The asset management industry is a massive and unique area of the finance sector. According to PwC asset managers are the custodians for more than $US100 trillion in assets under management (AUM) globally.
Asset managers invest on behalf of corporate institutions, pension funds and sophisticated retail investors across a range of asset classes with equities, debt, FX and property being just a few examples.
Despite its scale, it’s not an area of finance that’s overly high profile. There are exceptions of course with brands such as Fidelity Investments, State Street Global Advisors, BlackRock and Vanguard Group being commonly known, but on the whole – it’s a fairly low key industry from a communications perspective.
Within this mix is First Sentier Investors (FSI) being responsible for approximately $US148 billion in AUM globally. While this is a massive figure it ranks their business 118th in the top 400 asset managers list from Investment & Pensions Europe’s 2019 industry review.
Culturally FSI views itself as a careful steward of its clients investments and prioritises its efforts in technologies which help it understand the investment landscape and in the bright minds of fund managers and analysts who can interpret this data to make wise investment decisions for their clients. FSI also operates in a highly regulated and compliance driven environment that values operational prudence to protect its brand and reputation.
“Our mandate is to help FSI provide its clients and the market with digital and social channels that provide intelligent information to a highly targeted audience of investment professionals”
Here at The Dubs we have been the digital marketing agency supporting FSI since 2011 with discreet initiatives that reflect the nature of the business in its marketing and communications efforts to a targeted audience of professional investors globally.
A key initiative was to redevelop its website so it was an actively useful source of fund data and performance data for its clients, but also importantly, to allow for its rich investment content and thought leadership to be clearly displayed throughout the website from a marketing perspective.
We also help FSI with its ongoing and targeted digital and social campaigns global and regionally across the UK, Europe, APAC and the US.
Ongoing communications are managed by segmented email marketing to both its existing client base, third-party intermediaries and prospective investors.
While FSI takes an understated approach to its digital marketing this doesn’t mean it’s not recognised by its peers for excellence. In 2020, The Financial Services Forum awarded FSI and The Dubs the Highly Commended Award for the Most Effective Use of a Limited Budget for its global listed infrastructure campaign, with the campaign described by judge Dr Annmarie Hanlon from the Cranfield School of Management as, “One of my favourites thanks to beautiful simplicity of creative to articulate a proposition that sought to reposition perceptions and create debate to inspire change.” Not the only award that we have won together, in 2018 FSI and The Dubs won the digital marketing category at The Financial Services Forum Awards.
Our managing director Josh Frith sums up the working relationship this way. “Our role is not to overtly market FSI because the business doesn’t convey itself that way.”
“And it doesn’t have to. It has deep relationships in place with the investment community that are people-driven. Our mandate is to help FSI provide its clients and the market with digital and social channels that provide intelligent information to a highly targeted audience of investment professionals,’ he said.
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