Mireille, please tell our readers a bit about your journey and what led you to your current role as CMO of Regnology.

Over the past two decades, my career as a marketing professional has been deeply rooted in supporting enterprise financial software companies. Early in my career, I had a brief stint with a niche vendor specializing in connectivity for listed derivatives. I then spent nearly 12 years at Murex, where I grew into a marketing leader within a global organization. This period was a remarkable chapter in my career, during which I honed my skills in all areas of marketing and communications. I also gained valuable insights into the challenges of financial and capital markets, thanks to the expertise of the subject matter experts I worked with. This experience enabled me to develop agile methods for building a scalable marketing organization capable of keeping up with Murex’s rapid growth, as the company tripled in size, revenue, and geographical footprint, becoming one of the most recognized global leading providers of front-to-back-to-risk trading platforms. I reconnected with electronic trading and connectivity during my tenure at Ullink, applying the foundational skills I had developed early in my career to support the company’s growth ambitions and its subsequent merger with Itiviti. After a detour with an AI start-up specializing in NLG reporting solutions, I rejoined Itiviti in 2020 to work with Rob Mackay, who had been appointed CEO in 2019. Following the acquisition by Broadridge, I supported the company’s transformation into Broadridge Trading and Connectivity Solutions and spearheaded the branding strategy. My move to Regnology was largely motivated by the opportunity to work again with Rob, Linda Middleditch (Chief Product Officer) and other colleagues who had played a key role in Itiviti’s success story.

Given your extensive experience in the software industry, what are some of the most significant changes you’ve observed in marketing over the past two decades?

My passion for marketing stems from its role as a core business function, bridging the gap between supporting a strategic vision, crafting a value proposition, engaging target audiences, and delivering business impact. In the early days, marketing was often considered primarily for its creative aspects, sometimes relegated to a support function disconnected from the core business, particularly in the B2B realm. The go-to tactic for lead generation would be in-person events or tradeshows with a heavy reliance of print collateral and goodies. Today, this perception persists in some cases, reducing marketing’s role to tactical execution of short-term sales activities. However, the rise of digital, evolving buyer behaviors, and the growth of the martech landscape have highlighted the strong correlation between effective marketing and business success, proving its capacity to accelerate growth and scalability.
Key changes include:
● Marketing activities are now quantifiable, offering data-driven insights into the effectiveness of channels and content in engaging audiences and showing their impact on revenue.
● Digital channels have become essential elements of a company’s growth strategy. Websites and social media must be both attractive and seamlessly integrated with CRM systems and marketing automation.
● Content has taken center stage, and as we move towards a cookie-less world, the quality of content and its alignment with the target audience’s pain points will become even more critical.
This comes with an imperative to adopt a holistic approach building on a keen understanding of the market and its dynamics, investing in digital marketing and consistently executing multi-channel campaigns by leveraging automation and the capability to deliver personalized messages.

Regnology focuses on regulatory reporting. How do you approach marketing in such a niche and specialized industry? / You’ve led marketing efforts at companies like Murex and Itiviti. How does marketing in the fintech industry differ from other sectors you’ve worked in?

Regulatory reporting is inherently complex, demanding organizations to adhere to detailed and varying standards across jurisdictions while accurately capturing, processing, and reporting large volumes of data. As a marketer, I apply the same principles here as in any other field I’ve worked in. Success in marketing hinges on engaging with subject matter experts and leveraging their insights to inform the marketing strategy. Understanding how our technology helps regulators and the regulated solve the regulatory data conundrum, streamline the reporting and data collection processes and offer augmented infrastructures leveraging cloud and AI is crucial for crafting relevant messages. Equally important is aligning with the sales team to ensure we create deliverables and execute activities that achieve the necessary scale to reach both current and potential customers. Content marketing is a fundamental driver, though the channels for regulatory reporting are probably scarcer compared to the trading space for instance. Although Regnology is a young brand with just three years of existence, we have the significant advantage of leveraging over 25 years of expertise and recognition, supporting thousands of financial institutions in their reporting processes and covering over 70 financial authorities across the world. We also host the RegTech Convention, one of the largest conferences dedicated to financial regulation, now in its 31st year, providing a unique forum for regulators and the regulated to discuss current regulatory and technology topics.

M&A preparation and strategy are critical areas in your expertise. How do you align marketing strategies with broader business objectives during mergers and acquisitions?

From a marketing perspective, mergers and acquisitions present the challenge of integrating new elements into the overall offering while keeping the value proposition consistent and enhancing it where necessary. It’s crucial to manage change effectively while ensuring business continuity. The due diligence process is essential for understanding the new entity’s value proposition and identifying how it contributes to the organization. This enables us to anticipate the impact on ongoing marketing programs, whether they strengthen existing offerings, expand geographical reach, or target new audiences. Integration unfolds in phases over time, involving a continuous learning process where people, cultures, and work habits intersect. Although it doesn’t happen overnight and comes with its challenges, M&A ultimately serve as powerful growth accelerators. For Regnology, considering the specificities of regulatory reporting, M&A have accelerated knowledge transfer, added expertise, and efficiently expanded our footprint.

AI is rapidly changing the marketing landscape. How do you see AI influencing marketing strategies and initiatives today and in the future?

