Successful financial firms have something big in common: they’ve all cracked the code for how to brand financial products. 

The right brand strategy can make the difference between thriving and failing. But there’s more to building a brand than designing an eye-catching logo or writing a clever motto. 

So, what does effective financial branding actually look like in practice? Here’s what issuers need to know to develop a financial marketing strategy that drives results.

1. Develop a complete brand strategy

A logo may catch the eye, but it won’t close deals or retain clients.

Real brand strategy goes beyond visual design. It means understanding and explaining key brand elements, such as:

  • Your unique value proposition
  • Your vore colves, mission, and goals
  • Your product and services
  • The experience of engaging with your financial products and services

Define what makes you different

Your value proposition is the reason why clients choose you over competitors.

In financial services, where products often appear similar on the surface, these distinct qualities are your most valuable asset.

Ask yourself: What outcomes does your product deliver that others can’t? What expertise or approach sets you apart? If you don’t have clear answers, you’ll fail to distinguish yourself from your competitors.

Articulate your purpose

A brand strategy should articulate your values, mission, and goals, which help your product emotionally connect with the right clients. 

More importantly, your values become the criteria your organization uses to make decisions. Every time you hit a publicly announced target, you reinforce your branding and reputation.

Deliver on your promises

Your products and services can’t succeed if you don’t deliver on your promises. Even the best branding falls apart if performance doesn’t match expectations. 

Successful financial services firms create their own momentum. Every positive outcome strengthens your reputation and makes future client acquisition easier.

Perfect the client experience

Outstanding branding is easily undermined by poor execution. Every stage of the customer’s journey, from inquiries to ongoing support, will either reinforce or weaken your brand promise. 

Difficulty accessing your services, poor communication, and other pain points can lead to resentment, but a great customer experience promotes retention by keeping your clients loyal.

Brand identity

Shape your brand identity so it resonates with your target audience. Your audience’s demographics, values, and preferences should drive every aspect of your brand. 

For example, a firm targeting tech entrepreneurs will communicate differently than one serving retirees. Younger investors might prioritize environmental, social, and governance (ESG) alignment and digital experiences, while more established investors often value proven track records and white-glove service.

Regulatory compliance

Remember that financial institutions are subject to unique compliance requirements, including how products and services are branded.

Accuracy, transparency, and disclosures are extremely important, and some investors will get riled by brands that make ethical lapses or get hit with penalties for failing to follow the rules. If your brand develops a bad reputation, it could require years of damage control or a rebranding strategy.

2. Maintain consistency across all marketing materials

Your logo design, color, fonts, and typography all need to work together in concert and be consistent in all of your marketing materials. 

Here’s how to create consistent brand guidelines that make your financial products and services instantly recognizable.

Visual consistency creates familiarity

When your logo appears in different sizes, your colors shift between materials, or your fonts vary from piece to piece, you’re basically starting from scratch every time. 

Consistent branding is what gives your potential clients multiple opportunities to recognize and remember your firm. Consider American Express: their simple blue box might seem unremarkable, but decades of brand consistency have made it instantly recognizable worldwide. 

Messaging and visuals should reinforce each other

Consistent messaging works the same way as consistent visuals. Investors might overlook your tagline at first, but repeated exposure builds recognition. When your visual branding and messaging align, it creates a powerful synergy.

FedEx is a perfect example. Their logo contains a subtle arrow, while their tagline “The world on time” emphasizes speed and reliability. Even their color scheme — dark purple transitioning to bright orange — suggests motion and progress. 

Imagine FedEx using American Express blue, or Amex adopting FedEx’s orange and purple. The mismatch would be jarring because each company’s visual elements support its specific brand message.

Quality matters

Once you have a striking visual identity and smart messaging, quality is what pulls it all together. 

High-resolution images, premium printing materials, and well-produced videos simply look more professional and trustworthy than low-quality alternatives. Most clients can’t articulate why one design feels more polished than another, but they definitely notice the difference.

Mobile optimization

A final point on marketing materials that’s often overlooked: Are your materials optimized for all devices?

Your website might look stunning on desktop computers, but if it’s clunky or slow on mobile devices, you’re losing prospects who discover you while browsing on their phones.

3. Invest in content marketing

Now that you have a strong, visual brand identity that communicates your brand’s value to investors, the next step is investing in content marketing. 

Start by investing in SEO. Consistently generate useful, high-quality written content that not only showcases your brand voice but also offers high-value information your target audience will want to read — and share with others.

Of course, there’s more to content marketing than blogging. Below, we cover how you can become an authoritative voice in the financial services industry via podcasts, webinars, and videos.

Podcasts

Many people prefer listening over reading. Podcasts showcase your brand’s thought leaders while creating an intimate atmosphere that makes listeners feel personally connected to the host. 

Over time, a consistent voice builds trust and reaches audiences who might never engage with your blog content. The conversational format also allows for a deeper exploration of complex financial topics.

Webinars

Financial professionals spend most of their day on computers and need continuing education credits to maintain certifications. Webinars provide valuable learning opportunities while positioning your experts as industry authorities. 

Advisors attend for the education and CE credits, where your team will have opportunities to demonstrate in-depth expertise, connect with potential clients, and build partnerships.

Videos

Both short-form and long-form videos can put your ideas in front of audiences across different platforms. Well-produced video content performs exceptionally well on social media. 

Additionally, when your team members appear as guests on earned media like news programs or industry panels, it builds credibility and brand awareness for your brand.

4. Engage in social media

Most brands maintain social media accounts, but few use them effectively. Social media gives you direct access to your target audience while amplifying your other digital marketing efforts. 

Learn from successful brand personalities

Social media is always changing, which makes it challenging to know where your brand should focus. What works for more traditional financial companies, such as Fidelity or Charles Schwab, might not work for disruptors like Robinhood or Ellevest. 

Some of the most memorable social media successes come from unexpected sources. Denny’s transformed its brand perception through witty, real-time engagement on Tumblr, transforming the restaurant from a simple late-night diner into a relatable personality customers want to interact with. Bakery chain Greggs used quick wit and brand values to turn criticism of their vegan sausage roll into positive attention that grew their audience.

Align your social media strategy and brand values

At the end of the day, social media is a way to build trust with the audience you want. 

If you can find a way to integrate your brand values into your social media campaigns and build an audience with well-executed content, your products will always reach the right people at the right moments.

5. Manage your brand perception

Brand building is an ongoing process. Once your brand is up and running, it needs continuous monitoring and management to stay effective.

Top-notch branding aims to attract new investors by establishing your firm as a thought leader in financial services. This happens through building trust in your expertise and developing lasting client relationships. 

Here are four key areas to focus on when managing your brand perception.

Track how you’re perceived

Customer surveys, online engagement metrics, and social media reactions reveal where your brand stands with investors. 

You can’t close the gap between your intended brand image and actual market perception unless you’re willing to understand that gap honestly. Regular monitoring helps you spot trends before they become problems and identify opportunities for improvement.

Listen to your clients

The best salespeople for your products and services are your customers, who share their positive experiences with their networks. Their praise and criticism provide invaluable insights into what you’re doing right and what you need to adjust. 

Make gathering this feedback a systematic process — think quarterly client satisfaction surveys or annual relationship reviews — rather than leaving it to chance encounters.

Act on feedback

Negative feedback can be difficult to hear, but it’s also one of your greatest opportunities for improvement. If launching a new podcast host dramatically decreases subscribers, analyze what the previous host did that the current person does not. 

When you receive feedback, respond with both action and acknowledgment. Investors need to see that their input drives real changes.

Audit your brand

Sometimes you need to take a moment and really look at your branding. A great but overlooked source of input is your employees, who often provide the most honest feedback about how your brand is perceived. They know your brand better than anyone, which means they can tell you whether the image you publicly project matches the reality of the company culture.

Conclusion

Strong brands think strategically, not just visually. The financial brands that stay in customers’ minds have clear values, consistent messaging, and valuable thought leadership. 

Follow the brand guidelines explored above, and your brand will be the first to come to mind when investment decisions are being made.

