About Alexander Forbes
Alexander Forbes offers integrated retirement, investment, life and insurance solutions to create, grow, and protect your wealth and assets.
The Challenge
To extend the relaunch of the Alexander Forbes Wealth business to the digital landscape. A brand development plan was presented that needed to develop the personal brands of wealth managers and build a new niche positioning to Alexander Forbes in the Wealth sector.
Our Role
Digitlab was brought in to manage the entire digital strategy and execution. Working closely with Lattitude, the brand agency behind the launch, and liaising with the internal IT team at Alexander Forbes, Digitlab needed to bring together multiple marketing agendas to meet internal IT standards, thus delivering an agile campaign platform and digital campaign.
Our Solution
Campaign Site
Digitlab developed the campaign website based on the brand agency’s vision to life.
Digital Business Cards
Similar to our digital business cards, Alexander Forbes wanted to develop an online business profile for their Wealth Managers that showcased video introductions, additional AV content and a simple contact form for interested prospects and clients to use.
Personalised Email Signatures
Our email signature partnerships helped us execute a powerful personal branded email signature. Each signature was individually crafted for each wealth manager and included personalised links to their unique and topical video content. A campaign banner was also applied to allow people to click through to the Live Your Legacy campaign should they wish to.
It’s important to note that this implementation was not an image at the bottom of an email signature. We integrated with software that managed the campaign signature from a central location, helping drive brand consistency across the campaign. We were able to track all the metrics generated by the signatures, which showed that they drove the campaign’s reach up by 25 000 impressions over 12 weeks.
Employee Amplification
A crucial part of the strategy was to develop a considerable personal brand presence for all of the wealth managers involved in the campaign. Learning from our trust equation, we know that social algorithms and personally shared content has a much higher propensity for engagement, reach and sharability inside social networks.
Our CEO, Mike Saunders, ran a Renowned workshop to build the skills and understanding of the wealth managers, growing their skills and influence on LinkedIn. Mike took all the executives involved through a detailed process of building your online presence and why it matters.
We then coupled this Personal Branding Workshop with the one on one training.
One on One Linkedin Training
Each person involved in the employee advocacy programme was allowed to attend a one on one coaching and training session to learn the practical application of Linkedin.
These sessions were held as virtual meetings and were run by our social media professionals. The attendees were provided step-by-step programmes, social media content and advice on building their social media presence into their daily work lifestyle.
Social Media Content
Finally, we took the ‘Live Your Legacy’ Campaign and incorporated it into the larger Alexander Forbes Social Media Strategy. We developed content pieces that flowed seamlessly into the group’s social platforms and a dedicated Linkedin Showcase Page for the Wealth Team.
The Results
The digital execution generated an impressive set of results, especially considering there were only 16 wealth managers involved in distributing content.
The top line statistics show that we achieved over 600 000 impressions with over 4 000 engagements— an impressive milestone considering the challenges of marketing niche financial products in a post-pandemic society.
An important insight to note is that the most significant contributor to the campaign success was the employee amplification programme. The programme generated 65% of the campaign impressions and 22% of the engagement.
Testimonial
“Digitlab’s sound strategic direction and expert digital advertising knowledge has become integral in our digital campaigns. Their hands-on approach, commitment from the senior team and tailored service is a pleasure to work with.”
– Collette Van Dyk | Executive Head – Group Marketing at Alexander Forbes
