In Partnership with Wesleyan

Founded in 1841, Wesleyan Assurance Society (Wesleyan) is a financial services mutual dedicated to trusted professions, including doctors, dentists, and teachers, committed to building brighter financial futures so they can focus on their essential work.

Wesleyan partners with leading professional bodies, such as NASUWT, The Teachers’ Union, and the Royal College of General Practitioners and advises large public sector entities, such as the NHS Pension Scheme

The Challenge

Over the years, Wesleyan developed spreadsheet-based compliance systems in-house and in collaboration with print partners to keep up with the evolving marketing landscape. As marketing techniques, channels, and assets became more sophisticated, and with the shift from primarily print to digital formats, it became evident that Wesleyan’s existing systems needed to evolve. The team realised they needed a more adaptable, future-proof system that could grow along with regulatory demands. This need for a scalable, robust solution highlighted the opportunity to bring in a specialised provider with deep industry expertise.

Wesleyan sought a proprietary Digital Asset Management, approval and workflow system that could be tailored precisely to their needs straight out of the box, providing configuration flexibility without requiring lengthy development time. Most importantly, this solution had to support Wesleyan’s rigorous governance processes, ensuring that every asset and approval adhered to strict compliance standards.

Our Solution

The tender process to select a new system was thorough and demanding, designed to find a solution that could meet Wesleyan’s immediate needs and grow with them. bethebrand stood out due to its straightforward yet powerful approach, capable of supporting complex, compliance-driven workflows. With over 20 years of financial services expertise and a proven track record with leading industry clients, bethebrand offered a trusted, reliable solution that could deliver value immediately.

Internally named MaRS (Marketing and Regulatory System), bethebrand was implemented in January 2023. An agile and collaborative implementation process allowed Wesleyan’s team to engage directly with the system, providing a smooth transition. The MaRS system was also tailored around Wesleyan’s risk-based approval process, ensuring that the tool was aligned with Wesleyan’s specific compliance requirements, with each asset managed according to its risk level.

"It operates as two main things for us: an asset store and an approval process tool. It’s the go-to area for signed-off assets, from mandatory regulatory documents to promotional items." Sean Guiney, Marketing Governance Consultant, Wesleyan

The Results

Within just four months of launch, MaRS delivered substantial improvements in compliance and operational efficiency. Wesleyan reported faster asset approvals, reduced delays and greater confidence in governance. The system’s streamlined asset storage and retrieval function now serves as the organisation-wide repository for approved, ready-to-use marketing and regulatory materials.

MaRS has also become critical to Wesleyan’s governance processes, supporting the monthly Financial Promotions Governance Committee meetings. The platform allows Wesleyan to produce key reports on asset approvals, rejection trends, and governance adherence, providing actionable insights for each department.

MaRS’ functionality has expanded beyond marketing and compliance to support departments such as customer operations and insurance. Following recent regulatory shifts, including the Consumer Duty project, MaRS has become the organisation’s single source for compliance, managing customer letters, insurance correspondence, complaint handling materials and more. Over 1,000 additional assets were added across the business during this period, underscoring MaRS’ role as Wesleyan’s centralised compliance and asset management hub.

"Due to Consumer Duty, we added about 1,000 items from other departments to the system... all customer operations letters, complaints, and insurance documents are now managed in the same way." Sean Guiney, Marketing Governance Consultant, Wesleyan

With MaRS, Wesleyan has built a foundation of confidence in its compliance practices, ensuring consistency and transparency in reporting across all departments. This centralised platform not only upholds high governance standards but also provides Wesleyan’s financial promotions team with clear monthly reports, allowing them to track trends, monitor compliance, and implement improvements as needed.

"The biggest challenge is making sure people stick to the process... MaRS helps ensure that everyone follows the correct compliance steps and prevents people from bypassing it." Sean Guiney, Marketing Governance Consultant, Wesleyan

The close partnership with Bethebrand has also been instrumental in MaRS’s ongoing success. Wesleyan regularly collaborates with the bethebrand team to quickly adapt the system to new requirements or make enhancements, making MaRS increasingly tailored to Wesleyan’s evolving needs.

"I’m very impressed by the fact that we have close access to Adam and his team... we can quickly turn around changes if needed, which makes the system more and more like a Wesleyan tool." Sean Guiney, Marketing Governance Consultant, Wesleyan