Every year, the most creative financial services marketing efforts are recognized by the Financial Communications Society at their annual Portfolio Awards ceremony. For financial services marketing firms, it’s an opportunity to showcase innovative efforts at the highest level, as companies submit projects and campaigns throughout the year to be evaluated by a panel of 40+ industry experts.
We are excited to announce that this year, a campaign that we were part of was recognized with a Bronze award in the Paid Social Media category for Consumer Retail. The campaign was launched in collaboration with creative partners, Make The Turn, and on behalf of Telemus Capital, a Michigan-based Registered Investment Advisor with approximately $3 billion in assets under management. Receiving the silver award was E*Trade, while City National Bank and Bank of America shared the gold.
The Story of the Campaign
In July of 2021, the NCCA announced a rule change that allowed college athletes to take part in name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals. For the first time, financial brands could collaborate directly with college athletes on marketing initiatives.
The University of Michigan is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Telemus Capital has an office in Ann Arbor and is headquartered 40 minutes from Ann Arbor. Many of Telemus’ clients, prospects, and team members have deep connections to the university and student-athlete Wolverines.
This season, Michigan had one of the nation’s top-ranked offensive lines in college football. The offensive line is responsible for protecting their team’s quarterback from the opposing team’s defense. When they do their job well, the quarterback can focus on everything else: moving the ball down the field and scoring touchdowns. Telemus is responsible for protecting and managing people’s wealth. When the team at Telemus does their job well, their clients can focus on everything else: enjoying their wealth and living a more enriched life.
This shared sense of purpose was the foundation of the campaign, and was the inspiration for Make The Turn’s work in creating a series of 50-second videos which featured Michigan’s offensive line in Telemus’ home office.
Once the videos were completed, the Marketing Wiz team was responsible for writing social posts and managing the digital execution of the campaign. The campaign included a press release, paid and organic social media posts, YouTube, Connected TV, and blog posts. The campaign supported the firm’s sales pipeline, helped increase client engagement, and drove increased impressions on social media. All prospect and sales metrics were tracked and analyzed through HubSpot.
“This was a great collaboration between Telemus, Make The Turn, and our team of creatives at Marketing Wiz. It typically takes a true team effort to drive innovative and impactful marketing in the wealth management space, and this was certainly true for this campaign. It was great to see the hard work of our team and partners recognized by the Financial Communication Society,” said Craig Hall, Founder of Marketing Wiz.
The campaign involved four members of the Marketing Wiz team: Project management support from Tia Felock, design support from Northcliff Fries and Fernando Arrieta, and financial writing support from Ryan Ross.
If you want to learn more about the campaign our how Marketing Wiz can help your RIA firm grow, connect with us here.