#BehindtheMarketer | Absa’s Sydney Mbhele: Trust and relevance will decide future banking winners
This is according to Sydney Mbhele, group chief marketing & corporate affairs officer at Absa, who says that there are three macro-trends driving this transformation.
- The Democratisation of technology & fintech agility
“The entry of digital-first neobanks and agile fintechs has permanently shifted consumer expectations. “Consumers now benchmark their banking experiences not against other banks, but against their seamless, everyday digital interactions with global tech platforms,” says Mbhele.
- Data ubiquity and predictive analytics
Mbhele says they have graduated from basic demographic segmentation to behavioural, real-time data. “The trend now is predictive banking, anticipating a customer's financial needs before they explicitly articulate them.”
- The shift to "platform economics"
Banking is no longer a closed ecosystem.
“Through open banking and APIs, financial institutions are becoming broader platforms that embed financial services directly into the lifestyle, commerce, and business journeys of consumers,” says Mbhele.
A proactive, empathetic financial partner
At Absa, these shifts have catalysed a transition from being a transactional service provider to a proactive, empathetic financial partner. It has cemented their commitment to being a truly customer-centric organisation.
Practically, this shapes their approach in two major ways.
“From "Product-Pus"' to segment-led "Life-Stage Solutions", which instead of focusing on selling a credit card or a home loan in isolation, we are looking at the holistic life-stage of the individual or the growth trajectory of a business.
“Our approach is designed around solving a customer’s friction points and helping them write their own success stories.
Then empowerment through digital choice.
“We recognise the diverse realities across our African footprint.
“Our approach isn't about forcing digital adoption; it’s about offering seamless, robust omnichannel experiences that empower customers to engage with us on their own terms, wherever they are."
Absa posts 12% rise in annual earnings
Not everyone wants to talk to a bot
Mbhele says technology should never replace humanity; it should liberate it.
“Our brand is rooted in being human-centred empathy. We view technology, including AI and bots, as a tool to handle the high-volume, low-complexity stuff and be more efficient, expedient and intelligent.
“By automating routine queries, balance checks, and basic administrative tasks, we achieve two things: we can offer customers an intuitive and seamless service, and crucially, we can clear the deck for our human talent.”
When a customer faces a complex milestone, he says, like buying a first home, navigating a business cash-flow crisis, or structuring a corporate merger, they don’t want a bot.
“They want empathy, deep expertise, and a human voice. Technology handles efficiency; our people provide the relationship.
“The magic lies in the seamless handoff between the two.”
The role of the marketer in banking
The role of the marketer in banking is undergoing a complete revolution and reinvention.
Historically, marketing was often viewed as a "support function"—the department responsible for the "make it pretty" phase of a product launch, managing events, or running traditional brand awareness campaigns.
Today, Mbhele says, the chief marketing officer must think like a chief growth officer and a data strategist.
“For me, this shift means managing a dual mandate: protecting and growing our brand equity while driving hard, measurable commercial performance.” He says marketing now sits at the intersection of data science, behavioural psychology, and business strategy.
“We are responsible for mapping the entire end-to-end customer journey, ensuring that the brand promise we make in our advertising is perfectly matched by the experience a customer encounters in our digital channels or branches.”
The future bank
The single most critical factor for the future of banking is trust by being relevant.
“In an oversaturated digital world, the banks that win will be those that can remain hyper-relevant to their customers' daily lives while maintaining absolute trust over their data and financial well-being," he says.
For him, marketing is a vital participant in this future through three distinct pillars:
- The voice of the customer
Marketing serves as the internal champion for the consumer.
“By leveraging deep data analytics and market insights, we should ensure that the bank’s future product design and digital innovation are rooted in real human needs, not just technological capability.”
- Building a purpose-led brand
“Consumers increasingly want to do business with institutions that share their values.
“Marketing plays a lead role in articulating and proving how the bank drives sustainable, inclusive growth across our societies.”
- Contextual communication
“Marketing moves us away from generic broadcasting to highly contextual, personalised storytelling. It’s about delivering the right message, at the exact right moment, on the preferred channel,” says Mbhele.
Absa posts 12% rise in annual earnings
Shift from support to revenue growth
As such, marketing is shifting from a support function to a measurable driver of revenue growth in banking.
Mbhele says Absa is fundamentally re-engineering how marketing operates within Absa to ensure it acts as a verifiable commercial growth engine.
They are approaching this through highly structured, technology-inspired, data-led frameworks.
- The "Brand Demand Expand" framework
"We are shifted away from siloed campaigns to an integrated funnel approach.
"We balance brand (building long-term emotional equity and trust), Demand (driving immediate, performance-led customer acquisition through sophisticated digital marketing), and expand (deepening relationships with existing customers through data-driven cross-selling)."
- Robust attribution modeling
“We are investing in marketing technology (Martech) to move past superficial metrics like "likes" or impressions.
“We will track and measure clear commercial KPIs that drive effort and cost in acquisition, the value we derive from customers over time, and marketing-originated pipeline growth,” he explains.
- Cross-functional agile squads
“We are experimenting with cross-functional agile squads in one of our business units so marketing will no longer work in a vacuum.
“Our marketing teams will sit within agile, cross-functional squads alongside product owners, data scientists, and digital engineers.
“This will ensure that our marketing spend is directly linked to business revenue targets, allowing us to optimise campaigns in real-time based on commercial performance,” says Mbhele.
- A commercially effective performance marketing capability.
- A scalable Martech stack.
