Finance Marketing Strategies to Bank On with Tyrrell Schmidt, CMO at TD Bank

Race the rudders. Race the sails. Race the sails. Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over. Roger, wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution?

Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title and more. Start converting your B2B audience today. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started today@LinkedIn.com campaign terms and conditions apply.

Finding the right audience shouldn't feel like doom scrolling with Experian. It doesn't. Experian syndicated audiences help you reach holiday shoppers, car buyers and more across over 200 top platforms with over 2,400 pre built audiences. There's no more doom scrolling. It's audience targeting you can trust. Made simple. Learn more@experian.com adweek that's exp e R-I-A n.com adweek.

So our what is convenience but our how is being incredibly human and understanding that there is a human behind every single transaction and every single interaction that we have. And that is what, you know, it fuels us, it's what makes us special. It's how we recruit people into TD and it's how we attract customers.

To thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape, brands must move at an ever increasing pace. I'm Matt Britton, founder and CEO of Suzy. Join me and key industry leaders as we dive deep into the shifting consumer trends within their industry, why it matters now, and how you can keep up. Welcome to the Speed of Culture. Welcome back to today's edition of the Speed of Culture podcast, live from Las Vegas here at the Consumer Electronics Show. I am so excited today to be joined by our guest, Terrell Schmidt, who's the CMO of TD Bank. Thanks so much for joining us.

This is to see you. I'm thrilled, thrilled to be here.

Absolutely. How has the ES been for you so far?

Yeah, you know, it's big. It's really big. It is my first time here so, but really enjoying it and meeting people and I've been part of the brand innovators. We have publicists here so a lot of our partners are here which has been terrific and I'm excited to go to the expo which I heard a, I heard a speaker last night talking about some of the, the big new launches and so I'm excited to go see them.

Fantastic. Well, we're going to start by getting to know a little bit more about your career and background and what led you to where you are today as CMO of TD Bank.

Good, Great. So you just want me to jump in? Okay, we'll do that. So I've been at TD for about eight years, but before that I've. I've had a very global career which has been terrific, mostly in marketing. And so I started my career at Discover Card. I was one of the first five people to join the company which was fascinating. Interesting time. We had no cardholders, we had no merchants. And so trying to get each other to sign up was a super fascinating thing. I think what was great about that for me was just the ability to dive into everything you had to do everything.

It's like a startup mindset, right?

It was a total startup mindset backed by Sears. So you know, 60 million cardholder base that they had. So it was a kind of.

Is that how Discover got started?

It is.

I didn't even know that it is.

It was when Sears was doing selling socks to stocks.

So who would have thought their spinoff would have outlasted actually the company?

Yeah, right. Yeah, super interesting. That is true. But yeah, really, really fascinating story to watch them. And from there I was with discover for about 18 years and the last five years I went over to the UK and stood up the marketing function and ultimately ran that function for Discover. And so they actually made a go. We launched a card in the. And that was another startup that was a little bit different because we were really starting from the beginning. So, you know, super fascinating learning experience. First cultural experience that I had. From there went to Hong Kong and Standard Chartered bank where I led, ran the customer the cards portfolio for them and then to Cigna in healthcare in Singapore and then ultimately Philadelphia and then TD and here I am.

So what drove you primarily to the financial services space? What about it interests you?

Yeah, I think it's a really fascinating space. I mean, to be, to be honest, it wasn't something that I sought out initially out of college. Right, Totally, totally. You have to take some risks, you know, decide what you're, you know, where you want to focus. But for me, what I found over the years and the reason why I've stayed in financial services with the exception of a nine year stint at Cigna was really, it's just, it's a fascinating. People think of it as a stodgy industry.

Right.

Or they used to.

It is highly regulated. It's highly regulated. Changes than other categories.

Highly regulated. Highly regulated. And you know, which is very important. So you really have to blend that, you know, innovation, speed to market, et cetera with the regulatory environment. But I think what's fascinating about it. It is really an advanced marketing environment. Financial services, you know, you've got different customers, very different segments.

Customer data.

Lots of data, lots of data, lots of data. More than most industries. So. So it's just a, it's a great place and it constantly evolves. Financial services and marketing and so being able to stay up to speed with all of that is. It's challenge and it's just fascinating and fun.

