John Oxford on marketing budget
From Bank Marketing Wisdom Unveiled: A Candid Conversation with John Oxford · · The Modern Banker
“My ratio is always a million dollars in marketing for every billion in assets. So whatever size you are, that's where I think your benchmark should be. A lot of banks won't give you that much money, some will, but then they'll consider marketing investing in technology or something else which really isn't marketing or sales. So let's ask for a million dollars for every billion in assets and then chop your pie up.”
On , John Oxford, Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer at RENASANT CORP, spoke about marketing budget during Bank Marketing Wisdom Unveiled: A Candid Conversation with John Oxford on The Modern Banker.
About John Oxford
John Oxford, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Renasant, has discussed his marketing philosophy and career in recent podcast appearances. In a September 2024 interview, he described his background as a White House junior staffer during 9/11 and his early career as a taste tester for Nabisco. He advocated for a marketing budget benchmark of $1 million per billion in assets, with 70% allocated to public-facing efforts and 30% to internal operations. Oxford stated that social media is "way underutilized by banks" and called it a "free channel" that allows for more creative spending. He also emphasized the importance of connecting marketing campaigns to the sales process, noting that banks often "rush it to the marketplace and forget to tell the bankers what the campaign is about." In a 2022 interview, Oxford discussed Renasant's growth from $2.3 billion to $15 billion in assets over 16 years, expanding into six or seven states including the Carolinas. He described launching a "Meet the Bankers" campaign during the pandemic that interviewed 70 bankers and created over 20 pieces of content per banker. Oxford attributed his marketing exposure to his father, who was head of corporate communications for Lowe's. He advised community bank marketers to "ask to be on the ALCO committee to learn how the bank makes money" and to focus on fundamentals, stating that "customers just want to cash a check on Friday afternoon" and that marketers should not get "distracted by technology that customers don't really care about."