Welcome to our asset management marketing roundup
Asset managers are increasingly looking to embrace digital, offering innovative ways to engage with investors who are looking to trust those that are up to speed. From marketing funds on new look websites and social media accounts, to video marketing and written blogs, we here at Kurtosys scour the web to find the very best industry-specific examples of fund marketing and industry movers and shakers to save you the hard work.
This week’s round up brings you the latest industry movers, a fund that’s the largest of its kind, and a variety of video content for the investment world.
Movers & Shakers
Sana Hussain
Is now ➜ Technology Analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Was: Computer Science Student Ambassador at Queen Mary University of London
Sana completed a one year internship at Kurtosys in 2016. Congrats Sana!
Batson Nguyen
Is now ➜ Head of Digital Program Management – EMEA at J.P. Morgan Asset Management
Was: Vice President, Chief Marketing Office | Strategic Change at J.P. Morgan Asset Management
Emma Paterson
Is now ➜ Group Marketing Director at Floreat Group
Was: UK Advisory, Financial Institutions & Strategic Accounts at Schroders
Kate Vasquez
Is now ➜ Marketing Programme Manager at Vanguard
Was: Senior Global Marketing Manager at Santander Asset Management
Kurtosys expresses their best wishes to all starting in their new positions.
Website Spotlight: ARK Invest ETFs
In a bid to find the very best ETF subsidiary website, we’ve luckily stumbled upon a strong contender. ARK Investment Management has one of the sleekest, most interactive ETF sites going, and you can check it out right here.
Alongside its most eye-catching design features: the animated header video, long-form page layout and fluid functionality, its more subtle nuances also tick some of our website checkboxes. To the side of the main page is a clear (but non-intrusive) “Buy ARK Funds” call to action button, alongside a slightly more obvious Trade Notification pop-up which appears as you navigate down the page.
The main attraction here, though, are the fund pages. ARK’s designers have managed to cram in heaps of fund details, interactive graphs, performance figures, downloadable documents and descriptions all into a neat, compact main page. All of the various sections can be accessed by scrolling, and also through the top navigation toolbar, achieving maximum user experience. This is a key trend amongst commendable asset management websites nowadays.
We really can’t complain about much here. ARK Invest ETFs’ multiple pages are wonderfully uniform in their layout and make all of the data extremely presentable. It’s a benchmark for all similar supplementary sites.
Fund in Focus: RLAM UK Real Estate Fund
Given this fund being the largest of its kind, it would seem rude not to put it into this week’s fund spotlight. RLAM, with a lot of confidence in the UK Property Market (whilst investor confidence remains fairly precarious) has released its UK Real Estate Fund (RLUKREF) valued at a whopping £2.9 billion.
It will target commercial properties in London, specifically in such West End haunts as Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden and New Bond Street. It is open to only “sophisticated” institutional investors and requires initial investments of £50 million. RLAM already owns assets in stores including Hugo Boss and Victoria’s Secret in prime city locations.
Piers Hillier, the Chief Investment Officer at RLAM notes that the outlook for the high-end UK property market still looks healthy, and this fund gives long-term investors exposure to a “high quality and well diversified property portfolio”.
These numbers of quality property assets aren’t traded often, so this fund launch presents an exclusive opportunity for domestic and foreign investors.
Further information: Portfolio Adviser | City A.M. | Real Estate Investment Times
Industry Insights
This edition of AMMF seems to just get bigger and bigger, as up next is a wealth management report which comprises of 60 pages, and is a study of a 1,503 investment professionals. Big.
Following on from last year’s Wealth and Asset Management 2021 study, Roubini Thoughtlab have continued to find out exactly how the industry has altered to further embrace the age of digital. The previous study identified the misconception that only young investors are interested enough, and savvy enough, to utilise digital tools to their advantage. As digitalisation continues to weave its way into every nook and cranny of the wealth management industry, investors from all generations are keen to get to grips with the technologies that such giants as Google and Facebook already supply to their users.
Such insights included in this gargantuan effort are predictions as to what the industry’s biggest disruptor will be during the next five years, the playing field of banks and incumbents, use cases for such technologies as artificial intelligence and the cloud in financial services, and bold infographics and graphs to illustrate these points.
Given the levels of effort and expertise shown here, this is an insightful document attempting to outline almost every single facet of change within the industry. You can download the whole report (for free!) at this landing page.
