A new awards programme that turns a light on which wealth management firms have the best video presentations is being launched that also underscores the fast-rising importance of this medium.

The world of video advertising in wealth management is about to go into overdrive, a global think tank tracking the industry says.

Scorpio Partnership predicts that use of video to spread providers' messages is set to accelerate.

“The appeal and accessibility of the video clip among wealthy investors as they search for new providers has been vastly underestimated. Our interviews with thousands of private banking end clients around the globe has for more than 36 months now been stating this is an opportunity missed,” Sebastian Dovey, managing partner, told this publication recently.

Yet despite their clear relevance and purpose in advancing brand recognition and identity, a surprising number of wealth management institutions have yet to set a video marketing strategy in place, Dovey continued.

To force the agenda for the industry, Scorpio Partnership has now tracked over 100 video campaigns in wealth in the past 18 months and tested their reception with high net worth and ultra HNW investors. The results have also led to the firm developing an award called The Rubies for the best video campaign – as chosen by end investors as well as a panel of experienced professionals in the industry. The award, as it gains momentum, will be supported in future by WealthBriefing.

On a series of categories from Rank 1 to 5, for high net worth clients, are the following winners, starting with rank 1: Morgan Stanley, then Charles Schwab (2); Wells Fargo (3), UBS (4) and Wealthfront (5). (The link to their respective videos is below.)

“We are looking to turn the spotlight on to this medium of communication. Many video campaigns by wealth managers to date have been shockingly bad. However, a few are beginning to recognise the need to get this right and that if executed well the impact can be significant in the world of digital marketing. Some of the best campaigns even transition onto mainstream television. This is a shop window like no other,” Dovey said.

The winner of the inaugural Ruby was based on a long list of 40 wealth video-ads that achieved the basic elements of composition, content, engagement and viewing levels to date. From this long list 10 finalists were selected.

A small panel of professionals drawn from the worlds of wealth, branding, client experience, PR and technology were asked to highlight five contenders for the award. The shortlisted five were then shown to a panel of 400 HNW individuals from the UK and the US which represented the two countries where the finalist ads were focused.

“We have developed an interactive method of testing sentiment on ads in our surveys gathering the moods of the viewer during each second of the clips," Dovey said. The HNW and UHNW viewers were asked to share their opinions and vote. “We have created a Viewers Vote for wealth propositional marketing,” he said.

While there was a winner it was notable that the selection of the industry panel diverged from the end investors. Further, the feedback from investors show that the industry still has some way to go to capture the client imagination in the way that other industries are able to.

“The opportunity is clear and simple. Video-based communications have the capacity to strike a chord with viewers that no other medium can do – videos allow them to engage with the content in a very different way. As such, TV advertisements are fast going to be of relevance due to their huge potential in becoming lead generators for wealth managers, if done correctly. They really do have the capacity to capture the minds of the wealthy,” Dovey said.

Based on the R&D work to date, Scorpio Partnership said it is confident that the industry is catching up with this medium based both on the client feedback insight it collates and the changing objectives of the businesses.

“Wealth management has to shift to the front foot to survive and thrive. Strategic marketing initiatives such as web-based video advertising can be efficient, engaging and produce a faster RoI. We are getting more requests to invent in this space. Therefore we took the view that the Ruby award approach would help to move the industry forward,” Dovey added.

Lights, camera, action… For the full results, see this link:

http://www.scorpiopartnership.com/opinion/blog/introducing-ruby-awards-wealths-best-videos/