018 Charlotte Turland
Head of Marketing, NatWest Group
Charlotte Turland is Head of Marketing at NatWest Group. Before that she spent six years at PayPal, with the last two as Head of Global Brand & Integrated Marketing. She’s also been a guest lecturer at University of Birmingham, and is a mentor for Bloom UK, supporting the next generation of women in the communications industry.
“The payments space has such rich stories to tell but few brands get it right.”
The interview
What’s your coffee ritual?
Sage Appliances machine at home spoiling me with freshly ground beans, and a four-shot espresso (I know) with steamed milk. I’m a zombie before this!
What was your first marketing job?
Birmingham City Council as a Marketing and Events Officer. It was as dry as you’d imagine, so I soon jumped ship to adland and stayed there for eight years before making the move client-side.
What finance apps do you have on your home screen?
NatWest and PayPal (always being the customer), Lloyds Bank for banking, interactive investor (a brilliant open banking customer of ours), and the National Lottery (not technically a finance app, but girl math optimism in action).
Which newsletter, podcast, or book do you recommend most?
I listen to more podcasts than music now, with my top recommendations being The Places We’ll Go Marketing Show, the Coutts Need To Know investment podcast, and Miss Me? with Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver - brilliant women with strong millennial voices!
What’s an underrated growth channel in fintech?
Talking to those on the frontline, be it customers or relationship managers – they have helped sharpen our plans and messaging countless times and it’s all too easy in tech to forget about the human at the end of it.
What keeps you up at night?
A lot, but mainly it centres around if everyone is happy: family, team, and stakeholders in that order.
What are the most useful measurement tools you use in your work?
We’re working on a new AI-powered analytics dashboard that will support putting data and visualisation tools in the hands of marketers which is exciting.
What’s one fintech brand (other than your own) that’s getting marketing right?
I really enjoy Square’s content. The payments space has such rich stories to tell but few brands get it right. Square’s approach is a great mix of thought leadership, insight, well-crafted case studies, and broadcast-standard production with The Way Up show.
Why is marketing so hard?
Because everyone thinks they can do it, so we inevitably spend a percentage of our days politely listening to stakeholders thinking they have the skill and knowledge to do our jobs – it can be exhausting!
Whose answers to the above questions would you most like to read?
Jana Straiton, an ex-colleague from my PayPal days, who has a wealth of interesting experience and is now leading her own branding agency Renegade who specialise in helping fintech businesses.