Investment firms are losing valuable launch time as lengthy marketing approval processes delay the distribution of promotional materials, according to Red Oak, a RegTech provider specialising in compliance review and content distribution.
Discussions with sales and marketing teams at the Money Management Institute (MMI) Conference in Boston highlighted the challenge of getting promotional content approved in time for new product launches. Attendees reported that reviews can take several days to more than a week, leaving firms unable to distribute marketing materials when products first become available.
In some cases, products may have been live for a week before the supporting promotional content is ready to reach partners. These delays risk weakening launch momentum and limiting sales teams’ ability to engage potential customers while a product is still new to the market.
Sales teams want approved materials to reach distribution partners on launch day, but achieving this depends on the efficiency of internal compliance processes. The approaches used by investment firms vary, with some relying on a combination of email, Outlook and SharePoint to manage reviews.
Although these tools support everyday communication, spreading materials and approval decisions across multiple channels can make it difficult to maintain a single source of truth. This can complicate the tracking of decisions and make it harder for teams to establish whether content has completed the required checks.
Other firms depend on external reviewers to assess marketing materials, with some reporting waiting times of a week or longer. When submissions remain in a queue, sales and marketing teams have limited control over when content can be released, even if the associated product is already available.
To minimise disruption, some firms distribute compliant “coming soon” materials ahead of a launch or coordinate product release dates with the availability of marketing content. However, these workarounds do not resolve the underlying delays between content creation, compliance approval and distribution.
Red Oak argues that streamlining these stages could help investment firms reduce the time between preparing promotional materials and delivering them to the intended audience.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is adding further pressure to existing review processes. At the MMI Conference, attendees discussed how AI could be incorporated into daily workflows, including whether the technology could accelerate compliance reviews and how firms should verify the accuracy of AI-generated content.
While AI enables marketing teams to produce material more quickly, the resulting increase in content volume can place additional demands on compliance departments. If review processes cannot keep pace, the efficiency gained during content creation may be lost while submissions wait for approval.
This presents a challenge for firms seeking to adopt AI without compromising their compliance obligations. Faster content production does not necessarily translate into faster distribution if approval workflows remain slow or fragmented.
Red Oak’s AI review technology is designed to address this issue by checking marketing content against a firm’s internal policies and explaining how it reaches its findings. The approach aims to accelerate reviews while providing a clearer rationale for decisions, helping firms understand why content has been flagged.
The company also uses its 4U platform to distribute approved materials to partners and advisers. By connecting content approval with distribution, Red Oak aims to bring the two stages together rather than leaving teams to manage separate processes and manual handoffs.
This integration is intended to help firms move approved materials to their intended recipients more efficiently, reducing the delays that can arise after compliance checks have been completed.
As AI adoption increases the speed and volume of marketing content production, investment firms face growing pressure to ensure their compliance infrastructure can keep pace. The ability to review, approve and distribute materials efficiently is becoming an important consideration alongside the technology used to create them.
Red Oak’s findings from the MMI Conference highlight the need to address delays across the entire content workflow. For investment firms, closing the gap between creation and distribution could help preserve product launch momentum while maintaining internal compliance controls.
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Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
