Marketing Talk: Tearsheet interviews top fintech marketers

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller.

We're experimenting with an interesting new series on the podcast called Marketing Talk. We're talking to top finance and fintech marketers sitting on the front lines of their business, hustling to bring in the next cohort of customers. As much as TechCrunch makes this stuff look easy, it isn't and we want to hear from marketers — in their own words — what's working for them, how they're structuring their teams, and what channels are delivering.

I'm excited for this series and first up is Jonathan Metrick, head of marketing at PolicyGenius. If you ride the New York City subway like I do, for sure you've noticed last year when the usual poetry public service ads started promoting insurance and PolicyGenius. It did tick off a lot of New Yorkers but it won awards and contributed to a 100% lift in the business.

Jonathan talks about that campaign and also why he prefers to run campaings in-house and not via an agency. He describes his commitment to content marketing and the impact its had on the insurance marketplace's business. I hope you enjoy the show.

If you like this Marketing Talk series, let us know. You can hit me up on twitter at @newrulesinvest or via email at zack at tearsheet.co. Let me know what you think and if you'd like to nominate a marketer or growth guy or gal for the show.

You can access this episode of the Tearsheet Podcast and over 200 previous episodes in our archives: www.tearsheet.co

Without further ado, here's Policygenius' Jonathan Metrick.

Marketing Talk: Policygenius' Jonathan Metrick

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller.

We're experimenting with an interesting new series on the podcast called Marketing Talk. We're talking to top finance and fintech marketers sitting on the front lines of their business, hustling to bring in the next cohort of customers. As much as TechCrunch makes this stuff look easy, it isn't and we want to hear from marketers — in their own words — what's working for them, how they're structuring their teams, and what channels are delivering.

Today's marketer on the hot seat is Bill Walsh, Lending Club's general manager and head of marketing for personal loans. Bill brings an engineer's approach to marketing. The MIT grad began his tenure at Lending Club in an operations role, where rigorous problem solving was used to solve some of the biggest problems in the business. Now that he's leading marketing on the consumer side, he brings a similar approach.

We talk about how Lending Club defines marketing and approaches channels. We pay particular attention to a recent TV campaign you might have seen over the summer of 2018. Measuring and responding to the signal is core to Lending Club's approach and in the course of this 4 week broadcast campaign, Bill's team iterated twice. This puts ad agencies on notice  -- this is the new data driven fintech marketing world.

If you like this Marketing Talk series, let us know. You can hit me up on twitter at @newrulesinvest or via email at zack at tearsheet.co. Let me know what you think and if you'd like to nominate a marketer or growth guy or gal for the show.

Without further ado, here's Bill Walsh.

LendingClub's Bill Walsh: 'At its core, marketing is a data problem'

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller.

We're experimenting with an interesting new series on the podcast called Marketing Talk. We're talking to top finance and fintech marketers sitting on the front lines of their business, hustling to bring in the next cohort of customers. As much as TechCrunch makes this stuff look easy, it isn't and we want to hear from marketers — in their own words — what's working for them, how they're structuring their teams, and what channels are delivering.

Off a recent IPO in London, Funding Circle is doubling down on its growth strategies. Partnerships with financial institutions and other strategics play a big role in how the small business lender acquires new customers.

U.S. managing director Bernardo Martinez joins us on the podcast to talk about how partnerships fit into the firm's momentum and ambitions for the U.S. market. We use the firm's relationship with INTRUST Bank as a model for how financial institutions assist with Funding Circle's customer acquisition. We also look at the firm's partnership with Intuit and how it helps Funding Circle reach more small businesses in the United States.

Bernardo Martinez is my guest on the podcast today.

Funding Circle's Bernardo Martinez on the role banking partnerships play in customer acquisition

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller.

We're experimenting with an interesting new series on the podcast called Marketing Talk. We're talking to top finance and fintech marketers sitting on the front lines of their business, hustling to bring in the next cohort of customers. As much as TechCrunch makes this stuff look easy, it isn't and we want to hear from marketers — in their own words — what's working for them, how they're structuring their teams, and what channels are delivering.

On the startup side of things, branding is tricky. It's hard to put forward a strong brand when a company is still growing up, searching for its business model and target customer, and finding its voice. But there comes a time when a business matures and it can be intentional about who and what it is. 

Accounting software firm, Wave has grown up a lot since it launched in 2010. The company now has over 3.5 million customers.  It's always helped small businesses get control over their finances through simplifying things. But through the rebrand, the company wanted to convey the feeling that there's power in this process — Wave's new branding focuses on empowering small businesses and entrepreneurs. It's a nuanced change but makes a huge difference.

