The Fine Line Between Compliance and Creativity
As with many things in fintech, following regulations is ultimately about creating trust.
Financial products breathe trust. Without it, they quickly wither, whether that’s a wealth management app or a business payments platform.
Trust is a theme that runs through all of Nikki’s fintech experience.
At BNPL provider OpenPay, the challenge was education. It was such a new technology that people needed to understand how it worked before they could believe in it:
“We were building trust by being really transparent. We take money from the retailers, not from the consumer. It's great for you, but it's also good for the retailer”
If consumers didn’t understand the product, they wouldn’t trust it – and without trust, there was no adoption.
At Tandem Bank, a green-focused challenger, trust played a similar role. The marketing had to differentiate the brand enough to stand out, while remaining authentic to the product and its promise.
Often, that trust comes from simplifying complexity.
“It’s about how do you actually simplify down to an emotional message as well, so it's not just selling technical features”
In a crowded market, the brands that stand out are those that find the emotional truth beneath the technical details, and sell that.
Now at VoxSmart, translating complexity into clarity remains central. Turning technical features into simple, human benefits builds understanding. But expressing the company’s ethos is what ultimately builds belief.
You can explain a product all you like, but if people don’t trust it, they’ll never use it.
Balancing Risk and Originality in a Regulated Market
When it comes to earning trust, many fintechs play it safe.
It’s an understandable instinct. Pushing creative boundaries is daunting at the best of times, and it often feels easier to blend in than to stand out.
Layer in the challenges of regulation, and the task of standing out becomes even tougher.
For Nikki, it’s about finding the opportunity to play around the edges, and leaning on emotion, humour, and storytelling to maximise impact.
“At the end of the day you're still selling to people and so you still want that emotional attachment to the brand”
It’s about balancing creativity and character with the facts.
Looking beyond fintech can help here. In industries like gaming and fashion, Nikki draws inspiration from the idea of hype cycles, moments that create excitement and a sense of belonging.
Here you don’t just sell the feature, you sell the feeling of being part of something new, part of an era.
We’ve seen previously how this kind of community ethos was integral to fintech in the early days, and there’s still much to be gained from deploying these tactics today.
Why Video Builds Trust When Words Can’t
For Nikki, video also plays a central role in building trust.
No longer just a ‘nice to have’, video is uniquely powerful in its ability to tell your story and build emotional connection, because it shows, not just tells.
“It's much easier to see the real kind of value and the emotion in a video than it does just writing it on the website”
One increasingly popular approach is the remotely filmed testimonial, speaking to real customers.
“People want to see people talking about your product in a genuine way ... they want to see that other people are using your product, how they're using it, what value they're getting”
As Nikki points out, this doesn’t always have to be a high-cost approach. On the contrary, when it comes to case studies, a more self-produced approach can often add an authenticity that helps build trust.
Video’s ubiquity is what makes it an essential part of any marketers toolkit.
As Nikki notes, “it's such a core format because so many people are now consuming more and more video”.
Even search engines have their ‘eyes’ on video more than they used to, and it's become a tool to help your page index higher (we’ve written more about this here).
Ultimately, the best strategy for video is one that deploys it right across the customer life cycle, from initial case studies, to explainer videos, to onboarding and tutorial content.
Deciding on the production approach starts with the intent, understanding where it fits and how people will engage with it.
From the Inside Out: The Power of Founder-Led Content
If customer stories build trust, then giving a face to the people behind the brand takes it even further.
Another massive trust driver for video at the moment is founder-led content, specifically, encouraging the thought leaders within your organisation to become evangelists for the brand through their personal channels.
Nikki is no stranger to this type of content, and has some great tips for getting internal buy-in.
This starts by making it as simple an ask as possible:
“They don't want to spend loads of time creating content, so if you can create the bones for them, give them something to start with, then they've got something to play around with”
This is a great approach, and one that goes a long way to helping take the production burden off your time-stretched c-suite who you need to keep on side.
But Nikki goes even further. As well as the central piece of content, post, video, or general wording, she likes to create ‘sub-snippets’ - versions with slightly different messaging depending on whether it's for the CRO, CEO, or CTO.
“That way, everyone's got a slightly different message that will suit their audience, and then they’re free to adapt it to their tone of voice”
It’s simple optimisations like this that can go a long way to turn your whole organisation into a content engine, with many different touchpoints and outlets.
Real Stories, Real Impact
When it comes to telling stories, Nikki’s seen just how powerful a tool video can be.
Alongside her work at VoxSmart, she supports Project Nemo, which aims to accelerate disability inclusion across fintech.
The project’s mission is twofold: to improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities in fintech, and to encourage fintechs to make their products and services more accessible.
As part of their campaign, Project Nemo produced a series of short documentary profiles — each one highlighting a personal story of disability and how it shapes someone’s ability to engage with everyday financial services.
Stories like Amit’s explore the human side of accessibility through lived experience rather than abstract policy.
By using video to spotlight real people and genuine challenges, Project Nemo turns regulation and inclusion into something more human, building understanding, empathy, and ultimately, trust.
Wrap Up
Creativity in fintech isn’t about breaking the rules, it’s about finding room to move within them.
The best marketing works with compliance, using clarity, transparency, and authenticity to build the trust those rules are designed to protect.
Video brings that to life. It turns complexity into something human, showing real stories and genuine emotion, from customer case studies to inclusion projects like Project Nemo.
In a regulated industry, constraints aren’t the enemy of creativity. They’re often what make it possible.
