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Insights.

 

This year Hyperion Asset Management is a winner many times over but, in a sign of the COVID times, there’s rarely a black-tie awards dinner.   

 

Honestly, I’m not too sad about the rubber chicken dinner because the day Hyperion listed their first ETF (aka exchange quoted managed fund) I moved a modest sum (more than a fine dining restaurant meal but a lot less than a new car) from my mortgage to a previously dormant CommSec account in order to “get in” to ASX HYGG immediately. I then forgot about it. 

Any investor who did the same has plenty to celebrate. Who doesn’t like good investment returns? 

Any fund manager or investment offer who wants to reach retail investors directly, and who has a strong investment thesis, will find much to replicate if you too want to reach retail investors directly. 

By directly I mean without going via an intermediary – like an adviser, a platform, an approved product list, an asset consultant recommendation, a due diligence questionnaire, a research house or any of other myriad gatekeepers between clients and investment destinations.   

In this blog, we’ll share a little of the winning formula Hyperion has used to attract investors, and why, in a covid-normal world, we’ll see much more of what they did to win.   

By “win” I mean funds under management, significant volumes of leads direct from high net worth investors and media coverage, among other things. I also mean a measurable payback on their spend on public relations. 

What were the awards? 

Recently BlueChip client Hyperion Asset Management was awarded Australian Active Equity Fund Manager of the Year by research house Lonsec. This comes after also winning Money Management’s gong of the same name in May of this year, and Morningstar’s equivalent in February.   

Recently, our work launching their first active exchange-traded fund (ASX: HYGG) was announced as the winner in the financial communication category in the Golden Target Awards 2021 run by the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA).

Our work helped Hyperion achieve the highest first-day trading volume of any exchange-traded fund (ETF) launched on the ASX. Their first-day trading volume of $8 million set a new ASX record.

So what? 

NO, we’re not skiting. We’re congratulating our client for their stellar long-term performance, and we’re sharing a few of the ways we helped them control their own destiny.  

While the exact digital strategy and channel mix we created is confidential to Hyperion there are some general principles that apply to all businesses in wealth management.  

But first, some background. 

Once an institutional-only manager serving super funds, the folk at Hyperion have, over the years, extended their reach to financial advisers and direct to retail high net worth clients. When Hyperion first came to BlueChip, we were given the task to help them expand recognition of their Australian equities expertise into global equities expertise and to build awareness in a new market. In 44 days, Hyperion received over a A$1 million inflow from a new market, retail investors and into a new product. While we’ve helped them reach all three audiences, it’s the work using digital distribution to engage investors that is most interesting.  

Why? Because we used primarily digital, public relations and educational marketing to help our client outpace comparable listings, and competitor funds.  

What’s the winning formula for the marketing?  

Key to reaching Hyperion’s ideal individual client (NHW whether SMSF or investing outside super) were several of the following:  

  1. A clear target market
  2. Really good content 
  3. “Always on” profile raising 
  4. Good performance (yes it really does make a difference - but it’s not the only thing that will help grow a business) Long term planning 
  5. “Time in” marketing
  6. Integration
  7. Building your database and nurturing them  

You can find the full list of “golden rules” we’ve found in growth marketing here, or watch the webinar on the same topic here. 

Point 6 above is why we now see, increasingly, PR delivers measurably better client or adviser/gatekeeper conversion, leads, and revenue. If the work is multi-channel and across digital, we can often drive new business from an integrated marketing and PR program. Importantly our work on the Hyperion listing all included tracking codes so we could evaluate on the fly and adjust where needed.  

Simple enough? 

There may be no dinner but there’s plenty of good stuff on the table for those who can be disciplined in execution. All this sounds simple right? And it is, conceptually. But like many success stories, this one wasn’t overnight. The Hyperion formula was honed over years of work testing and learning.   

How about you? 

The same principles apply whether you’re running a small professional services firm (BlueChip), a star fund manager (Hyperion) or seeking to reach investors and secure seed capital.  

If your work isn’t working as well as Hyperion’s maybe we should take another look…? 

This blog was originally published in our fortnightly email, Take a Beat Tuesday. To get these direct to your inbox before they're published, subscribe here

If you’d like to discuss adjusting your communication strategy for the current times, please call us or fill out our contact form here. 

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