Acquire Conference 2021: All session videos
- Financial brands are spending money and time finding ways to scale their customer bases.
- Tearsheet's 2021 Acquire Conference heard from top financial services firms about marketing, customer acquisition, and branding.

In February 2021, Tearsheet hosted its inaugural Acquire Conference -- two days exclusively devoted to the best in branding, marketing, growth strategies and user acquisition. Firms like PayPal, Goldman Sachs, Square, Zelle, and Charles Schwab addressed how they were finding new paths and growing their customer bases.
The full session videos are available to Tearsheet’s Outlier members. Our partner and sponsor of the event Burgopak has made its video available that captures an interesting discussion between creative director Dane Whitehurst and Tearsheet editor in chief, Zack Miller, on the how top financial brands are finding ways to enhance their customer journeys and bridge the offline and online worlds with creative, emotive packaging.
Acquire Conference 2021: Dane Whitehurst, Burgopak
Dane Whitehurst, creative director at Burgopak, talks about how modern unboxing experiences create visceral experiences for financial services customers. Online and offline customer journeys meet with packaging that serves to create wow moments.
Top financial brands are strategically using packaging as part of the customer experience. Packaging design firm Burgopak has literally written a book on the art and science of fintech packaging. Welcome to the Club: Packaging Design for Neobanks & Fintechs is available for download here.
Tearsheet Acquire Conference 2021: PR Panel: How FIs are leveraging marketing/PR for customer growth
At the Acquire Conference 2021, Tearsheet convened a panel comprised of some of the top minds in PR and marketing. We invited Jennifer Tramontana, president of The Fletcher Group, Grace Keith Rodriguez, president of Caliber Corporate Advisers, Gregory Papajohn, founder of the Archie Group, and Scott Mills, president of William Mills Agency. The foursome discussed various trends in growth strategies in financial services, what's working in marketing and growth -- and what isn't.
Acquire Conference 2021: Elisabeth Job Kozack, Marcus by Goldman Sachs
Elisabeth Job Kozack, co-head of consumer lending at Marcus by Goldman Sachs, discusses how Marcus by Goldman Sachs is finding growth through strategic partnerships with other leading brands.
Acquire Conference 2021: Adam Hadi, Current
Current's vp of marketing, Adam Hadi describes how to build a Gen Z brand and how to best reach this demographic. Hadi has years of experience in building influencer marketing relationships and Current works with influencers on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Acquire Conference 2021: CJ MacDonald, Step
Step's founder and CEO CJ MacDonald goes deeper into the challenge of marketing to teens and their parents and the different channels and messaging his firm uses to reach both audiences on its way to 1 million users in 4 months after launching.
Acquire Conference 2021: Melissa Lowry, Zelle
Melissa Lowry, vp of marketing and branding at Zelle, provides a framework for how to build a powerful brand through consumer education, bringing examples from Zelle's 2020 marketing campaigns and partnerships.
Acquire Conference 2021: Tui Allen, Shopify
Shopify's senior product lead for banking Tui Allen presents on Shopify's work introducing its SMB customers to the firm's financial services offerings. It's early in Shopify's entrance into financial services and Allen describes where the firm is headed.
Acquire Conference 2021: Bill Davaris, MoneyLion
MoneyLion's CMO Bill Davaris speaks about how 2020 was all about capturing customers via their intent. The challenger bank invested heavily in content and it paid off with a strong funnel of new users looking for answers.
Acquire Conference 2021: Sara Tresch, Charles Schwab
Sara Tresch, svp of digital transformation and user experience at Charles Schwab, discusses the work her firm has done in transforming the digital client experience and how it dovetails with Schwab's physical locations.
Acquire Conference 2021: Jill Cress, PayPal
PayPal's vp of consumer marketing Jill Cress describes how PayPal and Venmo gets its userbase of nearly 400 million users to take action.
Acquire Conference 2021: Lauren Weinberg, Square
Square's global head of marketing Lauren Weinberg has a background in data and she presents how Square uses data to drive creativity in marketing and new customer acquisition.
Acquire Conference 2021: Patrick Stal, N26
N26 is one of the few purely digital banking brands with truly global ambitions. VP of global marketing Patrick Stal describes how the challenger bank thinks and executes on building a global brand in the age of social media.
Acquire Conference 2021: Halle Hutchison, Varo Money
Halle Hutchison, Varo's chief brand officer, has deep experience growing and maturing young digital brands. She explores how to build a next generation challenger bank brand.
Acquire Conference 2021: Tyler Pennell, Stash
Stash's vp of growth marketing provides a framework on how growth teams can help bridge marketing and product teams to find paths to sticky new customers.
Acquire Conference 2021: Laura Goldberg, Kabbage, an Amex Company
2020 was an interesting year for SMB lenders. Kabbage's chief revenue and marketing officer Laura Goldberg talks about how her firm helped SMBs navigate the challenges of the pandemic on their way to recovery. Kabbage was acquired by American Express last year and Goldberg describes how that transition is going.
Acquire Conference 2021: Anthony Schrauth, Tally
VP of product at Tally, Anthony Schrauth used to run product at Betterment. His experience building one of the largest robo-advisors informs his thinking about extending product and brand into the customer service experience and the feedback loop that creates.