Asset Management Marketing Focus #7

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 and fund launches, MiFID II issues, industry white papers, and celebrity ICO endorsements.

Movers & Shakers

Gavin Boyle
Is now ➜ Marketing Communications Specialist at Amundi
Was: Marketing Specialist at R.I.C. Publications
 
Elodie Duvaldestin
Is now ➜ Head of Marketing Asset Management at Vontobel Asset Management
Was: Co-Head Events & Education, EMEA at Women in ETFs
 
Felicity McDonald
Is now ➜ Assistant Manager – EOS Events & Marketing at Hermes Investment Management
Was: Marketing Executive at GAM
Steven Saywell
Is now ➜ Global Markets Senior Content Liaison at BNP Paribas
Was: Global Head of FX Strategy at BNP Paribas
Further information: City A.M.
Niki van Delft
Is now ➜ Vice President – Client Relationship Manager at Deutsche Asset Management
Was: Vice President, Wholesale Client Relationship Manager at Columbia Threadneedle Investments
Kurtosys expresses their best wishes to all starting in their new positions.

Website Spotlight: Man Group

There are many aesthetic qualities of Man Group’s website that we enjoy.
For starters, a simple and effective blue-and-white colour scheme brandishes its homepage, as well as striking photography being superimposed onto a 3D rendering of their ‘M’ logo. Whilst looking like an alteration of the Superman logo, this fully fledged dedication to the group’s various subsidiaries is certainly quite heroic.
And then the homepage’s main feature: a toggle toolbar highlights the aims and AUMs of Man Group’s 5 investment businesses, accompanied by a circular chart featuring their vast asset ranges. Particular sections are colour coded and light up to resemble an orchestral layout.
This colour scheme for their asset classes is then replicated again on an extremely expansive strategies page. The colour coding does help to differentiate your ‘Equity’ from your ‘Volatility’, and these call-to-action buttons open a separate page with an in-depth review of each investment solution discussing its performance, approach and volatility target. Sometimes, videos featuring portfolio managers explaining the appropriate information are also included for a human touch.
Somehow, all of this information also looks perfectly presentable on mobile phone, making Man’s mammoth site a Marvel of an asset management site (still going with the superhero theme here…)

Fund(s) in Focus: Franklin LibertyQ UCITS ETF Fund Series

The ETF hype train just keeps on going.
This time, we’re in Germany, where Franklin Templeton Investment’s ‘Franklin LibertyQ’ fund platform has finally become available, launching four Smart Beta ETFs to be listed on the German stock exchange: Deutsche Börse.
The fund series is aimed to give investors access to bespoke Franklin LivertyQ indices. The four funds, and a (very) brief description of where they invest, are as follows:
Franklin LibertyQ Global Equity SRI UCITS ETF – Global investment in equities.
Franklin LibertyQ US Equity UCITS ETF – US investment in large and mid-caps.
Franklin LivertyQ Global Dividend UCITS ETF – Global investment in first-class equities.
Franklin LibertyQ European Dividend UCITS ETF – European investment in first-class stocks.
This is a fund launch which also helps to mark Franklin Templeton’s 25th anniversary in Germany; news of the launch, and more information, can be found at Investment Europe.

Industry Insights

MiFID II News
One BIG caveat of the MiFID II regulation is the transparent sharing of investment research and analysis – so how does one institution go about doing this?
Well, one fairly bombastic way is this. Dutch bank ING have gone all out and offered research based on “key economic and financial news and trends” for free via a website called Think, which you can find here.
It’s essentially a vast blog, dealing with analytical views across global markets. It came about, initially, as a way to make information clear and simple for their customers, so that they have a better understanding of economies worldwide.
Luckily for them, this step to more full transparency also fulfils part of the mission to comply with the upcoming regulatory issue due in January 2018, albeit those outside of the regulation’s EU tractor beam will also be able to access such materials for no price also.
Still, it is a move that has certainly provided a major talking point as we in the financial sector continue to navigate the hallowed path to MiFID II.
Further information: CityWire Wealth Manager | City A.M.
Investment Marketing: Savvy Investor’s 12 Top White Papers 
Featuring on our very own Fund Marketing Blog, a guest post courtesy of the research team at Savvy Investor: a content marketing specialist for institutional investors and asset managers.
They have done a lot of legwork to present their 12 very best white papers for industry professionals. Such hits include the development of Blockchain within asset management, practices in formal meetings for investors, as well as an in-depth look at the financial situation of 300 of the world’s largest pension funds.
These are certainly 12 great reports in their own right, documenting the state of the industry thus far, and the outlook for the rest of 2017 and beyond.
Choreographing the perfect marketing strategy for asset management
This week, we released our most recent interview conducted by Courtney McQuade.
Dr. Catherine Burgy is Head of Marketing & Corporate Communications at LRI Group, based in Luxembourg. In a newly created role, Catherine’s job requires the overseeing of all marketing and communications whilst working with board directors and gaining and maintaining client relationships.
As an experienced digital marketing professional in the industry, Catherine’s insights into her passion for innovative strategy, how best to align sales and marketing communication, and even how the knowledge of different languages and cultures is important to business, are well worth a read. Please check it out!

Social Media Spotlight: Macquarie Group

Macquarie Group, offering multiple financial services, uses its Twitter page to maximum effectiveness, using campaigns, photography and discussion videos.
When discussing investments in real estate and transport for instance, the account has implemented a useful hashtag #buildingmoderncities to group together interesting videos on the topic, which link to appropriate professional YouTube videos…
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These videos play instantly on the platform without the need to go to external pages, whilst the bold subtitles make the trendy ‘soundless video’ a possibility. Clearly Macquarie Group are hitting all the right notes with these popular marketing platforms for financial institutions.

And finally…

…perhaps some stranger social media usage in regard to investments and cryptocurrencies.
As reported by digital currency news outlet CryptoCoins News, a post from headline-grabbing Barcelona forward (for better or worse) Luis Suarez’s Instagram showed him promoting Stox: an Ethereum-based prediction market platform.
This is just one latest example of celebrities endorsing ICOs through social media – a very strange move which could prompt a serious spike in young investors listening to their sporting and social media heroes. That may not be wise, but the increased interest in the stock market may just get greater through this digital ‘thought leadership’, some from the now-self-dubbed “Floyd Crypto Mayweather” whose recent earning from his victory over Conor McGregor makes his aversion to risk fairly limited…
And in even weirder cryptocurrency news (in this highly entertaining article from AdWeek), fast food giant Burger King has created the Whoppercoin, apparently a “blockchain loyalty program” where burgers bought in Russia can earn one Whoppercoin per ruble to save for a rainy day (or for free burgers). The mind boggles; cryptocurrency is seeping into every industry it seems. Besides, I’m more of a KFC man myself.
That’s all for this week, but be sure to check back soon for more asset management marketing highlights and fintech snippets from Kurtosys.