Alex's previous role at Reuters as the Global Head of External Marketing Comms has equipped her with a unique perspective on the financial services marketing domain. Now, her leadership at HSBC Asset Management is marked by innovative approaches to overcoming traditional marketing challenges, leveraging technology and driving growth within a regulatory and globally diverse environment.

In this episode, we'll dive into her strategies for aligning global marketing campaigns with local market needs, her approach to managing teams across different regions, and navigating regulatory challenges to make HSBC Asset Management stand out in the competitive landscape of financial services. Alex, thank you for joining us today.

Thank you for having me.

Could you start us off by giving us a little bit of background about your journey, how you got to your—I'm going to read this out because you've got a long title, two titles in fact—your journey to becoming the Group Head of Wholesale Marketing and Head of UK Marketing for HSBC Asset Management, and also thinking back to how your previous roles have influenced your strategies within the broader financial services sector.

Yeah, well, I think I've actually had probably quite a traditional sort of career in marketing, and I actually started out in events. And I think that was really good. I had an events role at Reuters, so now Thomson Reuters, and also at the CBI, the Confederation of British Industry.

And I think both those roles really helped me to understand the value of the client experience. Attention to detail is very, very important, and that end-to-end client experience is really, really important.

And then the other thing about working in events is you really have to demonstrate the return on investment, the return on event spend. Event spend in the industry I'm in now is quite significant in some cases, so you really have to demonstrate the return on that. And it's not about the food and the flowers. It's also about the client experience that I mentioned and the value you're getting from that.

So I think that was a great foundation in terms of my career. I then went back to Thomson Reuters, actually. So I was lucky to go back and sort of develop into a more broad marketing role.

And that was really interesting, but it also gave me that very deep technical knowledge and sort of that grounding for financial services. So there we were marketing something you couldn't see, you couldn't touch — it was market data.

So how to market market data to a very professional audience — that was market data and IT managers at that point that we were marketing to — really gave me again that sort of foundation and that depth.

And it became really technical. So technical, in fact, that I sort of thought, oh, I'm not sure this is for me. I think I'm actually going to become part of the business. Do I want to do that, or do I want to continue with my marketing path?

And I'm very passionate about marketing, so I wanted to stay in the marketing arena. And then an opportunity came up at HSBC. So I went across to HSBC Asset Management and have been there ever since — around fifteen years now.

Right. Yeah, so a long time.

And what's great about working for a large organization is the variety of roles and experiences you can get. So I started in the UK business. I've held various marketing roles throughout my career at HSBC Asset Management. I've worked across different client segments — wholesale, institutional, retail. I've held global roles, regional roles.

So I think I've had quite a good broad experience.

And as you said, now I am what we call double-hatting. So I'm Head of UK Marketing and also the Global Head of Wholesale Marketing. So it's been a great journey.

How do you manage those two hats, so to speak?

I mean, I think it's a really great role because I have my global hat on — I have that global experience, that very strategic role. But also what's important when you're in a global role is that you don't forget what it's like to be in a local market or a local country.

So actually being Head of UK Marketing as well really helps because you've always got that temperature check of what's happening in a particular market.

My global role is wholesale, but my local role is across all the segments — institutional, product marketing, etcetera. So it gives me that great balance.

You mentioned leaving Thomson Reuters allowed you to kind of continue with that love that you had developed in marketing. Did you study marketing?

I did. So I did a broad sort of business degree at university, which marketing was a module, and I think that's where I kind of developed my passion for marketing. And then many moons ago, when I had graduated, I did a sort of postgraduate diploma in marketing to really try and get that deep theoretical knowledge.

Yeah, that's interesting to know. I've read a lot of material that talks about marketers, and that very few marketers working within financial services have actually studied it before they came into the industry. So I'm always intrigued to know whether people did study or not, or if they continued to learn.

Yeah, no, I did study marketing, but I think that previous experience — that broad sort of business or management exposure, where you get a taste of HR, accountancy, legal — all these things actually really play into a marketing role.

I mean, talking around the volume of education — or lack of maybe — within marketing, I know we've spoken about this on a previous call, but the term “colouring-in department”, the stereotype, the disparaging term, I still hear that today.

Is that something that you've come across within your…

I've heard of it, but luckily it's never been directly referred to in front of me, which is probably a good thing.

But yeah, I mean, I think we have to demonstrate the value of marketing in any organization. Some organizations — marketing has a very prominent seat at the table, and in other organizations it doesn't.

And I think for HSBC Asset Management, I really feel we do have an equal prominence at the table, which is great.

You've mentioned that your previous experience coming from events meant you had to prove the ROI from event spend. Obviously the role of marketing is to grow the business and win the business. So if it's being done well, it should be a growth driver.

Within your roles at HSBC Asset Management, how are you proving that as a growth driver within the business?

Yeah, it's really important because we don't just want to be seen as marketing as a cost. We have to show the strategic value that marketing can bring. And like you said, how do we contribute to that growth of the business?

I think there are a few things that I've done and developed as I've developed my career to help with that.

