047 Adam Lees
Head of Marketing, InvestEngine
Adam Lees is Head of Marketing at InvestEngine. Before that he spent nearly a decade at Ninety One in various marketing roles between London and Cape Town. For a deeper dive, you can read Adam’s view on influencers vs TV ads, and hear him speak on trust on Adclear’s podcast.
“It’s not black and white despite the perceived ability to be able to measure everything.”
The interview
What’s your coffee ritual?
If I’m home, a morning lap around Nunhead popping into Goodcup to create that break between ‘home’ and ‘work’. If at work, I’m in charge of buying the new coffee machine for the new office so pressure’s on to not ruin everyone’s coffee rituals!
What was your first marketing job?
On the social media team at BlackBerry (remember them?) supporting their Live & Lost campaign, delivering boy bands to fans’ bedrooms through the power of BBM…
What finance apps do you have on your home screen?
InvestEngine (of course), then every investment app under the sun to see what our peers are up to. Plus a few South African ones from my time there.
Which newsletter, podcast, or book do you recommend most?
Wes Kao’s Substack was recommended by Lucy Terry from our team and has shot straight to the top of the list.
What’s an underrated growth channel in fintech?
I’d be surprised if anyone reading this hadn’t already rated all the growth channels (or read them here before). Instead, the key for me is time. When you feel under pressure to try every growth channel you can, as fast as you can, you miss out on giving that channel any true chance of success. Taking the time to put the frameworks in place, do the research, build out the hypothesis, find the brand fit, and then learn from it will lead to more success in the long-run, even when it feels like you’re moving too slow.
What keeps you up at night?
The baby crying next door.
What are the most useful measurement tools you use in your work?
Internal reporting on client sign-ups and engagement coupled with external industry data to work out whether our investor behaviour is driven by Trump’s antics or our marketing efforts.
What’s one fintech brand (other than your own) that’s getting marketing right?
We’re big fans of Yonder in the marketing team. And the guys at Adclear are doing a very good job in what could be a very boring space!
Why is marketing so hard?
It’s not black and white despite the perceived ability to be able to measure everything.