, digital marketing and integrated campaigns. She has worked with global teams across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific with brands including Telstra, Sensis, AIA and T. Rowe Price.