Looking to make your brand stand out? Partner with VettaFi and let our digital marketing experts help you grow.

TMX VettaFi expanded its global offerings through the acquisition of ETF Stream Limited (ETF Stream), which was announced today. ETF Stream is a leading media brand for European ETFs, and the acquisition will help VettaFi better serve international clients.

"The acquisition of ETF Stream represents an important step forward in our strategy to expand TMX VettaFi's digital and analytics capabilities in the U.K. and Europe," said Tom Hendrickson, president, TMX VettaFi. "Moving forward, we remain focused on opportunities to build on our offerings and expertise to strengthen our value proposition, and better serve a growing international network of clients and partners."

ETF Stream taps into European ETF ecosystem

ETF Stream’s team of journalists covers news and provides analysis regarding the ETF ecosystem. They also host events, produce educational guides, and provide data tools to advisors. The acquisition gives TMX VettaFi extra distribution reach and is the fifth big acquisition TMX VettaFi has made. Back in February, TMX VettaFi acquired the Credit Suisse Bond Indices purchased from UBS. Another recent acquisition was iNDEX Research, which TMX VettaFi acquired in October 2024. 

TMX VettaFi, which provides indexing services as well as digital distribution, thought leadership, and experiential marketing, will benefit from ETF Stream’s coverage of Europe. ETF Stream, meanwhile, joins a growing family of TMX VettaFi companies.

"We're excited to join the TMX VettaFi family," said Sam Ridley, managing director, ETF Stream. "The combination of TMX VettaFi's resources and reach, with a shared belief in fostering innovation, will accelerate our ability to deliver value and premium products to our readers, clients, and the European ETF industry."

Read more about the acquisition in the press release.

 

The Security and Exchange Commission is updating their filing access. Given the recent proliferation and anticipated surge of ETF launches, understanding the EDGAR Next update is critical for asset managers and industry insiders.  With a September 15th, 2025 deadline, issuers looking to avoid disruptions have until September 12th, 2025 to enroll to get secure login.gov credentials and navigate EDGAR Next. This update to the SEC’s filing access is a massive operational shift that issuers need to navigate sooner rather than later. Accordingly, TMX Newsfile has published a handy guide of what you need to know before the September 15th deadline. 

What EDGAR Next aims to do

According to the article, EDGAR Next seeks to:

  • Enhance security
  • Improve account management
  • Provide new CCC assignment
  • Provide optional API access

In addition to covering what steps need to be taken, the TMX Newsfile article also helps issuers looking to understand how EDGAR Next compares to the legacy EDGAR.

Crucial steps

Preparing for this transition is critical and will require issuers to create login.gov credentials and assign account administrators. Once that is completed, the next step is to enroll via the EDGAR Filer Management Dashboard. (A beta version exists for filers to peruse before enrolling.)

TMX Newsfile can also manage enrollment, CCC, admins, and confirmations for $250/year.

Stay compliant and enroll early

The last thing any filer wants is to have to navigate through issues caused by last-minute bottlenecks. With many likely to wait until late in the summer, the SEC could see backlog and filers could experience delays. The best way to avoid this issue is to handle enrollment as soon as possible, giving yourself the time and flexibility to navigate potential challenges or obstacles.

Once you are enrolled and compliant, you need to remain compliant. TMX Newsfile Filing Lead & News Specialist Martin Francisco said, “Annual confirmation and token management are part of the new reality with EDGAR Next. We are helping clients stay organized and filing-ready–without the stress.”

Read the Newsfile article here and download the EDGAR Next enrollment form here.

ETFs have become the investment wrapper of choice for millions of investors worldwide. With record-breaking inflows month after month, asset managers are eager to launch the next generation of ETF products.

Here’s the thing: ETFs aren’t without expenses, and the cost of upkeep can be high. If your ETF operations aren’t cost-efficient, even the most brilliant strategy can fall flat. 

Ready to slash your ETF administration and operation costs? These seven expert-backed strategies will show you exactly how to do it.

1. Understand every cost involved in ETF operations 

You can’t make cost-effective choices if you don’t consider every expense. 

Exchange-traded funds need money to start up and bring to market, but don’t forget about maintenance costs. Issuers creating a new ETF via a mutual-fund conversion must navigate several expenses.

The most important thing that makes an ETF function is how new shares are created and existing shares are redeemed. Creation starts with buying securities, then bundling them into the exchange-traded fund structure. Think of an ETF’s redemption mechanism as a mirror image, with all underlying assets unwrapped into separate components.

Authorized participants, which handle the making of creation units, come with their own price tag. Yet there are several other expenses that go into getting an ETF on its feet. These include:

  • Legal counsel and compliance
  • Fund managers (ETF sponsors)
  • Fund administration
  • Marketers
  • Sales teams
  • Index service partnerships
  • Fees

  • Potential penalties (if noncompliant)

Don’t forget the costs of distribution, including dividends, interest, capital gains, and return of capital. Managing portfolio holdings and their distributions requires careful coordination with brokerage partners to ensure cost-effective execution. If the ETF strategy pivots or the fund needs to change its structure, that also comes with an administrative price tag. 

If you understand every cost and build a cost-efficient exchange-traded fund, the fund expense ratio can be lower. This, in turn, may help you attract more investors.

Many investors are drawn to the benefits of ETFs, including their easy-to-trade, tax-efficient wrapper structure. A lower expense ratio can help sweeten an already sweet deal for investors.

2. Create a powerful pricing method

Creating a powerful pricing method for your ETF offers several benefits. That’s because improved transparency leads to greater investor confidence. 

Whether you’re working with an actively managed ETF or a passive fund, portfolio managers need investors to understand how investment decisions are made. If investors feel they can look under the hood to see how the ETF is working and why, they’ll be more likely to help the ETF meet its investment objectives. Improved liquidity and higher trading volume will also make it easier for investors to buy and sell shares.

It’s also critical for market participants to engage in arbitrage activity. You want your ETF share price to align with the value of its underlying securities, which could differ from the NAV due to premiums or discounts. 

Finally, both passive and active management strategies need ways to ensure the creation and redemption processes are as cost-efficient as possible.

3. Optimize your risk management strategy

No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy, and no investment strategy survives first contact with the market. Issuers must identify potential risks early in order to reduce losses due to market conditions beyond their control. 

Optimize your risk management strategy by:

  • Making sure your ETF is operationally efficient. Inefficiency can result in lost money and additional expenses.
  • Preventing administrative mistakes. Fixing administrative errors can be costly. Reducing operational risks ensures issuers sidestep these problems and keep their overhead (and expense ratio) low.
  • Reducing operational costs. Ask yourself: Are there hidden efficiencies you aren’t capitalizing on? Are time and resources being burned at any point in the process? Don’t overlook opportunities to optimize how your ETF functions.
  • Tracking the right index. Make sure you’re tracking the right underlying index. Or, for an active ETF, that your investment management approach accounts for market volatility. Your ETF’s market price and historical returns will be pivotal for convincing investors to put money into your product. 

4. Comply with all regulatory and reporting requirements

A strong compliance strategy can save issuers from countless headaches. In the ETF market, complying with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations is a day-to-day task. 

This applies to different jurisdictions and stock exchanges where your ETF products may be listed. You must disclose your ETF’s market price and Net Asset Value (NAV) at the end of each trading day.

The SEC could request or require many other disclosures, including detailed prospectus information and holdings data. While there are funds with varying degrees of transparency, ETFs must disclose detailed information about their portfolio holdings so investors and the SEC are aware of their daily operations.

These disclosures can seem onerous, but fines for non-compliance and failure to disclose can be extremely costly. Throw in the cost of lawyers and the reputational damages for failing to comply, and the risks quickly add up.

The reputational damage of failing to meet compliance obligations can be particularly devastating. A fast, busy newscycle can seem like a get-out-of-jail-free card for asset managers, but investors will remember these missteps and lose faith.

5. Find the right ETF index service provider

Another way to keep your costs low is to find the right ETF index service provider. 

Index service providers handle the complicated fund administration tasks that go into keeping an ETF operational and compliant.

