Morgan Stanley asset management business
Sunday's game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers is expected to draw more attention than last year's Super Bowl, which set a record with more than 115 million viewers. This makes the possibility of giving up the championship game almost ideal.
A 30-second e-commerce ad featuring popular broker guys talking about the game encourages viewers to "get in the game." Zaretsky said the logo is a nod to the Super Bowl, but he wants to encourage viewers to think about how they can get more for their money.
"We believe we have never been better positioned to serve clients in all walks of life thanks to Morgan Stanley's Tier 1 position," said Zaretsky. "And the big game really gives us an incredibly broad and diverse audience to tell this story."
The wide end of the funnel
Morgan Stanley executives describe the asset management business as a "funnel." An extreme example is E-Trade, an online brokerage firm.
It offers commission-free trading and easy trading of stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other popular investment vehicles for people with moderate investments who want to test the market. As their assets accumulate over time, Morgan Stanley expects these clients to progress to full advisory relationships.
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Morgan Stanley has set itself an ambitious goal that will eventually be achieved
At Morgan Stanley and many of its Wall Street competitors, the minimum criteria to work with a financial planner is $250,000 in investable assets.
"Our goal, of course, is to reach potential customers as soon as possible, grow with them and provide them with the right products and services as their needs evolve," Zaretsky said.
What can be bought with 7 million dollars?
Getting your message out to such a large audience certainly doesn't come cheap. For a 30-second video, like at Morgan Stanley, the price goes up.
Zaretsky did not say how much Morgan Stanley paid for his ad. He noted that many factors can affect the price, including how far along the company is in securing an advertising deal.
Regardless of spend, the spend-per-view ratio is in advertisers' favor this year. The Super Bowl is not just a game between two famous teams. It is also expected to address the so-called "Taylor Swift Effect," which has viewers particularly interested in the romance between the Grammy-winning singer and Kansas City Chiefs' Travis Kelce.
Charles Taylor, a professor of marketing at the Villanova College of Business, analyzed data from the research firm YouGov, which found that e-commerce popularity rose from 2% to 3% in the month after a pre-Super Bowl ad aired. That's a big boost at a time when media fragmentation has made it difficult for any ad to attract large audiences, he said.
"This is the only place left like this," Taylor said. “The Super Bowl is a pretty special event. For example, the Grammy ceremony can reach about 20 million viewers. But that's not what the Super Bowl can do when everyone's watching pretty much everything at the same time."
These kids are talkative
It really pays to find a reputable e-commerce marketing company and work with them for years. The online brokerage firm introduced its talking babies in 2008, long before it was bought by Morgan Stanley, and has advertised at the previous two Super Bowls.
Morgan Stanley's e-commerce ad, developed by ad agency 72andSunny and directed by SMUGGLER's Randy Krellman, rejects...
"People really love these talking kids," Taylor said. "They do well year after year and certainly get good reviews."
Financial services firms have a rocky history with Super Bowl advertising. The games of the 2022 tournament featured famous venues and famous personalities.
Early resignation
Morgan Stanley's e-commerce ad is one of 40 ads released ahead of this year's Super Bowl. Companies have found that running them early helps build anticipation for Super Bowl ads and can help certain ads stay in viewers' minds longer, said Mary Scott, a professor of strategic communications at Montclair State University.
"There's always a lot of viewers who watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials," Scott said. “So a lot of brands got really smart and said, "We need to do smart marketing at our Super Bowl locations because this is an opportunity to generate initial buzz."
Scott said he asked his students to look at the ads posted Thursday and jot down some initial thoughts. Finally, you'll rank all the ads and submit the results to USA Today for its annual ad benchmarking study.
However, the final balance can be made only after the weekend, when all the ads will be aired. Scott said the response to the e-commerce announcement has been positive so far.
Scott noted that students in his class are often used to skipping or quickly sending an ad they don't immediately like.
"So it's important to reach a group of people who don't tend to watch 30- or 60-second ads," he said. "I wonder what will happen now?" Because I think most of my students are not e-commerce customers.”
Trust the rumours
Morgan Stanley hopes to capitalize on the increased interest generated by the Super Bowl broadcast and build on that with a special promotion for people opening new brokerage accounts, Zaretsky said. Investors can now receive a deposit of up to $1,000 when opening a non-retirement e-commerce account.
Clients must transfer funds outside of E-Trade and Morgan Stanley to qualify. They must also be held in e-commerce for at least six months or the reward may be forfeited.
The day after the Super Bowl, Morgan Stanley started a new event called Money Monday. Existing and potential customers can do this.
Zaretsky said Morgan Stanley will look at several metrics to measure the success of the Super Bowl ad and related ads.
"We'll look at everything from new accounts to engagement and traffic to social listening," he said. "This will help us understand how to look at all of this. Over time, we never wanted to be alone. We want to have a long-term strategy, and that's why we're excited for Money Monday.”
