MFS

The Backstory

Asset management has always been a long-term game. But it hasn’t seemed that way lately. Short-term performance speaks loudly in a world of SquawkBox and day trading—and it’s hard not to listen. Even though retail and institutional investors know better, short-term trends have captured their clients’ attention and have been crowding out long-term thinking, undermining confidence.

MFS, the originator of the mutual fund, has always counseled their institutional investors that there are no shortcuts when it comes to investment strategy. They’ve provided education and insights to help people take the long view – but often locked this knowledge away in white papers and inaccessible reports. To get more value, MFS asked PJA to help create a content strategy and program that would transform their thinking into accessible, snackable pieces that could become central to their brand.

The Change

While many institutional investment brands take a conservative approach to marketing, MFS was willing to explore a bolder approach. In response, PJA created the ZOOM OUT platform: an expression of MFS’s values about long-term investing brought to life through shareable content the audience would appreciate.

Understanding that great content starts with a deep understanding of the audience, we created personas and mapped the buyer journey for the various types of investors. We also applied our UX methodologies to ensure easy engagement on the platforms they preferred. Investors’ social feeds served up weekly infographics, branded opinion pieces, topical, quick-hit video shorts and a point/counterpoint video series featuring MFS thought leaders.

An integrated distribution plan, including tweets, Linked-In polls and content, Facebook posts, native ads and content syndication, was implemented to engage both retail and institutional investors targeted by persona type. All activities drove users to either the newly branded ZOOM OUT blog, where they could learn more about the MFS philosophy, or to the content section of MFS.com, where they could receive specific investing insights.

The Results

While the MFS brand content strategy is designed to answer the real needs and consumption behaviors of our retail and institutional audiences, it also makes a compelling story out of MFS’s key differentiator - an unwavering long-term perspective on investment success.