When an ETF index service provider offers end-to-end capabilities, they can:

  • Ensure you stay compliant with all regulatory and reporting requirements.
  • Prevent market manipulation of your fund.
  • Identify and address costly potential conflicts.

Index providers are a low-cost solution compared to building these capabilities in house, but are still an overhead or benchmarking expense. 

A responsive  index service provider will  quickly get you the data you need to build the product you want. By contrast, a slow index service provider will lead you to spend more time in development, giving you fewer opportunities to improve your product before going to market.

6. Use behavioral data to find your ideal investors 

You can build the most operationally efficient investment vehicle in the world, but without the right investors, it will go nowhere fast.

Digital marketing matters for your ETF because AUM growth creates powerful economies of scale. Whether you’re launching diversified ETF portfolios across asset classes or targeting niche strategies, more assets mean lower per-unit costs and better margins.

The challenge is to find investors who want what you’re offering. That’s where behavioral data becomes your secret weapon.

ETF index service providers like VettaFi offer access to investor behavioral data and lead subscription services that reveal exactly what potential investors are researching, reading, and considering. Instead of guessing what investors want, you get clear insights into what they’re actually looking for.

Behavioral data shows you which issuers and strategies investors are actively exploring. Instead of your team wasting time on cold calls, they can connect with investors who are ready to buy. The result is shorter sales cycles, higher conversion rates, and steady inflows.

7. Stay ahead of ETF administration trends

The ETF ecosystem is in a constant state of flux, with active ETFs and passive strategies always evolving. New tools and constantly changing regulations create a steady stream of opportunities. Successful ETF issuers will be on top of the latest regulations, tech advancements, and shifting market trends. 

Bringing any ETF investment to market is a challenging endeavor, but efficient operations and exceptional partners can go a long way in helping your ETF achieve its goals.

Choosing an index service provider that can help you stay ahead of administration trends and regulatory compliance will make your ETF operations, marketing, distribution, and maintenance more cost-efficient. More cost efficiency will mean lower expense ratios, more investor interest, and better results.

Start small, scale smart

These seven strategies for cost-efficient ETF operations can take you far, but remember that even the most successful ETF issuers don’t try to do everything at once. 

Start with understanding your true costs, building fail-proof compliance processes, and choosing partners who can scale with you. This includes cutting-edge services like VettaFi’s lead subscriptions, which can help you make your marketing strategy as efficient as your operations.

Once you’ve created a solid foundation for your ETF administration, everything else becomes easier. The market rewards efficiency, and the ETF issuers with the most cost-efficient operations will have the flexibility to adapt no matter what the market throws their way.

 

In this edition, VettaFi sits down with Emily Pachuta, formerly of Invesco. The role of the chief marketing office (CMO) has evolved as companies digitally transform, embrace the power of brand, and lean into data-driven behavioral insights to drive client growth and satisfaction. No longer is the role merely “colors and fonts” or “clever copy.” Today, a CMO sits at the intersection of most functions within an enterprise, with responsibilities that span pipe, business development, sales automation, and even community-building. As a result, successful CMOs must embrace change while remaining close to both customer and product. 

Learn how CMOs to discuss driving success inside and outside their organizations, sharing perspectives on career, outlook, and motivation. 

In her former role as chief marketing and analytics officer, Pachuta set the firm’s overall advanced analytics and marketing strategy in order to accelerate business growth and strengthen Invesco’s reputation with U.S. and Canadian wealth management intermediary, institutional, and individual investor clients. Pachuta also served as the executive leader on the firm’s global distribution data, global marketing, and global digital priorities. She is a frequent media spokesperson and conference speaker about client experience, digital modernization, and the intersection of data and creativity. 

[Editor’s note: At the time of the interview, Pachuta was employed at Invesco, but she has since left.]

Jobs and Careers — From First Job to Dream Job 

VettaFi: I like talking about jobs and careers because we all spend a lot of time at our jobs or building careers, and it’s typically the root of our life satisfaction or dissonance. What do you think is the difference between a job and a career?  

Emily Pachuta, former CMO, Invesco: For me, a job is something you have to do. A career is something that you want to build and grow. A job feels more transactional in nature: money for work done. A career thrives and brings purpose, beyond the monetary.  

VettaFi: I like that. Tell me about your first job.  

Pachuta: During college summers, I worked for a law firm as a temporary word processor and assistant who would answer phones and file papers. The pay was decent, and the lawyers were extremely polite, so it was a good job. Those skills came in handy when I went to get my Master’s in film production at NYU; I put myself through the program by working overnight and weekend shifts at a NYC law firm.  

VettaFi: Do you have a dream job?  

Pachuta: That’s a tough question, because I really love the career that I’ve been able to continue to build at Invesco that spans data, analytics, and marketing disciplines. However, I am a huge hockey fan, so my dream job would be to work for the Washington Capitals, or for the NHL, to help them grow their fanbase and to make hockey fun and accessible for everyone.

VettaFi: How did you get into the marketing world?  

Pachuta: My first job in marketing was at Merrill Lynch. I had taken time off when my children were born, and when my son was two, I wanted to do something part-time. A woman from my children’s preschool worked at Merrill Lynch, and they were looking for someone to be a part-time writer and editor. I had no professional background in financial services, but I did well on the assessments, and I was hired. I still think that it was kismet — meant to be.   

It was such an exciting time, because Merrill Lynch was transforming their business model away from “Wall Street to Main Street” and toward wealth management. A new CMO — who is a mentor to this day — really shook things up and loved change. In the seven years that I was there, I experienced almost every aspect of marketing and had the opportunity to learn from amazing professionals, as well as from advisors and their clients. I was hooked on the discipline of marketing, but also the purpose and impact that wealth management and asset management can have on people’s families and lives.

VettaFi: Mentoring in marketing is particularly unique, because of how fast the space evolves. Who was the mentor who got you to where you are today? 

Pachuta: Paula Polito, who was the CMO at Merrill Lynch while I was there. She had the single greatest impact on my career; I would not be where I am today, had not been for the potential that she saw in me and the opportunities she gave me at both Merrill Lynch and later at UBS.  

[Personally], I find it very rewarding to mentor, both formally and informally. Formally, I am mentoring two people now — one at Invesco who is not in marketing, and one outside of Invesco who is a marketer. I learn so much from the conversations with these wonderful professionals.   

Successful Marketing Highlights the Why and the How  

VettaFi: What’s something you learned from an earlier job you had outside of marketing that impacts your abilities as a marketer or your approach to your current job?   

Pachuta: Finding the story and telling it in an emotional and memorable way is a critical skill for marketers. In film school, I gravitated toward making documentaries — I shot my thesis film in Moscow — because I loved how you could have an idea for the film, but, in the end, you needed to be still. You needed to watch and listen until the real story would reveal itself.   

Asset management products can be complex, and they aren’t tangible objects like consumer products. I think we tend to focus a lot on “what” the products are. But successful asset management marketing keys in on the purpose products they serve: the “why” and “how” you use them to reach human-centric goals.   

VettaFi: Agreed. Getting to the “why” and “how” is like Marketing 101 these days, but it wasn’t always that way. How was the definition of marketing different when you first entered the field, versus how you as a CMO define it today?   

Pachuta: When I first entered the field, “marketing” was either advertising or sales enablement collateral. It was also very product-centric. However, in other industries, marketing was more evolved, so I’ve always looked outside industry to anticipate where the puck is going in terms of impact that marketing can have. 

There was also a view that “B2B” marketing was different than “B2C,” which struck me as a bit odd. People are at the center of “B2B,” [which is] no different than “B2C.”   

Today, I define marketing as making an emotional connection between a brand and its customers. In asset management, that emotional connection is all about empowering confident financial decision-making… whether you are an institutional investor, financial intermediary, or individual investor. To do that, you really need to understand your client using research, data, and analytics, then take that knowledge to deliver personalized experiences that meet your client where they are. There’s still too much focus on getting clients or customers to come to the brand and not enough focus on meeting customers where they are.  

