Asset manager achieves last-minute proxy using specialized ad campaign

Overview

Proxies demand precise outreach that motivates voters

In a perfect world, shareholders would pay close attention to every proxy mailer, email, and social post. Asset managers and issuers know that’s not the case. A single tactic or channel could mean the difference between high turnout and failure to reach quorum.

For one leading firm, a surefire win – changing the structure of a fund to save $750M and slash 10% in expenses for investors – was struggling to reach quorum. They partnered with Broadridge to run a data-driven ad campaign designed to achieve the votes needed to reach quorum.

Challenge

Wasted impressions threaten investor savings

Lower costs aren’t a hard sell. But with only weeks to reach quorum, 100M shares remained unvoted. Leaders recognized their traditional outreach was falling short.

Another set of notices wouldn’t do it. They needed a direct way to:

• Focus outreach on relevant audience segments
• Highlight the savings potential
• Eliminate impression waste and unnecessary spend

That’s when the firm turned to Broadridge. Focused digital ads built around unique targeting capabilities would secure votes before time ran out.

Solution

Hyper-targeting and agility make every ad count

This was no set-it-and-forget-it campaign. Unlike standard display ads, Broadridge provided proprietary advantages for higher engagement:

• Access to ~50M investor households’ holdings data and 300K advisor records
• Analysis-driven audience segmentation
• The ability to adjust ads based on real-time impression data
• A user-friendly online voting, ProxyVote.com

Daily updates and multiple rounds of creative testing honed messaging and delivery. Teams assessed timing and other details to determine which ads garnered votes. When the firm updated creative assets, our experts deployed them in just a few hours.

The close collaboration guided a steady drumbeat of impressions and click-throughs. Voted shares jumped from 1.61M/day in week one to 2.08M/day in week two. Impressions with investors were particularly affordable, averaging $1.86 per click. As early returns surged, the client invested in additional rounds to seal the deal.

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Benefits

65M new votes approve massive expense drop

In just six weeks, the firm secured the 65M outstanding votes needed to reach quorum. A closer look at the numbers proves how Broadridge created the groundswell for a resounding “yes.”

• Advisors: ~4M ads delivered for 67K engagements. Click-through rates peaked at 2.51%.
• Shareholders: ~26M ads delivered for 512K engagements. Click-through rates peaked at 5.25%.

While every channel has a crucial role in proxy journeys, this solution was key to navigating the last mile. As the firm plans future proxy campaigns, Broadridge will be essential to cost-effective quorums.