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BlueChip Communication brought together a panel of industry leaders who discussed how they had answered these questions from different perspectives.
While the pandemic has made some tactics harder than others, we’re looking at your in-person events, many of the lessons shared by the panel are as applicable in lockdown as they are in normal times.
BlueChip’s Founder Carden Calder, shared 3 main takeaways from the discussion that fund managers can use to profile, position, and positively differentiate their organisation to attract more investors, whilst protecting their reputation in 2021.
Developing content is essential
“The acceleration of digital, and your clients’ rapid shift into a completely digital ecosystem (retail and institutional)…that calls for educational content... It’s what asset managers have always called thought leadership. It’s educational, value-adding content, building a community around your brand, giving until it hurts… Otherwise, you can't build trust, you don't build a relationship and you don't give away enough to get the client to see the way that you see the world.”
Carden Calder, Founder of BlueChip Communication
The key theme in Tim Samway’s The Hyperion experience: When handshaking is banned, and you can't look them in the eye, how do you build trust? presentation was that because the fund management industry is an industry built-upon trust, sharing content is crucial.
Picking up on this theme, Carden discussed how developing and sharing content about the investment team’s philosophy, thinking and investment decision process is essential. Investors want to understand how the money is managed so they can decide whether they feel aligned with that approach. While this traditionally most often happened face to face, the acceleration of digital and technologies, means fund managers’ clients are seeking to educate themselves, consuming information online and deciding about where to invest, sometimes with no or minimal discussion with the fund manager.
Use other people's money
When it comes to trying new things, Carden posited that someone in the world has probably already tried doing what you are planning to do. These people are probably outside your industry, your country, or funds management. They could also be your competitor.
Whether it was an “epic fail” or a grand success, there will always be learnings to heed. Sharing from experience, Carden said the sources of best practice that can be helpful to Australian fund managers are the tech sector, the top ten global fund managers marketing to institutions and retail direct audiences, and global professional services brands like McKinsey. She explained that they all have direct individual audiences, B2B audiences and much of what they do works even for institutional asset managers, selectively applied.
Fund managers can accelerate their progress by working with someone who has a broad view of the industry and can aggregate that IP.
“Where did they #epicfail and waste dollars trying things you don’t need to, and what are they doing right now that you might be able to use as a marketing, PR or client education tactic?”
Carden Calder, Founder of BlueChip Communication
Digital democracy and ESG: the “absolute game-changer”
Lastly, Carden discussed digital democracy and ESG, stating this has become the “absolute game-changer”. Since the emergence of COVID-19, the acceleration of digital has meant that stakeholders are now holding everybody to a higher standard of behaviour. It is more crucial than ever for fund managers to consider diversity and inclusion on their agenda and ESG seriously.
Corporate blind spots pose potential reputation risks. The most common blind spots are not being in touch with what investors across the spectrum can expect from you, beyond financial performance and investment returns, and not being aware of how much a PR crisis might blow up your business. Reputation risk is not just one career. Poorly managed it blows up the whole business and threaten the sustainability of an entire enterprise.
“We’ve reached a point where “AMP’s #metoo moment” is now synonymous with outdated conduct. And it represents a threat to the sustainability of asset managers who are tone-deaf to client and community expectations, who don’t have diversity and inclusion on their agenda - because it’s on your clients’ - or who haven’t taken ESG seriously.”
Carden Calder, Founder of BlueChip Communication
If you’d like to discuss adjusting your communication strategy for the current times, please call us or fill out our contact form here.