Pets and Pet Peeves   

VettaFi: I find that a bit frustrating. It’s a pet peeve of mine. It tells me brands are not truly focused on the customer. Speaking of, let’s talk about pets and pet peeves. Do you have pets?   

Pachuta: I have two French bulldogs. Our first Frenchie is four years old, and his name is Ovi. He was born the same year that the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup, and he’s named for Alexander Ovechkin, who is the captain of the team. Our second Frenchie is Ovi’s biological son, and his name is Gretzky for Wayne Gretzky. They have two speeds — crazy and cuddling — and we can’t imagine our home without them.  

VettaFi: Sounds like my kids. What about your pet peeves? What annoys you the most in the workplace?   

Pachuta: It can be annoying when people hold views that aren’t substantiated by data at all. Data may even refute the view, but it’s become a hard-held “truth.” Also, workplaces can make getting work done far more complex than it needs to be, so we should always be asking, “How can we move faster?”

VettaFi: I can relate to that. Old habits and ways of thinking can be hard to change. However, businesses that base decisions on data, not just instincts or experience, are 19 times more likely to be profitable. Thankfully, I’ve yet to meet anyone who does not want to be 19 times more profitable!  

Leadership    

VettaFi: What daily habits or weekly routines do you have that keep you sharp as a leader and evolving as a marketer?  

Pachuta: I’m always looking to learn from those with more experience or different points of view. I try to be conscious of where I have opportunities to improve and focus on those areas. I make time to join sessions with CMOs and leaders involved in data and analytics outside of industry. I used to think that it was a luxury, and these engagements would be the first thing to go when there was a calendar conflict, but I learn so much from these experiences that I’ve been prioritizing my participation in these conversations and counsels.  

VettaFi: What one thing has played the greatest role in shaping your leadership style?  

Pachuta: The book “Team of Teams” by General Stanley McChrystal made me think long and hard about the insufficiency of hierarchical leadership and what the role of the leader really is. Concurrent to my exposure to the concepts in “Team of Teams,” I also had a wonderful executive coach, [with whom] I learned how purposeful you must be if you are going to be the leader you aspire to be. My goal is to be a servant leader who focuses on empowering my team and enabling them to be their best selves. I assess to ensure that my intentions match my actions. For example, I will look back on my calendar every quarter to assess if I am spending most of my time in ways that empower my team and enable them to be their best selves.  

VettaFi: We just got back from Exchange, where our attendees volunteered 130+ hours and we contributed over $50,000 to the Komen Foundation, Surfrider Foundation, and Junior Achievement. Tell me about your volunteerism. How do you give back? 

Pachuta: I’ve been involved in Rock the Street Wall Street, which is a financial and investment literacy program for high school girls. I volunteer at the Stuyvesant High School program location in NYC. I’m also a board member of Sapere Aude Consortium, an organization the provides research-based internships to first-generation rising college sophomores and juniors. When I spend time with the young women in both programs, I feel quite confident that our society’s future is in good hands.  

I support these two organizations because I am passionate about seeing the wealth inequality gap narrow, which can happen with greater financial and investment literacy. I would like to see greater diversity in our industry, and that will only happen if we address the challenge across multiple dimensions, one of which is helping students who might never have thought about a career in finance consider one.  

Digital Transformation 

VettaFi: Let’s switch gears and talk about “digital transformation.” Without using the words “digital” or “transformation,” define what this term means.    

Pachuta: Making the ways that we connect with each other and our customers faster, more intuitive, and more personalized.  

VettaFi: What is something nobody is thinking about in terms of digital transformation but you are keenly aware of?   

Pachuta: I am aware that digital transformations are less about disruption for disruption’s sake and more about finding new ways to connect in faster, more intuitive, and more personalized ways. Web 3.0 and Metaverse are obvious examples of that.

VettaFi: Thinking one to five years out, tell me about your predictions for marketing and marketers? What’s coming next? How do we prepare?  

Pachuta: My prediction — and I think that this will be true in the one- to five-year window — is that AI will play a much larger role in marketing than it does today, whether that’s in content creation or the increasing sophistication of data analytics. There will absolutely be a role for people, and I feel that people who embrace this will be better able to focus on their differentiated value. Companies who embrace this will grow faster/more profitably and have deeper client loyalty, because they can anticipate and meet needs faster. [Author note: Pachuta’s comments were given before the ChatGPT hype train spun up.] 

VettaFi: What’s one headline that you expect to read in five years?  

Pachuta: “Alexander Ovechkin scores 1,000th goal.” Just joking. (Although it’s possible!)  

The headline that I would like to read is “50% of Fortune 500 CEOs Are Women.”  

VettaFi: I would like to read that too. Before I let you go, can you share with us an album, book, movie, TV series, or other creative work that brings you joy right now? 

Pachuta: Experiencing creativity live, after not being able to for so long, is bringing me joy. I’m consciously building some kind of performance into my life at least once a month. I love the spontaneity of live performance — anything can happen, no matter how much preparation or rehearsal went into it, but the performers keep going and maybe even discover something magical in the process. And isn’t that just a great metaphor for life — people plan and G*d laughs — but you might just find something new and magical along the way.

To stay connected to Emily, you can follow her on LinkedIn. 

This article was originally published April 10th, 2023 on ETF Trends.

Distribution leaders and campaign managers for asset managers face an array of challenges today as they look to get their products in front of the right customers. Though data has tremendous potential to be a guiding force for a successful campaign, it is often fragmented and siloed. Additionally, most firms lack the resources to properly wield data. They either have an abundance of data and are unsure how to apply it, or they lack the time or resources to deeply analyze it.

Fortunately, there is a way forward. The key to making data-led marketing campaign decisions is to triangulate insights from three key data points - unlock the guide below to learn more.

 

When it comes to attracting investors to your ETF, marketing is everything. You’ll need a clever marketing strategy to draw their attention and boost your AUM. 

Of course, growing your ETF AUM means getting your product in front of the right investors who need it, whether you’re an established ETF provider or launching a new ETF for the first time. Once you grab their attention, you’ll need to be quick and efficient about how you communicate your product’s benefits.

Use these seven expert ETF marketing tips — from finding your product’s niche to establishing PR opportunities and working with micro-influencers — to help you attract new investors.

1. Start with a custom ETF marketing plan

You’ll need a custom digital marketing plan to generate buzz and raise brand awareness for your exchange-traded fund. This means leaning into digital ads in all the right places where investors interested in your product like to spend time. 

Define your audience

When you market your ETF online, start by asking yourself, “Who am I marketing this to?”

For example, if you have a product that focuses on commodities, you need to get your product in front of investors who are interested in alternatives. An investor who holds a clean 60/40 portfolio and sticks to the world of equities and fixed income isn’t going to be interested in a commodities product. 

Your index service provider can be a valuable partner for finding new investor leads, especially if they have access to data that charts investor interest.

Use real-time data to customize your marketing plan 

Most investors research online. As investors become more aware of your brand and product, a custom digital marketing campaign can help you reach them faster and shorten your sales cycle. 

Don’t let your sales team waste time on cold leads. By targeting the audience that wants your product, you can discover better market opportunities and dramatically improve your ETF’s AUM. 

A big part of a customized digital marketing plan is making it, well, customized. Use real-time data insights and analytics to track your ideal investors. VettaFi’s lead subscription tool does just that, connecting issuers with investors whose digital behavior suggests a match.

2. Find your niche

Your product development should start with a fundamental question: What specific investment strategy problem does this ETF solve?

In other words, what’s your niche?

The answer comes down to your ETF’s unique value proposition, whether you’re targeting retail investors, institutional clients, or both. That could be anything from enhanced tax efficiency to superior diversification, exceptional liquidity, or protection against volatility.

Other ETF niches might include:

  • Risk-adjusted performance optimization.
  • Cost efficiency in fee structure.
  • Strategic diversification across sectors and regions.
  • Tax-advantaged portfolio construction.
  • Enhanced liquidity mechanisms.
  • Income generation in challenging environments.
  • Outperformance potential versus a specific benchmark.
  • Specialized wealth management solutions for specific investor segments.

