WoM Issue 14

WORD OF MOUTH

WoM

the publication for financial and technology communications professionals

Page 04

Building Corporate Profile in Turbulent Financial Markets Also in this issue: 03 WoM speaks with Chris Willis at Pyxis Mobile about why they opt to keep up the PR activity, even in a difďŹ cult market 06 7city: Building reputation through PR 07 P R: Who’s doing it right and what can we learn from them?

Issue 14 | Q2 2009

News

FinAnalytica Selects Cognito to Raise Profile in London and New York

Welcome Tom Coombes Chairman and CEO

A Change in Confidence?

The mood in high finance circles on Wall Street is definitely changing. Financiers are seeing beyond TARP and the recession. Many entrepreneurs are positioning themselves to take advantage of new opportunities and newfound confidence. The language and dialog is changing across the banking, investment and alternatives sectors.

While the landscape has changed for good, almost unanimously people feel it’s for the better. Our technology clients, particularly those that help companies with risk, compliance, regulation and process improvement, are at worst, more positive, and in many cases seeing more deal flow. No one is anticipating a swift recovery or a return to the excesses of the last boom, but the change in sentiment is palpable.

FinAnalytica, the provider of advanced portfolio analytics software to hedge funds, fund of funds and investment companies globally, has selected Cognito to raise its profile in London and New York.

FinAnalytica selected Cognito, following a competitive pitch, to manage a PR campaign aimed at raising its profile outside of its current client base.

Cognito will focus on London and New York, targeting funds of hedge funds, institutions, multi-manager funds and endowments.

Boryana Racheva-Iotova, President, FinAnalytica, comments, “The current economic crisis has proved that traditional risk management solutions have not been effective in extreme market conditions. FinAnalytica uses a model which has been proven to be 97% accurate in predicting the likelihood

of extreme events over the last year.

We need to bring this message to a far wider audience, and Cognito is able to do just that. With Cognito’s experience in this marketplace,and presence in both London and NewYork, we are confident that we have selected the best partner for our needs.”

Rod de St Croix, Head of European PR, Cognito London, comments, “FinAnalytica has a proven solution which represents a paradigm shift in the way risk management is viewed. It is used by hedge funds, funds of funds, financial institutions and investment companies on a global basis. We look forward to working closely with FinAnalytica to raise its awareness among a wider audience in London and New York.”

To find out more, contact: rod.destcroix@cognitomedia.com Telephone: +44 (0)20 7438 1100 n

Integrity and Prudence Without exception, corporate profile and reputation management is at the forefront of boardroom dialog. Integrity, diligence and prudence are cornerstones of the language being used across the industry. The recession has changed the marketing and communication business. Old media models are dying, and new channels are being swiftly adopted. Clients expect and deserve clear metrics and results and want to investigate the new media and forums that are available.

That said, core PR principles of well, thought - through business narrative, good messaging and stories still apply, and CEOs and business managers need to apply themselves to the substantial task of reputation and profile management more than ever.

WBR chooses Cognito For North American Portfolio

We are in exciting times, which will bring newfound opportunity, and we look forward to helping our clients navigate these unchartered waters. With new clients from the banking, investment management and technology sectors, Cognito is proud to be helping a growing number of firms in the financial sector to promote and reposition themselves for growth.

Following the success of WBR and Cognito’s partnership at TradeTech’s 2009 New York and Paris shows, WBR the international conference organiser, has appointed Cognito to manage the media relations program around its complete North American

02 | info@cognitomedia.com

portfolio of conferences, including TradeTech West in San Francisco and TradeTech Canada in Toronto.

To find out more, contact: daniel.simon@cognitomedia.com Telephone: +1 646 395 6300 n

Word of Mouth | Issue 13

case study

WoM speaks with Chris Willis at Pyxis Mobile about why they opt to keep up the PR activity, even in a difficult market In 2007, WoM interviewed Christopher Willis on Pyxis Mobile’s relationship with Cognito in the U.S., when Pyxis Mobile was just over a year old.

Two years on and after a three year relationship, WoM again speaks to Willis and about the benefits of continuing a long-term relationship with Cognito to support Pyxis Mobiles’s PR activities in current market conditions.

Can you explain a little more about what Pyxis Mobile does?