Absolutely. So in terms of your current role as a CMO of TD bank, what are your core priorities and where do you focus on on a day to day basis?

Yeah, you know, a couple of things I think first is people, you know, as a leader, I think it is my responsibility for, particularly with my team being there, you know, working with them on, you know, setting the vision, setting the strategy for the function which we've done. I think we've got a really clear strategy of both from a business perspective but also marketing's role within that strategy. So a big part of that is just making sure that we are constantly aligning to and prioritizing against that strategy. Beyond that, you know, certainly sitting at the management committee and being part of kind of where the bank is going overall.

Right.

It's a very exciting time.

Can be disconnected from the business goals within marketing.

You can't. And I think that's been a big opportunity as it is with any, I think marketing organization is really, you know, demonstrating the growth potential that marketing brings. And fortunately at TD there's a great belief in brand, there's a great belief in customer experience which is great because that's not always true. But beyond that we have such an opportunity to contribute even more to growth than we already do and everybody sees that and, and frankly wants more, more and faster and great problem to have.

Absolutely. So you know, you talked about the people, you talked about your role with the business, what about the consumer and how do you go about understanding the consumer's changing needs when it comes to their personal banking and how does that I guess play a role in how you focus your go to market strategy?

Yeah, consumer and the customer is absolutely critical. It's at the center of what we do and I'm a big believer in insights. So we've got a great insights team and we get our insights from a lot of places where you know, whether it's social media and social listening, whether it's from our customer experience data which is incredibly rich again because we're a high transaction business. So we have a lot of data that we can look at, we can look at, you know, external benchmarks, we can look at external spend and all of those sorts of things. So, you know, I think it really guides us in terms of where consumers are going. And we do a ton of proprietary research as well. We're a believer in leveraging customer insights. So I would say that's a really big part of it. The other thing is kind of evangelizing across the business for the customer. And so once you have a sense of both your brand and we know for TD, roughly 60, 65% of our brand health comes from customer experience. So, you know, really online, offline.

The whole thing.

The whole thing, yeah. So, you know, if your brand is your promise and your customer experiences delivery of that promise at every interaction, we have a huge role to play in making sure that that's not just a marketing responsibility, that it's.

The bank teller is marketing. Right.

100%.

Right.

And if they do something that's not, you know, in line with the brand or, you know, customer experience, and, you know, they're at the front, front line. So, you know, we need to make sure we're enab. But it's so important.

Yeah. So with the Millennial now being the CFO of the household. Right. Those are people who grow up with the Internet growing up. So it's a different customer. It used to be at the Millennial was your bleeding edge younger consumer who ordered in pizza and played Xbox all day. Now the CFO of the household. How has that changed the needs of your current customer? And then how is TD bank evolving to meet those needs?

Yeah, it's a really good question for td, I think td historically, and we still have a value proposition around being America's most convenient bank. And that used to mean longer hours, more days open, those kinds of things. That's still incredibly important to us. We think that our.

That's what I think of td. Yes.

Yeah, exactly. And that's. And very community based. And very community based. And then part of that is, you know, by having those longer store hours, you're. You're creating this community relationship with your customer, which is incredibly powerful. I don't. We will never walk away from that like that equity pill.

Right.

It is. And having that relationship then, you know, is critical. That said, you know, we obviously, with, as you said, the new, you know, digitally native customer coming up, we also have to have a great digital experience. And we've seen digital adoption increase incredibly rapidly. I think the stat is, you know, vaulted five years in two weeks during the pandemic. And that has been the case. So it really is about how do we think about, you know, number one, we don't want to alienate the customers who come to us because they love to come into our store. They have a long relationship. So what we do, we really look to make sure that we're not doing things that would alienate that group. At the same time, we've got a younger cohort of consumers that we also need to appeal to. We call them the driven optimist. And that's the core bullseye target for us. And so we design around them increasingly expanding constantly our digital capabilities and ultimate having an omnichannel experience that seamless, connected, personalized is the holy grail. And we do know that even the younger consumer, you know, often people think, well, they're never going to walk into a store or branch. And we do have to make sure we're making it less scary, less intimidating. And that's what TD does. We were very, it was seen as an approachable bank, which is great. But they do look and they sometimes are like, if I'm getting a mortgage, I want to look across the eye at somebody and I need help. And so thinking about how we leverage our physical footprint and a very different advice based way while we're building digital capabilities and continuing to expand them is for us our strategy makes sense.

