Financial Services

Transforming Digital Engagement for a Global Investment Bank’s Asset Management Marketing Platform

Download
Engagement Background

Apexon partnered with the Asset Management division of one of the world’s leading investment banks to transform its digital marketing platform, enabling better engagement with advisors, institutional, and retail investors. The engagement focused on modernizing the legacy website to align with an imminent corporate rebranding, improve user experience, and ensure scalability for global marketing campaigns. Apexon’s scope included rebuilding the platform using Headless Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) on AWS Cloud, integrating the firm’s User Interface Toolkit (UITK), and delivering a compliance-friendly, high-performance digital experience tailored to financial audiences.

The collaboration involved close coordination with the client’s internal teams to ensure seamless implementation of the new brand identity, component reusability, and governance for long-term maintainability. By leveraging cloud-native architecture and custom development, we addressed critical challenges, delivered measurable business outcomes, and positioned the platform as a leader in the asset management industry.

About the Client

The client, a global leader in financial services, operates one of the world’s most respected Asset Management divisions. The division serves high-net-worth individuals, institutional investors, and financial advisors, offering innovative investment solutions. With a focus on delivering superior client experiences, the division sought to modernize its digital presence to reflect its forward-thinking brand and meet the evolving demands of its global audience.

The Challenge

Modernizing a Legacy Platform for Global Engagement

The client’s asset management division faced significant challenges with its legacy marketing website, built on a traditional, on-premise AEM architecture. The platform struggled to meet the demands of modern digital engagement in the financial sector, with key obstacles including:

Outdated User Experience

The legacy site suffered from poor performance and an outdated interface, impacting user engagement and brand perception.

Limited Scalability

The platform lacked the flexibility to support dynamic content updates or global marketing campaigns, hindering marketing agility.

Corporate Rebranding

An imminent rebrand required a complete overhaul of the site’s visual identity, typography, and tone to align with the client’s new brand guidelines.

Regulatory Compliance

The platform needed to maintain strict compliance with financial regulations while delivering a modern, user-friendly experience.

Component Consistency

Ensuring consistency with the firm’s enterprise User Interface Toolkit (UITK) while addressing unique marketing needs was critical.

These challenges underscored the need for a scalable, compliant, and future-ready digital solution to enhance the client’s market position and client engagement.

The Solution

Building a Scalable, Cloud-Native Digital Platform

Apexon re-architected the legacy headful AEM monolith into a decoupled, headless event-driven architecture on AWS. By leveraging Amazon ECS on AWS Fargate, we eliminated the operational overhead of managing servers while ensuring the platform can scale the compute independently based on global traffic demand. We implemented a centralized Amazon S3 shared-cache and an automated invalidation pipeline using Amazon SNS, SQS, and AWS Lambda, ensuring that market-sensitive updates from the headless CMS reach global advisors in near real-time.

Key Solution Components:

Headless AEM on Cloud
  • Designed and built a new cloud-native, headless AEM architecture from the ground up, enabling seamless scalability, faster content delivery, and improved performance.
  • Leveraged AEM’s cloud capabilities to support dynamic content updates and global marketing campaigns.

UITK Integration
  • Reused existing components from the client’s enterprise User Interface Toolkit (UITK) to ensure consistency across the firm’s digital estate.
  • Developed bespoke components tailored to the marketing site’s unique requirements, balancing standardization with customization.

Resolving Issues and Improving Code Quality
Brand Transformation
  • Designed and implemented a modern frontend aligned with the client’s new corporate brand, incorporating updated typography, color schemes, and design language.
  • Ensured the new visual identity conveyed clarity, trust, and professionalism to high-net-worth and institutional investors.

Resolving Issues and Improving Code Quality
Compliance and Accessibility
  • Built a platform optimized for financial audiences, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements while maintaining accessibility and usability.
  • Implemented robust governance to streamline content management and ensure long-term maintainability.

Resolving Issues and Improving Code Quality
Agile Delivery
  • Collaborated closely with the client’s internal teams to meet tight timelines, delivering iterative updates and rigorous testing to ensure a flawless launch.

Key Results

Delivering Measurable Business Impact

Apexon contributed to the successful transformation of the client’s Asset Management marketing platform — delivering meaningful business outcomes and helping position the division as a leader in digital engagement within the financial services industry.

Achieved 99% Data Transmission Accuracy

Enhanced Digital Performance
  • Increased Content Agility: The Headless AEM platform enabled marketing teams to launch updates faster, reducing time-to-market for campaigns.
  • Improved User Experience: The modernized interface and optimized performance increased user engagement metrics, including time-on-site and conversion rates.

Industry Recognition

Industry Recognition
  • Leap in Rankings: The new website achieved a ranking of 10th in the Living Rating of Asset Managers, a 30-place improvement from the previous year’s 40th position, reflecting gains in UX, design, and digital strategy.
  • Brand Perception: The refreshed visual identity and professional design language strengthened the client’s reputation among high-net-worth and institutional investors.

Enhanced Security and Stability

Operational Efficiency
  • Component Reusability: Integration of UITK components ensured consistency across the firm’s digital estate, reducing development time for future projects.
  • Scalable Architecture: The cloud-native platform supported seamless scalability, accommodating increased traffic and global campaign demands without performance degradation.

Compliance and Maintainability

Compliance and Maintainability
  • Regulatory Adherence: The platform met stringent financial regulations, ensuring compliance while delivering a user-friendly experience.
  • Streamlined Governance: Robust content governance reduced maintenance overhead, enabling marketing teams to focus on strategy and innovation.

By delivering a scalable, compliant, and high-performing digital platform, Apexon empowered the client’s Asset Management division to achieve its digital transformation goals and strengthen its market position.

CONCLUSION

Apexon’s contribution to the Asset Management division of a global investment bank helped to transform its digital marketing platform into a modern, scalable, and engaging solution. By leveraging Headless AEM on Cloud, integrating the firm’s UITK, and aligning with the new corporate brand, we delivered a platform that met internal objectives and earned external recognition. The 30-place leap in the Living Rating of Asset Managers underscores the success of this engagement, highlighting our ability to deliver measurable business outcomes through innovative technology solutions.