We interview Kate Reid, Global Director of Communications and Brand, Informa Tech

From repairing the reputation of Thomson Reuters’ flagship desktop to driving a purpose-led brand strategy at Informa Tech, Kate Reid, Global Director of Communications and Brand, has spent over two decades turning challenges into success stories. With her experience spanning PR agencies, fintech powerhouses and private equity-backed business, Kate has built a reputation for crafting purpose-led brands that inspire loyalty and connection. She shares with us her insights on building high-performing teams, navigating organisational change, and why no one has shot at her—yet.

1. Can you give us a brief overview of your career?

I started out in B2B PR helping tech companies build brand awareness in the financial services market. I worked with big brands such as Microsoft, Intel and Dell as well as with specialised fintech providers and start-ups. I loved the energy and camaraderie of working in an agency and gained a really thorough understanding of how to plan and execute multi-channel marcomms campaigns, how to solve problems creatively, and how to manage clients, senior stakeholders and global, multi-disciplinary teams in high-pressure situations.

After 14 years I moved in-house to one of my clients, Information Mosaic, and then onto another client, Thomson Reuters, where I headed up PR for the financial markets trading business. It was in this role that I took on the challenge of repairing the reputation of its flagship desktop, Eikon. This was a fascinating piece of work which required a sustained communications campaign over two years across media, analyst and internal audiences and is something I am really proud of.

Latterly I stepped up to lead a 40+-strong team of internal and external communications professionals for Thomson Reuters, at the moment that the Financial & Risk division was acquired by investment firm Blackstone. This gave me first-hand experience of working in a PE-backed environment and demonstrated how much can be achieved in terms of engagement from a purpose-led approach to communications strategy.

My current role has been as global director of communications and brand at Informa Tech. When I joined, Informa Tech was a nascent brand, but the leadership team had already understood the value of purpose in building brand awareness and loyalty. I have spent the past five years building a team spanning internal communications, social media, PR and web, with our work to establish brand leadership recently recognised by Global Brands Magazine.

2. With over 20 years of experience, what lessons have you learned about building purpose-led brands?

I have learnt that communications strategy centered around purpose can be incredibly powerful. If you get it right, purpose provokes an emotional response and provides a clear why. It gives colleagues a compelling reason to go above and beyond for the company they work for, to be excited and advocate for working there. It gives customers an opportunity for connection that goes further than logical decision-making.

Building brand through communications is all about building an emotional connection to the brand through actions, stories and associations. Studies have shown that an emotional connection with a brand makes sales campaigns 2x more effective after two years, increases colleague engagement by up to 20% and sees a 28% reduction in colleague turnover rates.

But you do need to get it right. Your purpose needs to be something that is front and centre to leadership discussions of the company’s mission, it needs to be woven through the conversations in the organisation and be part of what is reported on and measured. It can’t just be something nice that sits on your website.

3. Having led large global comms functions and knowing that you’re a fabulous manager, please share your advice on building and supporting a high-performing team.

I think the highest-performing teams are ones where everyone has got each other’s back. Systems that create inter-team competition only serve to fracture teams and can stir up toxic behaviour.

I like to ensure we have a high sense of psychological safety in the team. I want everyone to feel that they can challenge, suggest interesting ideas and learn from mistakes. No one comes to work wanting to do a bad job and I always coach and mentor my teams with this in mind.

Having a strong EQ is a pre-requisite to building strong teams. I often have a good sense of how people are feeling and make sure to ask the right questions to resolve any issues. Overall I want to harness the team’s positive energy and encourage their support of each other. And, of course, it helps if we have some fun along the way!

4. You have an impressive background in marketing communications. Can you share an example of a successful campaign which combined marketing and communications to drive brand impact?

The most recent example that comes to mind is the Informa Tech Trust in Marketing Index. In 2023 we pivoted more strongly to building our brand with clients and created the inaugural Trust in Marketing Index – a survey-based report designed to improve brand awareness with senior marketers by elevating our discourse to the strategic level.

We used a multi-channel approach to launch the report – via PR, social media, our new website, internal channels, customer emails and via exhibiting and speaking at Content Marketing World in Washington DC.

The campaign saw a high proportion of senior engagement – the report gained traction for us in top-tier media such as Forbes and attracted over 150 senior marketers to our conference session. Over 70% of report downloads were by senior decision makers and we subsequently saw the seniority of our followership on LinkedIn increase from 53% senior decision makers in 2023 to 59% in 2024 (49% C-suite).

And as the icing on the cake, we recently won the Global Brand Award for Leader in Integrated Tech Marketing and Data Insights from Global Brands Magazine for our work to raise brand awareness in this space.

5. In your experience as a senior comms professional, how important is it for communications to be recognised by the executive leadership team as integral to the overall business strategy?

It’s very important. Truly effective leadership teams will understand that communications is not about someone taking orders while holding the pen.

Executives who have experience of working on big M&A and change projects, on crises and on launches will know how strategic communications can add huge value if we’re in the room - how we can guide key business decisions through the lens of audience, how we can protect reputation, how we bring sense to complexity by tying together multiple threads and disparate teams into a cohesive whole.

The recent merger of Informa Tech and TechTarget is a really good example of where a high intensity environment brought our team out in its best light – helping key leaders to think about colleague impacts in their decision making and providing clarity for colleagues at a time of great change.

6. What is your most important lesson in your career?

That boundaries are important. I think early on in your career it is very easy to get subsumed by workload, expectations and ambition. Setting healthy boundaries benefits everyone – you, your manager, your team, your client – as it ensures that you can continue to produce your best work in a sustained way.

7. What’s the best professional advice you’ve been given along the way, and by whom?

I was at a week-long retreat on managing team performance and the advice was that we need to care less at work.

What? I thought to myself. Surely caring was the key to doing our best work? Surely perfection is a necessity?

Of course, the point was that creative flexibility, holding lightly rather than tightly to your best ideas and instead focusing on outcomes, can enable best results and avoid all the negatives surrounding emotion at work. I have found this advice very useful in supporting effective cross-team collaboration and creativity.

8. What or who inspires you, and why?

The first person my mind goes to when asked this question is Hilary Mantel – she had an effortless way of bringing history to life in her fictional writing and was a fiercely intelligent woman able to pull together multiple narratives and a web of characters into a relatable and compelling whole. Her ability to provide great clarity from complexity, both in history and in language, inspires me.

9. If you hadn’t ended up working in comms, what was your Plan B?

Weirdly communications was my Plan B. I went through school assuming I would be a journalist. My grandfather was very keen on me following in the footsteps of war reporter Kate Adie, although in hindsight I am wondering why he didn’t want to steer me in a safer direction. I discovered marketing and communications as a career by accident after I graduated, but I am glad I did. No one has shot at me as yet!

10. How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance?

I think, like many others, hybrid working has helped me establish a healthy work-life balance enormously. I know I work best when I can set my own rhythm for the day and saving two hours on the daily commute is precious time I can put to good use.

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