And what are some of those digital capabilities? I mean, when I think of what a bank provides online, you want to be able to check your balance, you want to be able to transfer money easily. What are some of the other things that consumers are asking for that you guys are focused on in terms of what you're going to be delivering to them?

For us, it's really around three things that we know from our insights. So ease, value and advice. And that is what consumers are looking for.

The advice piece is something that I hadn't thought of.

Yeah. And advice can be, you know, what we call small a advice, it can be guidance, it can be tips that you get through content and things like that.

It's savings advice and things like that.

Yeah, I mean, how should I. What tips do you have? What tools and capabilities do you have that enable me to save more easily? So it can be something like that up to and through, you know, advice for the high net worth customer or a small business customer. So it really, really rang. But we do know that people look increasingly, you know, and you think about the landscape we're operating in right now. People, you know, they need help in certain areas and when they want help, they need us to be there. So but ease on, you know, particularly from a channel perspective in terms of how you work across channels. So not just, you know, they're looking for an easy digital experience. We're all used to what we get on Amazon and so many other places so we have to meet that. But it also has to feel seamless to the customer and then value, you know, they're looking for value for money. What do you know, what are you doing? There's a big focus obviously on financial services. Totally.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So and obviously a big role of any CMO is to drive growth and ultimately not only expand your current customers but win new ones. What are some of the go to market channels that you've been focusing on at TD that you found successful in previous years that maybe you're really zeroing in on here in 2023?

Yeah, we've been, you know, we're constantly testing and learning and so what we try to do with our marketing just generally in terms of our philosophy is 70% tried and true. So what we know works 20% kind of small I innovation and continuing to iterate and then 10% that we're trying new channels and all sorts of things. So we always do and we learn from that and then that mix evolves. So for us I would say definitely obviously the whole digital channels in terms of how we find people online where we can get the right product to the right customer based on their needs. Huge, you know, huge performance driven bottom channels. Yes. So we, and that's probably the best way to say it, we really are focused on full funnel marketing. So you know, moving from brand and we look market by market to understand where do we have really strong awareness. And you know, if we have really strong awareness, for example we may use connected TV instead of linear tv. If we don't have a base of awareness then we might use linear and then you know, other funnel or just.

Driving ye broad based.

Yeah. And then as we go down the funnel and to your point earlier about the next generation, not really the next generation, current generation of customers, you know, TikTok, Pinterest, all those sorts of things are, are absolutely things that we're focused on.

Finding the right audience shouldn't feel like doom scrolling with Experian. It doesn't Experian syndicated audiences help you reach holiday shoppers, car buyers and more across over 200 top platforms with over 2,400 pre built audiences. There's no more doom scrolling. It's audience targeting you can trust made simple. Learn more at experian.com adweek that's E-P-E-R-I-A-N.com adweek.

And the way that you have to storytell now different. I mean you've been in the space for a long time, the financial services base has evolved dramatically. Is the way that you have to storytell and differentiate the brand different now? And so in what ways?

Yeah, if I think about TD specifically because I think it's, you know, it's what I think about most these days. I think firstly everybody does because you're evolving with an evolving consumer base and evolving competitive landscape. The personalized relevant communication and content has, you know, is just.

It's hard to execute though, isn't it?

It's hard to execute yet it's like such an expectation. So, you know, I think that's broadly across. But if I think about TD specifically so, you know, to the point that I made earlier around conven, we've been the unexpectedly human bank and that is our brand proposition. So our what is convenience but our how is being incredibly human and understanding that there is a human behind every single transaction and every single interaction that we have. And that is what, you know, it fuels us, it's what makes us special, it's how we recruit people into TD and it's how we attract customers. So that's really been the focus for us and we're evolving that to, you know, to understand kind of people, our customers and consumers. Expectation, as I said, around convenience is very different, but human is. We've, you know, we know that that still really, really resonates.