Pyxis Mobile was founded in 1998 and delivers innovative wireless applications that drive productivity and accelerate growth. Our solutions, which are in use at over 200 global firms, including 28 of the top 50 global asset managers, are used by mobile professionals to extend critical business data from internal enterprise systems to the mobile device of their choice. We have a strong focus on Financial Services and sales and distribution, as well as on the business side of solutions, rather than just IT. Can you speak a little more about how you first started working with Cognito?

PR is an important aspect of what we do at Pyxis Mobile. We don’t spend on advertising, as I don’t believe it is valuable – advertising is simply me telling someone else we are good at what we do.

In 2002/03, we started creating news and having a good understanding of the key players in terms of editors of our target publications, so in 2003 we took the decision to use a local firm to deliver our PR on a national level. They were satisfactory for what they were trying to do, but there were quality issues – misspellings, quotes out of context, etc.

During our run with our local agency, Dan Simon and Tom Coombes, who were in the process of setting up a U.S. office for Cognito, visited us at our Waltham, MA offices four times, and each time, proved to impress us with their approach and focus. So when it came time to switch agencies at the end of 2005, there was really only one phone call made. Tom and Dan did a good job at proving Cognito’s ability in this market space, and we decided quite early on that working with Cognito

Word of Mouth | Issue 13

would be a smart partnership – it was a simple decision. In January 2006, Pyxis Mobile appointed Cognito to drive its media profile in the U.S. How does cognito continue to support Pyxis Mobile?

Cognito has strengths in many different areas.

They don’t just focus on vendor related news, which I feel lacks impact and acts as unheard news - they focus on real news. Within the first few months of our relationship, Cognito had secured coverage for Pyxis Mobile in the Wall Street Journal, BBC World News and CNNmoney.com.

A lot of good work was done to secure coverage promoting Pyxis Mobile’s understanding relating to the NTP lawsuit which was current at the time.

Regarding the people at Cognito, in my experience, agencies have a habit of assigning senior resources to an account at the beginning of the relationship, and then quietly substituting less expensive junior resources as their clientbase grows. At Cognito there has been some change over time, which is inevitable given the length of time we have been working together, but regardless of the iteration, the team has always been very good and very strong. Cognito does a great job when it comes to hiring new staff. Because of this, I have few concerns about who ends up on my account.

Our team, headed by the tenacious Deborah Eisenberg, generally exceeds the expectations that we set at the beginning of each year. In 2008 we had an average of 2.5 editor pick-ups per week which, for a smaller company like Pyxis Mobile, is a real value for the money.

What are the benefits of a long-term PR relationship?

The time we have spent working and socializing with Cognito since 2006 has created an atmosphere that goes beyond “client/vendor”.

I consider the Cognito people who work on our account to be part of Pyxis Mobile. I do not differentiate between how I speak to them and how I speak to the Pyxis Mobile team.

They continue to treat us as a key client and over the three years of working together, we know and understand each other very well.

There is a lot of trust between the two teams.

What are your thoughts on using PR in current market conditions?

We have a pretty simple choice. We can chose to be quiet in a downturn, which is what many unremarkable companies choose to do. Or we can choose to be loud, tell a strong story of value and need, and be the lone voice in the storm. We choose the latter.

Why continue to invest in PR even when the going gets tough?

We believe in a strategy of increasing our PR outreach during a down period in the market.

Most of our competitors are cutting the amount of outreach they do, and so it is possible to see heightened results from our investment.

Why is PR the most cost-effective way of raising the profile at this time?

It is simple. For the cost of one employee, Cognito provides three or more professional, expert resources that work on strategy, tactics and execution of our outreach.

What does the future hold for Pyxis Mobile?

Pyxis Mobile has proven that mobility creates true efficiencies inside the enterprise that results in sales and revenue growth. With large, public companies laying people off, there is a critical need to increase employee productivity and raise revenue per sales head. This year, we have expanded our focus to include the sales teams of Fortune 1000 companies across many verticals that face the challenge of needing to do more with less. We look forward to continuing a successful relationship with Cognito as we endeavour to do that. n www.cognitomedia.com | 03

Case Study Cognito Event

Building Corporate Profile in Turbulent Financial Markets 04 | info@cognitomedia.com

Word of Mouth | Issue 13

case study

The message to all firms in the market is that you need a professional team to get this right, and it should be a top priority.

