008 Tessa Bryant
Head of Brand & Communications, Lightyear
Tessa Bryant is Head of Brand & Communications at Lightyear. Prior to that she ran PR at Republic Europe and then joined the team for Robinhood’s first foray into the UK market. She’s a Founder Institute mentor, has appeared on Innovate Finance’s Women in Fintech Powerlist multiple times, was runner-up ‘Woman of the Year 2022’ at the AltFi Awards, and is an all-round great.
“It’s just trial, error, learn, go again…”
The interview
What’s your coffee ritual?
Is it OK to admit I only drink tea? Yorkshire Gold preferably.
What was your first marketing job?
Retail PR intern running around London getting Waitrose and Superdrug product samples into the hands of magazine journalists.
What finance apps do you have on your home screen?
NatWest for day-to-day, Lightyear for investing, Yonder for credit card, and Wise for business.
Which newsletter, podcast, or book do you recommend most?
I normally read to escape work, so anything fiction and not at all one of those impressive, intellectual answers. That said, I am actually slowly making my way through The Psychology of Money which is great.
What’s an underrated growth channel in fintech?
We’re constantly betting on smaller, quality, community channels. Essentially the anti-Tube campaign: go small, go niche, and go direct (vs big and mainstream).
What keeps you up at night?
Growth. It’s a long, hard grind. And no matter how many smart people you chat to you, nobody has easy answers. It’s just trial, error, learn, go again… you know the drill.
What are the most useful measurement tools you use in your work?
For PR, ignore AVE, reach, circulation, and all that crap. Quality coverage in target publications is what matters, while tracking web traffic, SEO uplifts, and any conversion spikes as metrics. Collectively, we obsess over customer satisfaction scores as a company. It’s not just for the product team, it boils right down into us lot in marketing. If someone is finding something hard, it’s often because we aren’t communicating it right.
What’s one fintech brand (other than your own) that’s getting marketing right?
I’ve seen Tide’s business accounts everywhere recently. And I love what bunq are doing - they’ve had a really strong last couple of years.
Why is marketing so hard?
Financial marketing is especially tough. You’ve got a lot of different regulations across markets and customer groups that vary so wildly (each product is not suitable for - or even available to - each customer). That, and everyone has an opinion on what you’re doing. It’s a blessing and a curse.