One of them is to have very collaborative conversations with senior leadership and senior stakeholders and really agree what the marketing objectives are and how they align with the business objectives and how they drive growth.

They ladder up.

Exactly. And doing that very early in conversations and getting that agreement right at the beginning is really important.

Because it's obviously important for your stakeholders, but also for your teams and the wider marketing community. How do we know that we're all driving towards the same goal?

And that goal is adding value and driving business growth — not, to your earlier point, just colouring in and the aesthetics.

Everyone knows where we're going.

And as part of that objective setting, I think the metrics that you're going to measure are really important. Everyone will be at a different stage of their journey when it comes to marketing metrics and measurement. But I think anything that you can do will be valuable.

So whether you're in a sophisticated environment where you're talking about attribution models, or whether you're talking about sales lead generation or marketing lead generation, you agree those things upfront and make sure everybody's aware and bought into that.

How often do you have those conversations with the wider business about what the strategic objectives are and how marketing contributes to achieving them?

I think there are different stages to it. Obviously there's an annual planning process and that's a big part of it. But any framework has to be able to flex as the business changes, as the industry changes, as the client environment changes. Client needs change, and you've got to be on top of that.

So for us, we might be doing that quarterly — checking in and making sure our objectives are aligned. But equally it's not just the strategic plan. It's every activity you do, every campaign you're implementing, executing and planning. Every big piece of activity.

Have you agreed the objectives? Can you see how those objectives ladder up to the overall business and marketing objectives? So everybody working on that piece understands how these things all link up.

I'm going to come back to that idea because I'm keen to understand how you feed that into your team and determine whether activity has been successful from either a campaign level…

But let's park that for a second. One of your roles is global. I know that when we've spoken, you talked to me about setting up a global campaign framework.

I'm interested to hear more about how you did that and how you aligned global priorities with local needs. From an outsider, that seems like there could be competing priorities there.

Yeah, and of course the word campaign can mean lots of different things to different people. So for us this means sales and marketing campaigns together. What are the products that we are focusing on or the priority areas?

And like many organizations, we have global products or products that are sold into different markets. What I had noticed several years ago is that different markets would be creating marketing activity on the same products, and we didn't necessarily have consistency of messaging.

But the positive thing about the local markets creating their own materials was that they were capturing and understanding exactly what the client needs were in that particular country or market.

So I could definitely see a need to create some sort of framework. We actually started with a European framework and then over the years developed it into a global campaign framework.

And it's really about trying to make sure that firstly our brand is consistent across the markets, but also that the client experience is as consistent as possible. Because we know that our clients might be in lots of different markets at once.

One client might have lots of different offices and teams, so we want to make sure that client experience is consistent. And it's also about efficiency. How do we create a framework or model that's as efficient and effective as possible?

The danger of creating a global model, of course, is that you lose that local knowledge and insight. So it was really important that when we built that framework, we built it in collaboration with all of the local teams.

We asked them: what are the good bits about a global framework? What are the bad bits? How can we work together to make sure we come up with the best possible model?

And it's not one hundred percent perfect all of the time, but I do feel we've got a good balance.

At the beginning of every campaign we have a brief, and we bring in all the local markets right at the start so they understand what the campaign will be about. They can raise their hand and say, “That's going to work in my market” or “That's not.”

So it's certainly not a case of the centre or global team delivering materials and expecting the local teams to simply execute them. It's very collaborative.

What was the perception from the local teams? Was that welcomed? Did you have to win some hearts and minds along the way?

I think people could see the value of it, but there will always be a little bit of concern about losing local relevance. Local clients are obviously very important.

So when you're trying to sell something in, it's about showing success stories, showing how others are doing it, and continuing to demonstrate those successes over time.

Anyone going through that process — what would be your advice? Do this, but steer clear of this.

I think it would really be about bringing your local teams into the process very early and making sure they feel that it's one team creating the framework.

And keep listening throughout the journey. Our campaign framework now runs very smoothly, but we still maintain a feedback loop. We make sure we're getting feedback from the local markets and the global team and continue evolving and refining the framework.

The other area I'm keen to talk about is the role of marketing and the opportunities — or maybe limitations — imposed by regulations. Obviously those regulations differ globally as well.

At HSBC Asset Management, how do you adapt your strategies and potentially your team structures to cope with that while still meeting the objective of driving growth?

Yeah, I mean we could talk for hours about regulatory change in asset management. It's constant and I don't think it's going away anytime soon.

But you have to live with it.

It's the new normal. But we have to understand how we can remain compliant while still maintaining an element of creativity and still driving the commercial success of the business.

It's a bit of a tightrope, I think. On one hand you think regulation might suck the life out of everything, but on the other hand great creativity can come from constraints.

So the natural marketer in me wants to rise to the challenge — but it has been challenging.

And it's not just creativity — it's time. If you're spending a large amount of time on regulatory reviews or creating new guidance, that becomes a capacity issue for your team.

And of course global regulations add complexity. In the UK we've had anti-greenwashing regulations, while in Europe there's SFDR and other frameworks around the world that are similar but different.

So we have to build frameworks that meet the highest level of compliance while also addressing local requirements.

