In this episode, we talked with Nicky Owen, Head of Strategic Sustainability Marketing at Standard Chartered about her career in financial services and her work on sustainability.

Nicky Owen is the Head of Strategic Sustainability Marketing at Standard Chartered. She joined the bank in February 2023, and her role involves coordinating and aligning the sustainability marketing efforts across the different divisions of the bank.

Standard Chartered is headquartered in London and has a history spanning 170 years. The bank also has a significant hub in Singapore, where many of Nicky’s colleagues are based if they are not in London. The bank operates in about 52 markets, primarily in Africa and Asia, but also maintains a strong presence in the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas.

During her first year, she attended several major events in Singapore, which allowed her to meet a number of colleagues face-to-face—a privilege she does not take for granted, especially post-COVID. Meeting people in person helped her build relationships and networks, but this year, the organization has reduced travel significantly to be mindful about travel, considering sustainability and cost.

Nicky began her career in advertising. Her first role after university was as a planner at J Walter Thompson, which was part of WPP at the time. She met a media planner and decided, while still at university, that planning was the career she wanted to pursue. Planning appealed to her because it offered a perfect blend of creativity, rationale, strategy, and analytics—a combination of left-brain and right-brain activities. One particular project focused on delivering brand experience for a service brand. This experience led her to work on other projects involving new product development, including naming, theming, and branding. While she loved advertising, she discovered a passion for the broader aspects of marketing.

She then moved into consultancy before returning to WPP at Mindshare, where she worked on major global accounts such as Unilever, DeBeers, HSBC, and Nestle. Her experience with HSBC led her into the financial services sector. In 2015, she joined Credit Suisse, which is now part of UBS. For the past nine years, her career has been fully focused on financial services.

“I think marketing is one of those areas that can bring in so much, I think back to my original thoughts about being a planner and going into advertising, and I love being able to think creatively and where you have a creative development process. I really enjoy that, but I also really like the psychology involved with how do you understand people's desires and behaviours? How do you try and persuade people to either think or to do something differently?”

Nicky also emphasized the importance of understanding culture. Her entire career has been in international marketing and advertising. Apart from a few small clients, she has never worked on anything specifically UK-based. She considers it a privilege to work with colleagues and clients around the world, gaining an understanding of different cultures while being based in the UK.

Nicky enjoys having a global perspective, which challenges her to think beyond her own experiences and knowledge. She finds marketing to be a great career and feels very fortunate, as it is constantly evolving. When she first started, the focus was on direct mail and mail drops. Although these methods now seem outdated, the core principles of connecting with people, telling a simple story, understanding outcomes, and recognizing behaviours remain the same. The means of delivery, however, have changed dramatically over the past 25 years.

Working in Sustainability

In her current focus on sustainability, Nicky notes that the field is rapidly advancing, with much still to learn. She feels lucky to learn something new every day, a rarity in many jobs. In the markets where Standard Chartered operates, many are disproportionately affected by climate change and often lack the funding or access to funding that other markets have. She stresses the importance of not imposing values or views, as perspectives can vary greatly.

Nicky believes it is crucial to be mindful of where significant changes are happening, both environmentally and socially. Understanding what is happening on the ground and how to support it is essential. From a banking perspective, connecting finance to the projects and places that need it is vital. Being part of Standard Chartered allows her to see both sides of the equation—global trades and connections, and making a difference on the ground. She feels fortunate to be based in London, where much of the work is centralized, while maintaining strong connections with various markets.

“So I will regularly be talking to Chief Executives of some of our markets on the ground, who are maybe talking at Sustainability events, or to my colleagues in marketing and communications and helping them. And so we work together and it's really about understanding. So it's not just me telling, it's actually me learning, just as much as it is ‘how do we guide?’.”

Nicky highlighted several issues impacting everyone, particularly in marketing. One significant topic is greenwashing, along with the regulations and changes aimed at promoting transparency and avoiding over-claiming. She believes that some principles should be global, even if they originate from specific regions, and emphasizes the importance of applying the most stringent levels of governance.

The frameworks and products that need to be marketed are global, but their deployment varies. Nicky stresses the importance of not assuming a one-size-fits-all approach, which contrasts with many marketing strategies that involve rolling out a global strategy uniformly. This nuanced approach keeps the work interesting but also presents challenges when trying to execute pan-regional or pan-global initiatives. Ensuring that marketing efforts resonate with diverse audiences is crucial.

“It's not always straightforward. I think back to segmentation studies and I think it's much harder to do that in sustainability. It's a real challenge. It's a challenge for marketing, but obviously the bigger challenge is actually the ones facing the climate. If you think about it, we've all got the same earth and the oceans - and who owns the deep oceans? So there's a lot of areas that you have to rely on collaboration and everyone working together, but it has to come from the bottom up.”

Nicky finds working in sustainability particularly interesting because it reflects an ecosystem. This includes the business ecosystem, the partners they work with, and the organizations they encounter. She has observed more areas of overlap in sustainability than in any other sector she has worked in.