The most successful issuers identify real market voids, or combinations of attributes unavailable in existing products. 

By examining where current offerings fall short and understanding the regulatory landscape, you can find a niche for your ETF and offer meaningful solutions to your investors beyond what mutual funds can offer.

3. Use conferences and events to find sponsors

Event sponsorships are one of the most exciting ways to accelerate your ETF’s growth, enhancing brand visibility and creating meaningful connections. The most effective event marketing comes down to two areas: industry conferences and targeted live events.

Industry conferences

Financial conferences like Exchange bring together the entire financial services ecosystem, creating ideal conditions for:

  • Building strategic partnerships: Connect with potential index providers, data services, and technology partners who can enhance your ETF offering.
  • Industry intelligence: Gain valuable insights about market trends and competitive positioning.
  • Distribution opportunities: Meet with platform gatekeepers who control access to advisor networks.

Live events

Conferences aren’t the only live events that can bolster your ETF’s marketing plan.

These other face-to-face interactions deliver big benefits that other marketing strategies can’t replace:

  • Direct access to decision-makers: Get to know financial advisors, fund managers, and portfolio managers at specialized workshops, educational seminars, and private roundtable discussions focused on specific investment themes relevant to your ETF.
  • Relationship development: Invitation-only roadshows, regional advisor appreciation events, and thought leadership dinners can strengthen your current partnerships and encourage meaningful conversations in more intimate settings.
  • Brand humanization: Humanize the face of your ETF by hosting “meet the portfolio manager” sessions, bell-ringing ceremonies for fund launches, and investor education forums where your team can show off their expertise while connecting with potential investors.

When conferences and other live events are part of your ETF marketing strategy, they reinforce your position in the marketplace. "Sponsoring live events offers an unparalleled opportunity to put your company name and ideas directly before your target audience," said TMX VettaFi Head of Marketing Sarah Alexander. "Live events, like our Exchange conference, can foster deep engagement that digital channels cannot replicate. They also serve as an excellent medium through which to conduct business and build relationships." 

Looking for sponsorship opportunities? Talk to VettaFi about how our event sponsorship services can help you source sales opportunities, amplify your brand, and grow your AUM.

4. Create an ETF comparison tool

Adding an interactive comparison tool to your website is the best way to instantly showcase your ETF’s competitive advantages while giving your potential investors real value that builds trust:

Design for decision-making impact

  • Use compelling visualizations that make market price performance and ETF shares liquidity immediately apparent.
  • Develop proprietary metrics that highlight your fund's unique strengths within its asset class.
  • Enable personalized scenario testing based on individual asset allocation needs.

Implement strategic competitive positioning

  • Carefully select comparison peers within the same asset class to frame your ETF's advantages effectively.
  • Emphasize specific metrics where your product outperforms alternatives—from market price stability to optimal asset allocations.
  • Provide contextual insights that connect ETF shares’ behavior to real investment benefits.

Leverage the tool for lead generation

  • Offer basic comparisons freely while gating premium asset allocation models behind registration.
  • Track which metrics (market price trends, asset class performance) drive decision-making to refine broader marketing messages.
  • Create shareable comparison outputs for advisors at every major brokerage to demonstrate your ETF shares’ advantages to their clients.

Remember that a well-crafted comparison tool should guide potential investors toward understanding your ETF’s value proposition through interactive discovery, not passive marketing claims.

5. Look for PR opportunities

Say yes to any media or PR opportunity you can. A strong public relations strategy can expand your visibility and reach while building credibility.

Here’s how to make the most of every PR opportunity.

Podcast interviews

Accept interviews on financial podcasts regardless of audience size. Even niche shows can reach the right investors and influencers who might not encounter your ETF otherwise. Your outreach strategy should target both industry-leading and specialized podcasts.

Thought leadership

Establish your team’s authority by publishing thought leadership content, such as:

  • Regular market commentaries on your website.
  • Guest articles in respected financial publications.
  • Insightful LinkedIN posts from key team members.
  • Original research reports that demonstrate your investment philosophy.
  • Detailed commentaries explaining your approach to asset management and your active ETF's current positioning.

Media relationships

Develop a media contact database and regular outreach schedule. When something happens in the market that aligns with your ETF’s strategy, reach out to financial journalists with concise, insightful commentary they can quote.

Measuring your PR strategy’s impact

Track your publicity’s performance by studying how it drives your ETF’s growth.  By examining the right key performance indicators (KPIs), you'll quickly identify which media activities actually convert interest into AUM, so you can double down on what works and eliminate what doesn't.

Here are some tips for analyzing your PR performance data:

Install tracking

Use dedicated tracking codes for each PR initiative to measure website traffic, content downloads, and subsequent investor engagement.

Connect activities to results

Analyze the correlation between PR activities and AUM flows by implementing attribution modeling that captures:

  • Website traffic sources
  • Advisor engagement metrics
  • Conversion paths from initial awareness to investment.

Keep improving your approach

Review performance quarterly to reallocate resources toward the PR activities delivering the strongest ROI for your specific ETF.

6. Establish micro-influencer relationships

Micro-influencers who love your product are some of the most cost-effective messengers you can find. They speak directly to people who could be your next investors. 

Here’s a quick overview of the different types of micro-influencers and how they can contribute to your marketing strategy.

Types of micro-influencers

There are many different kinds of micro-influencers in the finance world:

Financial educators who explain products to beginners

These can be social media personalities like Kyla Scanlon, who helps her Gen Z audience understand the world of finance or popular established bloggers like Michael Kitces. 

Market analysts with dedicated following

Many influencers are analysts who have built up their own audiences over time. People like VettaFi Voice Todd Rosenbluth or Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas are great examples.

Niche investment specialists who align with your ETF 

Niche investment specialists are influencers who cover a narrow slice of the market but tend to attract passionate followers worth tapping into. This is especially true if your product focus is in alignment.

How micro-influencers help your ETF marketing efforts

Micro-influencers are often exceptionally skilled at explaining complex financial products, making advanced concepts more digestible to a broad or beginner audience. 

Here are the advantages:

Connect with investors who prefer influencers over stock prospectuses

While plenty of investors love to pore over a prospectus, others may lose interest when they see one. Those are the people who are most likely to pay attention when their favorite influencer’s latest podcast episode goes live. 

Get mentioned more than once 

Another advantage? Once a micro-influencer knows your ETF’s name, they can deploy it at any time. They can also help you grow momentum by highlighting milestones in your ETF assets under management.

Boost your credibility

Finally, third-party credibility is hard to beat. While personal thought leadership may be considered biased, third-party advocates have no reason to plug your product if they don’t genuinely believe in it. That credibility will go a long way to helping your product establish itself.

7. Optimize your ETF’s search visibility

When people search online for ETFs like yours, you need them to be able to find you. The ETF industry is crowded and it’s not always easy to stand out. Thankfully, search engine optimization (SEO) ensures your ETF is discovered when the ideal investors are hunting for their next investment opportunity.

  • Target the specific terms investors use when researching investments:
  • Optimize product pages around high-intent keywords like "best small cap value ETF" or "low-cost dividend ETF."
  • Create different landing pages for every investor needs your ETF addresses.
  • Arrange any technical data (expense ratios, holdings, performance) in search-friendly formats.
  • Add schema markup to your website to enhance search listings with rich data display.

By using SEO to make your ETF more discoverable, your product will appear when investors are actively seeking the type of solutions it provides. In other words, top-notch SEO practices turn search engines and financial platforms into your most efficient marketing and distribution channels.

Discover the best ETF marketing tactics

An ETF is a marathon, not a sprint. If you want investors to invest in your product, you need to invest in the right marketing tactics.

VettaFi can help support your product throughout its lifecycle with competitive marketing materials and other specialized services that offer deep insights for engagement and growth. 

Contact us today to learn how we can help you grow.

