See innovative growth strategies and breakthrough marketing campaigns from a wide array of initiatives in this series of 20-minute case studies presented by financial marketers.
Explore the Forum 2025 Agenda
New for 2025!
Presented by project leaders from a dozen different banks and credit unions, these case studies will reveal the strategies, execution, and results of successful growth initiatives. No vendors, no consultants, no sales pitches — just straight talk and real-world strategies directly from financial marketers on the front lines.
Competing at the Speed of Digital: How One Regional Stepped Up Its Game
Core Themes: Digital Banking, Retail Delivery
Presented By: Mark Pedrotti, SVP/Director of Marketing at Berkshire Bank ($12 billion in assets)
See how a 200-year-old regional player competes with megabanks and nimble digital competitors by conceiving and launching a brand-new digital banking platform called Berkshire One in just four months. Hear how the Berkshire team successfully juggled multiple challenges — from orchestrating a portfolio of specialized vendors and partners, to reassuring internal teams and external stakeholders — all without smudging its existing, community-focused brand.
Geotargeting & Segmentation Strategies for Acquisition & Growth
Core Themes: Artificial Intelligence, Financial Wellness
Presented By: Danielle Herd Webb, EVP/Chief Retail Officer at Texas Bank & Trust ($4.3 billion in assets)
Most financial marketers rely on demographic data when building a marketing segmentation strategy. Not Texas Bank & Trust. They use a sophisticated geotargeting model built around account data to identify lookalikes with high-probability conversion rates. See how this multi-channel marketing strategy — coupled with referrals, improved onboarding, and front-line execution — has yielded a significant 30% increase in core customer growth across both business and retail checking portfolios.
Attracting & Retaining Next-Gen Retail Customers
Core Themes: Strategic Planning & Research
Presented By: Emily Abbas, EVP/Chief Consumer Banking and Marketing Officer at Bankers Trust ($6.7 billion in assets)
Facing an aging demographic, Bankers Trust launched a comprehensive research initiative to uncover switching triggers, pain points, tech trends and CX preferences for “next generation” consumers ages 20-40. In this case study, you’ll see how a wide range of low- and no-cost research solutions — from quantitative studies and qualitative focus groups, to mining customer data and internal employee surveys — can uncover critical insights that will impact your strategic plan as you build a road map for growth, acquisition, and retention.
Harnessing AI to Personalize CX in Digital Channels
Core Themes: Artificial Intelligence, Financial Wellness
Presented By: Dan Westhues, EVP & CMO at Central Bank ($20 billion in assets)
Learn how to effectively leverage AI to deliver hyper-personalized, proactive financial insights, advice, and guidance tailored to each customer’s financial situation and goals. Discover practical strategies for evolving mobile banking beyond transactions into a “personalized advisory” platform that replicates a high-touch branch experience. Based on over 16 million AI-powered insights generated with a stellar 4.55 user rating, you’ll see real-world examples of how to transform traditional product cross-selling into contextual, value-driven customer engagement.
Accelerating Profitable Deposit Growth Through Advanced Data Analytics
Core Themes: Deposit Growth, Data Analytics
Presented By: Rob Armour, EVP/Chief Marketing & Product Development Officer at BankPlus ($8 billion in assets)
See how BankPlus leverages advanced data-driven insights to identify specific deposit growth gaps and maximize NIM. Drawing off a rich set with over 12 billion data points from hundreds of financial institutions, you’ll see how BankPlus revealed growth gaps, uncovered opportunities and identified propensity factors at the household level. You’ll see showcase creative examples from this multi-channel integrated marketing strategy, and results of the campaign — including net change in household deposit balances and cost per account.
Tellerless Branches: Improving CX Through Digital Transformation
Core Themes: CX, Retail Delivery
Presented By: David Eldred, Chief Experience Officer at Solarity Credit Union ($823 million in assets)
Explore how Solarity leveraged data analytics to power a new segmentation strategy as they radically redesigned their service delivery model. Learn how Solarity not only anticipated but strategically managed consumer behaviors and preferences as they pursued the transformative journey to a completely tellerless experience. This case study will provide invaluable insights critical for banking executives looking to future-proof their institution in the Digital Age as they balance technological advancements with personalized service.
Generative AI Roadmap to Amplify Marketing Efficiency
Core Themes: Artificial Intelligence, Operations, Marketing
Presented By: Jennifer Sobotta, Marketing Director at Forward Bank ($1 billion in assets)
See how Forward Bank utilizes AI to achieve operational efficiencies, enhance productivity, and uncover new opportunities. You’ll see how the bank leverages AI for sentiment and motivational analysis to define target personas that optimize conversions as you explore a range of AI tools — ChatGPT, Co-Pilot, ElevenLabs, Perplexity, NotebookLM — along with a “prompt library” accelerates adoption. But Forward Bank’s adoption of AI goes well beyond marketing, touching every department — from simplifying complex, data-intensive, repetitive tasks, to AI-generated staff onboarding and training videos.
Turbocharging the Business Lending Pipeline
Core Themes: Loan Growth, Marketing Strategy
Presented By: John Huntinghouse, VP/Marketing at TAB Bank ($1.6 billion in assets)
TAB Bank’s business lending portfolio was hitting a wall as ROI remained flat. In this case study, you’ll see how TAB Bank built detailed personas utilizing advanced data science tools to create a multi-phase digital marketing campaign. By retargeting business prospects with ads at multiple stages in the sales funnel, TAB Bank achieved a 7.5x overall ROI with a 74% YoY increase in their sales pipeline while decreasing their cost per lead by 53%.