I believe AI will deeply integrate into marketing, influencing a wide range of channels and tactics. In the martech space, AI can already help automate processes and fine-tune campaign tactics in SEO and paid advertising for instance, enhancing their precision and effectiveness. It also helps to optimize content for search engines and improve campaign performance by identifying the most successful strategies. Furthermore, AI supports content creation by uncovering innovative business ideas, jumpstarting content production and developing more personalized and tailored messages.
I see AI as a valuable tool for taking over routine, repetitive tasks, allowing marketers to concentrate on strategic efforts. It also has the potential to provide exceptional data intelligence by recognizing patterns, offering fresh insights and provide advanced analytics.
However, as AI usage becomes widespread, there is a risk of uniform content and tactics being disseminated across organizations. I think that in a world where the use of AI is widespread, developing a unique and distinctive voice will be more than even a key differentiator to deliver successful marketing tactics.

What are some challenges you face when rebranding or launching new products, and how do you overcome them?

The marketing challenges with Regnology are diverse and complex. The company brand is young and aiming to gain global recognition, the organization is integrating multiple tech stack into its offering through its active M&A, the product vision is driven by technology innovation and constantly evolving, which adds another layer of complexity.
The decision was taken early on to develop Regnology as a branded house rather than a house of brand. By implementing a company-led brand strategy, we aim to amplify the investment made to introduce Regnology and use it as an umbrella brand that extends to our entire solution offering.
Regnology has a singular focus on regulatory reporting. Our goal is to develop Regnology into a household name synonymous with “Regulatory Reporting” and “Tech” expertise, reflecting the foundation of our company name. This caters for the potential disruptive effects of M&A avoiding confusion and cannibalization across our tech stack. Additionally, we want to prevent the need for repeated overhauls of our brand system when integrating new offerings. We are developing a brand system that permeates from the company level to our platform and all solution lines, while still giving room to assess the brand equity of acquired companies and products and integrate them into the brand system.
From a branding perspective, my goal is to achieve high brand equity by consistently enhancing brand recognition across all touchpoints at the company, platform, and solution levels.

Lastly, what advice would you give to aspiring marketers who want to make a significant impact in the fintech industry?

My advice to an aspiring marketer aiming to make a significant impact in the fintech industry is to cultivate a strong sense of curiosity. You need to be equally passionate about mastering marketing strategies and understanding the intricacies of the financial industry. Treat marketing as a core function and forge strong alliances with product and sales teams, as well as HR (for employer branding for instance), customer success, and partnership divisions. Harness the power and insights provided by AI and digital marketing but remember to blend in the art of marketing to create meaningful connections and memorable experiences for your target audience.

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Marketing in the digital age has evolved significantly over the years, with the transition to digital being driven by many cultural, technological, and societal changes. It is no longer just a means of enhancing customer relationships effectively, but also the primary approach to building new bonds with desired audiences.

In banking, accountholders are demanding more personalized and relevant content, and financial institutions that fail to adapt will undoubtedly be at a severe competitive disadvantage. Branches are being frequented less, opening the door for digital marketing to drive stronger consumer relationships. This is accomplished with more personalized communication and improvements to in-person and digital experiences, and better engagement with tailored recommendations, faster customer service, and more relevant content.

Digital marketing has a strategic role to play in driving business growth, enabling community banks and credit unions scale their reach and engagement across a variety of digital channels. For instance, at one extreme, younger and future accountholders stay well away from branch visits. How else do you reach them if you don’t leverage digital?

Despite being transformative, far too many financial institutions and their C-suite executives fail to take advantage of what should be a strategic growth initiative. Instead of being stuck in traditional, “analog” marketing, it will pay for them to become aware of the sheer power and potential in contemporary digital communications.

Data and AI are not just buzzwords

Today, marketing prioritizes the use of data insights to understand customers as individuals with unique needs. Technology helps do this at scale to deliver personalized experiences while measuring performance and ultimately driving strategic growth. With modern consumers being so connected and accessing information from their fingertips, they expect nothing less than this personal interaction – be it from a retail business or their financial institution. Therefore, leadership at institutions must rise to this challenge, letting their accountholders know they not only recognize this, but will treat them as unique individuals with unique needs.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing marketing in terms of personalization, automation, predictive analytics, content generation, improved marketing insights and cost-effectiveness. A key advantage of digital marketing is the ability to effectively leverage data to gain insights into customer behavior. The immense amount of data available today when combined with AI gives financial institutions tremendous insights into the needs and preferences of their accountholders.
“One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions”
This quote resonates more than ever today. With data-driven marketing , every click, view, and interaction can and should be tracked and analyzed. Only then will financial institutions understand their customers better, tailor their messages to be more effective, and optimize their marketing outcomes. What is not measured cannot be assessed or improved.

It is no longer enough for financial institutions to blindly execute marketing campaigns in a vacuum. Digital marketing systems that fail to provide detailed performance metrics are enablers of this phenomenon. They may provide a checkmark for management that your campaigns are digital, but they are doing nothing worthwhile for your institutions.

Banks and credit unions must invest in analyzing the performance of their campaigns and this can only be done when you have metrics handy. A failure to monitor campaign performance squanders opportunities to optimize their communication and improvements to ROI. Precise metrics can help analyze and maximize the performance of marketing campaigns. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as impressions, click-through rates, conversion rates, influenced product sales, and ROI are some of the important metrics that need to be easily available.

Elevate, don’t relegate, digital

Financial institutions that relegate digital marketing run the risk of becoming less relevant and attractive to their customers and membership. A well-crafted top-down digital marketing strategy is one that can strengthen sustainable growth for a financial institution. Digital marketing is not just about selling products and services. It is about building strong relationships with your accountholders and increasing retention. By engaging them through personalized content and tailored offers, you can build trust and loyalty, leading to sustainable growth.
Therefore, to be successful in marketing today (and tomorrow!), the formula is not complicated. Aim to leverage data and AI insights effectively to deliver personalized and meaningful communications consistently. Then measure outcomes, optimize, and repeat. Or, in other words, set your financial institution up for assured growth.

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