T

he foundations of the financial industry have been rocked and its leaders’ values questioned. Many in the industry are appalled by what has been uncovered. At the same time, many know that the professionalism inherent in their organizations has been and will continue to be a source of pride.While the politicians drive tighter regulation, the institutions will inevitably create and innovate. But in order to gain the support it needs, the industry needs to focus as much on communication as on its products, and the institutions need to take pride in the professionalism of their communication.

A Professional Approach The financial sector has not historically excelled in good communication practices, but now more than ever, it needs to recognize that support from its many audiences, and the public in general, is paramount. It is imperative that those organizations that are still not adequately addressing this fundamental practice from the top do so.

Many communications professionals in the industry, not least those in agencies, are often left more deeply challenged when budgets for core communication activity are cut. The problem often is that the ROI is impossible to quantify.

Those who believe that their organization could benefit from better communication practices do not need to be concerned that this is an expensive exercise. The basics are inexpensive when compared to many marketing activities.

Furthermore, it presents a real opportunity to create an edge over the competition.

Revisit the Corporate Profile Core communications exercises are so intrinsically linked to the business plan and mission that they must include senior executives. If executed correctly, they will provide numerous benefits.

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Many communications professionals in the industry, not least those in agencies, are often left more deeply challenged when budgets for core communication activity are cut.

The imperatives are that the senior heads in the business take the time, jointly, to look at the profile and reputation in the market, agree it matters, and then start reviewing it and building the right infrastructure to drive it the way they want. Typically this will ensure some key questions are addressed, namely: • What is the profile we want to create?

• Which audiences will we target?

• Where are we now?

• How can we credibly build the profile in our market?

Differentiate Strongly The herd mentality has been far too prevalent in the markets. While retail financial marketing is inevitably more creative, there lies significant opportunity for players in the wholesale institutions to make themselves more distinctive and memorable through better messaging and marketing. The exercise requires considered application and thought from the business leaders, but it gets to the heart of the business and examines why the organization wins any business in the first place.

Don’t Just Tweet Blogging and micro blogging are two of the latest communication methods to gain widespread adoption. While the opportunities they offer are significant, most companies won’t capture them if they don’t have inherently sound communications infrastructures to deliver consistently. The damage of doing it wrong can outweigh the benefits.

The message to all firms in the market is that you need a professional team to get this right, and it should be a top priority. n

www.cognitomedia.com | 05

case study

7city: Building Reputation Through PR Summary • Cognito selected by 7city Learning for its financial industry communication expertise • Focusing on PR in a recession: a diverse message drives 7city profile in challenging market • Engaging the media: Cognito PR strategy delivers immediate, quantifiable results Founded in 2000 in the U.K., 7city Learning is a global financial services and training company teaching a range of professional qualifications, delivering financial product training and offering management and personal development courses.

In 2004, 7city opened its NewYork office, the platform for its U.S. business, and further expanded to the Asia-Pacific market in 2008.

within the training industry, but not many people in the U.S. know about it. When people hear about 7city, they hear about the company in glowing terms, but they don’t necessarily hear about it en masse.” Moving into 2009, one of 7city’s main objectives was to increase the market share of the CQF course in the U.S. while continuing to maintain its market share in the U.K. and the AsiaPacific region.

Diversification AlistairYoung was brought to 7city to formulate a global marketing, communications and promotional strategy for the CQF, incorporating advertising, PR, events, information sessions and event sponsorships. Young comments; “In any comprehensive marketing strategy, diversification The Need for Greater Market Share is fundamental. PR is a key component for 7city, Toward the end of 2008, 7city approached Cognito especially with the CQF. We are dealing with a looking for a PR agency to help increase the market conservative market that is engaged and influenced share of its professional training programs in the by traditional media.”

U.S. during turbulent market conditions. One of the many courses delivered by 7city is the 7city believes in a strong marketing and public Certificate in Quantitative Finance (CQF), which relations program and has resisted any urge to cut AlistairYoung, Global Marketing Executive for 7city, back on its spending in 2009. Under Young, PR is describes as being “like a Masters in Financial being undertaken concurrently with advertising in Engineering.” 7city also wanted to leverage its an attempt to diversify the 7city message and make reputation as being “best in breed” for its product, the organization more competitive. Young explains; rated as one of the top 100 fastest growing U.K. “I think PR will be most effective for us because companies in the last four years and winner of the changes in market regulations mean there are so U.S. Distance Learning Award in 2008. many issues 7city can use to engage the media.”

