How technology can help shorten the marketing cycle

Artificial intelligence enables asset management marketers to be nimble and pivot campaigns quickly in the face of changing market conditions

Key points:

• In the current market environment, where circumstances can change quickly, it is inefficient to spend months on preparing a campaign which may no longer match the market conditions once it is ready for launch.
• The disparity between the media landscape and investment audience characteristics in each country makes international investment marketing tricky, requiring a dedicated local approach for every separate market.
• Artificial intelligence could be utilised to monitor market cycles and competitor activity, as well as matching an asset manager’s existing product range to the current demand, creating the ads and providing real-time attribution and reporting for optimisation.

In today’s ever-evolving world, it is important for asset management marketers to be able to adapt marketing campaigns quickly to match any changes in the wider market environment. Technology can play a vital role in this.

Traditionally, asset management marketing campaigns could take up to nine months from the moment the business decides to promote a strategy to the point where the assets are ready to be trafficked. Following this period, the campaign goes live regardless of the market conditions.

At a recent breakfast roundtable organised by Fundamental Media, we discussed this topic in more detail with several asset management marketing professionals and explored how the use of technology could help shorten the cycle.

The participants nuanced the nine-month cycle. For some the cycle lasts around three months, although it is more likely to be nine months for a new brand campaign or when running a multi-country campaign where the team has to work with local heads of sales and business development in the different countries.

However, in the current market environment, where circumstances can change quickly, it is inefficient to spend months on preparing a campaign which may no longer match the market conditions once it is ready for launch.

Media landscapes differ across the globe

Another obstacle is the disparity between the media landscape and investment audience characteristics in each market.

Fundamental Media’s decades of experience in the media planning and buying industry in countries across the world has provided us with ample insights into the intricacies of each country’s media landscape. While some countries have a mature and sophisticated publishing landscape, other markets are costly with little sophistication.

The one overarching observation is that media landscapes differ globally, as does the appetite for different asset classes and the factors influencing fund selection. On top of this, the investment audience’s familiarity with an asset manager’s brand will vary in each country. This makes international investment marketing tricky, requiring a dedicated local approach for each separate market.

Apart from different market requirements, today’s macro-economic environment can change quickly and a marketing campaign that has been carefully planned for months may all of a sudden no longer be suitable for the new market conditions.

One roundtable participant noted that if the time is no longer right for a campaign, it is sometimes possible to resurrect it again at a later date. But she acknowledged that the media landscape is definitely a lot more challenging with full integration. Trying to extract the campaign is a lot more painful and costly, so being able to postpone or flip the campaign would be preferable.

When possible, quickly flipping a campaign to a campaign with a different focus can work well. One participant provided an example of how, following the Ukraine invasion, a sustainability campaign was changed to one on precious metals, focusing on a stable solution in a volatile market.

Another option is to move the budget from one product or investment team to another, but this takes a lot of work. In such a scenario, marketing leads work closely with the business intelligence team to look at the opportunities available in the mid to long term, and have to agree on what topics to promote.

Insights from Our LinkedIn Poll

To further understand the landscape of marketing campaign timelines, we conducted a poll on LinkedIn asking professionals about the duration of their campaigns from concept to delivery. Here are the insightful results:

Less than 4 Months: 0%

4-6 Months: 40%

6-8 Months: 30%

8+ Months: 30%

These results shed light on the timelines marketers face in the industry. In today's dynamic market environment, where agility is imperative, these findings highlight the need for efficient campaign planning and execution. Utilising technologies like artificial intelligence can help streamline processes and shorten these timelines, allowing marketers to adapt swiftly to changing market conditions.

Utilising technology to shorten the cycle

With all these considerations and pressure points, how do marketers customise campaigns to manage this complex matrix across different markets, audiences and levels of brand awareness per country?

Asset management marketing teams are unlikely to have large teams covering each market, but artificial intelligence could be utilised to monitor market cycles and competitor activity. It can also match your existing product range to the current demand, create the ads and provide real-time attribution and reporting for optimisation.

Fundamental Group has developed Alphix Solutions, a suite of marketing technology tools to help asset management marketers gain valuable insights into the performance of their web content and traffic as well as their advertising campaigns.

Other articles on our recent breakfast briefing take a closer look at how our solutions can help you understand the competitor landscape and market demand, ensure your campaigns match the current market sentiment and audience demand, and how automated reporting and data capture can inform the correct advertising approach and make your budget work harder.