 

  • ETFs are booming: Their rapid growth and investor appeal, driven by benefits like cost efficiency and liquidity, create significant market opportunities for new funds.
  • Strategic development is crucial: Launching an ETF demands a clear strategy, encompassing a unique investment thesis, key structural decisions (like type and transparency), and a defined distribution plan.
  • Execution requires key supports: Successfully launching and operating an ETF relies on strong partnerships, navigating SEC regulatory requirements, and effective marketing and ongoing management.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have seen a meteoric rise in popularity. In 2003, there were roughly 123 listed ETFs in the United States. Today, there are nearly 4,000. 

Now that investors have a better understanding of the wrapper’s benefits, the market is poised to grow. Starting your own ETF,  which can be a valuable asset for portfolio management, is more common than ever.

If you want to successfully launch your first ETF, start by knowing the best practices. Below, we’ve written the ultimate guide to how to launch an ETF — from analyzing the market and choosing the right partners to regulatory compliance and digital marketing strategies.

What is an ETF, and why should I launch one?

As of 2024, there are more than $10 trillion in assets under ETF management, with record net inflows north of $1.1 trillion. 

If that’s not enough to convince you to launch your own ETF, here’s a little more about why ETFs are becoming such a popular choice for investors.

What is an ETF?

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an investment vehicle that pools investors’ money to buy a collection of securities, similar to a mutual fund, but trades on stock exchanges throughout the day like individual stocks. 

ETFs typically offer lower expense ratios than mutual funds, greater tax efficiency through their unique creation/redemption process, and enhanced liquidity for investors who want to buy or sell shares quickly at market prices.

They can track various asset classes including stocks, bonds, commodities, or currencies, and may follow passive strategies (tracking an index) or active approaches (managed by investment professionals seeking to outperform). 

Their transparent nature allows investors to see underlying holdings daily, while their flexible trading options include limit orders, stop-loss orders, and margin trading – tools unavailable with traditional mutual funds. This combination of diversification, cost-effectiveness, and trading flexibility has fueled their explosive growth over the past two decades.

Why should I launch an ETF?

Launching an ETF can be an outstanding opportunity for asset managers and investment firms. The ETF structure offers significant advantages, including operational efficiencies, potential for asset growth, and the ability to reach new investor segments that might not access your strategies through traditional vehicles.

One of the key attractions for investors is the liquidity these products offer, as ETF shares can be bought and sold throughout the trading day on a stock exchange, unlike mutual funds, which only trade once daily. Mutual funds still make up the lion's share of the managed fund industry, but ETFs now represent 33%, indicating substantial room for future growth.

In the U.S., 45% of all investors have ETFs in their investment portfolios — a number that keeps growing despite market uncertainty. 2024 saw the launch of 1,485 new ETFs, and 230 ETF products launched in Q1 of 2025. 

The rapid growth of ETFs is proof of the market’s receptiveness to new offerings and innovative products.

How to create a strategy for your ETF launch

Entering the ETF marketplace requires careful planning and strategic partnerships to stand out among the thousands of available options. Launching a successful ETF demands not only a compelling investment idea but also expertise in index selection, governance structure, and targeted distribution strategies.

Start with an idea

If you want to launch an ETF, you need to have a product in mind. That means you need an investment thesis and a plan for what kinds of exposures the fund will include. 

Find an index partner

Once you’ve settled on an idea you’re happy with, you need to find an index for your ETF to track if you have a passive fund, or to act as a benchmark if you have an active fund. You’ll want an index partner who can quickly backtest, support your ideas, and help iterate on the fund design, all of which will help you find the angle you need to set your ETF apart from the competition. 


Develop a distribution strategy

Next, consider how your ETF will govern and interact with its shareholders. From there, figure out a distribution strategy. Ask yourself:

  • How will the average investor hear about your ETF? 

  • What will drive them to put their money in your product instead of another? 

Depending on the size of the issuer, distribution strategies will vary greatly. The biggest asset managers can leverage name recognition to some extent, but smaller firms will have to think creatively about how to get the word out about the fund.

What to think about when developing your ETF

Once you know your strategy, the real challenge begins. 

The art of developing an ETF is really about choosing the ETF structure that offers the best possible benefits for your fund’s goals. 

Types of ETF structures

There are several types of ETF structures:

  • Index ETFs offer tax efficiency. These funds typically have lower portfolio turnover, which minimizes capital gains distributions, allowing investors to better control their tax liabilities.

  • ETF series trusts build on pre-existing fund structures. By joining an established trust, issuers can leverage shared operational resources, compliance frameworks, and board oversight, significantly reducing startup costs and time to market.

  • Standalone ETFs are not part of a series. This structure provides maximum autonomy over governance decisions and fund operations, though it typically requires greater upfront investment and regulatory navigation.

Selecting the right ETF structure is a major decision that will impact everything from operational costs to tax implications for your investors. 

When you eventually submit your ETF prospectus to regulators, you'll need to clearly outline which structure you’ve chosen and why it aligns with your investment goals.

ETF transparency

You can also choose the degree of transparency your ETF will have, a decision with major implications for your investor relations and competitive positioning. 

Fully transparent ETFs

A fully transparent ETF is essentially an open book. Investors and competitors can see what the fund holds daily, including exact securities and weightings, which builds trust but potentially exposes proprietary strategies. 

Transparent ETFs are more traditional and remain the industry standard, especially for passive index-tracking products where portfolio concealment offers limited advantages. They usually track a specific benchmark index, making it easy for investors to understand the fund’s holdings and performance targets.

Semi-transparent ETFs

Many investors enjoy that transparency, but some fund managers worry about competition stealing ideas or front-running trades. That’s where the semi-transparent ETF comes into play.

Semi-transparent ETFs reveal some — but not all — of what is held, providing a certain amount of protection. These newer structures, which were only recently approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), disclose holdings less frequently (typically quarterly) or use proxy portfolios that closely track performance while masking exact compositions. 

This makes them especially useful for managers with unique investment strategies, or in markets where revealing positions could make buying and selling more difficult and expensive.

Converting a mutual fund to an ETF

If you already have a mutual fund, you can simply convert it. This will give you all the advantages of the wrapper without having to build a new ETF from the ground up.

The conversion process requires approval from the SEC and careful planning for current investors. Taxes are very important to consider, as properly set up conversions can be tax-free and keep the fund's performance history intact. 

Since the first mutual fund to ETF conversion in 2021, many investment companies have followed this path, bringing billions in assets to the ETF structure. Investment managers should know that the process typically takes 6-12 months and may require hiring specialized lawyers who know how to handle the specific regulations for these transactions.

Other considerations when launching an ETF

There are many other factors to consider as you develop your ETF. ETFs hold groups of investments, so picking what goes into your ETF is important. 

You can include any type of asset class or mix of investments in your ETF. Some ETFs contain both stocks and bonds, while others focus on just stocks.

Know your market capitalization size

Remember to think about your market capitalization, or the size of companies in your fund. 

Is your ETF focused on big companies, small companies, or medium-sized ones? Your fund could also include a mix of different company sizes. 

This decision will affect both your fund's risk profile and growth potential, as larger companies typically offer more stability while smaller ones may provide greater opportunities for growth.

Consider your sectors and markets

Next, consider sectors and market segments. A fund that focuses on industrials is going to be a lot different than a commodities fund or a fund that focuses on high-yield fixed income. 

There is a world of opportunities and potential combinations. Finding the right way to articulate your investment thesis through how you choose market capitalization, sector allocation, and other essentials will be how your ETF differentiates itself.

Determine your expense ratio

The higher your expense ratio, the more your investors will pay you per share they own. However, a high expense ratio can be off-putting to investors, so you need to determine an expense ratio that makes sense given your positioning.

Finding the right partners for your ETF

It takes a village to launch an ETF. In other words, you’ll need several partners to not only get it up and running, but also maintain it.

Your ETF partners should include:

  • Authorized participants who handle creations and redemptions of ETF shares in the primary market

  • Custodians

  • An index service provider

  • A fund manager 

  • Sub-advisors

  • Legal counsel 

  • Transfer agents 

  • A marketing and distribution team

Be aware that when choosing an index partner, you need someone who can help you come to market as quickly as possible. A responsive index partner can backtest rapidly, helping you discard ideas that aren’t working so you can succeed faster. “"The majority of ETFs will fail to garner over $250 in AUM,” said VettaFi’s Chief Product Officer Brian Coco. “This is why having an index partner that is invested in product success and that can help with marketing is important. You need to give yourself the best possible chance of success."