Director of marketing creative at Wave, Grace Marquez was the architect of Wave's re-launch and she takes us behind the scenes to see how the rebranding process was organized, how various teams across the company worked together on the project, and how the financial brand found its new voice and image.

Grace Marquez is my guest today on the podcast.

Wave's Grace Marquez: Behind the scenes of the re-brand

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller.

We're experimenting with an interesting new series on the podcast called Marketing Talk. We're talking to top finance and fintech marketers sitting on the front lines of their business, hustling to bring in the next cohort of customers. As much as TechCrunch makes this stuff look easy, it isn't and we want to hear from marketers — in their own words — what's working for them, how they're structuring their teams, and what channels are delivering.

I don't know about you but I consume a hefty amount of podcast content. I spend less time streaming music, less time watching videos and more time listening to recorded audio. It's estimated that 26 percent of all Americans over the age of 12 listen to podcasts. And we're not just drive-by listeners, either. We're listening to at least seven podcast episodes every week. This is a huge opportunity for financial marketers who made a living using television and radio to brand their products.

MasterCard has been an early rider on the podcast train. Last year, the payments firm launched Fortune Favors the Bold (https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/consumers/fortune-favors-the-bold.html), a podcast about the unique and changing role money plays in our lives, and about what happens when we take risks, take control and redefine our relationship with it. The podcast was well-received, both critically and among Mastercard's target audience. The podcast's audience grew by 55 percent between episode one and five, and the company is about to drop season two any day now.

Marcy Cohen, svp of digital content creation at Mastercard, joins me to discuss the genesis of Mastercard's podcast activities. She shares what's worked with the show and the firm's strategy to use the podcasting medium to market to the firm's own employees, in addition to acquiring new customers and branding in the market. She also explains how the firm used an agency to strategize and produce its great content.

Marcy Cohen is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Mastercard's Marcy Cohen on launching and growing a podcast

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller.

We're digging deeper here, talking to some of the top finance and fintech marketers about the challenges and opportunities in growing their businesses. It's not often that a marketer gets a chance to create a new brand, but that's exactly what happened to Laurel Road's CMO, Alyssa Schaefer. Fresh out of Amex, she was tasked in helping a community bank build a national online lending business and brand.

Laurel Road is an interesting hybrid model. Its roots are in community banking in Connecticut but it's evolved into providing student loan refinancing, mortgages, and personal loans to customers on a national basis. She joins us to discuss how she approached the new brand creation process and what channels she's using to help grow Laurel Road.

Before we jump into the interview — If you get value out of this podcast, we'd appreciate a review wherever you get your podcasts. We do this for you and reviews are the fuel that make this podcast go and help others to discover it. 

You can get this episode and 200 others in our archives at www.tearsheet.co

Here's my interview with Alyssa.

Laurel Road's Alyssa Schaefer on launching a new online lending brand with deep banking roots

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller.

We're experimenting with an interesting new series on the podcast called Marketing Talk. We're talking to top finance and fintech marketers sitting on the front lines of their business, hustling to bring in the next cohort of customers. As much as TechCrunch makes this stuff look easy, it isn't and we want to hear from marketers — in their own words — what's working for them, how they're structuring their teams, and what channels are delivering.

With the official start of the holiday season, financial institutions are stepping up their marketing. Ally Bank recently surprised its 5.5 million customers during Banksgiving, a new holiday introduced by the digital bank to pay back its customers with gratitude and appreciation for their loyalty. Banksgiving relied on the bank’s most human element, the call center, to give back to its customers and their communities by granting their wishes both big and small. The company produced an emotional video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5VUCAxfzME&feature=youtu.be) that shows both the surprise and joy of Ally employees and customers.

Ally CMO Andrea Brimmer joins us to discuss Banksgiving — where the idea came from and how it was executed -- and the challenge of growing a brand in a fiercely competitive space.

Inside Ally Bank's launch of Banksgiving

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller.

We're digging deeper here, talking to some of the top finance and fintech marketers about the challenges and opportunities in growing their businesses. 

Marcus, the online consumer bank by Goldman Sachs, has been running a man-on-the-street ad campaign about recent research the company conducted. According to the survey, 60 percent of Americans with savings accounts don’t know the interest rate on their savings account, and *more than half* of Americans with savings accounts (56 percent) opened theirs without exploring other options.  

