Fifth Third’s CMO: Focus on the Customer, Not the Product

Ultimately, a financial marketer’s job is making sure their institution is “solving the problems that people need to get solved,” says Fifth Third’s Melissa Stevens, EVP and CMO.

Simple, but profound, especially when marketers can get caught up in the newest techniques and tools, forgetting that it’s all about job #1.

Key insight: Fifth Third learned this lesson years ago, says Stevens, in a wide-ranging discussion during the 2026 Financial Brand Forum: “You don’t have to be a fintech to solve people’s problems. You don’t have to be a large bank or a small bank. You just have to be focused on the things that matter.”

What matters now? Basic affordability. Young people — and many on the lower arm of the “K curve” — have needs and expectations that hinge not on charter but on purpose and impact, according to Stevens. This has guided some of the bank’s key product decisions.

For example, she says, “we were the first bank to put gig paychecks into early pay,” as part of its Momentum family of accounts. “Sometimes, you need a way to borrow from your future self,” says Stevens.

Another example: Not imposing overdraft fees nor rejecting checks in the first 90 days of a Fifth Third Momentum checking account — recognizing that, when switching providers, many customers fear their ability to make critical payments, and to allay concerns about “hidden fees or gotchas.”

Need to Know:

• Fifth Third CMO Melissa Stevens is passing her tenth anniversary at the bank, including more than three years leading marketing.
• After years at Citi, Stevens worked her way up at Fifth Third via digital and innovation posts.
• Being Fifth Third’s CMO means running an operation that goes way beyond traditional marketing division boundaries. Stevens’ brief includes key elements of the bank’s massive expansion in the Southeast and in Texas.

Nibbles and Chunks: Putting Fifth Third’s Message Across in Today’s Terms

Ultimately, “you’re trying to help people frown less often,” says Stevens. When banks make something positive happen for a customer, “that’s the key to competing against fintechs.”

But even with well-considered products aimed at real needs, the challenge is communicating that to prospects and nurturing new customers, especially Gen Zers and Millennials.

TV ads aren’t the answer. “With eight-second attention spans, you’ve got to hit them over and over and over again,” at high cost, says Stevens. Direct mail often isn’t the solution either.

“You can try to vomit everything at somebody all at once,” says Stevens, “but will somebody read a three-page memo about the product? Probably not. You’ve got to cut through the noise that’s out there, find opportunities where somebody’s going to be open to a conversation.”

Stevens takes things back to solutions: “Find the moments that you can surface things when they matter.”

Often, this requires leaning into the voluminous data that banks have on their customers and using it to target them with timely messages in nibbles.

Leveraging micro-moments, like the overdraft feature mentioned earlier. After the bank covers the new customer during that 90-day period, it doesn’t let the matter rest with a passive line in a monthly statement. Instead, the bank sends a message to the customer noting that it had their back.

Similarly, Fifth Third uses its mobile app to compliment users when they’ve done something noteworthy. She says this amounts to saying, “Hey, you did these three things in the last month that you haven’t done before. Way to go! Good job! Here’s what that’s going to do for you.”

“That helps reinforce positive behavior at a moment when it actually matters,” says Stevens. “That dopamine hit is what’s going to make them want to do more.”

Read more: Storytelling Is Hot. But Is Your Bank Telling the Right Stories to the Right People?