Winners of the Brand Management and Reputation Awards 2023

Date: 28 Jun 2023

Ashleigh John

Citywealth interviewed some of the individuals who won an award at the Brand Management and Reputation Awards 2023, learning more about their industry and career journeys.

For over seven years, the Brand Management and Reputation Awards have highlighted and recognised the contributions of over a hundred marketing, business development and public relation professionals within the wealth management industry. After the awards were announced at the Great Scotland Yard Hotel on 20 June, Citywealth caught up with a few of the evening’s winners to learn about the challenges of working in the private wealth, legal and financial sectors as a marketing or PR individual, what qualities have served them best in their careers and what advice they would give to those looking to join their industry.

Introducing (some of) the Brand Management and Reputation Awards 2023 winners

Kevin Wheeler, Wheeler Associates – Lifetime Achievement award

Kevin has been advising professional services firms on all aspects of strategy, marketing, business development and client relationship management/key account management for more than thirty years. Before setting up Wheeler Associates in 1997, he was the Marketing Director for Nabarro Nathanson, the commercial law firm, and Cinven, the private equity house. He has also held various senior in-house strategy and marketing positions with Coopers & Lybrand, now PricewaterhouseCoopers. As a consultant and coach, Kevin has provided services to more than one hundred firms drawn from the legal, accountancy, actuarial, property consultancy, tax, corporate finance, management consulting and insolvency practitioner sectors.

Cheryl Bridge, Stonehage Fleming – Outstanding Individual award

With over 18 years of marketing experience within the financial services sector, Cheryl is an experienced marketing professional going from strength to strength. Her experience has been used to execute and deliver against ambitious marketing campaigns and KPIs. On top of her supervising Stonehage Fleming’s most ambitious events and digital webinars, and her contributions to the investment management team, Cheryl works in the Women’s Advisory Group and produced the three webinars that kicked the programme off in 2021. Her work attracted almost 250 guests from new/different demographics to Stonehage Fleming’s usual audience.

Michael Rosen, representative for Kingsley Napley – Bronze for Best Use of LinkedIn and Gold for Best Overall PR

Michael is a senior strategic corporate communicator with over 20 years of experience in creating high-impact external and internal communications programmes. His expertise encompasses copy/speechwriting, PR, content marketing, and website and intranet development. He also works with a variety of specialist experts to provide website, branding, print and design services.

Phil Cuming, Comnexa – Gold for Best CRM Individual

Phil is the Co-founder of Comnexa, a Salesforce consulting partner specialising in financial and professional services. He has worked in B2B marketing and business development roles for over 10 years and leads Comnexa’s operations and commercial activities. He also helps clients to use the data within their CRM to calculate their marketing and sales campaign ROI and ultimately engage in smarter spending of their marketing and sales budgets.

Louise Willows, Rathbones Group Plc – Gold for Career Achievement

A creative and committed brand and marketing professional with proven leadership and people management skills, Louise has solid experience working with stakeholders and marketing teams in wealth management, driving marketing and brand strategy, and leading multi-channel integrated campaigns. An effective communicator at all levels, she is a compassionate, empathetic leader who is able to mentor, inspire and motivate. Following a promotion to her current leadership role in June 2022, Louise leads a team of regional marketers to create regional campaigns and marketing strategy to target clients and prospects for Rathbones’ wealth management services.

Marketing and PR is all about creating connection, but the private wealth/financial services sector has historically been perceived as rather inaccessible. As a marketing professional, how do you approach and bridge this gap?

Kevin Wheeler: “From my many years interviewing HNWIs and UHNWIs, I’ve found that they behave pretty much like corporate buyers/users of advisory services, in that they are looking for the highest quality advice, delivered in a timely and responsive manner, and at a price that represents value for money. And since they value discretion much more than corporates, it makes publicising what you do for them almost impossible, thereby restricting that particular marketing avenue. However, they select their advisers almost exclusively through recommendations from their network of family, friends and business contacts, and from their other advisers. So, encouraging referrals from other advisers becomes an important marketing strategy. As does ensuring that you deliver the highest levels of service so that the clients rave about you to others in their network. Firms need to ensure that they have objective feedback mechanisms in place to measure that this is the case and that clients are making these recommendations. I’ve always found clients, their family offices and/or managers very keen to give feedback knowing that this should improve service levels. Just ask.”

Cheryl Bridge: “In broad terms, the principles of marketing remain the same across sectors. I came from a media background into the financial services world, and while I did not fully understand the industry, I was assured in my marketing knowledge and skills and knew they would translate well to my new role in a different industry; after all, that is the kind of thing you learn on the job! While it’s true that marketing in the private wealth/financial services industry presents its own unique challenges that can be overcome with experience, I’m confident that the marketing skills and knowledge you already possess, whether from school or a marketing role in another industry sector, can be easily applied across sectors. The fundamentals are generally the same as long as you have the determination to adapt and get things done.”

