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At last year’s COP27, many were disappointed. Encouraging rhetoric was insufficient to lift delegates’ spirits who left feeling somewhat dispirited.
For asset management marketers looking ahead to this year’s event between 30 November and 12 December in Dubai, the planning begins now to ensure that their firms’ efforts are recognised on the world stage.
Since the beginning of 2023, an emerging campaign theme among UK asset managers has been the issue of nature and biodiversity.
Tom Peterson, head of marketing at Mallowstreet, says fund firms are increasingly considering the role they have to play in protecting nature and that this is already starting to figure in their marketing efforts.
This, he suggests, is partly a result of the UN’s COP15 biodiversity conference, which took place at the end of 2022 in Montreal. The event saw a biodiversity preservation deal struck between nearly 200 countries. Agreements were put in place to reduce – and potentially reverse – damage to the natural environment.
The decisions made at the summit resonated with several asset managers, triggering new approaches to the themes they are keen to address within their environmental, social and governance approaches.
Schroders is among the fund groups to adopt biodiversity as one of its keen talking points in recent months. In a statement at the beginning of 2023, Andy Howard, global head of sustainable investment at Schroders, explained that investors no longer have a choice as to whether they want to be exposed to “nature risk,” explaining that it is now an integral factor to investment risk and returns.
Separately, the company’s CEO, Peter Harrison, stated that transnational companies and financial institutions will increasingly be required to disclose nature risks, dependencies, and impacts.
It is no surprise, then, that other asset managers are looking at nature as a theme that has potential for their educational campaigns, too.
In Q1 of this year, Scottish Widows produced an interactive white paper entitled “Nature and Biodiversity: The Pensions Imperative,” designed to be distributed on LinkedIn and other social media channels.
This kind of collateral has two main aims: showcasing both a firm’s insight into the topic, and its own activities linked to biodiversity. According to marketing consultant Lisa-Marie Mallier – managing director of No Fluff Communications – the latter is crucial to helping firms stand out.
“To enhance the brand and attract new investors, asset managers must effectively communicate their commitment to emerging sustainability themes and showcase their expertise,” she says.
Key drivers
The nature risk theme looks set to be this year’s hot topic for marketers at asset management firms in the lead up to COP28 in Dubai.
Dr Vian Sharif, founder of Nature Alpha and head of sustainability at FNZ, identified three key drivers for this.
“First, the agreement of the Global Biodiversity Framework, which requires finance institutions to consider reporting on their nature impacts and dependencies, saw unprecedented attention from asset managers at COP15 in December,” she explains.
“Secondly, assets under management in biodiversity-focused funds have tripled in recent years. Finally, the launch of the Taskforce for Nature-Related Disclosures in September coupled with the nature focus of the ISSB will be a major area of focus for investors.”
The establishment of the Taskforce for Nature-Related Disclosures is a huge development for financial institutions. The organisation’s membership comprises 40 senior executives with more than US $21 trillion in assets under management. Together, they have a footprint in more than 180 countries.
Members include Celine Soubranne, group chief sustainability officer at AXA, Jessica McDougall, investment stewardship director at BlackRock, Marine de Bazelaire, natural capital adviser at HSBC, Nora Ernst, senior sustainability risk manager at Swiss Re, and Judson Berkey, managing director and group head of engagement and regulatory strategy at UBS.
Despite new initiatives like this, some PR professionals are unsure that COP is the marketing driver that it once was for asset managers.
Charlotte Walsh, a director at JPES Partners, explains that because fund firms and their underlying clients are now making continual improvements, “COP does not act as a stimulus for action in the way it once did.”
But, in a market as saturated as the UK, asset managers are continually jostling with one another for attention from fund buyers. In-person events have returned after the disruption of the pandemic and firms know that this presents a host of, more integrated, marketing opportunities.
Last year, Marsh McLennan took advantage of relaxed restrictions and hosted 10 events in the run-up to COP27.
Hosting a fringe event at COP has enormous benefits, says Ludivine Evra, global head of marketing at Mercer Investment, a Marsh McLennan company.
“[COP] was once exclusively for governments and NGOs, so now the level of corporate involvement, means it is regarded as the most important event at which companies like Mercer and Marsh McLennan demonstrate their credibility.
“It allows them to articulate how they contribute to the debate,” says Evra.
“These companies have to go there so you will notice a growing presence around the COPs.”