Experian’s Human Touch Turns Credit Into Connection for a New Financial Generation

From left to right: Steven Millman, Nicole Dancel

What you will learn from this article:

• How Experian humanizes finance through influencer partnerships and relatable storytelling.

• Why Nicole Dancel’s insights show the power of combining emotional resonance with data-driven creative testing.

• What marketers can learn from Experian’s approach to building trust and brand salience in complex categories like financial services.

At the ARF Creative Effectiveness 2025 conference, Experian’s Brand Insights Lead, Nicole Dancel, detailed how the company is reinventing financial storytelling through empathy, creativity, and consumer insight. Speaking with Steven Millman, Chief Scientist at iSpot.tv, Dancel unpacked how Experian’s “Financial Power to All” mission drives every campaign—from the “Big Financial Friend” series starring Sam Richardson to creator collaborations with Flau’jae Johnson, each designed to make money talk feel human.

“Finances can feel confusing and overwhelming,” Dancel said. “That’s where influencers play such an important role—they act as educators and conduits, helping people feel comfortable talking about money.” By working with trusted voices like Johnson, who connects authentically with younger audiences, Experian bridges the gap between financial literacy and lifestyle culture.

For Dancel, brand equity and trust go hand in hand. “We embed security, privacy, and equity into every personal experience,” she explained. “Those values reinforce our journey beyond credit into broader financial empowerment.”

Behind the creative work sits a rigorous insights framework. Experian uses a 360° consumer feedback loop, from creative testing tools to live customer feedback programs, to measure emotional and informational resonance across every channel. “We look not only at campaign performance but also how creative delivers against brand goals,” Dancel noted. “That helps us validate that we’re truly connecting with consumers.”

Marketers can take away a clear message from Experian’s playbook: emotional storytelling backed by audience data builds stronger brand salience. As Dancel put it, “It’s about having a resilient, singular voice. Whether it’s in broadcast or digital, we stay focused on what we stand for.”

For communicators and marketers, Experian’s approach is a reminder that data alone doesn’t build trust—human connection does. By aligning creative authenticity with measurable insight, brands can transform financial education from transactional to transformational.