Dustin Cohn, head of brand and marketing communications at Marcus, joins me on the podcast to talk about the survey and why Marcus chose interest rates as a differentiator. We unpack the recent advertising campaign and explore the recent acquisition and integration of personal finance app, Clarity Money. 

Dustin Cohn is my guest on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Before we jump into the interview — If you get value out of this podcast, we'd appreciate a review wherever you get your podcasts. We do this for you and reviews are the fuel that make this podcast go and help others to discover it. 

You can get this episode and 200 others in our archives at www.tearsheet.co

Here's my interview with Dustin.

How Marcus by Goldman Sachs took to the streets of New York to market its high yield savings account

It may seem odd that one of the leading fintech venture firms, Anthemis, launched an online zine that explores the big issues impacting financial services to raise attention and create action.

But when you speak to the firm's chief marketing officer, Leslie Campisi, the non-finance finance publication — called Hacking Finance -- makes total sense. We talk about why she launched Hacking Finance and what attitudes she set out to change.

Leslie wears a few hats at Anthemis and we explore those, as well. Like, what are the biggest challenges her firm's fintech portfolio companies face in growing and how she coaches them? Also, how does she approach branding Anthemis itself, especially in front of raising a new fund.

If you are interested in how the sausage is made at one of the best fintech investment firms out there and how a seasoned pro approaches branding and increasing awareness around new finance brands, you're not going to want to miss my discussion with Leslie.

Leslie Campisi is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Why fintech VC Anthemis launched an online zine (kind of)about finance with CMO, Leslie Campisi

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller.

It's marketing time again — for these types of episodes, we invite in a marketing professional who's knee-deep in growing his or her business, bringing in the next cohort of customers and building a big company. 

Today's guest is Varo Money's Carl Gish. Carl hails from a consumer goods background and is charged with bringing in new customers, as well as retaining existing clients of the challenger bank. As Varo recently closed a big round of funding and was awarded a rare U.S. banking license, I talk to Carl about his strategy for growing the bank and how having a new banking license will help to differentiate Varo's brand.

Carl Gish is my guest today on the podcast.

Varo Money's Carl Gish on how to market a new challenger bank

It's marketing time again — for these types of episodes, we invite in a marketing professional who's knee-deep in growing his or her business, bringing in the next cohort of customers and building a big company. 

The money transfer industry is undergoing massive transformation. Moving money around the world looks more digital today than the retail business it was decades ago. So, how do you grow the oldest brand in the space?

Michael Hafer, Western Union's svp of marketing and field execution, joins me on the podcast to talk about how the evolution of  money transfer impacts his marketing, how his team is structured, and all the campaign planning that goes into Western Union's mother's day promotions and messaging.

Mike Hafer is my guest today on the podcast.

Western Union's Michael Hafer on growing a massive incumbent brand in a changing market

We're continuing to experiment with an interesting new series on the podcast called Marketing Talk. We're talking to top finance and fintech marketers sitting on the front lines of their business, hustling to bring in the next cohort of customers. We want to hear from marketers — in their own words — what's working for them, what campaigns they're running, and what channels are delivering.

Today's marketer on the hot seat is Dana Marineau, Credit Karma's vice president of brand, creative and communications. People love Credit Karma for its free credit scores, but the company provides so many other free tools. Dana's team is tasked with elevating the brand beyond just free credit scores, as a place to get help with financial decisions and achieve financial progress. She brings a 15 year experience at EA, working on many of the top sports games in the business.

We discuss the metrics Dana and her team use to judge their success and how her team is structured. Dana shares a lot about Credit Karma's Here's to Progress campaign: goals, who conceived of the idea, how it was produced and how it performed.

Here's my conversation with Credit Karma's Dana Marineau.

Credit Karma's Dana Marineau: 'We want users to think of us as more than just free credit scores'

Financial marketing is an art as much as it is a science. And like with every form of art, it requires its own flavor of society to support its practitioners with leveling up and recognizing talent. The Financial Communications Society has been doing just that since 1967. It's a not for profit trade association for financial marketers. 

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the FCS Portfolio Awards which recognize the work of top financial marketers across twenty different categories. FCS CEO Kevin Windorf joins me on the program to discuss the evolution of advertising, marketing, and communications and to give us a preview of the upcoming awards. To register and enter, head on over to the society's dedicated site: https://fcsportfolioawards.secure-platform.com/a/

Kevin Windorf is my guest today on the podcast.

