Regulation does not stop good marketing but fragmented thinking does

Allan Barr, CEO at BIG Partnership, shares his insights from Prolific North’s recent roundtable on marketing in regulated sectors as part of a special focus week. He highlights how brands are balancing growth, compliance, social media, AI, and creativity to build trust, drive results, and operate with confidence under regulatory scrutiny.

If you work in a regulated sector, you live with tension.

On one side: growth targets, market share, competitive disruption and boards who quite rightly want results. On the other: FCA scrutiny, ASA oversight, healthcare regulation, reputational risk and the uncomfortable truth that mistakes travel faster than ever.

That balance between growth and scrutiny shaped a thoughtful and candid discussion at our recent Prolific North roundtable. What struck me wasn’t concern about regulation — it was how matter-of-factly marketing leaders accept the brief: deliver ambitious growth, protect reputation and get it right, every time. That’s a high bar. And it should be.

The CEOs and managing partners these marketers report into are not debating disclosure wording. They are thinking about expansion, pricing pressure and competitive threat. Marketing has to translate those ambitions into activity that is commercially effective and regulator-proof.

That’s not an easy brief. But no one in that room was looking for easy.

Under trust and transparency, the conversation moved quickly beyond slogans. Trust isn’t something you declare in a campaign. It’s something you design into experiences.

READ MORE: How regulated brands are winning trust on social media — without risking compliance

We see this regularly in our own work across financial services, legal and healthcare clients. A business can have a strong brand and good PR coverage, but if the website is confusing, the digital journey cluttered or the language evasive, confidence erodes quietly. And quietly is often the most dangerous way for trust to disappear.

There was honest discussion about the perception that those who play by the rules sometimes feel constrained, particularly when newer entrants appear more aggressive. But reputational debt compounds quickly. Trust, once damaged, is expensive — and slow — to rebuild.

The organisations navigating this best aren’t bolting compliance on at the end. They’re involving marketing, PR, digital and legal early. In our experience, when those conversations happen upfront, the work is stronger, approvals are faster and risk is lower. It’s not about playing safe. It’s about being aligned from the start.

Social media and influencers prompted equally candid debate. No serious brand in regulated sectors can afford to ignore social. The question is how to participate without undermining credibility.

Interestingly, the focus wasn’t celebrity influencers. It was micro-communities, subject matter experts and even internal voices — professionals whose authority is earned, not rented. That resonates. In regulated sectors, authority travels further than noise.

There was also frustration about the reactive nature of social and the difficulty of moving quickly enough. Cultural moments don’t wait. Regulation doesn’t speed up. The brands that handle this best aren’t reckless — they’re prepared. They’ve built clear guardrails and internal trust long before the moment arrives.

AI was perhaps the most nuanced part of the discussion. There is genuine interest in efficiency and insight. But there is also sensible caution.

READ MORE: Faster campaigns, higher stakes? How regulated brands are using AI — and still keeping creativity alive

One comment stayed with me: less experienced marketers can struggle to judge when AI is confidently wrong. In regulated environments, that’s not a minor slip — it’s exposure. In sectors where credibility is everything, “probably right” isn’t good enough.

In our own work, we’re encouraging clients to treat AI as an amplifier of thinking, not a substitute for judgement. Used well, it sharpens strategy and accelerates insight. Used carelessly, it weakens credibility just as quickly.

There is also a broader structural pressure worth acknowledging. Digital performance tools have made marketing more measurable than ever. That’s a positive shift. But when everything is measured in short cycles, it’s tempting to optimise only for what moves this quarter.

The senior voices in the room recognised that sustainable growth in regulated sectors requires more than efficient acquisition. It requires credibility. Brand strength and earned trust don’t compete with performance — they strengthen it. When reputation, content and digital activity are aligned, results improve and scrutiny becomes easier to manage.

When we discussed creativity versus compliance, the predictable clichés about legal “killing ideas” surfaced briefly. But the more interesting stories came from organisations that had invested in relationships internally. Where marketing and legal understand each other’s pressures, the work is braver. Where they operate in silos, everything feels slower than it needs to be.

After more than two decades in this industry, I’m convinced of one thing: regulation does not prevent good marketing. Fragmented thinking does.

The businesses that will outperform are not the ones looking for loopholes, nor the ones paralysed by caution. They’re the ones integrating ambition and accountability from the outset. Brand, PR, content, digital and performance working as a system. Earned credibility, reinforcing paid reach. Good processes enable speed.

Marketing in a regulated world demands grown-up leadership.

And from what I saw in that room, there’s plenty of it.