Asset management's leading marketers share: thought leadership best practices

Thought leadership can be one of the most powerful tools a brand has in its marketing arsenal. In asset management it may be THE tool. 

So what is thought leadership? It is the ability to offer innovative and relevant ideas to clients. But crucially,  thought leadership is more than marketing – it is, after performance and service, perhaps where institutional clients gain most value from engaging you as an asset manager. After all, beyond your own product, your thought leadership efforts are a way to demonstrate you're thinking about your clients' issues, not just your own.

At the recent PAICR conference in New York (that’s Professional Association for Investment Communications Resources) I was fortunate enough to hear from some of the best in the business - Vanguard, PIMCO, MFS Investments (the asset manager not the people who hit the headlines) and T Rowe Price.

Rather than synthesise what they said here's the top line version (less than 30 seconds each) of PAICR's packed session from three of the four panellists themselves.

Thought leadership: more than you think

Darrell M Riley, Global Head of Institutional Strategic Resources, T Rowe Price

Thought leadership and brand

Eugene Colter, Director of Messaging and Content Marketing Communications, PIMCO

The things that matter most

Sean Spaulding, Director of Investment Marketing, MFS Investments 

So, why thought leadership?

Because it creates brand loyalty via stakeholder engagement to increase sales and maintain retention. 

Because it keeps your clients coming back to have further conversations. 

And because you can't have portfolio managers constantly talking to clients - they have money to manage.

Seven top trends in investment management & what they mean for communicators

In New York, just now, I heard from Greenwich Associate's MD Rodger Smith at the annual PAICR conference.

While his presentation was understandably US-focused, a lot of what he had to say is relevant to the Australian and global market. 

These trends he kicked off with will sound familiar to many of us - whether we're working as an asset manager, asset consultant, or marketing or communication person in the United States, Australia, Asia or UK / Europe. Or perhaps living in time-zone hell, and working across all of those as clients and friends are.

Background to the Greenwich work is this: 

• More than 1000 funds participated
• Research was conducted in 2011 between July and September
• Participants included corporate funds, union funds, public funds, endowment/foundations
• All funds had more than US$250 million in funds under management

So what are those seven key change dynamics, or trends, that Greenwich Associates spotted in this global study of institutional (or significant family office) funds?

1. Globalisation
2. Defined benefit to defined contribution shift (accelerated by the financial crisis)
3. Channel management
4. Product demand
5. Fiduciary management - and Chief Investment Officer outsourcing
6. Convergence of institutional and intermediary markets
7. Strategic/trusted relationships

These changes in asset management or institutional investing is having it's effect on marketing and communication. And the rest of the business!

Just some of the effects for communication and marketing people are these:

1. Global communication capability is needed: learn how to do it, and well
2. Fund managers are outsourcing more communication and marketing to partners as managers are squeezed by institutional clients
3. Differentiated value propositions for asset managers are more important than ever
4. As technology enables better client segmentation, even in B2B communication, managers are using those capabilities to be much more tailored, experimental and effective in communication
5. Convergence of markets means, conversely, that messages are more likely to need to work across both institutional and intermediary channels 

I am attending the 2012 PAICR conference #paicr2012 for BlueChip Communication on the 10th & 11th of September in New York.

Social media breakout: PAICR 2011

Judging by the audience response in this session, most of us are using social media personally, but many are not there as financial services companies or institutions.

Pretty much the same as Australia. And pretty much, I'd suggest, a fleeting moment in time.

Deborah Well of Harbor Capital Advisors chaired the session that Vanguard's Eric Haberacker and I spoke at.

Newsflash...presentations by fund managers aren't watched a lot on YouTube but the eTrade baby is.

The Vanguard YouTube channel is a great one to learn from.

Here are a few things that make it work: videos are engaging, short and well produced.

Stay true to your brand, says Haberacker. Other guiding principles include being authentic, transparent and candid; one size does not fit all; keep in line with regulations; humanize Vanguard through content; be an investor advocate and "experiment-learn-evolve".

