EMI Strategic Marketing · Est. 1993 · Boston

What sets us apart
is the way
we think.

Thirty years of working at the hardest problems in financial services and B2B marketing. One conviction: the thinking has to come first.

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30+
Years in Financial Services
100+
Client Engagements
17yr
State Street Partnership
15+
Industries Served
From the Firm

Thirty years.
One firm.

Campbell Edlund
Campbell Edlund
Founder & CEO
Campbell Edlund on strategy →

Why the proliferation trap is the most expensive mistake in B2B marketing — and what it takes to get out of it.

"Most organizations don't have a messaging problem. They have a thinking problem. The words are just where it shows up."
Mark Malloy
Mark Malloy
Executive Creative Director
Mark Malloy on creative direction →

Why the best B2B creative feels like journalism — and why most briefs are the problem, not the answer.

"The brief that a good creative team receives should already contain the answer. Everything after that is craft."
Ian MacDonald
Ian MacDonald
Executive Vice President
Ian MacDonald on positioning →

What separates a real positioning strategy from a positioning exercise — and why most firms can't tell the difference.

"Strategy isn't the document. It's the quality of decisions that follow from having done the work."
What This Is

Most firms have opinions.
Very few have insight.

Most organizations know what they want to say. Very few have done the harder work of deciding what they won't. EMI has spent thirty years helping the most demanding clients in financial services make that call — and then build the strategy, positioning, and marketing that follows.

"We don't show up with a campaign. We show up with a point of view. The campaign follows."

— Campbell Edlund, Founder & CEO
Find the Thinking

One firm.
Many platforms.

EMI's perspectives on strategy, financial services, and creative direction — wherever you do your best thinking.

in
LinkedIn
Articles & Commentary

Campbell, Ian, and Mark publish natively — sharp takes on financial services marketing, positioning, and the work of building conviction in complex categories.

Active
▶
YouTube
Video · Long & Short Form

The talking heads, in conversation. Short-form cuts for a single sharp idea. Long-form discussions for the problems that deserve more than two minutes.

Coming Soon
🎙
The EMI Podcast
Audio · Weekly

Campbell, Ian, and Mark — and occasional guests — working through the hardest questions in financial services marketing. Thirty to forty-five minutes. No filler.

Coming Soon
✉
The Newsletter
Email · Bi-Weekly

The thinking, delivered directly. No algorithm. No feed. One piece of genuine insight from the firm, twice a month, to the people who've asked for it.

Coming Soon
M
Medium
Long-Form Essays

The longer arguments — the ones that need room to breathe. EMI's most substantial pieces of thinking, published where serious readers go to find it.

Coming Soon
S
Substack
Publication & Archive

The full EMI archive — every perspective, every argument, every piece of thinking the firm has published. Searchable. Subscribable. Yours to keep.

Coming Soon
✍
EMI Journal
Editorial · On This Site

Not a blog. A publication. Original perspectives on the problems that matter most in financial services and B2B marketing — written to the standard of the work itself.

Active
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Spotify
Podcast · Audio

The EMI Podcast, wherever you listen. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms when it launches.

Coming Soon

The thinking is free.
The application
is where we come in.

EMI works with financial services and B2B organizations that have complex products, sophisticated prospects, and high standards for what marketing should accomplish. If the quality of strategic thinking matters to you, we should talk.

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