How Siebert is using AI to lead the next era of financial marketing
AI is rapidly reshaping how finance brands market themselves, but few have approached it with purpose. Legacy firms like Siebert Financial, along with fintechs and other forward-thinking brands, are using AI to tap into the potential of a new creative era.
Algorithms and data have already reshaped trading, investment decisions, and how financial institutions assess risk, from predicting market volatility to managing client portfolios. They’ve shown how AI changes industries unevenly, why scale dominates, and why human judgment, taste, and creativity still matter. Brand visibility is shifting. Jellyfish’s Share of Model platform shows how large language models now act as new gatekeepers. They don’t just answer questions or mirror what people want to hear; they decide which brands appear, what they’re associated with, and what feels relevant. As Setup.us puts it: “AI will continue to transform how brands engage with consumers, but success depends on keeping personalization authentic and human.”
How do you stay culturally relevant when algorithms decide what gets seen? Brands and campaigns now face a new kind of challenge: to be recognised by the machine and remembered by the human. In a world where AI can make anything, real value comes from what connects with culture, the ideas, the stories, and the creativity behind them. If brands stop telling stories, what will make them matter?
The new fight: being the answer
Generative AI has shifted from experiment to infrastructure, with finance among the fastest adopters. AI models don’t reward volume; they reward content that shows relevance and real credibility. The battleground is framing: how a brand positions its story, values, and voice to resonate with both machines and people.
Twenty years ago, the game was keywords; today, the stakes are whether AI describes your brand as trusted, innovative, or irrelevant. Algorithms can optimize, but they can’t build belief. Storytelling does. In a world flooded with information, meaning cuts through. The brands that turn data into values and services into culture will stand out, not just to people but in the memory of AI itself.
Storytelling as the new luxury
Siebert made a bold move into the next era of marketing with Generation Wealth, its first AI-powered campaign. It proved that a 60-year-old financial firm can still take creative risks and stay relevant. Built in-house by Gebbia Media and its creative partners TOML Collective, it became one of the sector’s first fully AI-powered initiatives, blending indulgence, digital culture, and financial empowerment.
The campaign rejects the usual tone of restraint and financial advice. It taps into gen Z’s unapologetic approach to money, where indulgence isn’t the opposite of responsibility, but part of it. The message is simple: "You can have your cake and eat it too, if you know how to manage your money." Rather than polished stock imagery, Generation Wealth highlighted creators whose careers and lifestyles reflected non-traditional paths to success. Athletes, musicians, and cultural voices became the faces of the campaign, embodying the ambition and diversity of its audience. Visually, it borrowed from fashion and street culture.
“This is not about dumbing down financial information,” says Stefano Marrone, CMO of Siebert. “Gen Z is financially savvy, just on a different wavelength. They invest, they save, they hustle. What they don’t do is respond to outdated messaging. Generation Wealth is our answer: serious financial information, delivered with culture and relevance.”
Behind the scenes, AI was used to generate campaign visuals, but it didn’t replace the creative team; it expanded their toolkit. The marketing team defined the strategic foundation, creative direction, and production, while AI provided faster ways to prototype and move beyond stock-like imagery or costly footage sourcing. The real gain was speed and flexibility, allowing the team to test and refine directions quickly. The campaign launched in July across US markets, expanding from digital and influencer activations to out-of-home placements in Miami, New York, and Los Angeles.
“Connecting with the next generation of investors is not optional but vital,” explains John J. Gebbia, CEO of Siebert Financial. “Generation Wealth reflects our broader strategy: embracing innovation, not just in what we build, but in how we build our brand. We’ve adopted AI across the business, and we’re not afraid to experiment. That’s how you stay relevant. That’s how you grow.”
The way we create is changing
This isn’t just finance, it’s everywhere. Agency R/GA teamed with Google’s Veo model to produce ‘From the Mountains to the City‘, in collaboration with fashion brand Moncler, a film impossible without generative AI. Completed in four weeks, it sketched digital landscapes that blurred film and experiment. AI’s glitches became artistic assets: a failed tent-zip scene reframed as an abstract moment. To keep the project coherent across time zones, R/GA built Shot Flow, a Gemini-powered app for prompt sharing and version control. Meanwhile, Popeyes turned heads with an AI-generated diss track aimed at McDonald’s, produced in three days with Veo visuals and Suno music. What made it resonate wasn’t the tech but the satirical edge added by the team.
Credit card company Coign aired one of the first AI-generated TV spots at a fraction of the cost. And, Brazilian digital payment platform PicPay uses hybrid recommender systems to promote financial services and items within its app, showing strategic use of AI in content personalization.
The new strategy is storytelling
Across every industry, AI is changing how things are made and how systems think. The real difference comes from taste, choosing what feels authentic, not just what’s fast or efficient. We live in a world of endless options. Anyone can create more, quicker, but it can’t replace a story that feels real. Because storytelling and taste still matter. They’ve become rare, and that rarity is the new luxury.
“What will set brands apart now isn’t how fast they move, but how intentional they are,” says Virtyt Pula, creative director at TOML Collective. “The real luxury is in having taste, in knowing which direction to take, what to say no to, and how to make that difference show up both strategically and creatively. You can have every option in the world, but only a few will feel true to your brand.”
In the AI age, that’s what defines creative leadership: knowing how to use technology without losing the human touch that gives it meaning.
Originally published on the Drum.
Written by Debora Deva
Debbie is a writer, art director, and multidisciplinary creative at TOML Collective. With a background in advertising, she brings fresh perspectives to the journal — aiming to educate, question, and spark new ideas.
Get in touch with debora@tomlcollective.com