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OCTOBER 14, 2025 |
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In the holiday spirit: True or false? More than a third of consumers say buying gifts is more important than having a credit card balance this holiday season. |
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MARKETING & ADVERTISING |
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The biggest banks will spend $6 billion or more on marketing in 2025, or 0.10% of their total asset value, per an analysis of the American Bankers Association Bank Marketers Survey in the ABA Banking Journal. On average, 32% of banks’ marketing budgets were allocated to new customer acquisition—more than any other allocation. |
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Spending corresponds to the size of marketing teams: According to the survey, banks in the $10+ billion club had on average 14 marketers on staff in 2025, far removed from the average of one for banks with less than $1B in assets. |
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BUY NOW, PAY LATER |
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Klarna and Splitit are pursuing AI initiatives to keep their products top-of-mind for consumers, per press releases. |
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Klarna partnered with Google Cloud to power AI-backed hyperpersonalized marketing campaigns.
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Splitit debuted its Agentic Commerce Partner Program, bringing card-linked buy now, pay later (BNPL) plans to agent-powered shopping. |
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |
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JPMorgan Chase spends $2 billion per year on AI and finds an equal amount of cost savings as a result, said CEO Jamie Dimon in a recent Bloomberg TV interview. |
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During its April investor day, JPMorgan forecast spending $18 billion on technology in 2025, noting initiatives that include: |
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Constant transformation: In Dimon’s latest letter to shareholders, he wrote that “constant transformation in technology and [system migrations] means you can’t have stop-start strategies almost anywhere.”
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Focus on AI talent: The bank has 2,000 people “working on AI.” That helped push it to the top of intelligence platform Evident’s recent financial services AI index, narrowly ahead of Capital One. |
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PODCAST |
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In today’s episode, we talk about whether the “American Dream” is less achievable, or just different, how this new economic reality has reshaped consumer behavior, and how brands are marketing aspiration differently. Tune in on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow us on Instagram. “Behind the Numbers” is made possible by Fetch. |
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CHART OF THE WEEK |
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Key stat: Strong data encryption and security certifications are the top factor that increases trust in fintech/financial services, according to May 2025 data from Plaid and The Harris Poll. | | | |
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