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Part 1 - Best Practice Guide to Managing Compliance of New Financial Promotion Materials
- Dave Moore
- Jun 1
- 4 min read
This Guide is part of our Best Practice Guide to Managing Compliance of New Financial Promotion Materials.
If you have not already done so, we recommend that you first read the Introduction Section of this Guide. That explains the purpose of the Guide covers and how to use it.
Purpose of the Ideation Activity
The business purpose of the Ideation activity is to … generate new marketing ideas and concepts.
This includes identifying and selecting the most relevant and engaging content for a target audience, so that marketing efforts are effective and impactful.
Marketing and / or Product Management are normally responsible for this activity
It is best practice to consult with Sales and Compliance when completing this activity
Compliance Related Objectives
The main content compliance related objectives for this activity are:
To get early input and advice from Compliance regarding Marketing ideas or concepts that are:
Likely to be acceptable
Not likely to be acceptable
To give Compliance an opportunity to provide their input / suggestions to Marketing regarding:
Ways of meeting the regulatory requirements
Approaches being used by competitors
Overall, the objectives are to:
Maximise the likelihood that any content that is produced, will be compliant and therefore, will pass the approval process with no or very little amendment / rework
Minimise the actual or perceived negative impact that the regulations might have on the effectiveness of the content
Minimise wasted time / effort for both Marketing and Compliance
Minimise money spent on 3rd parties that cannot be used (e.g. assets purchased or content creation work done)
Best Practice – Key Elements and Potential Solutions
This section lists the key elements of best practice for this activity and shows for each element:
Which level of best practice they are part of – Standard or Advanced
The solutions that are likely to enable the best practice element to be achieved (More information about these solutions, can be found in this guide - 7 Solutions That Help Achieve Best Practice)
No. 1 - Compliance Rules
There is a centralised (and wherever possible, standardised) set of compliance guidance, rules and wording which:
Is approved and managed by Compliance
Is agreed with and understood by Marketing
Can be applied to any type or format of content
Is used across the organisation in a consistent way
Level:
Standard
Advanced
Potential solution(s):
Standardised Compliance Guidance, Rules & Wording
No. 2 - Guidelines / Principles
To have agreed between the Head of Compliance and Head of Marketing, a set of risk related guidelines / principles (i.e. to define the organisation’s risk appetite)
Level:
Standard
Advanced
Potential solution(s):
Operating Model
No. 3 - Early Involvement of Compliance
Compliance are involved and consulted right from the start of any new ideation activity
Level:
Standard
Advanced
Potential solution(s):
Operating Model
No. 4 - Ongoing Involvement of Compliance
Compliance are actively involved in assessing Marketing’s designs or concepts as they evolve … providing early input / feedback especially regarding any aspects that might be deemed to be risky or non-compliant
Level:
Standard
Advanced
Potential solution(s):
Operating Model
No. 5 - Resolution of Differences Between Marketing & Compliance
There is an agreed process and RACI for quickly resolving any points where there is disagreement between Marketing and Compliance
Level:
Standard
Advanced
Potential solution(s):
Operating Model
We will be happy to email you a full version of this Guide (in PDF format)
Benefits of Achieving Best Practice
Overall, achieving content compliance best practice for the Ideation activity is likely to:
Reduce the risk of Marketing wasting money on a) purchasing assets or b) using 3rd parties to create content, that is not compliant
Reduce the risk of Marketing’s content creators wasting time on developing ideas and / or creating content that will fail the approval process
Build a collaborative working relationship (including, better understanding of each other’s objectives) between Marketing and Compliance
Increase the % of cases that pass the approval process 1st time around and therefore, minimising:
The amount of content that has to be reworked
The overall elapsed time need to get content approved
The table below, give a high-level view of the type and scale of benefits that can be typically realised by achieving a best practice position.
Note.
The scale of benefits to be achieved, will depend on how far the current way of working is from the best practice way of working
For this activity, there is no difference between the Standard level and the Advanced level. Therefore, the expected benefits are the same for both levels
Do You Have Best Practice?
The following are common indicators that best practice is NOT in place:
The first time that Compliance see any proposed content, is when it is sent to them for approval
More than 10% of content submitted for approval, is not compliant and needs to be reworked
Content creators do not understand or accept the compliance rules and often complain that “compliance” is a business blocker
Content often has to go through multiple approval cycles before it is finally approved
The time taken to get content approved often causes target dates – for publishing / distribution – to be missed
If your organisation has any of the above, then it is likely that you are not operating to best practice.
We can help you to:
Define what best practice is appropriate for your organisation
Identify and quantify the benefits that will be realised by achieving best practice
Identify the solution(s) that will enable you to achieve that best practice
Build the business case for any investment that is needed
If you would like to find out more about how we can help ...
Other Activities
Click on the buttons below to view our best practice guides for the other activities involved in the creation of new financial promotion content.
Disclaimer
The information is this guide represents Athena's views based on our experience and also based on input that we have received from a range of different people involved in both creating and approving financial promotion material.
We welcome any thoughts or suggestions regarding:
What "best practice" is or isn't
How best to achieve "best practice"
Anything that you would like to be included in the guide
Copyright Athena Know-How Ltd 2025
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