FIGARODIGITAL.CO.UK
INVESTING in DIGITAL
Lisa Wood is CMO at Atom Bank, the world’s first digital-only bank. Before that she was Head of Marketing at first direct. She talks to Figaro Digital about the challenges of operating entirely from an app and the company’s ambitions to bring trust, innovation and a human touch to the banking industry
Atom Bank has yet to launch but is well on its way to becoming the first digital-only bank. What’s it like being CMO at the company? LISA WOOD: Dramatically different from my previous roles in large companies. As CMO I’m building the Atom brand and our products from the ground up. There are no pre-existing constraints. It’s immensely freeing! But we have nothing, so putting in place the whole infrastructure we need as a bank and a brand is a big task. There’s certainly never a dull moment and not a day goes by when I’m not learning something new.
In your career so far you’ve held leading positions at Midland Bank, HSBC and first direct. What have been your stand-out moments? LW: There have been a couple of pieces of work at first direct that I think were turning points for the brand. The ‘Live’ campaign we did back in 2009, where we livestreamed social sentiment into digital ad formats, was really the start of embedding social as a key channel for the brand. Also, re-positioning first direct as ‘the unexpected bank’ along with the ‘Platypus’ campaign of 2013 was great
fun. It refreshed the brand and started to get it talked about again.
How did the idea for Atom Bank come about? What was the thinking behind operating entirely from an app? LW: Atom was founded by Anthony Thomson, former Chairman at Metro Bank. Post the launch of Metro he’d been keeping a close eye on consumer behaviour and saw the dramatic shifts taking place towards digital. He talked through his thinking with Mark Mullen, the then-CEO of first direct and, as they delved into the data, it became increasingly clear that if you were building a bank fit for the future, mobile was the way to go. There’s so many stats around that support this thinking. We know an app-only bank isn’t
for everyone, but we certainly believe from the data we’re seeing that there’s a significant number of people who would be happy to try a different kind of bank, particularly if they’re offering a superior banking experience.
FEATURE ESTELLE HAKNER
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