Turning Money Management On Its Head: Monzo's AJ Coyne

It’s a brave move to purposely get consumers to think less about a product – and there are few categories where it works as powerfully as banking. 

Monzo is a digital bank aiming to showcase to its audience that while money is important, it shouldn’t consume a person's everyday thoughts. Its CMO AJ Coyne is the marketer helping the brand mark its territory as it has continued to grow in popularity over recent years

Its brand platform, Get Busy Living, is the antithesis of traditional banking ads – a testament to Coyne for not only creating an entertaining creative campaign, but help establish a new creative philosophy for the brand that can be repeated for all consumers. 

The latest installment encourages Monzo Business banking users to celebrate simple financial management that allows more time to focus on running and enjoying their businesses.

It’s a creative approach that is refreshingly uninterested in the product, and making banking the front and centre while the brand is turning the category on its head. It feels an apt move for the online bank; Monzo is distinctively Monzo because it’s staying true to what made it distinctive in the first place. 

“Bringing the platform to Monzo Business lets us show how we can take some of that complexity off their plate, from managing expenses and keeping accounting connected to helping them stay on top of tax, so they can spend more time focused on their customers, their teams, and growing their business,” he explains.

Coyne joined Monzo back in 2024, having previously worked for the likes of Klarna as its VP consumer marketing, Clemenger BBDO as its general manager and head of Mars Australia, McCann’s business director, and Ogilvy’s global account director. 

Working for a challenger brand that now has 14 million consumers, he previously told Creative Salon, has allowed Monzo’s creativity to stand out; "Creativity is the thing that allows us to stand out, whether it be from those who remember 11 years ago in Victoria Park, the hot coral moment card through to the wonky saving challenges before the start of the year – its about finding real problems and solving them in real time."

Coyne wants the brand to talk to its audience about money in a way that they understand, allowing for “true” problems for the customer to be solved. And Get Busy Living certainly does that. 

Alongside its creative agency, BBH – who it started working with in 2025, Monzo has rolled out a range of work alongside its new brand platform – from partnering with Coventry United to allow Monzo users to purchase its new away kit for 1p to creating its own money jargon book that was showcased in a pop-up book shop for a limited period of time.

“We had one rule for Monzo, and that was: don't be average,” explains BBH’s global CCO Alex Grieve while showcasing the latest campaign at a recent Thinkbox conference. "Don't fall into that sea of sameness. Escape the category cliches. Don't pretend to be someone who's not with your bank. Don't bore people with underwhelming product features or caveated offers.”

Coyne’s work with the brand has shown a simple truth: it’s found a creative idea that is being allowed to travel, without diluting its core proposition.

"AJ is a brave and creative marketing leader - passionate about building brands,” says Karen Martin, CEO, BBH London and Dublin. “He has a unique quality in a marketer: the belief that the best way to commercial success is through the creative ideas. His elevation to CMO this year recognises the work he's done for Monzo over the last few years, growing the business in a way that has set it apart from its competitors. No mean feat. 

“This shone through when we worked together on the Get Busy Living brand platform. From the beginning, AJ placed his trust in us as his creative partner. He was clear about what he wanted to achieve and how: to zag where others in the category were zigging. He worked seamlessly with our global CCO Alex to ensure those little moments of ordinary life captured Monzo's customers as well as the brand's hot coral attitude. AJ understands the importance, and power, of a brand stepping back within its marketing. And he's also a brilliantly optimistic partner throughout it all."