3 Chief Marketing Officers To Kick Off Holiday Party with Outlook 2026 Panel

Recap

On Wednesday, December 10, the FCS staged its last NYC event of 2025 with a special Holiday edition of ‘Cocktails with Content’ event series. In “Unwrapping 2026: The Outlook for Financial Marketing,” three CMOs took to the stage at the Stafford Room to reflect on the next tech wave, the ever-evolving consumer mindset, and how brand and performance will be redefined in the coming year.

Panelists included Dipti Kachru, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Financial Services, Broadridge, Jessica Fernandez, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Direxion, and Henry (Hank) Detering, Chief Marketing Officer, Neuberger Berman. Moderating the discussion was FCS Board Director Damon Webber of Bank of America. Here are the key takeaways from the event:

The Macro Forces At Play

Change has been a significant theme for 2025, especially in the financial services industry where consistency is an ideal state of being. With this in mind, the panel dove into the major developments coming out of this year that will shape the next.

The panelists agreed the first major development would be the market, as how it shifts will impact how brands shape their strategy and which areas the marketing budget goes to. Dipti, Jessica, and Hank identified the second major development as investor behavior, a direct result of the market shifting. Jessica pointed out that investor behavior is moving away from long-term investment. To stay on top of these changes, Hank suggested being ready for such changes rather than wondering if they will happen at all.

Tackling Shifting Client Sentiment

Brands need to be in touch with their clients going into 2026, where sentiments are anticipated to shift toward risk aversion and increased cautiousness. Hank reiterated the value of responding to what is on clients’ minds. Some methods his team uses to capture clients are social listening, feedback loops, sales, AI reading, and call notes. From this information and data, they can glean ways to tap into the solutions that will bring the best outcome for clients.

Dipti spoke from the perspective of asset managers, wealth managers, and investment banks. She explained that her team is most focused on instilling a sense of readiness that enables their operations, processes, and opportunities to capture new markets. Out of readiness comes confidence, which provides assurance to clients and in turn informs her brand’s storytelling.

Best Use Cases for Data

Data tends to pile up, and if it is not being used to its fullest application, then this may be a missed opportunity for brands.

Jessica acknowledged how not everyone is accustomed to working with data, which is an important element within marketing. She advised that adding more data-driven thinkers to creatively-minded marketing teams will create a more balanced view that allows data to be applied in unique ways. From there, Jessica asks her team to analyze data in reverse by proposing hypotheses or asking questions and then using the data to confirm, deny, or discover answers to them.

High Value Content to Break Through the Noise

It is becoming more difficult to capture audiences’ attention due to the over-stimulation of near-constant media access. Hank pointed to the well-known statistic that 12 seconds is the sweet spot for content. One second more, and brands risk losing their audience.

However, sometimes for high value content to resonate, it needs to go over the 12-second mark. Hank shared that his team’s best performing video was 25 seconds, as he believes some information cannot be conveyed within 12 seconds. Though a portion of the audience likely will scroll away from a piece of content after 12 seconds, brands need to balance high performance with high value in their content.

Dipti echoed this sentiment, explaining that her team uses multiple content types to engage audiences like white papers, as well as short- and medium-form videos depending on what they intend to accomplish with it. The key is to have a clear hypothesis and be willing to test it.

AI as an Operational Tool

2025 has shown that AI is here to stay. The panelists agreed that AI has been instrumental in helping their teams scale marketing and operations.

Jessica shared that her team refers to AI as the ‘scale-inator’ because of how useful it has become in creating more out of the limited resources that are available to them. For example, AI has been instrumental in generating several versions of personalized copy that allows the team to pick the one that strikes the right tonality for the brand. Jessica also gave AI the nickname ‘synthesizer,’ as it pulls information and reveals insights that assist her team in investor-to-consumer business objectives.

Hank puts AI’s use cases into three buckets: efficiency, creation, and language model. Similar to Jessica, Hank explained that AI is efficient during proofreading and reliably accurate in catching inconsistencies in copy and tone. AI has also been helpful in assisting with content creation, such as generating text to video. Then there is the ongoing project at Neuberger Berman of building an LLM, which Hank expressed excitement about.

Dipti called AI an effective sounding board for her team when they are coming up with ideas. She emphasized that AI brings a perspective that does not take away the agency of the person inputting information, stating that she finds it quite valuable for her team.

Internal Challenges for CMOs

Dipti shared that internal challenges are organization- and opportunity-dependent. For her team, she has found challenges in balancing investing in infrastructure and data, as well as maturing the organization’s technology, with generating ROI for business leaders. In B2B, the marketing maturity curve lags behind more retail/consumer-focused businesses. As a result, Dipti conveyed there are challenges in building belief around building foundational investments versus focusing strictly on ROI.

For Hank, the challenge he has experienced is a dichotomy between long-term projects and short-term proof points. He explained that a CMO drives long-term outcomes like awareness, sentiment, and loyalty. However, there is increased pressure on quick speed to market and showing numbers that indicate measurable wins.

Jessica explained that her challenge is related to behaviors converging, meaning tactics that once worked for one segment are now being incorporated across several. This intermediary space has seen a rise in paid media, SEM strategy, and especially earned media. For Jessica, tackling this challenge means figuring out how to calibrate budget and reallocate it to support these business needs while staying attuned to emerging market influences.

The event was sponsored by a mix of new and returning sponsors. The FCS is grateful to the support of The Wall Street Journal | Barron’s Group, Getty Images, Bloomberg, TABB Forum, Dianomi, Benzinga, Business Insider, and Perpetual.

– reported by FCS Administrative & Communications Coordinator Juliet McAlee