Max Rothery, VP Community & B2B Marketing at Finimize, explains why marketers need to overcome their obsession with performance marketing and bring back creativity.
In recent years, the financial services industry has seen marketing budgets squeezed. According to Gartner’s 2023 CMO Spend & Strategy Survey, marketing strategies have increasingly been driven by data and a relentless focus on measurable metrics. One major downside to our obsession with direct attribution is that creativity and brand building have taken a back seat.
This isn’t just a misstep; it’s a missed opportunity to stand out and forge emotional connections with audiences.
Marketers have leaned into performance marketing, chasing immediate ROI while sacrificing long-term brand building. The focus on short-term metrics has led to a flood of uninspired, homogenous content. The market has become a sea of sameness, where financial services brands are indistinguishable from one another. But here’s the truth: financial services, of all industries, should be emotional.
Money is a deeply emotive thing because it touches many core aspects of human life, from survival and security, to status, identity and freedom. Also, according to Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, we make financial decisions based 90% on emotion and only 10% on logic. So if brands can sell trainers with compelling narratives, they can sell money.
Why creativity matters now
Financial decisions aren’t made overnight. Whether someone is entrusting their money to a wealth management firm or a fintech service, these are high-stakes, emotionally charged decisions that sometimes take years to materialize. Marketing success here means being top of mind when that decision is made, not just catching a potential customer at the right moment for immediate conversion.
That’s why creativity matters. It takes creativity to prevent your brand from blending into the sea of sameness consumers perceive in financial services. The ability to build emotional connections with current and future customers is exactly how your brand can stay top of mind when it comes to that crucial decision-making moment.
Over the past six months, on my podcast focused on CMOs in finance, I’ve spoken with some of the world’s leading marketers and creatives to gain a deeper understanding of what’s holding the industry back.
Financial services brands are often shackled by this notion of “trust.” In fact, it’s often the catalyst for the industry’s risk aversion, used as an excuse to be dull.
Nils Leonard of Uncommon Creative Studio, talked about how financial brands often make the mistake of assuming that to build trust, a brand cannot show emotion. In his words, “You would never trust a person who didn’t have any emotions, so why would you trust a brand?”. This fear of appearing too bold, too emotional, or too different has stifled creativity in finance. But here’s the catch: there’s a cost to being dull.
This risk-averse culture is diluting the power of branding in the sector. As Johan Jervoe, former CMO of UBS, put it, “You really need stopping power in your marketing—whether it’s a white paper, a social post, or a TV spot”. It’s about creating content that not only informs but also entertains and captivates. And we’re missing that today. Consumers are tired of being sold to in the same monotonous way. They want something they can feel.
The misguided obsession with performance marketing
Let’s address the elephant in the room: the overreliance on performance marketing. Data has led us down a path where immediate returns are prioritised over long-term brand building. This creates diminishing returns over time. Yes, performance marketing can boost conversions, but it’s the brand that fosters loyalty and keeps you in the customer’s mind.
It’s important to note that CMOs today are under increasing pressure to justify every dollar spent. And while metrics like click-through rates and conversions are easy to measure, they don’t always tell the full story.
This is no small task. It requires CMO’s to be bold and be able to communicate the value of investing in brand to their C-suite. Whilst highlighting the risk of only investing in directly attributable marketing, like facebook ads.
But emotional impact is the lifeblood of branding. Financial decisions are about freedom, independence, and the ability to live the life one dreams of. Marketing needs to reflect that.
It’s time for CMOs to be bold
What makes a great CMO? It’s the ability to balance the rational with the emotional. To utilise both data and storytelling. The most successful CMOs are those who push their teams to think beyond the immediate ROI and focus on creating lasting value. They aren’t afraid to be bold and take risks.
A great CMO understands the client’s emotional needs and desires and translates that into compelling marketing. A CMO who understands their audience deeply and can translate that into a campaign with stopping power is the one who will make a lasting impact.
Being a great CMO in financial services today is not just about crafting an ad with high production values. It’s about showing up in the communities that people care about. It’s about investing in content that not only educates but empowers. It’s also about building a relationship today that may not pay-off for months and often years.
This is not the time to play it safe. The brands that will thrive in the future are those that lean into the discomfort of being bold and creative. The fear should not be in taking risks but in becoming irrelevant.
Look at Monzo’s recent TV campaign: all emotion, no product. They’re planting themselves in your mind, tied directly to how money makes you feel. So next time you’re frustrated with another bank? You’ll think of Monzo.
Or take TD Bank’s 2016 campaign—where CMO Theresa McLaughlin turned the ATM into an “Automated Thanking Machine.” With over 25 million YouTube views, it still runs today.
It’s not just consumer brands making waves. Eleven years ago, State Street’s former CMO Hannah Grove teamed up with TED, putting employees on stage for talks that went viral. One speaker even came out on stage, embracing authenticity in a powerful message about self-acceptance.
At the high-end of the investing market, UBS in 2016 is a perfect case study in wealth management. Former CMO Johan Jervøe’s campaign with Annie Lebowitz was an incredibly powerful way to bring that brand to life through art, celebrity and culture.
These are just a handful of examples where financial brands have leaned into emotion and creativity for the long-term benefit of the brand.
Bringing back brand
So how do we bring back creativity in financial marketing? It starts with a mindset shift. Financial services brands must see themselves as more than just providers of a service. They must connect emotionally with their audiences and tell stories that resonate. Performance marketing will only take you so far. To truly stand out, you need to build a brand that people remember. One that cuts through the noise.
However, you can be bold and still execute poorly. Great creativity is about more than just taking risks—it’s about taking calculated risks and executing them flawlessly. At the end of the day, finance is one of the most emotional industries out there. Money is tied to our deepest desires and anxieties. Brands that can be brave and tap into this will win in a category that has historically been emotionless.
It’s time to be bold and bring back brand. Let’s stop obsessing over metrics and start creating work that matters. Work that moves people, not just moves the needle.