It goes without saying that you should always vet your potential partners. As an ETF sponsor, your reputation will be tied to the performance and reliability of these service providers. Ensure their goals align with your own investment goals so they can help you bring your ETF investment strategy to life.

ETF regulatory requirements and filing

Prospective ETF managers must submit a fund plan to the SEC. You can find the necessary documents and forms on the SEC website, but make sure you consult your legal team before submitting anything.

SEC approval is required before you can launch an ETF. Whether you're launching an actively or passively managed fund, the SEC must still receive and process your paperwork. Typically, the approval process takes four to six months or longer.

Once the SEC approves your ETF launch, you will still be responsible for following all SEC rules. These include, but are not limited to:

  • Transparency regulations: You’ll need to provide daily portfolio information on your website. In addition, you’ll need to make certain disclosures about your ETF's trading process. If your ETF holds custom investment baskets, they may also be subject to specific policies.

  • Record-keeping regulations: Your website must track your net asset value, market price, and any premium or discount from the previous trading day.

Keep in mind that the SEC occasionally updates requirements to address market changes and investor protection concerns. Working with service providers who specialize in ETF compliance can help you reduce your operational burden and avoid costly mistakes.

Marketing, distributing, and operating your new ETF

Making your new ETF stand out from the competition can be a daunting task. If your fund does something similar to what another fund has already been doing, you’ll need to find a unique angle to ensure your ETF captures the attention of investors. 

Being first to market with an idea is powerful, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be competition. Stand out by outperforming or having a lower expense ratio. 

Digital marketing

Digital marketing and distribution are now the norm, and most potential investors research new ETFs online. Ensure your digital presence clearly communicates how your fund provides diversification benefits within an ETF portfolio. 

Investor behavioral data can help you find high-quality leads and get your product in front of them at the perfect time. 

Tethering your product to current market events and news is another excellent way to move the needle and set your product apart from the rest. 

Don’t forget that successful products tend to use a full-funnel marketing approach. They gradually build top-of-funnel awareness, leveraging data and analytics to move lower-funnel prospects toward conversion. This is especially important for active ETFs that need to communicate their value proposition beyond simply tracking an index.

Operational costs

Determine how much your operational costs will be, and how much seed capital is necessary to meet those costs. 

Finally, make sure you have a plan for the first year of operation. Draft a break-even analysis, as well as growth projections.

Now that you know how to launch an ETF

Launching an ETF is a huge undertaking. But with the right partners and careful planning, you can bring your unique investment idea to the market and illuminate a previously invisible opportunity for investors. 

Have a killer idea for an ETF but need the right tools to get it in front of investors? Reach out to VettaFi now.

Picking the right index service provider can make or break your new ETF product. 

With nearly 4,000 ETFs competing for shelf space in the United States alone, in today's competitive ETF ecosystem, issuers need an ETF services partner as invested in the asset growth of the product as they are that can help them design and maintain their index as an index provider.

ETF issuers have different needs, but some approaches lead to better outcomes than others. You need to know what works to avoid the common pitfalls that can derail new ETF launches. 

Here’s everything you need to know to find the right ETF index service provider, from what type of evaluation criteria to use to how to spot red flags before you commit.

What ETF index service providers do

Traditionally, ETF index service providers calculate and maintain market indices for exchange-traded products. 

These indices can be licensed and are frequently used for two purposes - benchmarking to measure investment performance, or for a rules-based investable product to track. A good index partner will accurately track corporate actions, including mergers, stock splits, and dividend payouts in real time and adjust the underlying basket accordingly. 

In recent years, index providers have worked with ETF issuers to create unique products that offer specific exposures and index methodologies. Creating custom indexes has been one way for issuers to differentiate from their competitors, many of whom are likely licensing legacy-type indices (e.g., beta, Value/Growth styles, etc.) from “the big four” index vendors: Bloomberg, FTSE Russell, MSCI, and SPDJI.

A good index partner can reflect a product view through a unique methodology used to select specific securities. Ideally, they can also find creative approaches to complicated problems and think outside the box. They must be organized and efficient enough to competently track, maintain, rebalance, and comply with regulatory guidelines while working with authorized participants. 

Additionally, a good index partner provides transparency about their process and is responsive and communicative with the ETF issuer. Because issuers must manage and operate the fund, they need an index partner who can quietly and effectively handle the indexing, which includes methodology development and calculations.

How does an ETF index service provider influence performance?

ETF index service providers can impact many performance markers for an ETF. Notably, they are responsible for any tracking errors that arise through index design or turnover. 

Their services complement fund administration efforts, and their chosen rebalancing frequency and reconstitution schedules can impact an ETF’s net asset value calculations and bottom line. The methodologies used to create the investment universe of a given ETF index can also impact ETF shares’ overall performance, including total cost of ownership, second market liquidity, and trading costs. 

A fund’s performance is ultimately on the management team and any portfolio management decisions, but having a capable index partner can prevent unforced errors and strengthen results. Many index partnerships begin and end at an agreement to license an index, but a good partner can go further and help throughout the full lifecycle of the product.

Key criteria when choosing an ETF index service provider 

Before choosing an ETF index service provider, investment management firms should consider the following: 

  • What is the index provider delivering to the issuer for their licensing fees and pricing? 

  • What data, analytics tools, and complementary fund services are offered by the ETF index service provider?

Backtests are a critical component of building a smart product that innovates for investors. Seeing how a product would have performed in specific circumstances can let fund managers understand and anticipate how investors will deploy their products, and where there could be opportunities or challenges given market conditions. 

Many index service providers will need time to turn around a backtest. A faster partner can help fund managers iterate and evolve their product ideas. "The Index Product development cycle is iterative by nature,” VettaFi’s Brian Coco said.  “Achieving success requires failing faster." Quick turnaround times on backtests can allow issuers to test and discard ideas rapidly as they work toward meeting product goals.

Finally, when choosing the right index partner, ensure that you:

  • Use methodologies that are transparent, well documented, and support required disclosures.

  • Know the structure of the index governance and committee independence. 

  • Understand the terms of any licensing agreements.

Questions to ask potential ETF index partners

There’s a lot to consider when choosing a service provider.

Asset managers should ask potential partners these seven questions to help them decide if the partnership will be a great fit.

What unique data sets so you use? 

If you want to build a product that stands out, having access to unique data sets can help make that happen. Index providers with unique data sets can help issuers build products they can’t build on their own.

How can your index help me improve my investment offerings and meet my investment objectives? 

Listening to an index partner explain why they do what they do, and what they believe their value proposition is, can help you assess if they can meet your needs.

What index-specific support will you provide throughout the index-licensing relationship? 

Given how crowded the ETF field is, any differentiation can be an asset. Many index providers only offer basic levels of support and become the “set it and forget it” type of financial services. However, a good partner will be responsive and have digital marketing capabilities to help the fund grow its AUM.

How does your governance committee handle methodology changes, and what is the communication process? 

Clear communication is critical in any enterprise, and ensuring an index partner is transparent about methodology changes can help keep the partnership aware and aligned..

What is your index reconstitution process, and how do you reduce market impact? 

Any given product will express a market view and influence allocation decisions. Accordingly, an index must constantly adjust and iterate based on current market realities. 

How do you ensure consistent index calculations when the market experiences a disruption? 

A good index partner will have a playbook for dealing with all sorts of market volatility and make well-considered, data-driven decisions.

Common pitfalls when choosing an ETF index service provider

Asset managers can run into some of the following challenges when choosing an index partner. 

Two common pitfalls to avoid

The number-one challenge when choosing an ETF index service provider? Failing to thoroughly examine an ETF index service provider’s index construction methodology. 

Misunderstanding their methodology can create issues for the fund manager and greatly impact your investment strategy.