And I would imagine the challenge is really to paid it off at scale. Right. Because humans are ultimately unscalable.

They're not machines.

So.

But it's also, yeah, I think it's also about. And we have this challenge internally as well. Everybody's like, oh well that's our people. And it's, it is our people, but it's our people who are doing web development and who are doing, you know.

So they're putting their touch on everything basically.

Even how we show up in digital channels, you know, using influencers who are relevant, how we communicate, we have a conversationalist tone. All of that really brings a human touch to what we do, regardless of whether it's a face to face or a digital experience.

Absolutely. So let's shift gears a little bit. I mean, you're sitting in the role of chief marketing officer of a renowned financial institution. CMO is sort of the pinnacle title of anybody that wants to get in the marketing role. What can you kind of attribute your personal career success to? You know, where have you focused that you found have really paid off for you? And with that, what advice would you give to younger people who want to end up in the CMO seat one day?

Yeah, so I think a couple of things. One for me, and I don't perceive myself as a big, like, risk taker in the, you know, the way of being risky. However, I was open in my career, open to trying new things, open to moving and, you know, taking on new roles and getting new experiences. And I think that's really helped me. Number one, it's actually given me so many different perspectives. So for me, you know, the international experience, the global experience has been really important in terms of when you think about empathy and when you think about different customers and, you know, diversity segments and all of that, you know, just I feel like I, I've gained personally different cultural, different cultures, different insights, you know, and what makes people different, but what makes them the same. And there's a lot of that too. So I think for me, that's been just a critical part. I think of how I've gotten to where I've gotten to and the career, you know, that I've had, that I've loved. But beyond that, you know, mentors, I think, I think the role of mentors is, is really important. And it's not only people who will tell you all the good, but it's people who are going to give you, you know, some hard messages.

I heard the same exact thing in the recent interview as well. Yeah, you say that.

Yeah. And I, you know, the ones that stand, the things that stand out for me and the people that stand out for me are those people. And you know, on the positive side, they've always done it in a kind way and, you know, with the goal of I want to help you be, you know, your best self.

But I think because we all have blind spots, right? There's all things that we do that we're not seeing. We're missing opportunities. Usually, you know, the people who work for you aren't going to tell you that. The people who you work for might not feel like they can tell you that if you're generally doing good stuff. So how are you really going to improve? Who's going to really show you what you're not seeing? And good mentors can really do that.

Yeah, that's right. And typically, I think, you know, in the back of your mind, you tend to know. So it's just Somebody reiterating and saying, hey, by the way. Right.

You have to be open to it as well.

You do, you do. I really do think that openness and all of that, you know, is just such an important thing. Finally, what I would say is for anybody, I think, you know, being willing to have a lattice career as opposed to just ladder, you know.

What do you mean by that?

Meaning that you're not just constantly worried about, well, I have to go from this level to this level to this level. But you know what, in order to do that, I'm, you know, a. I really want to get there, but I also might need this experience over here. And so I'm going to go sideways.

Sometimes people are too opportunistic. Maybe they get a pay raise or a promotion title and they're going somewhere where maybe the opportunity long term isn't as good, or they don't have the expertise there or something, and they find themselves maybe thinking that they're going forward, where you're taking one step forward, maybe two steps back, the same time without seeing it.

Yeah. And again, it comes back to mentors and leaders who are also fostering that. For me, when I worked at Discover, I worked for a CMO who. And maybe this was a little too frequent, but every 18 to 24 months, he called the whole team in and he's like, okay, okay, you have now this job in marketing and this is your new new boss and this is your new team. And we would all change roles.

And PNG does that a lot too. They're. They're famous for doing that.

Yes, it's. I mean, it's great because actually you often think that's not that interesting. That's not where, kind of where I want to take my career. But the sum total of those things is really powerful when you look back.

Gives you diversity of thought. And I love the global angle as well. I think too many people are. I don't understand that when you talk about the consumer, there's a whole world out there, consumers all experiencing things differently.

Totally, totally.

How did curiously, TD look at the sort of whole crypto craze? Had you guys ever looked at getting into that? What are your personal thoughts on cryptocurrencies and other alternative financial assets and the boom and bust that we've seen, what.