According toYoung, “7city’s reputation is excellent

Cognito: The Chosen One 7city selected Cognito in 2008 after meeting with four other agencies. “Cognito had the deepest pool of financial expertise out of all the agencies we looked at,” Young explained. He also had a clear understanding of how Cognito’s PR would help 7city’s program: “Cognito’s strategy outlined exactly what they would deliver and offered a number of quantifiable results. I didn’t meet any other agencies that would deliver anywhere near that.”

The relationship between Cognito and 7city is already producing results. Young comments; “Delivering a media tour for us on short notice was a fantastic turnaround. Cognito got some excellent, high-level journalists on board and gained great coverage for the company.”

Where is it all Heading?

According to AlistairYoung, 7city’s future is extremely bright, even in the current economic climate. Tighter market regulations will result in a growing need for training and education. Young explains; “We generally feel that regulatory measures will increase our potential for traditional revenue, and I believe the return on investment from Cognito’s PR campaign will be inevitable.

Within a year, we will significantly grow both our brand and reputation in the U.S.” n

“ Delivering a media tour for us on short notice was a fantastic turnaround. Cognito got some excellent, high-level journalists on board and gained great coverage for the company.”

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Word of Mouth | Issue 13

PR News

PR News Article

PR: Who’s Doing it Right and What Can We Learn From Them?

The list of PR blunders, missteps and mixed messages in the financial industry is growing by the day. Over the past few months, we’ve seen a bank take receipt of another private jet, a prominent CEO caught purchasing a $1200 waste basket while recording a $12 billion loss and banking bonuses coming under yet further public scrutiny.

Even our new and usually PR-savvy president failed to properly manage expectations around the government’s financial rescue package (TARP II: the revenge), contributing to another terrifying downward lurch in the stock markets.

With so many moving parts and with the speed of information accelerating, it is to be expected that communicators are having difficulty taking stock, crafting effective messages and responding appropriately. For this very reason it would be valuable to examine a few firms within financial services who have managed to deliver effective campaigns in spite of the market turmoil and see what these examples might have to teach us.

At Christmas, online bank ING announced it was canceling its holiday party and was going to use the money it was saving to pay off the December mortgages for 500 of its customers. Better still, it turned the exercise into an online essay competition, asking its customers to explain why they were most in need of having their mortgage payments forgiven for a month. Not only did this means testing pre-empt any negative lottery associations, it also enhanced ING’s image of fairness and, cynically, gave them pages of human interest stories of people suffering through the recession which they could feed to media outlets hungry for this kind of material – which is, unsurprisingly, what they did.

ING perfectly assessed the public’s need for both generosity during tough times (and at Christmas) and for banks to show some humility amid the scandals and endless compensation disputes. The result was media and blog coverage probably comparable in value to the mortgages it had forgiven.

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When Wells Fargo won the dispute with Citigroup for control of Wachovia, the firm swiftly launched a new blog (incidentally the bank’s fifth): The Wells Wachovia blog: blog.wellsfargo.com/wachovia.

The site with its new tagline: “One team twice as strong” was designed to be a resource for joint customers; a place where they could voice concerns, share feedback and receive answers to their questions. The speed with which the site was established along with the rapid popularity it gained among Wells Fargo and Wachovia customers garnered significant media attention, which in turn drove traffic to the site. Overall, the critical response to the blog has been positive, with many holding it up to be a great example of what banks should be doing to build better, more transparent relationships with their customers.

E*Trade has studiously incorporated irreverence into its brand for a number of years, but its decision to shift its advertising away from portraying adult traders to a talking, trading baby was a brave move, even in an up-market. When the market soured in 2008, the firm would have been forgiven for retrenching to a more conservative position. Instead, no doubt spurred on by the success of the initial campaign, E*Trade took the brand to the people, setting up a YouTube channel for ‘advertisement outtakes’, a Facebook page and even a Twitter feed (current tweet: “Dude, in this market we’re lucky we’re babies and not baby boomers!”). Its Twitter feed alone has over 1100 followers.

What Characteristics did These Successful Campaigns Have in Common?

