ALTSLA, CalALTs & the Power of Investment brand Storytelling Table Talks

Investment branding and storytelling across California’s booming alternative investment industry was the topic of conversation at a recent event hosted by the California Alternative Investments Association and CalALTS. MBC Strategic was honored to participate in the event in advance of the annual ALTSLA conference, offering insights, valuable networking and the opportunity to hear from financial services thought leaders.

Led by CFA Society Los Angeles, CAIA Association and CalALTs, ALTSLA is the annual alternative investment conference and educational hotspot for the professional investor community to convene for a full day of discussion on the latest in alternative investment developments. Held in downtown Los Angeles this year, the conference was attended by over 900 guests and attracted alternative investment leaders from across the country

At this year’s Table Talks, MBC Strategic’s Founder Matt Brunini and Business Development Manager Niko DeCesare shared their ideas with various asset managers, financial service providers and alternative asset product providers on the importance of storytelling in the world of investments. It was just one of a number of topics during the event that also included operational alpha as a competitive advantage and cyber security and fraud trends.

Building on the powerful opportunity for better storytelling and marketing in financial services, we tried to offer compelling narrative about how well-told stories help investment managers to differentiate themselves from the crowd of competitors and create more memorable client experiences.

One of the big items of discussion around financial storytelling was how financial firms and institutional managers think their clients only care about numbers. This just isn’t the case. While performance in undoubtedly important, we also shared a study done by Google and the Corporate Executive Board that found that B2B buyers are 40% more likely to have an emotional connection to decision making than B2C audiences.

Of the 30 or so managers, advisors and service providers we spoke with over the course of the event, the question of how to put together a good story came up quite often. Throughout the discussion we recommended that alternative investment marketing should start with a look at who their audiences are and what they care about most. The financial industry is so used to talking about themselves, how many PhDs they have on staff, how many offices they have, how ‘client centric’ they are, etc. The problem is that this doesn’t address the needs of their target audiences and investors, thus falling short on being either memorable or impactful. After identifying those emotional triggers and functional needs of their audience, we recommended looking internally and taking those great elements of the firm – sophisticated investment strategy, unique deal sourcing, exception investor relations team – and beginning to craft their story around the value that those elements will create for their investors and clients.

To learn more about the power of branding and investment industry storytelling, click here to take a look at a recent insights piece.

If you are interested in learning more about how we can help your craft a better story for your investors and clients, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team.