By her own admission, Tracy Fennell, head of marketing at SWIP, is no wall flower. Victoria Paley meets the marketer showing the investment management world what she’s made of
Under the gaze of Edinburgh Castle, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership’s (SWIP) headquarters stand equally grand if a little less imposing. Inside its HQ, is as I imagine most investment management playgrounds – inoffensive décor, shiny floors that amplify the sound of expensive heels and a blur of corporate faces darting in and out meeting rooms.
When I meet Tracy Fennell, head of marketing at SWIP, I can see why this is her turf. Donning a sharp black suit and skyscraper heels that look suspiciously like Louboutin, Fennell oozes corporate style and efficiency. I sit up a bit taller and try to be extra serious – but I needn’t.
Despite the austerity of her surroundings, Fennell’s got a knack of creating calm and confidence around her (in my case she sets the relaxed tone by casually tucking into a piece of Scottish shortbread with her cup of tea during the interview). It’s no doubt a handy trait in the high-pressure world of investment management marketing.
Fennell’s ability to invoke confidence has enabled her boldness of character to inspire (rather than ignite fear in) significant marketing developments within the investment management organisation. Fennell reveals that during her job interview at SWIP, she somewhat brazenly explained to her future bosses that the old SWIP branding was “tired and a bit 1970s” before divulging all the changes that she would make to bring the organisation into the 21st century.
“They didn’t want a wall flower, and I don’t believe I am one,” she adds. And of course it worked.
Neck on the line
Less than a year later, Fennell – along with help from marcomms agency Gravity Global – has been instrumental in launching SWIP’s most successful, not to mention innovative rebrand. Its new ‘Perform’ brand features high tech and stylish Twister aircraft that epitomise the organisation’s values and provide the backbone to all of its marketing activity. It’s a branding exercise that must have met with reservations given its radical deviation from SWIP’s previous campaigns. So how did Fennell overcome the raised eyebrows and sweaty palms of a nervous exec board?
“I trust my intuition. It was a bold idea. I wanted to go with it so I hoped they would pick up on my passion. I put my neck on the line. But I made sure I didn’t get too excited about the idea so that they didn’t understand where I was coming from, which is easy to do when you’re so close to it,” she reveals.
Fennell describes how with careful planning and “a bit of theatre” she brought the board along on the journey with her so that they understood the rationale behind her decisions. During the early stages, she showed the board a video of the Twister aircraft in action.
But SWIP’s shift in marketing strategy goes beyond the introduction of aerobatic planes. Fennell has helped to strengthen marketing’s role within the heart of the organisation while gaining support from the very top along the way.
She comments, “What I’ve learned over the last few years is that you have to be clear and precise about educating the board on why marketing has to do certain things and why some things might be a slow burner. I try to devise KPIs and measures that I can communicate to the board and show the difference marketing is making.” She adds, “I’m lucky that I have the backing of my exec, not all marketers have that.”
Processes with flair
While she might make investment marketing look easy, Fennell admits a myriad of marketing challenges – not least the regulations imposed by the FSA for any financially regulated entity. She explains SWIP is currently working on its social media strategy but due to common corporate restrictions on accessing certain websites it must look at making the best use of LinkedIn and its own website. It must be tough when other B2B brands are racing ahead with Twitter and Facebook, but Fennell insists that rather than finding the situation restrictive, it instead invites opportunity for “processes with flair”.
Having worked closely with compliance in previous roles, Fennell is no stranger to the challenges involved with rigorous procedure. Indeed her understanding of the importance of this has helped to embed a tight working relationship between the compliance and marketing teams at SWIP.
So what of other challenges? What are Fennell’s grand plans for SWIP and how does she respond to critics labelling finance as a dirty word? Fennell concludes with a wry smile, “Everyone gets generalised into the same bucket of the investment banking community. But there are bankers, and then there are bankers.” She adds, “I have an aspiration for our marketing team and our brand to be seen as one of the top teams in the investment world.”
Somehow, I get the feeling that whatever Fennell wants, she gets.
Fennell’s top tips for getting the board onboard
- Try to make sure you have a place at the board or at the very least an advocate there for you. Try to speak to the entire exec team about your ideas.
- Educate why marketing is important to your organisation as a whole.
- Be honest and transparent. It’s very easy for marketers to just get their heads down and get on with things but you must consider internal communications. Explain the ‘whys’ and the ‘whats’ and get everyone to look at these measures. You can be the greatest marketer in the world but if you’re not selling yourself internally, you may as well give up.
- Be consistently passionate. If you believe in something 100 per cent, just keep banging that drum. Stick by what you believe in and keep going with it.
