Rebecca Lau is an Associate in the iShares Institutional Marketing team at BlackRock, a leading global asset manager, serving many of the world's largest companies, pension funds, foundations, and public institutions. Rebecca’s role involves planning and delivering of Pan-EMEA marketing campaigns. Her responsibilities include the management of various initiatives covering iShares UK, Europe and collaboratively globally.
Prior to joining BlackRock, Rebecca worked for KPMG as part of their Sales & Marketing team overlooking and delivering on projects and programmes cross functionally, working closely with service lines such as: financial services, portfolio solutions, client council and international markets. During her time at KPMG she was responsible for The Audit Committee Institute (ACI) and The General Counsel Business Institute (GCBI) programmes for the firm. Additionally, Rebecca also has experience working as an EMEA Marketing Executive for CBRE, instigating and managing end-to-end Pan-EMEA campaigns; as well as at Fisher Investments, strategising and implementing on their digital activation campaigns internationally. When Rebecca is not working she captures and posts her travels and tasty eats on Instagram.
Can you tell us about your role?
My role specialises in rolling out campaigns promoting institutional usage of ETFs (Exchange Traded Fund’s) and themes on product use segments. I undertake various online and offline campaigns such as paid media, lead generation, awareness, webinars, events, direct mail, email, social, sponsorships/partnerships, profiling and more.
There is an importance in educating our prospects / clients with materials relevant to them as well as raising our profile around our brand and measuring the success and effectiveness of our campaigns by specific KPI’s and ROI’s. I also work with key stakeholders to maintain external advocacy network relationships with index providers, media platforms and identify industry trends to increase brand awareness and create impactful user experiences.
How did your BSc Business Management degree help prepare you for your career?
Studying at Queen Mary and obtaining a degree has served me with the foundations of a professional environment. Some examples of such would be the terminology used, the theory taught, writing literately, presenting articulately and reporting skills. If I didn’t go to university I would not have had these soft skills to bring to a workplace.
What has been your greatest achievement so far?
I currently run the data acquisition campaigns for our team in EMEA, and as part of the marketing journey I also launched a welcome campaign that provided a seamless and automated process for onboarding prospects. Due to this dynamic way of operating, the campaign soon after launched in the USA too.
And the greatest challenge?
Stakeholder management and ensuring that various stakeholders involved within projects are on board. The welcome campaign I worked on, the challenge surprisingly was not so much getting the campaign to go live, it was getting stakeholder agreement and sign-off.
What would your advice be to someone hoping to work in Marketing?
Gain some experience as soon as possible, as experience in a working environment helps a lot. I had friends who were never aware of the do’s and don’ts of working. This doesn’t have to be limited to just work, but volunteering, university networks, networking events and more can also help to boost confidence and experience. Should you be offered interviews, go for as many as you can to perfect your interview skills, technique and confidence too.
However, should it be marketing specific, I would highly suggest doing your research into the different marketing channels and tactics available to operate on a successful campaign. I’ve had interviewees come in stating they want to get into certain areas of work, however as soon as I drill deeper, you come to realise that they’re still very uncertain and there is no context. Sometimes, experience isn’t what employers are looking for, but it’s for someone to be able to take problems on and solve them by providing an understanding of what could be the day-to-day job and how it can be tackled.
Why did you choose to study at the School of Business and Management?
At the time when I was choosing my course, I had different routes I wished to pursue. I have always been a creative person and at the time I was into architecture. I’m a very hands on type of person as opposed to being academic. I wanted something that was a blend of practicality and creativity and I chose SBM as it allowed me to explore these requirements; hence why I’m now in marketing.
What did you enjoy most about studying at School of Business and Management?
the variety of modules accessible to choose from. I knew I was going to be in the creative element hence why I chose psychology, marketing and tailored my degree to my appropriate route of career. I like the flexibility that we had on the topic we got to write on for our dissertation and I chose marketing.
What's your most memorable student experience?
My involvement in student societies- I was privileged to be the Vice President of Queen Mary ABACUS in my second year of university.
Taking on this role provided me with experience in relationship management, dealing with positive situations and challenges and working collaboratively with other universities. I would recommend joining a society whilst studying.
Where was your favourite place on campus?
The Hive and The Francis Bancroft Building, as I spent a lot of time there with friends, in lectures and classes.
What are your interests outside of work?
Several - I travel quite a bit as I really enjoy seeing the different cultures and architecture of the world. To me, I try to travel as often as time allows, as that is my way to switch off and disconnect from the busy London life most of us are living. This helps with my wellbeing and makes me appreciate how fortunate we are to be living in a developed country with easy access to a lot of essentials. In some countries that I’ve travelled to, I am stunned and blown away by the conditions and struggles some go through, it makes you realise how lucky we are. Traveling has become a very big part of my life and it’s been an eye-opening experience every time.
Additionally, I’m into photography and post a lot on Instagram (@bekilau) documenting my travels and experiences.
What are your hopes and plans for the next five years?
I still see myself working in marketing, in particular asset management and financial services. I would like to have finished my IMC, and be a financial marketing ambassador in financial services.