And that means marketers in financial services need strong relationships not only with sales and investment teams but also with compliance, risk and control teams. You're having multiple conversations with multiple stakeholders every single day.

When we talked about the global campaign framework earlier, you've got the creative framework, then you have the regulatory framework layered on top, and then local market requirements. It becomes complex very quickly.

It is complex. That's why it's important to understand those requirements at the very beginning of a campaign rather than discovering two-thirds of the way through that something can't be done in a particular market.

You need strong collaboration with compliance teams so everyone understands what you're trying to achieve and the boundaries you're working within.

I was going to ask you this later, but it feels like the right moment. There are a lot of moving parts there. Communication across teams is probably critical.

How do you manage that and still drive growth?

Well, we're all good jugglers, aren't we?

But I think fundamentally we have to help our teams understand why they are here and how they add value. Even regulatory work contributes to growth because it mitigates risk and protects the business.

So part of the role is helping people connect the dots between their daily tasks and the broader business objectives.

That includes education and training — particularly around regulation — but also providing the tools and resources people need to feel confident in their roles.

Is there a consistent approach to training across the global team?

Yes. In the wholesale marketing team there are about forty people. For key themes like regulation we provide consistent training globally, and for broader marketing training everyone has access to the same resources.

Marketing is obviously a fast-evolving space. Marketing technology continues to grow every year. How do you keep your team educated when the landscape is expanding so quickly?

It’s difficult, especially if you’re a generalist marketer working across many channels. But it’s also what makes the job exciting.

In our structure, marketers tend to specialize by client segment — institutional, wholesale, product marketing — rather than by specific channel technologies. But people still need a broad understanding of the different tools available.

As marketing leaders, our role is to focus on the technology that helps achieve business objectives. Not every bright new tool will be relevant.

We have to ask: does this technology help us achieve our objectives? If not, we can park it for now.

Because we all know how long it takes to implement technology and secure investment. So we need to choose wisely.

You’ve been involved in selling marketing technology internally. How do you approach that?

First, understand the skepticism. Is it cost? Integration complexity? A previous failed implementation? Once you understand that, you can address it.

Then build a business case — essentially a business plan. Use case studies, internal and external examples, and evidence to show the value.

Marketers are businesspeople, and we should approach these conversations in that way.

If the proposal doesn’t land the first time, learn from the feedback and refine it. Sometimes these conversations take years.

Another good tactic is to start small — pilot something, prove the value, and build from there.

Exactly.

Do you think legacy systems within asset management sometimes slow down the adoption of new marketing technology?

Possibly. Investment might be prioritized for other systems in the business. But that also creates an opportunity for marketing to demonstrate innovation and show where technology can add value.

We just need to keep looking for ways to move forward rather than focusing on what's been done historically.

And marketing technology isn’t just about selling more — it’s about improving customer experience.

Exactly. Even in B2B environments, we're still marketing to people who expect the same digital experiences they get as consumers.

Clients and their customers expect seamless digital journeys. So asset managers need to invest in technology that ultimately supports that end-customer experience.

Brand is another interesting area. You're working with a huge global brand in HSBC. How does that support growth in markets where the asset management brand might be less well known?

The strength of the HSBC global brand is enormous, and we’re very fortunate to have that backing.

Even in markets where the brand might not be as well known, we can still leverage its underlying strengths — global networks, investment expertise and resources.

Those attributes exist regardless of market awareness, so they form the foundation for our messaging.

Within that global framework, how much flexibility do local markets have?

There absolutely needs to be flexibility. Cultural sensitivities and client needs vary across markets.

But those conversations need to be data-driven. Local insight is important, but we also need evidence — testing, data, and performance metrics.

For example, if you’re running A/B tests on an advert in a particular market, the results can inform how messaging should evolve there. Data is crucial in those brand decisions.

It sounds like market research and testing are important to your approach.

Yes, data-driven decisions are really important. Not everyone will have the same tools or resources, but you have to start somewhere.

Even basic tools — like email platforms — provide useful data. From there you can build insights and begin identifying patterns.

And the key is turning that data into insights your stakeholders understand.

Exactly. Data on its own isn’t enough — you need interpretation and context.

Looking ahead, what trends are you keeping an eye on — both for HSBC Asset Management and the broader industry?

The crystal ball moment.

Digital transformation will continue to be huge — not just channels but content formats and how people consume information.

Personalization will also remain important. Clients increasingly expect tailored experiences.

Regulation will continue evolving, and firms will need frameworks and technology to keep up.

And of course AI. There’s a lot of discussion about generative AI and its ethical considerations. But in the near term, I think AI’s biggest role will be in automation and operational efficiency.

So without a crystal ball, I’d say digital transformation, regulation and AI are the big themes.

Thank you for sharing that. And I think you're right — strong foundations in data and marketing capabilities are essential before companies can truly benefit from AI.

Exactly. Automation and efficiency are the right focus for now, while keeping an eye on how the technology evolves.

Thank you so much for taking the time to come and chat with us today.

Thanks for having me.

It’s been great learning more about your role and your two hats. Wishing you all the best.

Thank you.

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