Filed under: ad agency,advertising,branding,financial services,US economy,Wall Street Journal
Now don’t get too excited – I hope that this is the first in a weekly series presenting tone deaf ads, but we’ll have to see. Companies are scrambling so crazily trying to figure out what to say in this economy that I think the odds are in my favor, but the proof will be in the… tone deaf ads.
Let’s knock it out of the park this first week, at least, OK?
May I present to you… Bessemer Trust. Henry Phipps founded Bessemer over 100 years ago to manage his family’s proceeds from the sale of Carnegie Steel. Today, the firm’s website states that Bessemer manages in excess of $50B in assets for over 1,900 families, and that its “history of serving wealthy families affords us an understanding of the issues that matter to you.”
Really? Let’s review some of the issues that are, in fact, on everyone’s minds these days with regard to the financial markets: Economic meltdown. Uncertainty. Greed. Irresponsibility. Misrepresentation. Anxiety. This means that any financial firm today has a choice to make: either don’t advertise – which is a perfectly acceptable option for now - or advertise a message that is very, very carefully crafted to take these concerns into account.
So I was shocked when I saw Bessemer’s ad in The Wall Street Journal yesterday: a half-page ad with huge type, saying “We invest your money right along with ours. Needless to say, you benefit from some very careful thinking.”
My reaction: “They’re joking. Bessemer is an honorable and discreet company. Why would they get down in the mud with a bunch of other companies that followed this same practice and scr**ed over their investors?” Investing your own funds is no guarantee of anything – it’s not a guarantee of wealth, intelligence, integrity or the “alignment of interest” explained in Bessemer’s ad. Lots of categories currently in the hotseat invest their own funds: venture capital firms, investment banks, mortgage companies… Enron invested its own funds alongside clients, for goodness sake!
To make matters worse, the small type does actually call out some positive characteristics and benefits of being a Bessemer client “as the credit crisis loomed.” Unfortunately, I can guarantee that no one who saw this ad ever read the small type.
Does the firm have an executive tuned in to the American zeitgeist today? If not, they need one; if so, that person needs to get his hearing checked. This is truly a frustrating example of a company deliberately and needlessly putting itself in harm’s way.
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Hi Stephanie,
My company is the one responsible for creating this ad campaign for Bessemer Trust. This was one ad in a series of 10 executions designed to reposition this 100 year old company as a highly sophisticated wealth management firm, from a relatively unknown brand with a potentially “stodgy” image. We developed this campaign in 2007, and this particular ad in early 2008, when economic times were far superior to what they are now. I agree that we need to develop new ads that reflect the temperature of the marketplace and work is underway to accomplish this task. This ad was judged to be the least “tone deaf” of the series. It should be noted that Bessemer’s business has increased by 170 clients and $3.2 billion in assets under management in the past 12 months. Their business model is absolutely ideal for these times, as they are privately held, there is no conflict of interest, their owners invest in the same portfolio as the clients, and employees are compensated by how well the overall portfolio performs versus the particular asset classes that they manage themselves. I firmly believe that there may never have been, nor will there ever be, a better time for Bessemer to advertise why their business model is one that ideally suited for clients with more than $10 million to invest.
In terms of what is happening today, these consumers are in a state of total shock as names they have known all their lives such as Lehman, Bear, Merrill, Citi, USB, all disappear or become crippled into bankruptcy. And their portfolio is at 50% of what it was, never to return in their lifetime. And Madoff/Stanford has destroyed anyone’s trust in the industry, quite possible forever. So that is what we are taking into account with the new work.
I look forward to reading more of your comments after our launch,
Orson
Comment by Orson Munn 02.24.09 @ 12:32 pmLeave a comment
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