Events
BVCA Summit 2017 OCTOBER 11TH – 12TH 2017 | LONDON
Playing on a ‘Russian Revolution’ theme (particularly on the event’s main page), the British Private Equity and Venture
Capital Association (helpfully shortened to the BVCA) are hosting a two day event in Belgravia and Marylebone.
Over 900 ‘comrades’ have already registered to attend, comprising regulators, policy makers, and global investors who will all be present for a packed agenda of seminars, dinners and networking opportunities. The professional speakers include the Brand Director for the ubiquitous Pret A Manger, as well as multiple partners from Venture Capital firms.
The event is only a week away, and looks set to influence today’s revolutionary businesses.
Social Media Spotlight: Fifth Third Bank
One financial institution making particularly striking use of video footage is Fifth Third Bank: a regional banking corporation based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Whilst it could be fairly simple to make all of their video features in the same format, instead each of Fifth Third’s different video campaigns have bespoke styles.
Firstly, for instance, is their regular global market analysis Economic Beat, stylised using the hashtag #EconBeat to accentuate its status as a consistent feature on their Twitter feed. These videos have a recognisable intro, and consist of an investment professional discussing how stock market changes have affected investors in recent times, much like this example:
Another positive quarter for U.S. equity investors, now the 8th consecutive quarterly gain, a feat not seen for 20 years. #EconBeat pic.twitter.com/JIgeyvxKO8
— Fifth Third Bank (@FifthThird) October 3, 2017
Despite being almost four minutes in length, the whole video is playable within the Twitter feed, negating the need to visit other pages, such as their website.
Elsewhere, Fifth Third also have more concise advertisement-style videos, including ‘talking head’ style interviews and professional footage. One example is this; displaying young people learning about personal finance in school, the #FinanceAcademy campaign attempts to show the firm’s eagerness to promote the idea of investing for young people:
95% of parents agree that personal finance should be taught in school. We couldn’t agree more. #FinanceAcademy pic.twitter.com/RFfgLItuA9
— Fifth Third Bank (@FifthThird) October 2, 2017
Some of their videos are simply advertisements for their own products, such as this nifty little bite to display the Fifth Third Momentum app – the bank’s foray into digital:
Fifth Third Momentum: the app that rounds up every purchase to help pay down your #studentloans. https://t.co/i584Swyr6R pic.twitter.com/wsXnEAooit
— Fifth Third Bank (@FifthThird) September 12, 2017
Finally, Fifth Third Bank have also developed a charitable video recently to boost donations for those affected by the recent hurricanes in the Caribbean and the USA. Many financial institutions use their social media feeds to assist their philanthropic efforts, and this example highlights how video content in particular can go a long way in showing support:
Impact lives. Donate to the @RedCross through 10/31 & the Fifth Third Foundation will match up to $250k. https://t.co/ToOZOmoxQl pic.twitter.com/dlanhWSjAO
— Fifth Third Bank (@FifthThird) October 3, 2017
Clearly, Fifth Third have mastered video content for a variety of different campaigns. Asset managers should certainly take note and try to achieve the same.
And finally…
…if you are an asset manager looking to create your own bespoke video content, then look no further than this handy guide from the writers at Copylab.
Let’s face it, many internet users have the attention span of a goldfish, so it’s unsurprising that video will account for around “82% of all consumer internet traffic” in the next four years. Every industry needs to do it; aforementioned economic overviews and market commentaries are perfect to highlight expertise within the world of funds, which is exactly what you want to convey.
It wouldn’t be wise to preach what you don’t practise. We here at Kurtosys present monthly overviews of our fund launch findings, website reviews and marketing snippets in a video format. You can check out September’s edition below!
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Plus, sticking with the video theme, this Just Adviser piece focusing on behavioural economics in order to understand clients has also produced a useful introductory-style video from Matt Pheasey, Director of Intermediated Distribution.
It is part of a content campaign called Retirement Unscrambled, and this ‘Age of Reason’ segment also features an interactive infographic, an informative thought leadership article and a quiz to test your knowledge of behavioural economics. It’s a sharing platter of content covering all the creative bases.
That’s all for this week, but be sure to check back soon for more asset management marketing highlights and fintech snippets from Kurtosys.