“It's a really different way of working. So I think about when I used to work on Unilever, it would be Unilever vs P&G, and we'd never share anything. You know, you'd go along to conferences, you'd meet people, and you would talk, but it was essentially kind of head-to-head, because if someone's buying their shampoo, they're not buying mine. We only need so much shampoo. And it's really, really different in sustainability, it's much more collaborative and many more different types of organizations. I speak to NGOs a lot, membership organizations, not for profit, for profit, competitors - all trying to work together to solve these big problems.”

Nicky finds it fascinating to solve problems through the lens of the brand she represents, without excluding others. She believes this unique space challenges the notion that winning must come at someone else’s expense, advocating instead for a win-win approach. This perspective differs from traditional market share strategies and retail banking.

A significant part of her work involves keeping colleagues informed about ongoing initiatives. Standard Chartered has about 90,000 employees, some of whom are directly involved with sustainability daily, while many others encounter it in various aspects of their work. Nicky emphasizes that sustainability is everyone’s responsibility.

She stresses the importance of mindful delivery in all business practices, as many current practices are unsustainable. Regardless of one’s field of expertise—be it IT, legal, or otherwise—there are always ways to be more mindful. Nicky’s team works extensively on informing colleagues about their activities and providing talking points.

Addressing the topic of greenwashing, she notes that recent high-profile advertising standards cases have made everyone more aware of the importance of transparency. It’s not just about what is said, but also about what is not communicated. Misrepresentation and omissions can both lead to accountability issues for firms. Collaboration and education are key to dispelling myths and ensuring accurate communication.

Nicky observes that while the financial services sector, due to its regulation, must be precise in its messaging, other sectors sometimes use vague terms like “natural,” which can be misleading.

When she first started focusing on sustainability, it was a side project alongside typical financial services marketing. The goal was to raise awareness about the power of financial investments in promoting a sustainable future, alongside behaviours and consumption. Nicky highlights that financial products can have significant impacts, whether they are impact-aligned or exclude harmful categories, making money a powerful tool for sustainability.

Nicky emphasized the importance of awareness driving in sustainability. She noted that when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were introduced, they provided a simple way for people to connect their personal interests, such as education or ocean conservation, to broader sustainability efforts. This alignment helped raise awareness and drive engagement.

As more information about sustainability became available, people often felt overwhelmed and unsure where to turn. The influx of terms and concepts led to confusion, and the COVID-19 pandemic further shifted priorities and lifestyles. Now, with increased regulations and disclosures, the focus is on transparency and cutting through misinformation. She believes that the industry is in a phase of unpicking previous misconceptions and adapting to new data and technologies.

Nicky finds the evolving nature of sustainability exciting but acknowledges the challenge of keeping up with the vast amount of information. She emphasizes the importance of working with experts to gain deeper knowledge and apply principles effectively. She feels fortunate to work with colleagues from diverse backgrounds, including science, government, and conservation, which enriches her understanding and approach.

Contrary to some perceptions, she finds working in financial services far from boring. She believes that money, being a fundamental need, is close to everyone’s heart and impacts everyone.

“No one can say, ‘Oh, I’ve got nothing to do with money’. You know, even if it's just their own finances. So it's something that impacts everybody. It's fast moving. It's changing as an industry in terms of the colleagues and diversity and inclusion, it's perhaps not necessarily the industry that it was 25 years ago, and I think that's a really good thing.”

Nicky finds that working in sustainability adds a whole new layer of change and innovation, making it an exciting field. She encourages those passionate about making a difference in sustainability to consider working for organizations like banks or energy companies, as these entities have the capacity to mobilize and scale change. While working in an NGO or charity is commendable, the potential for significant impact within large financial or energy organizations is substantial.

She urges people not to view these organizations as the enemy but as levers for change. She observes that within her organization, sustainability is not just lip service or marketing; it is fundamental to how they conduct business.

Sustainability Project in Tanzania

One of Nicky’s favourite projects is not a commercial one but a collaborative effort that came together through various pieces. In her previous organization, they partnered with ‘One Young World,’ the largest youth gathering outside of the Olympics, aimed at encouraging strong and sustainable leadership. Through this partnership, they worked with a UK-based company called Tree App, which plants trees in exchange for advertising views on their platform.

Mentoring Tree App, they discovered a project in Tanzania that required planting 50,000 trees on a hillside. Instead of giving away the usual marketing merchandise, they diverted those funds to tree planting. This initiative spiralled into a larger project, including reforesting the area with different species of trees, some of which could be harvested for income by local residents.

They also partnered with a primary school on the forest’s border, providing books instead of marketing freebies. Realizing the school lacked reliable energy, they further diverted funds to install solar panels. The outcome was a fully supported school with books, solar energy, and a reforested area, all achieved through collaborative efforts.

Nicky reflects on this project with pride, noting that it exemplifies how different parts can come together to create something that didn’t exist before.

“I hope we know we've done good campaigns and we can do all the campaign analytics and so on, but somewhere in the world, there was something that is different. And there will be species being planted. And there are people who are engaged with that. And there are children who are learning about trees, and they sent pictures so we kind of created a dialogue there. And we connected up Europe with Tanzania, and these schools. So then, hopefully the learning has spread to these children and they can go on and talk about that they were involved with it. For those hundred children who were involved in Europe, if it's made a difference on them, great, that then can spread and they can tell more. So those are the sorts of things where they're not the obvious projects, but they are ones that can make a difference and I think you could feel good about, you know, it's nice to be able to point to something like that.”

