The Challenge

As marketing compliance regulations continue to evolve at pace, The Cambridge Building Society faced growing challenges in managing approvals, version control and regulatory documentation. 

Before onboarding with bethebrand in 2020 the team relied on spreadsheets, shared drives and email approvals, making it hard to track sign-offs, control versions or evidence compliance.

The pressure was greatest during audits. Internal reviews and regulatory spot-checks could arrive with little or no notice, yet preparing for them meant hours of manual collation across multiple owners and folders. Strong processes were in place, but evidencing them quickly and consistently diverted resources from live projects.

With Consumer Duty raising expectations, the team needed a scalable system that could simplify compliance oversight, reduce administrative overhead and deliver confidence under audit conditions.

“Before bethebrand, our processes were incredibly manual. We relied on Outlook and shared drives, which made tracking approvals and version control difficult. If someone was off, it was tricky to pick up a project without a long handover. We needed a better way to manage compliance.”

Our Solution

Just before the pandemic hit in early 2020, The Cambridge Building Society implemented bethebrand, replacing its fragmented manual processes with an automated workflow and digital asset management system.

This new platform enabled the team to:

• Centralise approvals and version control, ensuring every document has a clear sign-off trail.
• Automate compliance reminders, reducing reliance on calendar-based manual tracking.
• Streamline collaboration across marketing, compliance, and external agencies.
• Deliver audit readiness by recording every approval, timestamp and compliance check in a single, secure system.

“The bethebrand team took the time to understand exactly how we worked and what we needed from the platform. The implementation process was smooth, and they provided great support throughout. The training sessions gave us confidence that we were using the system to its full potential.”

The implementation process was highly collaborative, with bethebrand’s team working closely with The Cambridge to map existing workflows, identify pain points and tailor the system to meet their specific needs. Training sessions from bethebrand also ensured a smooth transition, allowing the marketing team to quickly adopt and maximise the platform’s functionality.

Always Audit Ready

Audit readiness was a critical driver in The Cambridge’s adoption of bethebrand. Previously, audit preparation was time-consuming as the team had to piece together version histories and sign-offs from multiple folders.

Now, auditors are given direct, self-service access. After a short 10–15 minute orientation, they can independently:

• Search live and archived assets across team members, timeframes and media types.

• Review full approval trails, including timestamps and sign-offs.

• Verify Consumer Duty and vulnerable customer checks within each record.

This transparency eliminates the risk of incomplete or inconsistent evidence and ensures a clear, uneditable history of every asset.

Auditors praised the system’s intuitive design and the marketing team gained new confidence knowing they could demonstrate compliance instantly,  whether for internal checks or full external reviews.

“The biggest challenge for us was evidencing compliance. We always followed the right processes, but before bethebrand it wasn’t always easy to prove it. Now, everything is clearly documented and easily accessible. When an auditor asks for evidence, we can instantly show a full sign-off history.”

Kirsty Igoe, The Cambridge Building Society

The Results

Within months of implementation, bethebrand transformed The Cambridge’s marketing compliance processes. Key benefits included:

• Improved efficiency
  • Approvals and compliance reviews became significantly faster, reducing manual admin and freeing up time for strategic work.
• Stronger audit trails
  • The marketing team can now easily evidence compliance, providing clear documentation for internal audits and regulatory reviews.
• Reduced risk of compliance issues
  • Automated workflows minimised the risk of errors, ensuring that all communications adhered to regulatory standards.
• Scalability within the team
  • The team can now manage a growing volume of marketing activity without increasing administrative time.

With Consumer Duty in effect, bethebrand also embedded compliance checks directly into workflows. A mandatory checklist ensures every campaign meets regulatory expectations before going live.

bethebrand has also transformed compliance into a process of continuous improvement. The system’s reporting tools allow team members to conduct their own audit at any point in time, turning compliance into a proactive management tool. This means potential gaps in awareness and training can be identified early and addressed as constructive development opportunities.

“The platform has allowed us to demonstrate compliance more easily. Now, when an auditor asks for evidence, we can instantly show a full sign-off history rather than piecing it together from multiple sources. It has made a huge difference. Approvals and compliance reviews are also much faster now. We’ve freed up time for more strategic work instead of chasing approvals and managing spreadsheets.”

“When the pandemic hit, we needed to quickly transition to remote working, if we’d still been managing compliance manually the team and I would have been presented with a number of additional challenges. With bethebrand, we not only kept up with the pace of change, but we also significantly reduced the risk of compliance breaches.”

The Cambridge Building Society continues to explore ways to enhance operational efficiency with bethebrand, ensuring that as the business grows, its compliance processes remain scalable and robust.