35: Marketing as entertainment, built to perform: Insights from Chime Chief Growth and Marketing Officer, Vineet Mehra

2026-03-04

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How can you create marketing that feels like entertainment and drives measurable growth? Chime Chief Growth and Marketing Officer Vineet Mehra breaks down the product and marketing choices he sees fueling Chime's momentum, including being named Time magazine's No. 1 banking brand. He frames Chime as "not a bank" but a "financial technology company" built for "everyday Americans." And he attributes its traction to showing up in the channels and subcultures where many people spend time, while building products and features designed to meet real needs. Vineet also shares what other marketing leaders can take from Chime's approach: Start with a differentiated product. Treat attention as the ultimate currency. And use social-first, episo...

How can you create marketing that feels like entertainment and drives measurable growth?

Chime Chief Growth and Marketing Officer Vineet Mehra breaks down the product and marketing choices he sees fueling Chime's momentum, including being named Time magazine's No. 1 banking brand. He frames Chime as "not a bank" but a "financial technology company" built for "everyday Americans." And he attributes its traction to showing up in the channels and subcultures where many people spend time, while building products and features designed to meet real needs.

Vineet also shares what other marketing leaders can take from Chime's approach: Start with a differentiated product. Treat attention as the ultimate currency. And use social-first, episodic entertainment to make financial topics more relatable.

At Chime, brand building looks more like running a streaming platform or magazine, where the job is to consistently earn attention with programming people choose to watch.

To ensure that entertainment-driven attention translates into growth, he leans on "performance storytelling" that connects brand-building, direct response and customer lifetime value. He also explains how Chime is applying AI by mapping tools to "jobs to be done" across customer service, creative workflows and talent development. Vineet closes with his view that the biggest potential threat to marketers is resisting change—that leaders should encourage hands-on experimentation while staying anchored to commercial outcomes.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Ways attention can be earned through entertainment-style brand storytelling

Practical lessons for applying AI to specific high-impact work inside marketing and customer operations

How marketing leaders can earn more influence in executive and boardroom conversations

Key highlights:

[00:00] Introduction

[01:30] CMO by day, pizza maker by night

[03:15] Vineet's path to Chime

[08:00] Success in the banking industry

[11:15] Marketing that punches above its weight

[14:15] Showing up where people willingly spend time

[16:50] A brief history of marketing leading to performance storytelling