Asset Managers will spend more on marketing in 2007, hedge fund budgets half the size of mainstream

Date: Thursday, January 11, 2007
Author: Fin International

A new survey published today by Fin international finds that buoyant markets are driving marketing budgets up across all asset management classes. From small hedge funds to large institutional and retail players, 95% of asset managers are planning to increase or maintain their marketing spend in preparation for a fiercely competitive 2007.

The survey, which segmented companies by their discipline, market and assets under management, provides marketing directors with a benchmark against which they can plan their own marketing activity.

The author of the survey, Justin Mould sees advertising as one of the greatest challenges for asset managers in 2007: “We found that 20% percent of marketing budgets are currently allocated to advertising, of which a fifth is now being allocated to online advertising. Going forward, the task for many marketing directors will be continuing to find relevant places to advertise online.”

Digital marketing represents another significant area for investment. With increased sophistication and the ability to meet the demand for greater detail and flexibility, PowerPoint is competing with the traditional brochure as the preferred means of communicating for institutional players.

Many other insights have come from the survey. Hedge Fund’s marketing budgets, for example, are half the size of mainstream funds of a similar size. Justin Mould explains: “This anomaly is partly due to the advertising restrictions faced by Hedge Funds, but moving into the more mainstream institutional market will mean that brand awareness becomes increasingly important.”

“We have many asset management companies as clients, and I hope that this survey will help them to flourish in 2007. As branding and communications experts working exclusively in financial services, we are well placed to help marketing directors maximise on the information that has come to light as a result of this study.”

The full survey is available in pdf and paper formats directly from Fin International. Fin International is an integrated agency specialising exclusively in financial services.