Financial Service Industry Experience

Our agency has substantial experience in representing financial service industry clients and, in particular, asset managers, investment bankers and advisors. While our bread and butter work in this sector is media relations, we also do a good deal of marketing communications support work – primarily competitive market research, event management, capability brochures, websites, and annual reports. In addition, we have a strong résumé with respect to crisis communications work.

Specific client relationships have included:

• Goldman Sachs Asset Management, representing a wide range of GSAM’s third-party and institutional businesses.
• Arlington Asset Investment Corporation (formerly Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc.) and FBR Capital Markets – a seven-year relationship – executing media relations, media training, earnings releases, website development, annual reports, and capability brochures.
• Across-the-board representation of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette for 22 years, including going private, going public, the acquisition and subsequent disposition of ACLI, the development of its fixed income and investment banking businesses, the acquisition of London-based Phoenix and the launch of its European banking business, the launch of DLJdirect, and the eventual sale of the company to CSFB.
• Representation of DLJ subsidiaries Pershing & Co., Wood, Struthers & Winthrop and The Sprout Group.
• A 20-year relationship with Alliance Capital Management, including development of the media strategy and messaging for the acquisition of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., which combined the leading practitioners of value and growth styles.
• The promotion of the portfolio management team of the Templeton Funds through financial and industry trade media with a goal positioning the group for an eventual sale. In the process, we helped to greatly strengthen the public profiles of Mark Mobius and Mark Holowesko, among others, and we also handled all communications for both sides when Franklin eventually acquired Templeton.
• The launch of both Value Line’s mutual fund print survey and its electronic mutual fund product – we also helped launch its electronic equities analysis product and promoted the company’s benchmark product, The Value Line Investment Survey.
• Representation of The Boston Stock Exchange, a 17-year relationship, in all aspects of its business, including the launch of the BOX Options Exchange.
• The initial market entry of the mutual funds group of USF&G at a time when there was a good deal of unfavorable publicity about the parent company.
• Participation in the spin-off of Chancellor Capital Management from Citibank. In positioning a firm with a de novo name; sheer name recognition was the primary goal, and we undertook an aggressive program of analyst quotes, senior management interviews, and TV appearances by a key investment strategist.
• Represented Mitchell Hutchins for four years, promoting Don Marron and the firm’s research product prior to and after its merger with PaineWebber.
• Represented U.S. Trust for 10 years with a focus on promoting its services to high net worth clients.
• The introduction of the first SEI branded family of funds, which included working with SEI’s client banks to promote their own proprietary funds.
• News media interview training and presentation training for the senior management team of the Investment Company Institute.
• A program of major media exposure for individual fund managers and the senior management of Sun Trust Investments, the mutual fund subsidiary of SunTrust Banks.
• The successful reintroduction of the Washington State Public Power Supply System to the debt markets eight years after the largest public-sector bond default in history.
• Representation of a number of trading platforms and other types of securities industry technology vendors.

This breadth of experience underscores our basic marketing message – we are a small shop that does very good work for substantial clients with whom we typically have long-term relationships, and, most importantly, we know the financial service/asset management space well.