Mike Richards, director of Capital City Media, looks at how asset managers can create and maintain brand awareness in the consumer market.
Out of home
Out of home (OOH) is used more and more by asset managers (again, quite rightly). Sophisticated research owned by the OOH contractors can take your target audience and pinpoint which stations (if you're using transport advertising) are the most relevant to use. Therefore, a campaign can be built without too much wastage.
OOH isn't cheap, but it is the second-best branding medium after TV. Years ago, one would have to take posters for one month - it would take into account getting them up, keeping them up (using the correct glue) and then taking them down for the next campaign to be installed.
So many sites now are digital, so not only can the messaging be displayed immediately, it can also be changed - time of day, type of weather, direction of traffic.
The decline (although this decline seems to have been arrested) in the personal finance media remains a small battleground, but is not creating numbers to create brand awareness.
Aside from these hobbyist magazines, the national press remains one of the few media which still has sympathetic editorial: The Daily Telegraph's Your Money, FT Money and now, more than 30 years in existence, the Daily Mail's Money Mail.
If affordable within a marketing budget, this is the high street distribution for many asset managers.
Also, brands such as the Telegraph, the FT (and say what you will about it) the Mail have a reputation and there is loyalty within their respective readerships.
By association, asset managers can grow their reputation through these established and reputable brands, thus gaining the confidence of the prospective buyer/investor; this is called the halo effect.
Advertising to the consumer also helps the adviser. It makes their job easier if the company he or she is trying to sell pops up in the client's mind as something they have read in the Telegraph or seen on the concourse at Waterloo Station.
It gives the asset manager a greater chance. Because no one is going to buy Planet Tharg Unit Trusts - unless Neil Woodford moves there.
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