Saving The Best For Last—3 Terrific Asset Manager Videos To Close Out The Year

With several years of talking head experience behind them, many mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) firms are getting the knack of using video to engage, educate and even inspire.

From my perspective, these three videos released in the last four weeks or so are among the best of the year.

Required Viewing

Can you think of any other investment firm that regularly cautions investors to stay away from its products? 

If you cannot tolerate substantial losses in short periods of time stay away from leverage! http://t.co/zlW3CehqWJ

— Direxion Alts (@DirexionAlts) December 3, 2013

Given its leveraged and inverse fund offerings, DirexionShares is practically obligated to provide product education. But they’ve really risen to the occasion with an ambitious set of animated videos that break down what would otherwise be dry issues to have to slog through in text. A transcript and glossary are made available as accompanying pieces.

Double-digit views for all but the first video must be a disappointment. More prominence for the series on the site, including the home page, would lift its visibility.

Go to the landing page and not the individual YouTube video page to see the full presentation.

"We Love Great People"

This new BlackRock video in support of the GLAAD Ally Network initiative employs a lot of familiar devices used in videos—fast pace, multiple smiling faces, people holding signs.

What makes it different is that some of the faces belong to named, senior people at BlackRock. Including the Global Head of iShares, the General Counsel and the deputy chief operating officer adds gravitas. At a time when other firms in other industries are embracing "diversity as a competitive advantage," the video is one way of asserting what appears to be authentic leadership in this space.

The YouTube description explains that BlackRock was recently recognized as a "Best Place to Work for LGBT Equality" by the Human Rights Campaign. Because this video is about something so different than most BlackRock videos, I think it could have been launched with more context—maybe a landing page or a press release. This is not a recruiting video per se, but I could see BlackRock extending its life by adding the video to the firm's LinkedIn Careers page. 

The Animated Case For Diversification

Back in the day, all asset management marketers had was an efficient frontier chart to convince investors that they may want to diversify their U.S. domestic portfolios.

Franklin Templeton raises the bar with this video on home country bias, released in late November. The animation is entertaining but the story had to come first, and it’s in the storytelling where I think this video excels. It's the third in an Investor Education series introduced in late 2012. 

The December 12 RegEd Webinar with Blane Warrene and Susan Weiner, which I mentioned when I published this post last week, has been postponed. Watch for an update from RegEd.

Keep an eye out for RTB's annual Content Highlights of the year, to be published on Monday, December 16. This is a random, thoroughly subjective list that has no articulated criteria. (For example, see last year's post.) That notwithstanding, if you have a nomination, please post here or email me no later than Wednesday, December 11.

8 Mutual Fund Commercials From Way Back When

Some of digital marketing’s roots can be found in advertising. Before marketers went online, television and radio advertising is where many mastered media, audience selection and targeting, and developed a command of analytics. 

In that spirit—and because it’s Throwback Thursday—here’s a look at eight mutual fund commercials from yesteryear. 

The messaging, the style and the feel of most of these are a far cry from what mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) marketers produce today. But, in the days before social and digital media, television advertising was the highest profile activity Marketing could engage in. These commercials and commercials like them were instrumental in driving what is now a $15 trillion industry.

Dreyfus, 1961

Based on the YouTube comments accompanying this Dreyfus commercial, a lion walking through the subway made quite a lasting impression in the pre-CGI days of 1961. It's interesting that the oldest commercial in this collection is the one that takes the most risk.

Dreyfus again, 1987

There’s a lot to love about this commercial promoting a Ginnie Mae fund, providing access once available only to the "moneyed few." My favorite part is when the actor needs to turn his back on the camera not once but twice to read the 800 number.

Fidelity, 1989

Maybe those were the good old days. This commercial message urges conservative investors seeking 10% money market fund returns to “call anytime day or night” to invest with Fidelity Spartan Funds. “But you must act now!”

