Outmanoeuvring Goliath: The fintech marketer's 2025 playbook
- Ani Petrova
- 4 minutes ago
- 4 min read
On 2 July 2025, over 100 of the UK’s brightest fintech marketing minds gathered at The Trampery in London for the third edition of FMH SummerCon, and what followed was less like a conventional conference and more like a community reset.
Rather than chasing trends, this year’s SummerCon was about strategic rethinking, collective candour, and a shared willingness to question the playbook. From reimagining attribution models and AI’s real role, to admitting the messy truths of leadership, every session echoed a core theme: outmanoeuvre, don’t outmuscle.
And that theme began with a bowler hat.
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Fintech's faster boat mindset for success
Kicking off the day, Conrad Ford (Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Allica Bank) delivered a keynote that reframed how fintechs should think about competing in 2025.
“Don’t build a smaller supertanker. Build a faster boat.”
Ford’s call to arms wasn’t just poetic; it was a commercial imperative. As incumbents grow increasingly entrenched, nimbleness, not noise, will define the winners. His advice was grounded in pragmatism:
Align OKRs with culture, not just delivery.
Adopt a "bold bets, small tests" mindset.
Prioritise the overlooked SME segment — “too big for retail, too small for bespoke.”
And perhaps most memorably: "No preening." Ego, in fintech teams, is the enemy of momentum.
It was a keynote that didn’t just land, but lingered.
AI: Tool, not strategy
If 2023 was about AI hype, 2025 is about AI maturity and our first panel of the day, featuring leaders from SAP Fioneer, Adyen and Privalgo, cut through the noise with real operational clarity.
The verdict was clear: The marketers who thrive with AI will be those who use it wisely, not those who use it the most.
AI’s biggest wins are in speeding up low-value work: CRM hygiene, research consolidation, SDR support. But using AI to replace strategic thinking, brand tone, or human judgement? That’s a fast track to generic output.
Perhaps most critically, AI is reshaping team structures. The traditional entry-level marketing job is vanishing, and hybrid sales-marketing talent with commercial fluency is taking its place.
Fintech content as infrastructure, not just channel
In a world where 75% of B2B buyers prefer self-service over sales calls, the days of lead-chasing are numbered. Tom Rudnai (Demand Genius) urged marketers to stop burning out teams with volume and start building buyer-centric content ecosystems.
And his insight that hit hardest was that most GTM teams are optimising for a funnel that no longer exists.
Instead, content should be the core infrastructure that supports nonlinear, multi-touch journeys, with first-party intent data at its centre. “Don’t just fill the top of the funnel. Light the entire path.”
Relevance is the New Reach
Whether it was in PR, brand, or SEO, one truth came up again and again: relevance trumps volume.
From Liz Glover (TrueLayer) on the rise of journalist-influencers, to Araminta Robertson (Mint Studios) on LLM-driven SEO strategy, the shift was clear: Generalist content is out. Precision, specificity, and speed are in.
The best-performing brands in 2025 are those that show up consistently, react fast to market changes, and integrate owned content with earned trust. It’s not about vanity metrics. It’s about credibility, community, and connection.
From assets to outcomes
The “content to revenue” conversation was reframed by Seismic’s team, who revealed a painful truth: most content created by B2B fintechs is never used.
But there is a solution: Enablement platforms that personalise content delivery by deal stage, persona, and channel, and align sales and marketing around mutual outcomes.
When content is surfaced at the right moment, for the right stakeholder, it moves from being a marketing artefact to a revenue multiplier.
Employee advocacy and the human voice
Lucy O’Boyle (Insignis Cash) reminded us that LinkedIn doesn’t reward brands. It rewards people.
Employee advocacy (when done right) can outperform brand pages and founder posts combined. But it’s not just about posting more. It’s about building internal confidence, creating simple enablement systems, and making space for authentic voices to shine.
In a world of shrinking organic reach, your team might just be your best media channel.
Events that actually work
The experiential marketing panel didn’t shy away from a difficult truth: the big fintech event bubble has burst. The future belongs to curated, experience-led formats that prioritise intimacy, immersion, and intention.
Agicap’s regional roadshows, Enfuce’s Nordic sauna podcast, Edenred’s VIP dinners - these weren’t gimmicks. They were expressions of brand identity through experience.
The best events today don’t end when the drinks do. They power months of content, fuel community growth, and deepen trust.
Redefining success and sharing the failures
The day ended not with a pitch, but a reality check.
In a fireside chat with Jodie Taylor (B4B Payments), Tessa Bryant (Lightyear) pulled back the curtain on the myths of fintech leadership and offered something more powerful than strategy: honesty.
From burnout and hiring regrets to imposter syndrome and missed KPIs, it was a session full of “me too” moments in a room that rarely admits them.
And her message was clear: “We’re all just smart people making smart decisions – even when we’re not sure they’re right.”
The movement ahead
FMH SummerCon 2025 was more than a conference, a mirror held up to a changing profession. A signal that marketing's centre of gravity has shifted, away from output and towards impact, away from templates and towards trust.
The fintech marketers shaping the future aren’t chasing louder tactics or bigger budgets. They’re outmanoeuvring, building faster boats, sharper stories, stronger teams.
And if this year’s SummerCon proved anything, it’s that they’re not doing it alone.
Download the complete playbook with selected moments from The FMH SummerCon 2025
