Five Takeaways from the Snapchat FinServ Summit

Field notes from Lily Salzman, who attended the summit for MIJO.

Financial brands are competing for more than attention. They’re competing for trust, relevance, and a place in conversations people are already having.

Lily Salzman attended the Snapchat FinServ Summit for MIJO and came back with five things worth thinking about, from Gen Z’s financial habits to the role creators play in making money feel less intimidating.

1. Gen Z isn’t the future financial consumer. They’re already here.

During a conversation with Kara Louis, Jamie Stenziano shared Ipsos research challenging the idea that Gen Z isn’t a meaningful financial audience yet. Among the figures presented:

Snapchat reaches 43 million Gen Z users.

94% of daily Snapchatters have at least one financial product.

Two thirds of Gen Z Snapchatters follow accounts related to personal financial tools.

The opportunity isn’t getting Gen Z interested in finance. It’s figuring out how to connect with an audience that’s already participating.

2. Financial education has to hold people’s attention.

Keri Zuckerman talked about the need for education and entertainment to coexist in financial services content. For a category that can be complicated, intimidating, and historically pretty dry, that matters.

Financial education doesn’t have to feel like homework to be valuable. And when the next piece of content is one swipe away, being useful isn’t always enough to make someone stay.

For us, that’s a creative challenge. How do you make something people need to understand into something they actually want to watch?

3. The best time to build trust is when money gets real.

A new job. A move. A marriage. A home. A kid.

Kara Louis described how life events often drive financial product adoption. Suddenly, people have questions they’ve never needed to answer before, and decisions that feel bigger than choosing a product.

Kara and Keri both pointed to an opportunity for brands to be genuinely helpful in those moments. Don’t just talk at people. Help them navigate what’s happening, and celebrate it with them.

But that raises another question: when does personalization become interruption?

Greg Rossi emphasized the difference between participating in a conversation and interrupting one. A home purchase might make a financial message relevant, but relevance doesn’t automatically equal permission. Brands need to be clear about consent and how consumer data is being used.

Knowing when to show up is only half the job. Knowing how to show up matters just as much.

4. Creators are changing how people talk about money.

Vivian Tu spoke about how differently people discuss money today compared with her parents’ generation. Creators can feel more like friends because they speak plainly, acknowledge what they don’t know, and don’t talk down to their audiences.

Ipsos research shared at the summit reflected that dynamic: 72% of daily Snapchatters find Snapchat creators likable because they talk like friends rather than spokespeople, while 63% say they value Snapchat creator recommendations.

Kara made a related point: hearing about money from a creator can sometimes feel more approachable than hearing it from a financial advisor. That doesn’t make every creator a qualified source of advice. It does say something important about the tone people respond to.

Vivian also challenged the idea that creators are only useful for awareness. The right collaboration can support education, discovery, trust, and adoption. The opportunity is to think beyond a single sponsored post and give creators a meaningful role throughout the customer journey.

5. Show up before someone is searching for you.

Keri made the case for introducing a financial brand before someone is ready to choose a product. Another figure shared at the summit: 64% of daily Snapchatters say they’re more likely to try a new financial product or brand after seeing it on social.

By the time someone starts searching, they may already have a shortlist and an opinion about who belongs on it.

Greg returned to the importance of meeting people where they spend their time. But presence alone isn’t the goal. As financial conversations move across social platforms, messaging, chatbots, and LLMs, brands need to consider whether they’re contributing something useful or simply adding another interruption.

What we brought back to MIJO

One idea connected almost everything we heard: financial services is a trust business, and that trust is being built through creators, conversations, and culture long before someone searches for a product.

That connects directly to how we work at MIJO. Get close to the audience. Understand the moments that matter. Make complicated ideas feel human. And give people a reason to pay attention before asking them to take action.

Statistics reflect Snapchat and Ipsos research presented at the summit, as recorded in Lily’s field notes.