Thinking on their feet Neither ING nor Wells Fargo had very long to put these campaigns in place. But they did not use the speed of events as an excuse, rather they used it as an opportunity. Had ING canceled a party after Christmas or forgiven its clients’ February mortgages, the gesture would have lost its impact.

Embracing the Market None of these campaigns shied away from the market turbulence. E*Trade remained jocular even in the face of what must be some terrifying losses for their customers. In fact, both E*Trade and ING used the concerns to their advantage; ING playing off the market concern about corporate excess and E*Trade offering us some much needed catharsis. In all cases, the risk of backfire was significant, but the gamble paid off.

Involving their Customers All three of these campaigns – whether it’s the E*Trade baby’s Facebook page, ING’s competition, or the Wells/Wachovia blog – rely on their customers’ involvement to fuel the content. All, to a greater or lesser degree, created a dialog with the market and that is the secret to their success.

Using new Media Ultimately that dialog would not be possible without leveraging new and social media. It is a measure of how important social media has become today that it is impossible to imagine any of these campaigns succeeding without an online component.

For more advice, contact: info@cognitomedia.com

www.cognitomedia.com | 07

event update

The Future of Financial Services Communication

The venue, “TwentyFour” - a funky bar in the heart of central London, was transformed with interactive walls and surfaces, including a large interactive bar with four different interfaces – a fitting backdrop to postulate the vision of the future of financial services communications.

Guests to the event were able to see firsthand the technology used by Deutsche Bank at Sibos 2008, as well as seeing other ways in which the technology can be used in a business context. Interactive games were also on display, their popularity suggesting the crowds that conference exhibitors can expect around their booths. Away from the walls and the bar surfaces was an interactive Google Earth, where people were quite literally able to “move the world”.

Leading the presentations and forum for discussion was Christoph Woerman, Head of Marketing and Communications, Global Transaction Banking, Deutsche Bank. He spoke about the success of the Cognito Mindstorm Sibos 2008 project and how the interactive technology engaged clients while educating and entertaining them.

He explained how the project overcame all risks and gave a brand new approach to displaying Deutsche Bank’s collateral. It was the first time that this sort of technology had been used on a booth at an event.

With Sibos being such a key event in the business calendar, and with no backup hard-copy brochures to

Next to speak was Kenneth Siber, Managing Director, Mindstorm, who described the importance of making the technology easy to use. This is essential at an industry event – where delegates need to know instantly that they are in control.

Ian Carrington, Head of Financial Services, Google Inc., highlighted the importance of reacting to changes in technology and market conditions, particularly in the current economic climate. It is essential that companies position themselves slightly differently in these market conditions so that they can react quickly to every available opportunity. Through a combination of Mindstorm’s impressive hardware and software, and Cognito’s expertise in design and marketing, the future of communication is here, and it is important to be up to date.

From the buzz in the room, it was clear the event had inspired and delighted people.To capture the atmosphere of the event if you were unable to attend, please visit: marcoms.cognitomedia.com/event-gallery n

“ From the buzz in the room it was clear the event had inspired and delighted people.”

The ‘iBar’ in action.

rely on, it was essential the technology worked and that it performed well.

Ian Carrington, Google; Kenneth Siber, Mindstorm; Christoph Woermann, Deutsche Bank.

I

n February 2009, Cognito once again teamed up with Mindstorm, the award winning software company, to present “The Future of Financial Services Communication.” This showcase event demonstrated cutting-edge interactive technology produced by Mindstorm and its potential for improving the presentation of key company messages.

ABOUT COGNITO Founded in 1999, with offices in London, New York and California, and clients across every time zone, Cognito is a full service, results focussed communications agency working exclusively for finance and financial technology companies. Whether delivering retained PR or innovative design and marketing projects, Cognito’s clients benefit from creative and strategic thinking, professional delivery and a commitment to exceeding expectations. From global institutions to niche players,Cognito’s experience has been gained through working with many of the leading players in the financial sector including ABN AMRO, Neonet, Linedata and Calypso.

WoM is written and designed by Cognito.

London: +44 (0)20 7438 1100 | NewYork: +1 646 395 6300 | California: +1 310 246 9530 | Email: info@cognitomedia.com | Web: www.cognitomedia.com | Blog: www.marcoms.cognitiomedia.com/blog