Michael Rosen: “Within the law firm, it’s all about trying to present your lawyers, your clients, as people. Trying to show the informal side of things, trying to show how you can relate to somebody, their challenges, their worries, their problems and, obviously, help with those challenges. That’s the challenge we have.”

Phil Cuming: “Our role is to implement Salesforce as a CRM system, as well as an operational efficiency system, for private wealth businesses and law firms. What we’re doing a lot of the time is going to businesses and asking them what their objectives are and how they need to find operational efficiencies and how they can make bigger margins with technology. Where we’ve had success is that we worked with one or two financial service businesses in our early days and then created case studies which we sent both to other businesses in that space but also to Salesforce who are our key partners who have referred other private wealth businesses to us and positioned ourselves as the private wealth experts within Salesforce and the natural consultant partner of choice when private wealth businesses enquire about Salesforce.”

Louise Willows: “The reason why my role was actually created was because we couldn’t bridge [this] gap, operating, marketing out purely from a London officer. We needed to have people in the regions, needed people that were living and breathing going out to meet clients, seeing their prospective clients in the areas where we operate. That’s how we’ve managed to shift the dial really.”

What are the personal qualities you possess that have served you best in your career so far?

Kevin Wheeler: “For me building rapport quickly is the most important quality that I possess. If I’ve been given 30 minutes to interview a billionaire to find out what he/she thinks of their advisers, I need to gain their trust very quickly. Being professional is important – arriving on time, presenting well (dress and manners), being well informed about the relationship between the client and their adviser, etc. – but I also do a lot of research into the individual’s background, their interests, and events in their life. I try to find areas of commonality with myself, e.g. they might have a Highland Estate that I know, and focus the initial discussion on these areas to ‘break the ice’. It’s a difficult skill to master and I think I’m pretty good at it.”

Cheryl Bridge: “Working in marketing and PR requires various skillsets. So far in my career, I have discovered that being practical has been the most beneficial. My approach to work is to be calm and analytical, which comes in handy when you work under time constraints and pressure. Other qualities such as being organised and detailed-orientated are also invaluable skills when working within a marketing role. Being personable is also really important when it comes to building strong and lasting relationships in the workplace.”

Michael Rosen: “What I really enjoy is telling stories and at Kingsley Napley we have a lot of great stories to tell so that’s why I love what I do.”

Phil Cuming: “I think relationships with people is the key thing. What we do in implementing technology is something that a lot of people could do but it’s something a lot of people could get wrong as well, because you can go and find these master tech people in the world who get the technology and are going to fix a problem that you specify, but it takes the right type of people to ask what your core problems are and solve those problems rather than assuming what they are going to be. So for us, relationships are the most important thing and being those people who are trusted and understand what your business objectives are. That’s huge in doing what we do.”

Louise Willows: “I’m curious, I’m interested. I want to know what makes people tick, I want to know what makes the universe tick and why we’re all here. And when I find out, I match what people want with what we can deliver in a marketing context.”

As an industry insider, what is something you think someone trying to break into the industry should know that perhaps isn’t so initially obvious?

Kevin Wheeler: “Very wealthy people can seem very intimidating. Don’t be overawed by their wealth. At the end of the day they need the advice that your firm can provide to protect or enhance that wealth. Be professional, don’t fawn, and don’t put up with unacceptable behaviour.”

Cheryl Bridge: “Believe in yourself! There is no reason for the role/industry to be inaccessible to you as long as you are prepared to adapt, apply yourself and learn on the job. Be humble and willing to work hard, start at the bottom and work your way up. If you have the determination you will be noticed and rewarded accordingly. It is pointless to strive for perfection; instead have self-confidence and believe in your abilities to take on any challenge. Learn through your mistakes and don’t be afraid to ask questions along the way.”

Michael Rosen: “That’s easy – just be curious. Try and ask people, try to find out information, try and learn what people are doing. The only way you’ll get on in this career is to ask questions and to learn the answers.”

Phil Cuming: “Don’t be shy. The easy thing in this industry is to assume that you can start off at entry level and slowly get promotions through it, whereas in reality the people who succeed are the ones who actually go out and meet people and grow their network and prove themselves to be a knowledgeable and trusted individual in that space. My advice would always be don’t sit still and go out and meet people.”

Louise Willows: “[Marketing] is a springboard for so many, many other things. When I started out in marketing, it was about putting flowers out on tables and making sure the canapes were right. It’s now everything from utilizing technology, to going out and being client facing. We’re having a huge conversation now about Chat GPT, which you could be scared of as a marketer. You think, am I going to become redundant? Can I no longer create brilliant ad campaigns and things like that? No, it’s just the start. It’s opportunity, there are so many strands of [marketing].”

To view the full list of winners, see here.

To view the gallery of photos from the night, see here.