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%).
Cogent Reports conducted an online survey with 400 financial advisors in February and March of this year. In order to qualify, respondents were required to have an active book of business of at least $5 million and offer investment advice or planning services to individual investors for a fee or transactional basis. Cogent Reports set quota targets and weighted the data to be representative of the overall advisor universe using the Discovery Data Financial Services Industry database as a sample source. Market Strategies International will supply the exact wording of any survey question upon request.
