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, blockchain for asset management, September’s fintech events, and fund exposure in China.
Movers & Shakers
Sarah Ackland
Is now ➜ Head of Architas UK Funds at Architas
Was: Head of Proposition at Architas Multi Manager
Jennifer Bainger
Is now ➜ Marketing Manager at CBRE
Was: Digital Marketing at Aberdeen Asset Management
Marcello Dichiera
Is now ➜ Marketing, Advertising & Campaigns EMEA at Franklin Templeton Investments
Was: Vice President, Channel Marketing Manager at PIMCO
Anna Huddart
Is now ➜ Investment Communications Manager at BlueBay Asset Management
Was: Senior Communications Specialist at GAM
Federica Stanelli
Is now ➜ Channel Marketing Manager – Italy at Aviva Investors
Was: European Marketing Manager at Aviva Investors
Kurtosys expresses their best wishes to all starting in their new positions.
Website Spotlight: Groupama Asset Management
Voila! French insurance group Groupama are the most recent addition to our ongoing list of wonderfully presentable websites, with multiple factors contributing to the worthy esteem of their asset management arms’ web-based effort. Let’s start from the top down, unlike Drake.
The top toolbar is fully responsive, with clear headings opening up a whole can of separate pages with the simple hover of the mouse. One criticism of many asset management sites is that their fund range pages are obscured from clear view, hidden at the very bottom of homepages. Conversely, Groupama’s “Our funds range” call-to-action button is displayed more prominently than the others in an unmissable orange colour. This page includes interactive tables for investors to scroll through Groupama’s various offerings and check out each fund’s returns or characteristics.
Next is the site’s beautifully photogenic carousel of header images. Not just this, but these features are also all perfectly constructed pieces of media. From the company’s information all stored in a physically appealing series of infographics, to a remarkably professional corporate video, it certainly looks as if Groupama got the best bang for their buck.
Elsewhere, there is a prominent ‘Product Finder’, featuring search ahead functionality for ISIN codes and names, and drop-down lists of the asset manager’s available products. The user experience here is excellent. Featured funds, social activity and company insights and news pertaining to worldwide markets are also displayed neatly in a linear format on the main page.
We love the design of the site, but one issue we noticed was the fund performance charts use outdated Flash technology. It would be great to see a more modern approach to their data visualisation using the latest javascript charting.
All features look just as flash on mobile, however. A fin-site as chic as les rues en Paris.
Fund in Focus: Bridgewater Associates
This has perhaps been the most significant fund news this past week, due to two factors.
One: It concerns Bridgewater Associates LP, the world’s largest hedge-fund firm.
Two: It concerns an expansion into China, the world’s second-largest economy, in a bid to raise billions of dollars through the domestic buying and selling of assets.
Reportedly, the hedge fund’s manager Ray Dalio has been enamoured with the Middle Kingdom since the 1980s, with this Investment Fund potentially being a product of decades of work, the WSJ notes. Dalio has put in the hard work to study Chinese culture and political ideology in order to launch this fund, after receiving a license to trade in China’s markets.
The Chinese fund strategy, however, will remain very much akin to one of Bridgewater’s most fundamental hedge funds, part of its “low-fee All Weather portfolio” which relies on leverage to increase returns.
Whilst Non-Chinese banks and mutual funds have struggled to gain market share from the country’s domestic rivals, and with regulatory rules being particularly stringent, it will be interesting to assess the future for Bridgewater’s Oriental strategy, having registered its name in China as a literal translation of Bridgewater to ‘QiaoShui’.
Further information: The Wall Street Journal | Financial News | CNBC
Industry Insights
Blockchain in Asset Management?
Fintech and blockchain have become terms that are almost synonymous, but whereas fintech connections within the asset management space has been a subject of conversation, blockchain has often been left out.
Cue this article from finsite fanatic Elly Brookfield of Nurture Agency. Titled Asset managers who don’t engage with blockchain are getting left behind, it certainly goes on a bit of a justified rampage about how the ledger technology can be a viable asset to managers of assets.
The innovative tech is a bit of a conundrum, and definitely difficult to get your head around, but this post certainly makes the space-age concept more accessible and simplified without denouncing its importance.
