The brand and digital intelligence of the world’s leading asset managers 2020 2 Living Ratings The brand and digital intelligence of the world’s leading asset managers 2020 Welcome 3 Engagement and evidence: 12 the leaders About Ratings 5 The numbers that define 14 Who, what, when and how we 6 asset managers: engagement rated and classified each firm The numbers that define 16 Sharpening the criteria: 7 asset managers: evidence What’s changed for 2020 This year’s top 10 asset managers 18 Brand value, measured in human capital 8 Opportunity knocks 24 Are you determined or distracted? 9 Get in touch 26 Asset manager ratings and rankings 10 About Living 27 © 2020 Living Group Living Ratings The brand and digital intelligence of the world’s leading asset managers 2020 3 Welcome to the 2020 edition of Living Ratings - a whole new world This time last year who could have imagined the unprecedented events 2020 would bring? Our “usual” way of communicating and doing business changed overnight at the beginning of this year, and for firms who were “digital-ready” this proved to be a relatively straightforward step-change. But for those who did not have an optimized digital presence and channel strategy, this period has brought significant challenges. The last eight months have shown that their websites, leaving users with a a digital strategy must be aligned with frustrating experience and a barrier the business strategy; it should enable to accessing content. Our research firms to be agile in their response to shows only 15% of websites have a economic, social and environmental high quality search functionality and events while engaging with multiple results page. Users do not care to see audiences, no matter their location. long lists of content after performing Those who couldn’t or didn’t, suffered a search; rather, the expectation is in our Ratings and presumably in pictorial results, driven by predictive their contact with their audiences search and intuitive filters, including too. In the absence of face-to- relevance, type, author and date. face interaction, reliance on digital became of paramount importance. Evidence The good news is that, even with Our Evidence criteria measure each Kate Shaw, Co-founder and our annual modification of criteria, firm’s brand and content across its Chief Executive Officer we have seen a vast improvement website and social media channels. across the board, driven mostly by our Engagement criteria, the The firms who developed advisor interactive content, such as podcasts measurement of website functionality toolkits, conversational material and videos, and links to related and technology as well as the and targeted content hubs, have content, such as associated thought social media channels used. led the way. Ensuring their audience leadership or blogs. can access the latest thinking on Engagement hot topics by demonstrating a Finally, in the year where human clear content strategy has risen interaction in person has been limited, Firms have been more innovative with to 60% this year (47%, 2019). we are looking for the surfacing channels and exploring how they of humanity: the firm’s intellectual can reach their target audiences The current environment makes it capital – its people. Too many asset using interactive webinars and an imperative for firms to reinforce managers rely on product only and podcasts. Looking at the social their brand purpose and positioning their sites are devoid of people profiles. media channels utilized, 61% of firms on their home pages. It’s good to have a high quality LinkedIn channel see this has increased to 44% in Opportunity Knocks (45%, 2019) and 63% a high quality 2020. Brand values are also on the Twitter channel (43%, 2019), proving increase at 48% (37%:2019) which Year on year, we look for improvements that firms have had to really focus on really drives home a firm’s culture, and, on the whole, this year has seen a the channels utilized to disseminate vision and reason for being. good shift to quality digital intelligence. their content. As we predicted, the But there’s always room for improvement sector has also increased its presence On the downside, it’s disappointing and pages 24 and 25 highlight 6 areas on Instagram: 36% vs 32% in 2019. to see that the quality of fund and of focus for 2021. strategy pages has not kept up with However, the sector still performs other innovative content. More than poorly in providing a quality search just performance data, these pages functionality across the whole of should contain fund manager bios, © 2020 Living Group WANT THE GOOD VIEWS OR THE Is your brand’s digital intelligence performing optimally? In addition to our annual Ratings report, we also offer an in-depth diagnostic of your brand, website and social media footprint, analyzing your digital intelligence and providing better ways to improve your digital capability. To find out how we can bring your brand and digital proposition to life please contact: Kate Shaw in New York ([email protected]) Greg Hobden in London ([email protected]) or Gigi Yung in Hong Kong ([email protected]). www.living-group.com © 2020 Living Group Living Ratings The brand and digital intelligence of the world’s leading asset managers 2020 5 RATED About Ratings Now in its 28th edition, Living Ratings benchmarks the brand and digital intelligence of the world’s leading financial and professional services brands. These studies provide our clients with evidence-based insight that continuously enhances their marketing communications and gives us unparalleled knowledge of our specialist sectors. Digital diagnostic Analysis Implementation In addition to our annual Ratings To analyze how your brand and To enable you to implement report, we also offer an in-depth digital footprint performs against enhancements and corrections diagnostic of your brand, website and a set of proven benchmarks. in line with best practice. social media footprint, analyzing your digital intelligence and comparing your firm against your closest competitors. Re-alignment UX To re-align your brand and To improve the user experience digital strategy to ensure that and information architecture any future-generated content of your website. receives the maximum exposure with your target audience. Connectivity Understanding To connect your social media strategy To understand what is required to Our analysis is the logical with your brand and content strategy. create a better brand and digital first step on the journey experience for all your stakeholders – internal and external (and to gain a to improve your brand Purpose higher Ratings score in the next review). and digital intelligence, To ensure that your CMS platform is the empowering you with right fit for your purposes and goals. objective evidence and a clear strategy. © 2020 Living Group 6 Living Ratings The brand and digital intelligence of the world’s leading asset managers 2020 Rating and classifying each firm In June, July and August 2020 our analysts reviewed the brand and digital intelligence of the world’s leading asset managers – source: ©IPE Top 500 Asset Managers published in June 2020. Each of the 99 firms (there was a merger of two firms during our research) was rated through the eyes of an intermediary and measured against 100+ criteria, including several new metrics covering engagement (website functionality and the social media channels used) and evidence (brand and content on website and social media). How we calculate our scores Each firm is allocated an overall percentage score. This is calculated by adding the scores for the individually weighted engagement and evidence criteria. We then use the separate engagement and evidence scores to classify each asset manager with one of four definitions of their digital presence – Determined, Energetic, Focused or Lackluster. Sector averages are based on the full listing of the top 99 firms. The five firms with the highest scores are also reviewed with expanded case studies. Website Website 1 functionality 2 CONTENT SOCIAL MEDIA SOCIAL MEDIA 3 PRESENCE 4CONTENT © 2020 Living Group Living Ratings The brand and digital intelligence of the world’s leading asset managers 2020 7 What’s changed for 2020? With each edition of our report, we evolve our scoring methodology to be more demanding and to keep pace with the fast-moving sector. Here are just a few of our core criteria for 2020: ENGAGEMENT EVIDENCE Thoughtful IA and UX Quality fund or strategy pages Considered information architecture (IA) and intuitive user Given that these pages are often the most visited part experiences (UX) are of paramount importance. We reward of an asset manager’s digital presence, we place great firms that keep it simple and give thought to how their emphasis on these being brilliantly designed, easy to content is found and consumed. consume and data-rich. High-quality search Brand purpose We raise the bar in this category each year as search Especially important this year, asset managers who put technology improves and becomes more affordable. We their brand positioning on the home page of their website celebrate asset managers who take time to think about and consistently across their social media channels are delivering not just filtered results, but how these results are serious about the value of their brand. We reward them. curated and presented. Case studies Marketing automation and personalized content Demonstrating how your firm has solved an investment Firms who use automated or personalization technology challenge or helped a client is far more powerful than just to deliver tailored content are at the forefront of the asset pushing products. Today, helping is the new selling. management sector. They know it’s not one size fits all and are rewarded for their time, effort, and commitment.