Creode appoints performance media director

Leeds-based financial services specialist agency Creode has appointed Jon Swales as performance media director and board-level partner, strengthening its senior leadership team.

Jon joins Creode with 30 years’ experience in digital marketing, having founded and successfully exited his own agency, CloudSpotting, in 2015. 

His background spans PPC, conversion rate optimisation and marketing analytics, with experience working with regulated organisations including building societies and fintech businesses.

In his new role, Jon will lead Creode’s performance media capability, supporting financial services clients with customer acquisition and retention in highly regulated environments. 

He said: “The generalist agency model is under pressure from every direction. 

“Clients can access talent directly, AI is commoditising execution, and the big networks are competing on price. 

“The agencies that will thrive are those with genuine expertise in sectors where that expertise creates measurable value.”

Jon added: “Scale used to be the advantage. 

“Now technology can give a focused team the firepower of a much larger operation. 

“The question becomes: what do you know that others don’t? 

“For us, the answer is financial services – and we’ve built the tools to prove it.”

Jon’s appointment reflects Creode’s continued focus on sector specialism, combining deep industry knowledge with purpose-built technology and data-led delivery.

Founded in Leeds, Creode is a digital agency specialising exclusively in financial services, working with building societies, fintechs and financial institutions to deliver compliant, performance-driven digital marketing and web solutions.

Guy Weston, chief executive of Creode, added: “Most agencies treat financial services as just another vertical.

“We've made it our entire focus. 

“That means we understand the compliance landscape, we know what messaging works at different stages of the customer journey, and we can demonstrate commercial impact in ways that matter to CFOs, not just CMOs.

“We built features that only matter if you understand the sector. 

“Migration tools that format content correctly to eliminate human error during platform moves. 

“Monitoring for broken links and usability issues. 

“A partnership with AudioEye for accessibility compliance. 

“These aren’t selling points for most agencies because most agencies don’t work exclusively in regulated industries.”

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