In the opening key note panel for Financial Promoter Live! 2025, chief marketing officer at Ninety-One Malcolm Fried, chief marketing officer at Beazley Georgina Peters-Venzano, global head of PR and communications at eToro Amy Butler and executive board director at Opinium Louise Ahuja discussed the key factors impacting decision-making for marketing and communications teams in today’s climate.
The importance of data
As AI becomes increasingly important to every aspect of business, the panel spoke about how using data and new software can help and hinder a marketing team.
Butler emphasized the importance of adding the human touch to data, combining numbers with anecdotal accounts to gain a full picture understanding of the market.
“We have always had access to a lot of data but the key is using it correctly,” Fried said, and made a similar case for AI. “AI is valuable but it is hard to find a way to use AI at scale to solve a commercial problem. Everyone has used AI to rewrite something for them or to create an image, but the key will be finding a way to implement it on a large scale.”
“Like any new technology, I suspect in five or 10 years we won’t be talking about AI because it will be part of our daily life. If companies are able to implement it successfully there won’t be panels on it, it will be viewed in the same way we view our laptops and online meetings.”
The fall of ESG
The panel also discussed the deprioritisation of ESG initiatives for businesses and attentions turned towards AI and other new technologies. With many companies abandoning pledges following the election of President Trump, who had taken aim at a number of ESG initiatives since he took office, the future of sustainable investment looks uncertain.
“There are companies that were never sincere about their ESG initiatives and DEI commitments, and those are the ones that stopped them after the election,” Fried said. “However, those that were sincere in their statements made it part of their operating systems. For Ninety-One, it’s about offering customers the option to invest in sustainable opportunities.”
Measuring brand awareness
A key responsibility for any marketing team is raising brand awareness and building a company’s reputation, but choosing key data points and metrics to quantify this can be challenging. “The ultimate for brand awareness is revenue, if you’re doing better than your competitors then your brand is doing well.”