How Golden 1’s CMO Is Adopting AI Without Compromising Authenticity
By Steve Cocheo, Senior Executive Editor at The Financial Brand
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Golden 1 Credit Union’s branding campaign needed some new creative for a second-quarter rollout, so Michael Daum found himself on location with a film crew, capturing shots of downtown Los Angeles, vignettes of the Inland Empire area, and dramatic scenes of driving on the cliff-hugging Pacific Coast Highway.
A big chunk of time and expense went into the project. Some might wonder why generic stock footage might not have done the trick, maybe punched up with some AI magic?
It’s a question of authenticity. “We like to take these opportunities to tell California stories, and it’s really important to us that we actually film them in California, featuring Californians and shooting with California-based crews,” says Daum, SVP and CMO at the $21 billion-in-assets credit union, based in Sacramento.
Need to Know:
- Golden 1 is among the ten largest credit unions in the country and one of the largest in California. Before Golden 1, Daum spent a decade in marketing at USAA and another decade at KeyBank.
- Daum has a reputation for an “always on” marketing style — Golden 1 aims to never go dark, always pushing messaging in a very competitive market.
Yes, Daum has pushed for more adoption of martech in general at Golden 1 since he arrived in 2024, and use of AI in marketing by Golden 1 is increasing. But Daum argues for balance.
“We’re doing more and more with AI on the creative side, but so far it’s typically for the purpose of condensing a timeline or simplifying a process,” says the veteran financial marketer. “The creative process itself remains very much human, very authentic to our brand, and so we’re being very conscientious about using AI.”
Reality check: Nonetheless, Daum knows AI will play a growing role in financial marketing and he intends to increase its use as applications improve. In fact, shortly after the shoot, he planned to hold a three-way summit among Golden 1’s creative and public relations agencies and the credit union’s marketers.
Pushing for “symbiotic connections.” “A big part of the agenda will be to see how our agency partners are leveraging AI, what tools they’re using — and what they’re looking at on the horizon.” Each party has been using AI in different ways and he wants to see what each can learn from the others.
The current and future role of AI in financial marketing will be among the topics Daum will be exploring during a portion of the “CMO Masterminds” series at The Financial Brand Forum 2026.
Daum and host Eric Fulwiler will drill into AI applications around personalization — “how you can use AI to make more personal connections, to be more relevant, to get to solutions for your consumers faster, and to find better insights and learnings so you can glean efficiencies and scale faster.”
How Martech and AI Are Improving Personalization at Golden 1
Daum says the martech tools that the credit union has put in place over the last couple of years, combined with machine learning and other AI capabilities, is helping to create more personalized marketing.
Bespoke onboarding. “In the past, the onboarding process was time-bound,” says Daum. Programs to cross-sell to new customers were generally trotted out three months into the relationship, and then again at the six-month mark.
After that, resignation: “You just assumed that the consumer was not going to acquire another product for six or seven years. That was the old rule of thumb,” says Daum.
The new way. Daum says the old approaches were rudimentary and slow. The new capabilities will be making it possible to bore further into relationships based on a combination of demographics and behavior — critically, on a real-time basis. The expectation is that this will increasingly drive opportunities to offer more products at appropriate times.
For example, Daum says improved personalization tools will be built behind Golden 1’s recently refreshed website and mobile app. This will enable the credit union to adjust what is presented to each member when they visit the site and log in, based on what they’re already known to have seen and what they currently seem to be looking for. This includes fresh imagery relevant to the particular member, as well as tailored connections to financial wellness articles and other content.
Read more: Consumers are Using AI to Find Their Next Bank, But Still Don’t Trust Its Advice
Engineer a Meeting of Minds Between the CFO and CMO
“You still hear a lot about CMOs and CFOs being at odds with each other, or the CMO not being on the same page as the CEO on things,” says Daum. He plans to address this during his Forum session.
Focus on the mission. “Marketers have to remember why they are there in the first place, he warns: “Success means you are influencing the bottom line.”
“If you go into a kind of cocoon, if you don’t listen, if you become tunnel-focused, that can be a challenge in terms of alignment with management,” Daum advises.
Two-way communication is essential. Daum gives his arrival at Golden 1 as an example.
As a veteran, he might have tried going his own way. Instead, he met with Golden 1’s CFO, Allyson Hill.
“I wanted a better understanding of what our budget might look like. Were we spending enough? Was there an opportunity to invest more?”
He also wanted to learn about Golden 1’s balance sheet strategies, and its hopes for deposit and loan growth.
“She took the time to sit down and help me unpack all that, based on the strategic plan, so I could get more oriented with it,” Daum recalls.
The connection continues. Among other measures, Daum regularly attends meetings of Golden 1’s asset-liability management committee.
Stay in your lane. “I’m not there to help make decisions on pricing models and such,” he says. “I’m there to support product and pricing strategies and give feedback about market timing.”
Read more: Why Top-of-Wallet Loss, Not Account Closures, Is the Real Churn Risk
Don’t Lose Sight of the Basics
As a credit union, he says, Golden 1 is all about the members, and that means remaining rooted in what they need: financial services that improve their lives.
“Golden 1 serves many folks in challenged communities that are underbanked and they need our help and our advice,” says Daum. While the credit union is providing more and more help digitally, it has made a point of being present in the community.
So far Golden 1 has opened two financial resource centers, one in the Del Paso Heights neighborhood of Sacramento, in 2024, and one in Madera, in the San Joaquin Valley, in 2025. These are branches designed to offer more extensive financial counseling and education, including bilingual help from one-on-one sessions to live workshops on key financial topics. More centers are planned.
This is part of a focus on service, according to Daum. “We just want to continue making progress at all levels, to give more reasons for people in California to say yes to Golden 1.”
Read selected previews about sessions at The Financial Brand Forum 2026:
- To Win Against the Big Banks, Smaller Institutions Must Go on the Offensive
- Why ‘No’ Is the Most Expensive Word in the Boardroom
- The ‘K-Shaped Economy’ and Other Myths Bankers Should Ignore in 2026
- How Fintechs Disrupt Deposits to Acquire Primary Banking Relationships
- How Citizens Bank Is Blending AI with Classic Business Banking
- Storytelling Is Hot. But Is Your Bank Telling the Right Stories to the Right People?
