CMO Digest
Planning for the Unplanned
2024 is in the rear-view mirror and 2025 planning is in full swing, with most senior marketers hoping to stretch their budgets to more than the bare essentials and try something new to move the needle in the new year.
However, as 2025 approaches, financial services marketing leaders face a landscape defined by market shifts and changing client expectations, new technologies and increased shareholder accountability. There’s a lot to consider, and leaders must determine what matters most for their organisations. Recognising that it’s not feasible to address every challenge, prioritisation is key. By focusing on the areas with the greatest potential impact and alignment with institutional goals, marketing leaders can maximise their strategic effectiveness.
Scenario planning can also involve thinking through both the worst and best possible outcomes – so that you are more prepared in either eventuality when ‘lightning strikes’.
This article serves as both a guide and an idea generator for leveraging scenario planning to address key themes shaping the industry and our thinking: the importance of commercialisation, stakeholder management, technology adoption, the interplay between brand and performance marketing and planning for the unplanned.
Commercialisation: Aligning Marketing with Revenue Objectives
Driving and articulating marketing’s contribution to revenue remains a top priority. Scenario planning can help marketing leaders anticipate and navigate challenges such as dispersed data, cross-functional contributions, and opaque benchmarks. For example:
Immediate considerations (0-6 months): Identify and integrate dispersed Customer Acquisiton Cost CAC and Lifetime Value (LTV) data to refine targeting and align further with financial models.
Near-term considerations (6-18 months): Formalise board-valued metrics like ROI and growth across teams and products.
Mid-term considerations (18-36 months): Develop projections demonstrating how future investments drive growth.
Stakeholder Management: Meeting Diverse Needs
Marketing leaders must navigate a diverse array of stakeholders, each with unique priorities and definitions of success. Scenario planning can encourage closer alignment by creating tailored narratives that resonate with each group:
Immediate considerations (0-6 months): Define stakeholder-specific success metrics to clarify shared objectives.
Near-term considerations (6-18 months): Translate marketing outcomes into terms valued by finance, compliance, or executive teams.
Mid-term considerations (18-36 months): Build awareness and trust for top-of-funnel branding investments to balance long-term goals with immediate needs.
Technology: Building Confidence in Martech and AI
As AI and marketing technology (martech) evolve, financial institutions face unique challenges in adoption due to regulatory and proprietary data constraints. Scenario planning offers a structured way to address these issues:
Immediate considerations (0-6 months): Champion a steering committee to assess compliance and reliability of AI-driven third-party tools and custom GPTs.
Near-term considerations (6-18 months): Explore ROI for specific martech investments under varying operational conditions.
Mid-term considerations (18-36 months): Showcase compliance-friendly AI applications to regulators to unlock broader understanding and adoption.
Balancing Brand and Performance Marketing
Striking the right balance between brand recognition and performance marketing is a perennial challenge. Scenario planning provides clarity:
Immediate considerations (0-6 months): Agree and launch targeted campaigns (e.g. ABM) for short-term impact and measurable results.
Near-term considerations (6-18 months): Compare brand-building investments with demand generation efforts based on business cycles.
Mid-term considerations (18-36 months): Build long-term cases linking brand value to revenue stability in fluctuating markets.
Planning for the Unplanned: Crisis and Opportunity
For regulated financial institutions, scenario planning is indispensable for crisis preparedness and adapting quickly to new opportunities. For instance:
Immediate (0-6 months): Roleplay marketing responses to significant events (e.g. economic events or interest rate changes) to ensure agility.
Near-term (6-18 months): Anticipate evolving customer communication preferences and plan and refine communication strategies accordingly.
Mid-term (18-36 months): Explore scenarios involving potential client wins or regulatory-driven innovations, aligning marketing strategies with future product rollouts.
Always Be Prepared
Given the various scenarios we’ve identified, it’s clear that it’s crucial to prioritise effectively. Start by evaluating each scenario based on its potential impact and alignment you’re your organisation’s goals. By incorporating statistical analysis to quantify these factors, you can ensure that your scenarios are data-driven and resonate with stakeholders. This disciplined approach to prioritisation not only enhances focus but also drives meaningful outcomes.
By integrating scenario planning into your 2025 strategy, marketing leaders can confidently navigate complexity, aligning marketing efforts with institutional objectives while preparing for an uncertain future.
This proactive approach ensures financial institution marketers not only react to change, but thrive in it.
Hopefully you’ve found this helpful, and as a little holiday gift, we’ve put these recommendations into a handy print-out to aid your thinking for the new year.