Last Month at the Financial Brand Conference (April 2025), Sean Payant, Chief Strategy Officer at Haberfeld, delivered a powerful challenge to credit union leaders: Stop letting outdated assumptions limit your growth potential.

His session, "Overcoming Strategic Contradictions in the Banking C-Suite", exposed several internal beliefs that sound smart on the surface, but in reality, hold credit unions back from achieving sustainable, meaningful growth.

One of the most impactful sessions at the Financial Brand Conference (April 2025) was led by Sean Payant, Chief Strategy Officer at Haberfeld. His session, Overcoming Strategic Contradictions in the Banking C-Suite, zeroed in on a critical growth opportunity for credit unions: earning and growing the Primary Financial Institution (PFI) relationship.

Here’s why that matters more than ever and how your credit union can win that spot.

The Financial Brand Conference (April 2025) provided powerful insights into the evolving definition of "community" and its implications for credit unions today.

One session that really stood out was, "What Will Save Community Banking?" led by Jean-Pierre Lacroix, President of SLD (Shikatani Lacroix Design). He offered research-backed guidance that every credit union leader needs to hear.

Here's what we learned, and why credit unions are uniquely positioned to thrive.

Advertising has been around for a long time. In fact, the first paid advertisement was a Coca-Cola ad in a French newspaper in 1836.

Today, there are boundless advertising strategies that credit unions and banks can learn from and leverage.

But, what makes a truly effective advertising strategy?

2019 Community Bank Marketing Survey Results

We recently surveyed community banks to learn more about how they're approaching digital marketing, what they're having the most success with, and where they're experiencing the biggest marketing challenges.

These days, banking conferences aren't the stuffy, boring conferences of old. They can be full of enthusiasm, innovation and great ideas for evolving your bank to keep up with an increasingly digital world.

Here we're highlighting just a few of the conferences that stand out for Community Banks to attend. Go to learn, network, and be inspired, and have some fun while you're at it! 

This is certainly not a full list of all of the conferences Community Banks should consider, but we think these are worth considering in 2019. If you've attended any of these in the past, let us know in the comments below! Have a can't miss conference to add to the list? Let us know that too!

Community Banks are beginning to shift their marketing focus to digital, albeit at a slower pace than many industries. These banks face tough competition from larger banks and from credit unions, and trying to break through to potential customers is proving to be increasingly difficult. Without reaching them online, it's even harder.

Here we'll spotlight the digital marketing approach that helped a locally owned and operated Community Bank generate new loan applications and new accounts.