Case Studies

The Company

The company is a fixed income manager with a proprietary fixed income selection process. The firm has $5 billion AUM and is currently focused primarily in the institutional space, specifically pensions. In 2013, they launched a bond mutual fund to expand their client base.

The Challenge

We have been tasked with growing the mutual fund product line primarily through the Registered Investment Advisory channel.

Our Solution

  • We created a comprehensive strategic brief with an analysis of the firm’s current sales, marketing, PR, asset flows, staffing, competitive, and other issues.
  • Distribution efforts will focus on establishing selling agreements in the RIA channel.
  • Marketing will focus on educational content creation.
  • Public relations will focus on gaining visibility in key financial publications.

Results

  • We will be executing on the brief upon contract signing.
  • We will partnering with them in their growth by reducing our fees in return for a revenue share when the funds hit targeted asset levels.

The Company

The firm, with $200 million AUM, offered a mutual fund, REIT, and limited partnership which was sold to institutions and financial advisors. The firm had a small sales team and no marketing when we started.

The Challenge

Non-traded real estate as a category was new and difficult to understand. Investors were not aware of the benefits of the asset class. They were virtually unknown.

Our Solution

  • Simplify the story.
  • Worked with CEO in a training session and ongoing coaching to stay on message, develop strong sound bytes, and steer the interviews.
  • Generated third party endorsed news stories in top financial news publications.
  • Leveraged the reprints in other sales and marketing efforts.

Results

  • Grew to more than $5 billion AUM.
  • Thousands of new institutional and financial advisor clients.
  • Built strong relationships with journalists and earned stories in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Pensions and Investments, and Investment News, and was a regular expert on CBC and Bloomberg.
  • Expanded sales team to approximately 12.

The Company

A $100 billion global asset manager launched a series of six mutual funds in the United States, focused on the emerging market and consumer sectors.

The Challenge

  • They had very limited brand visibility in the United States.
  • The firm had virtually no distribution in the wirehouse and independent broker/dealer channels.
  • The funds had no performance history – performance began on the first day of launch.

Our Solution

Targeted gatekeepers and key decision makers at  national wirehouse firms of Morgan Stanley, and UBS; and large independent broker/dealers such as Raymond James and LPL.

The Company

A $1 billion wealth manager for wealthy individuals, had a good performing $70 million fund for smaller accounts.  They wanted to grow the fund through the intermediary channel.

The Challenge

  • Despite the good track record, the fund had few outside investors.
  • Firm had no strategy for growth.
  • Firm was not a household brand nationally.
  • Portfolio managers were introverted.

Our Solution

  • Developed an overall growth strategy to generate positive news stories designed to attract investors.
  • Enhanced story to be suitable for more sophisticated audiences.
  • Worked with portfolio managers to be stronger spokespeople.
  • Created sales infrastructure such as a website

Results

  • Fund earned significant visibility and credibility through feature stories in Barron’s and regular interviews on CNBC.
  • Fund grew to $1.2 billion with up to 50% of assets were from advisors.
  • Total firm AUM grew to $3.2 billion.

The Company

Founded in 2008, the firm is a boutique institutional investment management company. They manage two strategies, one equity, and one bond: both are equally-weighted  balanced platforms for mutual funds and variable annuity separate accounts.

The Challenge

The firm’s challenge was to increase leads and selling agreements with broker/dealers and increase assets under management from institutional investors.

Our Solution

  • Created two in-depth white papers on the potential benefits of a diversified portfolio of passive, equally-weighted stocks or bonds.
  • Developed scripted stories for targeted list of national broker/dealer calls.
  • Expanded social presence on Twitter targeted to broker leaders with 10 posts daily.
  • Refreshed website (under construction) to include lead generating tools and calls to action.

Results

  • More than 2,000 site visits in first 6 months.
  • 43 new contacts and leads who filled out a form to receive a white paper.
  • 5 new broker institutional firms set up phone meetings.
  • Assets under management increased 14% in six months, from $86 million to $100 million.

The Company

RIA with $1 billion AUM for wealthy families and financial advisors. The firm had two small strong performing mutual funds without any distribution.

The Challenge

The firm was not a big brand that serious investors knew about, had no growth strategy, and virtually no asset inflows.

Our Solution

  • Enhanced the firm’s story.
  • Helped the portfolio managers become better spokespeople.
  • Generated third party endorsements.
  • Leveraged reprints in other sales efforts.

Results

  • Corrected message from a complicated set of four attributes of stocks to a simple multi-step process.
  • Positive sales meeting the first meeting they used the new story.
  • Earned positive news coverage in Barron’s, TheStreet.com, ValueInvestor, and more within four months.

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