Close Investments

Close Investments manage assets of £4bn* and provide a broad spectrum of innovative products for institutional, mutual funds and private investors.

Recent market volatility has led Independent Financial Advisor’s (IFA’s) to seek ‘safe havens’ for their clients’ investments. And this is where Close Investments’ innovative suite of Escalator Funds fit the bill. They are lower risk investments suitable for savers tempted by the returns they can achieve from stockmarket investments, but who are unwilling to risk an unspecified amount in the event of a fall.

Challenge
Close Investments asked Living Designs to design and build a campaign to raise awareness of their impressive proven 12 year track record Escalator Funds to IFAs and third-party Life companies. Not surprisingly, the Escalator Funds are positioned in an extremely crowded market and up against substantial competitor campaigns, so clarity of message was top of the creative agenda.

Solution
To kick-off the project, we conducted one-to-one phone interviews with a collection of the target audience to understand their perception of the organisation as well as the Escalator funds. This was essential to ensure the accuracy of the campaign messaging, style and tone of voice.

Following our interviews, competitor research and campaign planning, we were in a strong position to prepare ‘to-the-point’ headlines and creative that not only positioned the product in the minds of the IFAs but also raised awareness of Close Investments as an organisation. The campaign's hero headline was 'Stay Close. Stay safe' – cleverly promoting Close Investments and reflecting the safe nature of the product.

Result
The integrated campaign included brochureware, factsheets, sales aids, PowerPoint presentation, and personalised postcards and html emails with a personalised URL (pURL) to a unique microsite. A national advertising campaign also ran in the financial press and Sunday papers.

* as at end July 2007