Financial Services: From asset management, retail banking and venture capital to credit cards, insurance, wealth management and fintech, Makovsky has extraordinarily deep public relations experience in every major area of the financial services sector. Few others can match our depth and breadth of experience in investment and asset management, particularly with mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity and real estate. Makovsky also specializes in investor relations.
Professional Services: Organizations such as management consulting firms, law firms, accounting firms, HR organizations choose us to gain a competitive advantage and raise their profile through strategic platforms, content and thought leadership. At Makovsky, we have deep public relations and issues management expertise to position our clients as clear leaders in their industries.
How thought leadership built a following.
When New York Life Investments (NYLI) wanted to increase awareness of the firm as a leading asset manager to institutions and retail investors through its MainStay Investments subsidiary, it turned to Makovsky.
We gained media exposure for high-performing mutual funds and institutional strategies using equity, fixed income, convertible, alternative and international portfolio managers as spokespersons. Establishing the firm as a thought leader was critical, so we executed a CEO program and built a significant media following for MainStay's chief economist, who made regular appearances on CNBC and FOX, among other outlets.
To expand relationships with key brokers, we developed a communications program for MainStay Investments' annual Across Generations study and helped develop, implement and promote the "Branch Manager of the Year" award with On Wall Street Magazine. We introduced NYLI's innovative 130/30 retail funds with a program to educate audiences on the investment approach and benefits of the new fund, which won PRWeek's "Financial Campaign of the Year Award" for accumulated awareness and assets-under-management.
Building the value of RIAs.
The independent registered investment advisor (RIA) is changing how America's high-net-worth investors manage their wealth. Schwab Advisor Services (SAS), which serves about 7,000 advisor businesses and is custodian for more RIA assets than any other firm, engaged us to plan and implement a communications campaign to accelerate SAS growth and raise awareness of the RIA category.
The campaign included a robust thought-leadership program anchored by the newly-developed Schwab Advisor Outlook Study, a semi-annual, nationwide survey of over 1,000 RIAs—conducted for more than 5 years—and designed to gauge opinion, outlook and perception of U.S. market conditions and RIA landscape. The program also featured news announcements, by-lined articles penned by Schwab executives, profiles of senior professionals, interviews highlighting Schwab's broad practice management expertise.
To recognize stellar firms, we designed the IMPACT Awards to identify three category-leading RIAs. Winners are announced at the SCHWAB IMPACT Conference, the industry's largest conference of
independent advisors.
The result? Schwab added approximately 2,000 advisors to its platform with assets under custody surging 15% to nearly $700 billion—and the RIA category overall gained a more prominent profile.
Helping consultants become thought leaders.
Russell Reynolds Associates (RRA), a leading global executive search and consulting firm, engaged Makovsky + Company on a campaign to build mindshare, particularly among its primary audience of C-suite executives. First, we developed a narrative that differentiated the firm from its competitors. Then, leveraging RRA's vast array of intellectual capital, we built a campaign that focused on the vertical expertise of the firm's consultants, largely because RRA consultants had acquired their expertise within the industries they serve – giving them an edge in client engagements.
Acting on the news of the day and integrating RRA into coverage based on its sector expertise, this approach resulted in 100 media interviews and a 50% surge of media impressions (114.6 million) within the first eight months of the engagement. And this momentum has continued to build over the past 4 years. As RRA's awareness mindshare has increased dramatically, media coverage of the top competitors dropped significantly. Nearly every top business publication or show, offline and on, has carried
the RRA message.
“Public relations has become a critical part of our business development process, as we build the value of our brand... Our partnership with Makovsky, which began in May 2008, has delivered outstanding visibility and has raised the profile of our consultants as
thought leaders."
- Sandra Galvin, Director of Marketing and Communications, The Americas, Russell Reynolds Associates
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