Wednesday, 10 December, 2025
1pm CT | 2pm EST

The Frenemy Marketing Network: Inside the Growth Playbooks of Competing Banks

Three rival banks. One open conversation about marketing creativity, primacy, and profitability

In partnership with

Why attend

What happens when three competing banks sit down and share their playbooks? Find out in this unfiltered conversation between the marketing leaders of BankFirst, Renasant, and BankPlus — moderated by StrategyCorps' Dave DeFazio.

You'll hear real-world insights into how each brand tackles growth, customer engagement, and primacy, from campaign ideas that sparked results to lessons learned the hard way. We'll unpack what's working now in financial marketing, where the next big opportunities lie, and maybe even spark a little friendly rivalry.

Join us for a candid, behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to win hearts, deposits, and loyalty in 2025.

The key take-aways

How top-performing banks are using marketing creativity to drive primacy and deposit growth.

What's fueling recurring revenue strategies in 2025 — and how marketing plays a pivotal role.

Real-world stories of innovation, experimentation, and lessons learned.

Where three "frenemies" agree (and disagree) on the future of checking growth.

The webinar panel

Click to view full speaker details

Leon Manning, SVP, Director of Marketing | BankFirst

I’ve worn many hats in my career in roles in marketing, research, development, IT, and consulting. As a result, I gained a unique ability to train teams, manage multi-disciplinary projects, navigate complex business challenges, measure results, and steer operations in new directions.

In each of my roles, I learned the importance of understanding your clients and how it is critical to build relationships. Whether with clients, donors, staff, vendors, or managers, you must strengthen ties with the people involved in every part of the process to drive change and integrate new strategies. I believe that’s why I’ve been successful as a managing director in multiple industries.

John Oxford, Chief Marketing Officer | Renasant

Amazon Best Selling Author, No More Next Time - Marketing in the Age of Distraction, John Oxford didn’t choose marketing, it chose him. At age 17, Oxford found his first job as a taste tester and commercial viewer for Nabisco. Taste-testing snacks and watching commercials may seem like a sweet gig, but a young man can only eat so many Nutter Butters and Oreos. Oxford decided to put his professional career in the ad world on hold, opting for college instead.

Fast forward to today. Oxford now uses his well-honed skills in brand messaging as Chief Marketing Officer for Renasant (NYSE: RSNT) — with assets of approximately $26 billion, 3,000 employees and 300 locations in the Southeastern United States.

In addition, Oxford is the co-host of the Marketing Money Podcast. He is the former co-chair for the American Bankers Association Marketing Conference, and lectures at the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Penn and the Graduate School of Banking at LSU.

Prior to joining Renasant, Oxford served in the administration of President George W. Bush as a Legislative Assistant and Public Affairs Aide to the Executive Office of the President through both the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Oxford served his community as Chairman of the Tupelo Redevelopment Agency (07-14) and as Chairman of the Autism Center of North Mississippi (12-16).

Oxford formerly served (2006-2009) as a First Lieutenant in the Mississippi State Guard, and was named Top 40 under 40 in Mississippi in 2007 by the Mississippi Business Journal.

Dave DeFazio, Chief Strategy Officer | StrategyCorps

Armed with a passion for banking strategy, Dave DeFazio has found great success and satisfaction in exploring the intersection of data, marketing, and technology.

Dave’s extensive ﬁnancial services experience and continuous research in the ﬁeld help him ensure that each product and service meets the needs of today's ﬁnancial institutions. At StrategyCorps, he leads and manages the company’s strategy-setting eﬀorts related to solution development and evolution, spearheading strategic partnerships, while working directly with ﬁnancial institutions to design, build, and implement a variety of checking solutions.

He downloads banking apps for fun. On the weekend. And talks about them at dinner with his family. Across the industry, Dave is a highly sought-after speaker who has shared thought leadership on innovations in ﬁnancial technology, retail and SMB banking, mobile banking, customer engagement, product and customer proﬁtability, product design, bank marketing, and changing consumer behaviors in an increasingly mobile-centric world.

Dave graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics.

Download the Webinar

This webinar is in partnership with

StrategyCorps

Since 2001, StrategyCorps has worked with nearly 400 financial institutions on retail and business checking strategies, using our actionable, proprietary analytical solution and proven-to-win merchandising formula that features value-added checking products and dynamic pricing plans - all delivered with an unbeatable digital user experience and industry leading service and support.

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