The evolution of marketing as seen through the Financial Communications Society Portfolio Awards

We're experimenting with an interesting new series on the podcast called Marketing Talk. We're talking to top finance and fintech marketers sitting on the front lines of their business, hustling to bring in the next cohort of customers. We want to hear from marketers — in their own words — what's working for them, how they're structuring their teams, and what channels are delivering.

Today in the hot seat is Melissa Lowry, vp of marketing and branding at Early Warning. You may not know the brand Early Warning, but it's the company behind Zelle, the p2p payments app offered by many of the largest U.S. banks. Melissa was behind the creation of the new Zelle brand and orchestrated the launch campaign last year. This year, Melissa and her team have moved beyond just creating awareness — the banks using Zelle are helping with the heavy lifting there. Zelle's new campaign, Everyday Better, helps capture just how Zelle can be used beyond splitting a bar tab.

Melissa and I discuss her marketing mandate and the challenges of creating a new B2B2C band from scratch and the role partner banks play in the firm's marketing messaging. Lastly, we drill down into this new marketing campaign to see how it was conceived and executed.

Melissa Lowry is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

Zelle's Melissa Lowry: 'Beyond awareness, we're trying to show how we make everyday better'

Today's episode of Marketing Talk is all about data driven marketing.

Marketing is evolving within financial service, combining both art and science, both branding and acquisition. Data-driven marketing is a topic we hear a lot aout on this show. Joining us today is Mykolas Rambus, the general manager of data-driven marketing at Equifax. His organization helps financial services clients maintain and grow deeper relationships with their customers. 

Myk and I talk about the challenges that still persist in data wrangling and how marketers and marketing teams have taken a giant leap when it comes to establishing data integrity. He shares insights from across the industry into how data driven marketing is helping to drive lifetime customer value. We also get into voice marketing and the role data plays there in helping evolve that new technology.

Mykolas Rambus is my guest today on the podcast.

Equifax's Mykolas Rambus: 'There's still a lot of problems in data wrangling'

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller.

Today we dig into affiliate marketing. It's a model that was first made popular by Amazon. A company looking to increase its sales partners with content sites to promote products. If those content sites are successful driving traffic or sales or leads, they get paid. Nowadays, every major credit card player has an affiliate program. 

Stephanie Harris is the founder and owner of PartnerCentric, a performance marketing agency. She and her firm work with major card issuers and banks to help them maximize the results from their performance marketing. We talk about why affiliate programs make sense in financial services and Stephanie describes the challenges in running a good affiliate program. Lastly, she gives us some tricks of the trade for financial firms looking to get into affiliate market.

PartnerCentric's Stephanie Harris on how affiliate marketing is evolving in financial services

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller.

Steering the marketing and strategy for one of the largest brands in financial technology is no small feat. Today's guest is Ellyn Raftery, chief marketing and strategy officer for FIS. She's spent a big part of her career running professional services marketing and we talk about the special attention and skillsets financial services marketing requires.

We also talk about her vision for a 50 year old brand and what attributes and messaging she uses. Lastly, FIS has been doing a lot of work around UI/UX, and in our discussion of that, we tackle the evolution of financial services marketing as a whole.

Ellyn Raftery is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

FIS' Ellyn Raftery on the evolution of financial services marketing

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller.

Rina Papler has been working in brand strategy for over 20 years. That means she’s worked with many of today’s top financial brands with market positioning, messaging, and their product portfolios. As a partner at MBLM, she was instrumental in creating her firm’s research on brand intimacy — the emotional science that measures the bonds we form with the brands we use and love. She’s applied this research to the financial industry in an effort to rank the companies and characteristics that make for today’s strongest brands.

Rina joins us on the podcast to discuss what makes up brand intimacy and how emotional people feel around financial services. We look at her rankings and the attributes of today’s strongest financial brands. Lastly, she provides advice to companies to make themselves into more intimate brands.

Rina Papler is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast.

I’d like to thank our sponsor MX for supporting Tearsheet’s work. MX is the leading data platform for banks, credit unions and fintechs, enabling its clients and partners to easily collect, enhance, analyze, present and act on financial data.

MBLM's Rina Plapler on how top financial services brands create emotional bonds with their customers

Tearsheet is news, opinion, and analysis on the business of finance.

Candid conversations with senior executives, fintech entrepreneurs, investors, industry experts -- all weigh in on the trends impacting the industry and the disruptive impact technology is having on the business.

Where social media, technology and finance intersect.