Marketer of the Year 2018

We are excited to present the nominees for The Financial Services Forum Marketer of the Year 2018.

• Carole Charter, Head of Marketing, The Cambridge Building Society
• James Harris, Head of Marketing, Fidelity International
• Alastair Pegg, Marketing Director, The Co-operative Bank

Below you will find a short summary highlighting some of the recent achievements for each nominee. We would like to ask Members of The Forum to vote for their winner and runner-up, by using the survey at the bottom of this page.
The winner, with the most first choice votes, will be announced at the Annual Members’ Dinner and Awards on Thursday 29 November.
Voting closes at 5pm on Wednesday 7 November.
 
Carole Charter, Head of Marketing, The Cambridge Building Society
Over the past 18 months I’ve had two objectives: to transform a 167 year-old brand into one that can compete in increasingly competitive mortgage and savings markets whilst retaining member relevance, and to deliver double-digit, profitable business growth through effective marketing and product management.
I knew that success in both these areas would only be achieved by having a high-performing team around me, so this is where I’ve focused my time and effort.  Fostering an environment where the whole team has clarity of vision, support for their ideas and a healthy balance of work and play has allowed them to reach their potential and deliver outstanding results.
Through my leadership my team have delivered a vast range of customer-focused initiatives including the launch of a mobile app, two new interactive websites, the opening of a new format flagship store promoted via a campaign that leverages our Cambridge roots and the announcement of Making The Difference, which encapsulates our cause of finding innovative solutions to help First Time Buyers.
Success has meant we have already delivered double-digit mortgage book growth with two months of 2018 still to go, a NPS of +59 (up from +37 two years ago) and a team engagement score that is second only to the Society’s Executive team.
 
James Harris, Head of Marketing, Fidelity International
My achievements are those of the team …
Engaged employees:

• Sustainable engagement score of 85
• 93% proud to work for Fidelity
• 93% would recommend Fidelity as a place to work
• Need to work on speaking up and expressing opinion – 76%!

Business results:

• $23bn of new sales across 4 business lines CYTD with YOY sales growth in every business

Client engagement:

• Personal Investing business

– Increased consideration for the Fidelity ISA product by 9% YOY
– Fidelity ISA Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) up 24% YOY
– 14% increase in pension customers
– GDPR increased opt-in by 8% and email consent by 40%

• Workplace Investing (Defined contributions)

– New workplace investing communication initiative – power of small amounts – sees a 58% open rate (best performer 64.96% and after all this is about pensions…!)

• Wholesale business line

– Increased unprompted awareness up to 63% (from 56%)
– In the top 5 sellers for 7 investment categories

• Intermediary platform business

– increased client engagement by 10% YOY (measured by downloads, video views etc) and sales leads up by 5%
New Business initiatives:

• Launched new digital investment advice and discretionary investment proposition in Germany

Costs and risk management:

• 13% cost reduction in vendor use
• No compliance breaches…!

 
Alastair Pegg, Marketing Director, The Co-operative Bank
I have built on the integrated marketing strategy that has been instrumental in reasserting The Co-operative Bank reputation as an ethical business in recent years. This includes developing an ethical segmentation of the retail banking market which has been aligned across all of our products to guide future product development. The strategy helps to ensure that our brand promise is carried through into the products and services we offer customers and the community, and that our proposition is clearly differentiated from other banks.
Brand communications in the last 18 months include the launch of a major marketing campaign to mark the 25th anniversary of our customer-led ethical policy. We created a number of customer-centric films to show that the bank’s ethical policy is still unique in the UK banking sector, and just as relevant today as it ever was. Coinciding with The Co-operative Group’s final divestments of its stake in The Co-operative Bank, the campaign was crucial in reassuring, retaining and attracting new customers during the sale process.
I have also driven brand purpose through our partnerships this year – notably with Centrepoint, which has seen The Co-operative Bank become the biggest supporter of the homeless charity in the UK.
 
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