35% of the world’s wealth was sitting on the sidelines, in cash, earning nothing.
For BlackRock, getting this money invested wasn’t just a business opportunity – it was a societal imperative.
The backdrop: the U.S. housing bubble had burst. Lehman Brothers was bankrupt. There was an international banking crisis and a European debt crisis, and more than $2 trillion had been lost from the global economy.
People everywhere were afraid to invest – but they needed to invest. They had too much of their wealth in savings, and savings account returns were not even keeping up with inflation. To add to that, life expectancy was increasing every year, so they needed their money working even harder.
In this environment of volatile markets, low yields and scant confidence, coupled with an ever-growing array of investing tools, it was truly a new world for investors. And whether you were an institutional investor, a financial advisor or an individual, everyone was asking the same question: “So what do I do with my money?”
To answer that question, we worked with leaders across all of BlackRock’s lines of business to come up with practical and actionable ideas and advice for investors.
Launching with a 4-page insert in the major financial newspapers of New York, London and Hong Kong, BlackRock planted its stake in the ground, acknowledged that the world had changed and offered real advice on how to adapt and find opportunity in it. The goal was to provide something so substantive, the piece would be pulled out of the newspaper and kept, perhaps even referred back to during your next meeting with a financial advisor.
After the campaign launched, print ads maintained a steady drumbeat. Featuring portraits of investor “archetypes” that ranged from union workers to retirees to high net-worth individuals, the copy-heavy ads provided substantive investment ideas and advice from BlackRock’s many areas of expertise. Multiple audiences were targeted, from pension fund managers and financial advisors to retirees and individual investors.
By having a point of view, backing it up with data and expertise – and investing in paid media to get their ideas and advice into the hands of investors – BlackRock earned the respect and admiration of clients, competitors and the global financial community at large. For a firm with over $8.7 trillion in assets under management, it was yet another investment that paid off in spades, both in company reputation and on the bottom line.