Three key considerations for Vanguard in making social media work are these:
1. Social media content impacts brand reputation - make PR a critical partner because they know and manage the company 'story'
2. Speed is critical - expedited turnarounds are the norm
3. Content classifications - static and interactive content can follow different approval processes

And today's inside tip: Do you have to spend $200k to get your own YouTube channel? No. AT least not if you're already doing business with Google.

I'm also tweeting (when coverage allows!) from the 2011 PAICR conference as 'Carden'.

"I have no idea what I'm doing": the marketers' quandry

Welcome to online marketing in financial services. While the industry, for the most part, hasn't been fast to adopt digital marketing or social media, it's still bewildering territory at times.

"No corporate function has evolved more than marketing" said Razorfish's Ryan Alderman, quoting McKinsey (McKinsey Quarterly 09.2009).

It's no wonder marketers in financial services feel lost.

To do justice to the presentation, which was the best I've seen this year on social media, I'd have to share every slide and my own observations ... and will do so over the next few weeks with many of you.

Here is a taste of the insights shared by Alderman in today's opening session.

Financial advisers
An estimated 46 per cent of financial advisers own iPads (which were launched 18 months ago).

What they expect from their interaction with financial institutions says Alderman, is:

• World class experiences regardless of channel (traditional or virtual)
• "Always on"
• Near real time relationships
• Multi-channel...everything. Communication, service, information. You name it.

Consumers
We are, according to a Harvard Business Review study, consuming 12 hours of media in a nine hour period - thanks to multi-channel simultaneous consumption.

The way our customers want to engage with us is different - and it's more likely to be about the conversation than the content on the website.

At the same time our norms around financial services are changing...consumers, says Alderman, are morel likely to share previously personal information about finance, including our choices, experiences and, critically, recommendations.

What does that really mean?

It means that thanks to our ownership of multiple devices, and the increasing availability of multiple media across devices we are splitting our attention across devices and using multiple technologies or devices at once. Maybe you're running a phone with email and browser at the same time as watching a webinar...and our customers are doing the same. Think here browsing the Internet or Twitter updates while watching TV.

The cost of attention just went up - massively.

Against this backdrop it's even more important for marketers to understand "context" as well as content.

Why "conversation" trumps broadcast...and paid
Some other numbers thrown out today spell the death, or at least decline, of paid media. I've yet to source these numbers so offer them with a health warning...

• 75 per cent of people believe companies lie in ads
• 77 per cent trust financial institutions less than they did last year
• 38 per cent believe companies will do what's right
• 15 per cent of people enjoy the ads as much as the program - guessing that's TV only

What hasn't changed?
All that is well and good. But the fundamental goals of marketing haven't changed. How we go about achieving the goals has changed. And will do so, ever faster. So get learning.

And remember this says Alderman: advertising in not marketing - stop confusing them.

Marketing is now about creating brand engagement across media. So find an audience (don't create another destination or website), bring creative and technology together, learn from integrated analytics. And from those who've been before us.

Ones to watch?
At least in the United States, Alderman cites American Express (particularly for their small business digital marketing), Fidelity, Vanguard and Pimco.

How did they get there? Trial and error.

BlueChip Communication , Australia's leading financial services communication firm, is attending the PAICR conference (twitter #PAICR2011)

Brand, and why it matters (A LOT) in asset management

About three quarters of institutional clients see brand as a critical attribute in deciding which fund manager or asset manager to sekect.

So the message is this: if you're a fund manager and you're not investing in brand, you better. Because it matters a lot to your potential clients.

And yet conventional wisdom is that brand isn't so important in institutional asset management. Time to re-think that one, suggest Cogent Research and Casey Quirk.

Cogent's research, presented today in New York, suggests two relevant brand ideas in asset management: brand equity (are you known and/or liked?)and differentiation (barriers or "table stakes" and drivers or "delighters").