Franklin Templeton, 1995

About 1 minute in to this collection of 1995 CNN commercial breaks, you’ll hear a fast-talking Mark Mobius promoting the potential of “developing markets” for Templeton Funds. 

Oppenheimer Funds, 1998

The IMDb says Gene Hackman's voiceover work for Oppenheimer Funds was done in 1998 but this Oppenheimer Funds commercial and others in its series have a very contemporary feel.

Kemper Funds (RIP), 1998

OK, Oppenheimer, I'll see your Gene Hackman and raise you one John Lithgow. Lithgow provides the voiceover for the Kemper Funds commercial that starts at 3:59. I'm partial to this work, which was launched when I worked for Kemper, managing "electronic communications."

T. Rowe Price, 2006

Here's a newer fund performance commercial from T. Rowe Price, and note the much longer disclosure.

Janus, 2007-ish

This Janus commercial was uploaded in 2007 and, if memory serves, might have aired right around that time. With a more complicated message than the rest of these commercials, this ad covers a lot of ground in 30 seconds.

As a final note, I felt a pang while searching for these videos on YouTube. The commercials that are out there have been uploaded randomly, and there's so much that can't be found. Is anyone other than the individual fund companies and FINRA (who has the most complete de facto archive, thanks to filing requirements) preserving this work for posterity?

Blurring The Lines Between Music And Investing

Quick, what tune comes to mind when you think of mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or investing in general?

Nothing, nothing at all? Me either.

In a sound-filled, even noisy world, investing (not trading) is distinguished by its hush. Walk into a mutual fund company, or a financial advisor’s office for that matter, and you’re likelier to “hear” silence than music.

While other businesses use music to communicate energy, optimism or whatever, music is not in the investment firm’s communications toolbox. Too bad, really. Music can add another dimension to an experience. (Not to mention its effect on productivity. If you take a closer look in investment offices, you'll see plenty of people wearing earbuds while they work.)

In the last few months, I’ve collected a few examples of efforts to pair music with investment topics. Is this the start of anything, do you think?

Shelter From The Bonds?

Let’s start with a marketing example—a Bob Dylan-inspired video on an unlikely topic. It’s entertaining, although TastyTrade was probably hoping for more than 60 views.

Branded Playlists

In August it was revealed that Spotify, the music streaming service, was beta-testing a follow feature so marketers could promote branded playlists. 

Ordinarily, the announcement might have fostered just more other-industry envy. Except that Morningstar’s Editor-In-Chief Jerry Kerns has already been doing something like that on Spotify. He’s been creating playlists to accompany issues of Morningstar Advisor.

Issue No. 36_Fund Distribution may be more relevant, but the tracks from Issue No. 35_Bonds will give you a better idea of how the playlist syncs with the focus.

To listen, log in to Spotify and find the jerrykerns account. According to the published numbers, there has been almost zero uptake on this, too. (To be fair, there's been zero promotion—I just happened to see a tweet from Kerns about it.)

The Rhythm Of The Data

Here’s what started me thinking about beats and financial data. The FMS Symphony created a “house-trance,” selecting chords based on the derivative of federal account balance data and a melody based on the federal interest rate data. For more, see this Revolutions post.

Just a warning, when you click on this link or on the image above, you may not love the “cheesy synth” and the volume is set high. But try to hang in there long enough to experience February through October 2008, at least. It’s a soundtrack for the financial crisis.

We have personal life tickers, is it so far-fetched to imagine an asset manager introducing soundtracks for investing over a lifetime? 

Music To Browse By

Do you remember when some early Websites experimented with audio files that auto-launched when visitors landed? There was a bit of a blowback and random Web browsing today is largely free of surprise sounds, including from ads.

Here's one business in private beta, righTune.com, that believes that background music can aid in achieving Website goals. You set the mood and they pick the background music. To my knowledge, this isn't being directed at investing sites. I mention it as an example of more music headed the Web user's way. I'll try to keep an open mind on this one.

Music and investing—do they have a future together?