As an allocator to funds, sitting through countless power point presentations becomes tedious to say the least. After a long week of sitting down in meetings listening to middle aged men in fancy suits go over what appears to be the same presentation over and over, it’s hard by Friday night to remember who was doing what. Add to that the amount of times people fall asleep in presentations (especially when booked after lunch) and it’s not hard to see why, for most funds that aren’t capacity constrained, the closure rate after roadshows is so low. I’m exaggerating slightly for comedic effect but I’m sure you know what I mean. The hard copies of the presentations are nice to have for a few minutes but ultimately go in the recycling bin with the meeting but a faint memory within days. What we retain long term usually rests on emotional cues and unfortunately, current fund presentations based on power point, rely too much on the rational to be impactful.
I’m not saying the empirical data on performance and risk management isn’t essential, but at Turbodex we’ve given some thought on how best increase the success of institutional roadshows and presentations…beyond bullet points on power point. How can marketing, tied in with sales, help in deliver a more impactful message and grow assets at your firm?
What’s happening in the on-line world is worthy of study in this case. Animated videos are great at distilling complex information in a visual format that is simple (never simplistic) and impactful. According to the publication internet retailer 85% of consumers are more likely to buy a product if they see an animated explainer video rather than a traditional one. Google, since the early days, has been using animation to explain some of the value add of its product launches. Some were complex, rather difficult to explain (especially in the early days of programmatic marketing when adwords wasn’t a household name), but by using animation they got their message across. Dropbox grew its client base from 1 to 1,000,000 users in 5 years thanks to a logo and an animated explainer video. Nothing else. Crazy Egg is an online analytics tool. The product is also difficult to explain, but strong motion graphics and a screencast demoing the product strengthened the effectiveness of this animated explainer video. Crazy Egg’s conversion rates saw a 64% increase which gave the company an additional 21 thousand dollars in monthly revenue. There are many more examples of this.
It rests on many psychological factors:
- Animated explainer videos act as ‘pattern interrupters’. They grab your attention for a few milliseconds by surprising you with something you didn’t expect. A bit like someone clapping their hands in a crowded room.
- It’s then important, once they have your attention, to keep you engaged through visual cues. Our brains are visually wired and respond much faster to drawings and ‘stick-men’ then they do to writing. A sign with falling rocks on the road will be more impactful than one with ‘beware falling rocks’ written on it.
- We also love a good story that is fun and engaging. We’re emotionally drawn to stories which means the content they express becomes more easily digested and remembered. Nothing new here and Marcel Proust’s whole body of work relies on this.
Animated explainer videos are perfect for fund presentations. A 90 to 120sec video that explains, through a simple narrative, some of the key points of your fund would be a great way to prepare an investor before meeting them. By watching it ahead of time, an institutional investor could quickly familiarize themselves with the fund’s terms, its source of return, the instruments it uses to achieve said returns, how it’s differentiated from other products and how it fared during periods of markets dislocation. All the salesperson would need to do is send them a link (or offer them to download an app containing said link) to the video as they confirm the meeting with the investor. He or she could then watch it at their leisure.
Turbodex works with creative agencies that specialize in this and thanks to our expertise in fund management, we can help you frame your message digitally in the best possible way. Give us a call!