So are you known by your potential clients? And if so do they like you as well? The research suggests that only 10 of the 38 institutional asset management brands assessed were both known and liked - in other words had achieved both high levels of awareness as well as favourable impressions.

Cogent shared some fascinating findings, including:

- fund manager attributes that are either table stakes or differentiators (email me for the list)
- the relative importance of each of the four key table stakes manager attributes
- why thought leadership material doesn't get read
- which five things can build your funds management brand in the new normal (if there is such a thing!)

BlueChip Communication is attending PAICR (twitter #PAICR2011) in New York today and tomorrow.

Bringing new asset management client aboard

Lazard Asset Management, Jennison Associates and MFS Investment Management shared their client on boarding and retention strategies at today's PAICR conference.

One global asset manager's on boarding for institutional asset management clients follows a checklist:

1. Welcoming package email: step-by-step review of funding process including required documentation, standard IMA templates, client profile/contact questionnaire form and more
2. Internal "pit crews": from legal & compliance to portfolio implementation & trading, team representatives hold weekly new account meetings to discuss each new client's on boarding progress and any possible issues
3. "Thank-you letter": a synopsis of funding details, reporting expectations, and relationship contacts post-inception

Another firm calls their client induction "transition management". Clients receive an overview of the transition process complete with pictures of team members, brief role descriptions and an image showing how the team will serve their clients.

A touch I really liked was the list of "next steps" information asked by one manager of their news clients. It includes questions about how the client would prefer the asset manager to communicate with them, and who the main contact will be during transition.

Please email me for full copies of the slides or to hear more about the Q&A.

BlueChip Communication, Australia's leading financial services communication firm, is attending the PAICR conference in New York for the fourth year (twitter #paicr2011)

#PAICR2011: Being the best we can be

The Professional Association for Investment Communications Resources (PAICR) opened today in New York with a 'can do' Englishman exhorting his mostly US audience to stay positive.

What is the new normal? Whatever we think it is, claims Andrew O'Donoghue, the opening speaker.

His bottom line for those in asset management communication is this: look at things differently. Just because we feel we've seen it all before doesn't mean this time IS the same. If our perceptions shape our reality then we'd better take extreme care to get perspective.

Perspective that might enable us to yet again do more, with increasingly less.

Sound familiar?

If current market instability is leading to yet more resourcing cuts, then perhaps it's time to radically rethink how we do what we do.

Certainly the conversations I've had in Sydney, London and New York in the last week strongly suggest global asset managers are shaping up for more cuts - as global markets smash the value of funds under management, revenue also drops. And with revenue under pressure, expenses have to come down.

So yet again those of us in financial services have to do more, with less.

Crushing for some, and not exciting for most. But there's a perception-altering mind game O'Donaghue suggests we play with ourselves.

It's simply to be kind to ourselves. To stay positive. To rise above self-limiting beliefs we've been conditioned to hold - whether through family influence, media, peers or government.

To aim, each day, to be the best we can be.

Not perfect, mind you. Just our best.

What does that feel like?

Motivated. Happy. Confident. Organized. Resilient. Unstoppable. Calm. Enthusiastic. 

So get there, says O'Donaghue. And stay that way.

Because what we do matters immensely to the people who rely on us - our teams, our clients and more importantly our families, our friends and ourselves.

Yes, we are all faced with challenge - personal and professional. But we all have a choice about the attitude we bring to those challenges.

We can choose to be negative, to make excuses, to blame. To see what can't be done. To impose limits.

Or we can choose to be positive. To take responsibility. To challenge our existing beliefs - to ask 'how can I?' and to believe that perhaps more can be achieved.

Our beliefs about our life, regardless of whether they are right or not, will determine our reality.

So give it your best shot, says O'Donaghue. Doing less is simply letting ourselves, and others, down.

BlueChip Communication, Australia's leading financial services communication firm, is attending the PAICR conference in New York for the fourth year.