Nearly six in ten (58%) financial advisors consider websites to be their primary media source for work-related information, compared with only 12% who cite television as the information source they rely on most. However, when it comes to advertising recall, nearly half (47%) of all advisors recall seeing some form of advertising for leading asset managers on television, versus 30% who recall seeing an ad for any of those same companies on a website. These and other findings are included in Patterns in Advisor Media Consumption™, a new Cogent Reports™ study by Market Strategies International.
According to the study, 87% of all advisors name at least one financial or business website to be among the five sites they visit most frequently. Individual sites named include Yahoo Finance (21%), Morningstar (18%), Bloomberg (16%), CNBC (16%), Wall Street Journal (15%), MarketWatch (10%), MSN Money (10%) and Google Finance (10%).
The top TV networks that advisors report viewing daily include CNBC (45%), ESPN (33%), CBS (31%), NBC (28%), Fox News (26%), ABC (24%), Fox (20%), Bloomberg (19%) and CNN (17%).
¡°Our research confirms that advisors are tapping multiple sources across the broad spectrum of media to inform their professional thinking and knowledge,¡± says Meredith Lloyd Rice, senior product director and author of the report. ¡°That said, when it comes to reaching an audience through advertising, television is still the single most effective tool for companies that can afford it.¡±
Advertising recall was highest for Fidelity Investments, with more than three-quarters (77%) of advisors reporting seeing at least one ad by the company in the previous month. Another six firms¡ªiShares (63%), BlackRock (61%), Franklin Templeton (60%), MetLife (54%), Pacific Life (53%) and Vanguard (53%)¡ªalso managed to reach a majority of advisors through advertising during the same period.
¡°In general, the list of providers earning the strongest advertising recall aligns with overall ad spend by these and other companies,¡± says Lloyd Rice. ¡°Not only does advertising work, but spend matters.¡±
The study concludes that just over one-third (35%) of advisors who recall seeing an ad, report taking some kind of action as a result¡ªanything from seeking more information on the company website to contacting a wholesaler, to actually making an investment. Response to advertising was even higher among Independent advisors (42%) and advisors with under $100 million in AUM (38%).