Financial Services Marketing Challenges

Nicky discussed the challenges of regulation and the risks associated with communication in sustainability. She believes that while it is correct to consider these risks, the industry has swung too far in one direction and then back again, causing hesitation in communication. Nicky emphasizes the importance of responsible communication to prevent misunderstandings and misrepresentations. Without clear communication, people may fill in the gaps with incorrect assumptions.

Sustainability is complex, and even personal consumer choices often involve trade-offs, such as buying local and in-season versus adopting a vegan lifestyle. Nicky believes that decisions should be made based on what feels right, acknowledging that not all choices are without consequences. This complexity extends to marketing, where sustainable finance deals are nuanced and detailed, making them difficult to communicate succinctly.

Nicky highlights the challenge of conveying complicated stories in formats like out-of-home (OOH) posters, which only capture brief attention. The risk of omitting information and being held liable adds to the difficulty. She notes that attention spans have shortened since COVID-19, and the competition for attention amidst noise and clutter has intensified.

Telling a complicated story in a simple and succinct way remains a significant challenge. Boiling down a brand to its essence has always been difficult, but it is now even harder due to the prevalence of negative narratives on social media. Misinformation can spread quickly, becoming accepted as truth. Nicky believes that people tend to focus more on negative stories, making it crucial to communicate effectively and responsibly.

Nicky mentioned that it can be difficult to maintain a positive outlook when there are few positive stories about banks. This often means that ad campaigns must avoid being associated with negative banking stories, making it hard to highlight good news.

Nicky also pointed out that the types of information that can be shared are constantly changing, which makes content quickly become outdated. The famous phrase “reduce/reuse/recycle” is difficult to apply to content production because the narrative often changes after major events.

Maintaining enthusiasm can be challenging due to the negativity and complexity in the sector. Nicky enjoys the constant change, as it prevents boredom, but acknowledges that this career is not for those who prefer stability. Instead, it suits those who thrive on change, innovation, and continuous learning.

Nicky emphasized the importance of not assuming that past strategies will work in the present. The role requires creating and innovating rather than simply repeating and refining past approaches. This can be challenging but also rewarding for those who enjoy dynamic and evolving work environments.

Inspiring Colleagues

“I feel very, very lucky. And I will say this to people at the start of their career. I'll say it to my own sons, find something that you love doing. And I love doing this. I think it's easy to feel quite jaded sometimes, in the world there's lots of negativity around. I think we are lucky that we work in an industry that is exciting and changing. So I get energized just from my colleagues. I also really enjoy talking to some of the people who I work with, who are our subject experts within the bank. We have amazing researchers and writers and experts and the most eclectic group. Having a chat with someone about, it sounds ridiculous, but about batteries or biochar or some of these sorts of technologies or means to help solve some of the challenges with climate.”

Nicky described a program run by the bank that offers coaching and support for female talent, encouraging everyone to thrive. During a call with about 150 women from 50 markets around the world, Nicky was amazed by the opportunity to connect with people from diverse locations such as Angola, Ghana, and Kazakhstan. This experience highlighted the value of learning about other cultures.

However, Nicky noted that the time zone differences can be challenging, making it clear that this is not a typical nine-to-five job. Despite the late hours, Nicky felt fortunate to engage with colleagues from around the world, especially in the context of increased remote and hybrid working since COVID-19.

She emphasized the importance of not taking these opportunities for granted and appreciated the chance to discuss career ambitions and personal goals with a global network of women. This interaction provided a significant source of energy and inspiration.

Regarding sustainability, Nicky pointed out that regulatory changes are pushing organizations to disclose more information, requiring senior leaders to engage with the topic. This shift is seen as both a necessity and an opportunity. Nicky believes that sustainability should be integrated into all aspects of business, regardless of the industry.

Ultimately, Nicky and peers aim to make their roles unnecessary by spreading knowledge and understanding about sustainability, helping clients and consumers make informed decisions. This approach involves continuous learning and adapting, which Nicky finds both challenging and rewarding.

She compared the current perception of sustainability to how digital marketing was viewed 20 years ago. Back then, digital marketing was handled by specialists who would implement strategies and inform others of the plan. Over time, digital marketing became an integral part of business operations, no longer seen as a separate entity.

Nicky believes sustainability will follow a similar path. Although it is currently challenging and constantly evolving, the long-term goals ensure that those working in this field will remain relevant throughout their careers. By 2050, sustainability should be seamlessly integrated into business practices, becoming part of the business fabric, rather than a separate team.

“I think all this means that people have to get behind the topic, but they should also not be scared by it. I think that's the thing, that people are a bit scared of coming across as not knowing everything. We don't know everything. It is changing all the time. So it's good to ask questions. It's good to admit that you don't necessarily know something about a topic or a theme because it's likely that it will change as well. And technology is changing. And like I said, the data and access to how you account for what you're doing is changing all the time. So we're all learning as we go. And so, I just kind of embrace that.”