Using Celebrities to Market Your Hedge Fund

The restrictions on hedge fund marketing remove a lot of tools from a marketer’s toolbox. Celebrities are one such great tool. And as much as you and I logically disagree with the idea that George Foreman should have any influence on how many sandwich presses are sold, using celebrities in your marketing helps sales.

The addition of a celebrity in a marketing campaign not only attracts attention, which leads to interest, but it also improves opinions of your product via the halo effect.

Now comes the problem: Hedge funds are not allowed to use celebrity endorsements in their advertisements. But does that mean you should give up this time-proven technique? Hell no.

How to Use a Celebrity in Hedge Fund Marketing

Legally, you cannot call up Robert Branson to help you sell your fund. The reason is simple: Everyone knows who Branson is. That’s really the definition of celebrity: Holding a reputation in the mainstream public eye.

But every industry has plenty of celebrities that the public would never recognize as celebrities. Any skilled worker or expert in his field can become a celebrity with the proper positioning. So why not make someone in your hedge fund a celebrity in the investment field?

What I’m advocating is presenting your hedge fund manager as a celebrity in your section of the financial industry. All you really need is to present your fund manager as a unique trader. From there, you use PR to establish him as a celebrity and authority figure in your field. Instead of having an unknown hedge fund manager whom you have to introduce each time you meet a prospective investor, you simply send your prospects news articles on or books written by your hedge fund manager. This removes one big step in selling during your pitch: selling the fund manager.

How to Turn Your Hedge Fund Manager into a Celebrity

Within the course of one year, you can publish a book by your hedge fund manager (even if it’s ghost-written) and build a strong online presence for his name with press releases and articles written about the guy.

Your hedge fund will benefit from this form of branding, as you gain an extra benefit with which to pitch to investors. Your fund manager will also benefit from this form of branding via job security, post-job security (if the fund fails), and ego-stroking.

The following is a general three-step outline for turning your hedge fund manager into a celebrity:

1.      Give Him a Platform

A website or blog is a good choice. Let him have some way to get his opinions out there, letting investors better understand the person behind your fund’s numbers. You might even ask him to create a newsletter or subscription service on investment advice, drawing investors from this source to your hedge fund.

2.      Get His Articles in Financial Publications

Have him guest write for popular online sites or in trade magazines in your industry. Not only does this give him more exposure but it also allows you to say, “Our hedge fund manager has written for several financial publications, including…”

3.      Get Him Quoted in Press Releases

Submit press releases on your hedge fund. Use him as the go-to quote guy. The media loves press releases because it saves them work. You should love press releases because it gives your hedge fund manager free publicity.