However, with the costs of implementation being sky-high (in order to up-scale to cater to the largest of asset management firms), the widespread adoption of blockchain may not be with us just yet. Food for thought though, as asset managers continue to embrace the technologies of tomorrow.
Fintech Events
Fintech Growth Forum SEPTEMBER 19TH 2017 | LONDON
Calling all technology investors, aspiring entrepreneurs and those passionate individuals within the fintech bubble: next week the Fintech Growth Forum comes to the lively hub of Liverpool Street in London for a day of guest speakers, discussion, networking and (hopefully) partnerships. Get your tickets now!
Fintech Vortex SEPTEMBER 26TH 2017 | THE HAGUE
Over in the Netherlands, Holland Fintech hosts the Fintex Vortex event after a successful stint at 2016’s StartUp Fest. Focusing on the topic of Fintech and Security, its guest speakers include CEOs, co-founders and authors from companies including StartupDelta, KPN and nx’change. Taking place in The Fokker Terminal, the Netherlands continual influence in the fintech world looks set to rise and rise.
Social Media Spotlight: Amundi Asset Management
Continuing with the Francophile theme is a look at Paris-based global asset manager Amundi and their social media efforts on Twitter.
Amundi Asset Management’s motto has changed to “Going further to better serve you”. In the perfect way to make this immediately known, their marketers have made use of Twitter’s “Pinned Tweet” feature. Also note that the use of animated gif is a much better way to display a lot of different information into one post.
“Going further to better serve you” is Amundi’s new motto. Learn more about it. https://t.co/Y0lMk7K5jh #leadership #assetmanagement pic.twitter.com/LPtwR6aifR
— Amundi (@Amundi_ENG) September 4, 2017
Committed to serving 37 customers with investment solutions, this image is also translated from English to Spanish…
El nuevo lema de Amundi es: «Avanzando para ofrecerle un mejor servicio». Descubra más. #leadership #assetmanagement https://t.co/4aHMLlr30A pic.twitter.com/w2VG2ljSaF
— Amundi (@Amundi_ENG) September 8, 2017
…to German…
„Gemeinsam für Sie mehr erreichen” ist das neue Motto von Amundi. Erfahren Sie mehr: #leadership #assetmanagement https://t.co/W92QlTyT8S pic.twitter.com/wwqBNVcScw
— Amundi (@Amundi_ENG) September 6, 2017
…and to Chinese.
「攜手共進」是東方匯理資產管理的最新口號。了解詳情：#領導能力 #資產管理 https://t.co/JWqxB98g7W pic.twitter.com/Eyjr2emWqA
— Amundi (@Amundi_ENG) September 8, 2017
As is customary for asset managers, ‘Market Reviews’ are a large part of their marketing strategy. Amundi has opted to present their September round-up of global economic news in a discussion format on YouTube. The main advantage of this is that the videos can exist not just on their YouTube channel, but can also be directly embedded into Tweets for instant watching.
🔔 [Market Rewiews] #NorthKorea, #Europe, weakness of the #USDollar: what to expect on the markets after this summer? https://t.co/ppeZHuPotR
— Amundi (@Amundi_ENG) September 11, 2017
Another useful campaign is [Instit Invest] which comprises of such themes as ‘Thought of the Day’, ‘Investment Talks’ and ‘Monthly Cross Asset’.
When promoting the insights, values and updates of your company, Twitter is but one way to do this succinctly, as Amundi keenly demonstrates.
And finally…
It’s one thing that the world’s “uncertainties” have been at the forefront of daily news in recent months, what with the threat of nuclear war and devastating hurricanes, but these (of course) also have a detrimental effect on the economy and investor attitude.
Bloomberg have produced an insightful glimpse into what the ramifications of these recent events have had on markets, and how this also relates to behavioural finance notions of a “comfort zone”.
Elsewhere, this week sees the return of master financier and writing extraordinaire Pascal Bouvier, commenting on the familiar craze of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). Returning to financial news in China once again, the People’s Bank of China has made a drastic move to ban ICOs completely, which has seen yet more dips and dives in the value of Bitcoin, for instance. Then again, Pascal goes on to search for how regulators will need to monitor the activity of ICOs; some will be keen to embrace the ongoing changes such crypto-innovations will bring to the financial sector for sure. Expect Game of Thrones references, of course.