You think about it with the industry? Yeah, I mean, there probably is a room for. There probably is room for crypto. I think, you know, we have, of course we've looked at it. It's, you know, it's very much in our space for sure. And so, you know, we constantly are looking and tracking and, you know, assessing opportunities, assessing, you know, is that part of our strategy or is that not part of our strategy? And when and how. And so, you know, I think you have to, you have to be open, especially when you look broadly at the category in financial services and you have NEO banks and you have all these specialist banks, you have, you have fintech, you have crypto, you have NFTs. And so you really have to be choiceful in your strategy. So I would say that's really how we think about it, is keep a watchful eye and decide when, if and how. That is part of what we want to do.

Yeah, and speaking of fintech, I mean there was a lot of deregulation, as you know, that happened for a period of time in the financial services industry, which opened up the path for many new emerging fintechs, whether it be companies like Square or Chime or so many others out there, Plaid, et cetera, to really gain a lot of momentum. How do you work with some of these emerging players in this space, whether you're just learning from them or partnering them, et cetera. How does TD sort of open itself up as an interface to work with these emerging platforms?

Yeah, it's a, I mean, it's a good question. And we do, we have, we do both, number one is we study them, we understand where they're really good and where, you know, what we can take from that and learn. And there, I mean, of course there are a lot of learnings that you can get from those various players. And then we do partner with some, we have a pretty big innovation team that sits up in Canada with people obviously in the US as well, who constantly are looking at who and how do we want to partner to further advance our capabilities and again, in areas that are really in focus for us from a strategic perspective.

Absolutely. So we're here in Las Vegas at ces, a place where I've been coming here for several decades and it used to just be the Panasonics and Toshiba's of the world, the companies that make, made actual consumer electronics. And now you have companies from apparel and fashion and financial services all here, which is fascinating to me in terms of how it's evolved. What made you want to come to the CES show and what are you looking to get out of it here?

For me it was really more about outside in perspective and it's really easy, especially in today's fast paced world. And as we're all, you know, online constantly. It's really easy not to look up and look out. And I think you really have to make a concerted effort to get out, meet people, learn from people, as you said. And so that's why I came and also had a great opportunity to meet a couple of people and to, you know, to have an opportunity to speak with people like you. And so it's been great so far. And I agree, it's, it was fascinating to me listening to about some of the innovations in cosmetics. Right. Where you're thinking, well what really like what could best what's the applicability. Right. And really fascinating consumer though.

Right.

Sync. Totally.

The trends of the consumer are going to impact how they shop, how they access money, what they buy, et cetera.

That's right, absolutely.

So to wrap things up, is there kind of a phrase or kind of quote that you like to live by in terms of that's driven your career, sort of like your mantra if you had to take one?

Yeah. I always say, and this is, it might sound trite, but it really is how I try to live my life. Is Maya Angelou's quote around. People won't remember what you say or did, but they will remember how you made them feel. And at the end of the day, you know, my view is we all get a chance at this, you know, once and people really matter. They really matter. And it's why I'm actually so passionate about the TD brand and being unexpectedly human. Because, you know, it's just at the end of the day, that's what we all are.

Human beings differentiator too.

Totally.

Absolutely. We're going to wrap it up with that. On behalf of Susie and Edu team, thanks so much to Terrell CMO of TD bank for joining us at this busy cell guests. Be sure to subscribe, rate and review the Speed of Culture podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Till next time, we'll see you soon. Take care everyone. Bye bye. The Speed of Culture is brought to you by Suzy as part of the Adweek Podcast Network and a guest creator network. You can listen subscribe to all Adweek's podcast by visiting adweek.com podcast. To find out more about Susie, head to susie.com and make sure to search for the speed of culture in Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google podcasts or anywhere else podcasts are found, click follow so you don't miss out on any future episodes. On behalf of the team here at Suzy, thanks for listening.

Finding the right audience shouldn't feel like doom scrolling with Experian. It doesn't. Experian syndicated audiences help you reach holiday shoppers, car buyers and more across over 200 top platforms with over 2400 pre built audiences. There's no more doom scrolling. It's audience targeting you can trust. Made simple. Learn more@experian.com ad week that's exp e r I A N com Adweek.