Tara Giuliano, Chief Marketing Officer, Nuveen
Institutional InvestorSeptember 30, 2026
Institutional Investor Chief Marketer Institute is recognizing three Distinction Award winners for their stewardship, communication, and transformation. Tara Giuliano, Chief Marketing Officer at Nuveen sat down to discuss her career with Institutional Investor, including II’s David Braham, Executive Director, Senior Executive Director, Head of Thought Leadership & Market Intelligence, and Julie Segal, Editor of Institutional Investor Magazine.
Tara has harnessed the spirit of partnership when distilling Nuveen’s 125-year history into a culture rooted in people. Under her leadership, Nuveen has sharpened its brand positioning around the tagline, “Invest like the future is watching,” centering client communication on lessons from recent market cycles, differentiated access to investment opportunities, and the firm’s long-term vision and focus on the future.
With II, she shared her process to reintroduce Nuveen to the market.
What drove Nuveen to invest in brand in a new way?
At Nuveen, we faced a paradox: We had grown our business, enhancing our capabilities and talent, but many people still didn’t know who we were,. We set out on a research journey to understand the impact of brand growth, the competitive landscape, and our clients’ view on our brand. In fact, we interviewed 800 clients to understand what truly differentiated Nuveen.
The research led us to our new brand platform, “Invest like the future’s watching,” which is underpinned by three key pillars: reliability (brought through 125 years of navigating economic cycles), access (both to our people and array of capabilities across public and private markets), and foresight. In an industry that is very competitive but often a sea of sameness as it relates to campaigns, we took the philosophy that finance is profoundly human. This philosophy is at the heart of the new visual identity of the brand.
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How did you know “Invest like the future’s watching” would resonate with clients and cut through the noise?
We tested the concept with clients in four key global markets – U.S., UK, Japan, and Germany- in local languages. Trust is the biggest brand driver in asset management, so we needed to ensure our new campaign was authentic, while also cutting through the noise.
We found that the creative made people want to have a conversation with us; it made them sit up and want to know more. It evokes a bit of emotion and subtle responsibility, but at its core, the message is about long-term investing and partnership.
How does a global firm communicate with one single message?
Rather than building this solely in the U.S. and rolling it out internationally, we approached the campaign globally right from the start. We invited people from our offices around the globe to sit at the table. As we developed the campaign, we worked closely on everything from the nuance of translations to the appropriateness of colors and imagery.
How did you think about your paid media strategy for the campaign?
We found that historically we were spreading our advertising budget too broadly across many different countries, which was not nearly as effective as if we could concentrate our investment and maximize its impact – and that data led us to fewer, but better, partnerships.
We also wanted to ensure we made a splash at the time of launch. This led us to some print and digital takeover opportunities as well as TV. We are featured both on CNBC and Bloomberg because it’s something that our audiences have live streaming in their offices all day.
The in-person events are still one of the most valuable things we’re doing to bring our brand to life, and we do more than 600 events annually.
How do you decide which sponsorships are the right fit for your audience and global growth strategy?
Sponsorship is an important piece of our strategy. We have a 20-year history of sponsoring Major League Baseball, in particular because of how it indexes with our U.S. audiences (Unlike most sports, baseball offers a long season and sustained engagement) – and when we looked at how to give our firm a more global presence, we evaluated a range of sports partnerships and kept coming back to Formula 1. Formula 1 attracts a massive audience, with a truly international reach. The sport runs throughout most of the year and provides access to many of our key markets. We launched a partnership with the Williams F1 team earlier this year.
We are trying to think differently as it relates to partnerships to build our brand. We sponsored London’s Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition because it aligned with our brand and provided visibility opportunities in the UK. We are also the exclusive sponsor of the Financial Times’s podcast “The Story of Money.”
This piece has been edited for length and clarity.
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