Another extremely common misstep is to choose an index partner who barely collaborates. Once a product has been built, you want an index partner who will throw their all into making the product launch a success. 

What else should you consider when choosing a service provider?

Issuers must walk a line when they consider ETF index partnerships. On the one hand, they need to make sure they are partnering with someone who understands the specific market sector their product will be built around. On the other hand, you also need an index partner with a wide range of indices. 

Suppose you’re building a specific equities product for one sector of the domestic market. In that case, you want an index service partner who deeply understands that market and has indices that include fixed income benchmarks and international exposures. 

A wide range of indices indicates better data sets and enhanced capabilities. However, they also need to have some measure of understanding of the specific market segment you are trying to capture. Finding a partner who is both a specialist and a generalist can be challenging, but it’s not impossible. 

Additionally, issuers will want to make sure that there are no conflicts of interest with how an index is governed, including relationships with subsidiaries. When looking at methodology and construction, you also want to be on the lookout for concentration risks or opaqueness on the part of the potential ETF index partner. 

Conclusion

Launching a new ETF is a high-stakes event. Historically, ETF index service providers have been checked out of the process. That approach made more sense in an era when the ETF was a new wrapper, there was less competition,and requirements of the indices needed were much less complex, mostly broad, beta datasets.

But now, ETFs are a dominant force in the ETF market and competition for AUM is fierce. An index provider must be committed to the success of the products using their indices.

Given the complexity of the ETF ecosystem, it’s critical to find a suitable ETF index partnership. Issuers need responsive, flexible index partners who can contribute to a product’s success on multiple fronts. 

There’s more to it than just licensing a benchmark, and the issuers that take the time to find a real partner will position their ETF business to take a bigger portion of market share and improve the odds that the product will capture AUM and grow.

VettaFi offers a unique suite of index services within the financial services industry, with the ability to be a partner throughout the product’s lifecycle. Learn more now.

 

  • From design studios to construction sites to building operations, AI and robotics are driving a fundamental evolution of the real estate industry.
  • At construction sites, AI and robotics are beginning to transform building processes that are labor-intensive and dangerous.
  • After construction, AI continues to add value to a building’s operational life through energy management, security applications and enabling “smart buildings.”

Artificial intelligence and robotics are fundamentally reshaping the real estate industry value chain, from design and construction to operations and usage patterns. This transformation represents an opportunity for investors seeking exposure to the convergence of technology and physical assets.

This report examines how AI is impacting real estate from two crucial perspectives: 1) physical world transformation and automation; and 2) AI enablers and applications. Public companies discussed are constituents of the ROBO Global Robotics and Automation Index (ROBO) and/or the ROBO Global Artificial Intelligence Index (THNQ).

AI in design and planning for real estate

AI is revolutionizing architectural design, space utilization, energy efficiency, materials science simulation and optimization, and urban planning through advanced simulation capabilities. Urban planners and architects globally are using AI-based simulation to create “digital twins” of cities. This allows them to test how design choices affect traffic flow, sunlight, wind, and energy usage before anything is built.

For example, Autodesk’s (ADSK) Oslo-based Spacemaker platform leverages cloud AI for optimizing site plans for neighborhoods and buildings. Architects and developers are able to “test design concepts in minutes.” This generative AI approach helps professionals make better early-stage design decisions and maximize long-term project sustainability?.

By processing massive datasets (geospatial data, climate patterns, zoning rules, etc.), AI can quickly and efficiently uncover design solutions that balance aesthetics, cost, and environmental goals. AI-backed approaches far surpass manual methods.

Example AI & robotics companies enhancing real estate design and planning

AI and robotics transforming construction

At the construction site itself, AI and robotics are beginning to dramatically transform building processes that are labor-intensive and dangerous. We are seeing the emergence of semiautonomous and autonomous machines that can augment or even replace certain onsite activities. Drones and agile ground robots, equipped with AI, are handling tasks like surveying, site inspection, and progress monitoring.

Beyond inspection, AI-enabled robots are directly performing construction tasks. Autonomous or semiautonomous heavy equipment is a fast-evolving reality. Bulldozers, excavators, and cranes are being outfitted with AI guidance systems to perform groundwork with minimal human input.

ROBO constituents transforming construction

Building operations, analytics, and energy management

After construction is complete, AI continues to add value over a building’s operational life. Modern building management systems (BMS) are incorporating AI algorithms to turn ordinary facilities into “smart buildings.” Sensors and IoT devices embedded throughout a building can feed real-time data on occupancy, temperature, air quality, lighting levels, equipment status, and more into cloud-based AI platforms.

For example, companies like Samsara (IOT) provide a Connected Operations Cloud that allows organizations with physical assets (buildings, factories, vehicle fleets) to harness IoT data for actionable insights.

Safety and security are another major aspect of building operations AI is enhancing. Traditional security cameras produce a flood of footage that is impractical for humans to monitor in real time. AI computer vision now can analyze video feeds for threats or issues. Specialized vision-processing chips from companies like Ambarella (AMBA) enable cameras to perform on-device analytics with deep learning.

AI is fundamentally altering how real estate assets are valued, marketed, used, and repurposed. The traditional property valuation process relied heavily on human appraisers applying subjective judgments and limited sales comparisons. Today, machine learning algorithms can analyze thousands of property attributes and market factors simultaneously to generate more accurate, objective valuations.

AI is also playing a significant role in the drive for energy efficiency and sustainability given how much energy buildings consume. Almost a fifth of total global energy consumption is used for heating, cooling, and lighting buildings. Industrial companies like Emerson Electric (EMR) and Schneider Electric (SU) are focused on energy management for buildings.

Companies reshaping building operations, analytics and energy management

Impacts of real estate usage evolving

Perhaps the most far-reaching impacts of AI on real estate will come from the changing ways we use physical space as AI-driven systems become ubiquitous. One major example is the advent of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and delivery drones. These are poised to reshape urban infrastructure and land use.

If self-driving cars and trucks become mainstream in the coming decades, cities may need far fewer parking garages and surface lots. AVs, especially when used in fleets or ride-sharing services, can relocate or continue circulating instead of parking.

Over time, drone pickup and drop-offs will become more common. An example is private company Zipline’s agreement with Walmart (WMT) for drone deliveries near Dallas.

Conclusion and outlook

From design studios to construction sites to the daily management of buildings, AI is driving a fundamental evolution of the real estate industry on a global scale. The themes outlined — smarter design, new materials, robotic construction, intelligent operations, energy optimization, and evolving space usage — are all interconnected pieces of a decades-long transformation. Crucially, these are long-term, secular trends rather than passing fads.

To learn more about AI, please join our upcoming webcast on May 2 at 11 a.m. ET: “Investing in AI: Separating Hype from Reality in the AI Revolution.”

ROBO is the underlying index for the ROBO Global Robotics & Automation ETF (ROBO). THNQ is the underlying index for the ROBO Global Artificial Intelligence ETF (THNQ).

This article was originally published May 1st, 2025 on ETF Trends.

Investing is a long-term game, according to conventional wisdom. But as issuers look to grow their AUM, it is important to understand what is happening today. Investors want to know why one product is better than thousands of other products they could invest in. You can make a cogent case for the product’s investment philosophy and back it up with all of the data, stats, and projections in the world, but for many investors that’s not enough. They need to understand how it fits into the world today, as well as long-term.

Investors are constantly consuming finance media. What stocks are down and which companies are up might ultimately not matter in the long term, but it does matter today. And today is when you want investors to invest in your product.

Tethering your product to current market events can help demonstrate the value and utility of your product. Of course, getting third party media institutions to spill ink or provide soundbites about your products can be a challenge. This is why third party sponsored content could be a critical early- to midfunnel tactic.

What is sponsored content, exactly?

There are many ways to market and advertise a product. Based on where a prospect is in the marketing funnel, every tactic has a purpose. Before we dig into what sponsored content is, it is important to note that it is different from a direct advertisement. A billboard advertising a restaurant might not provide many details about the restaurant, but it does give drivers passing by a touch point. They might not be hungry, but now they know the name of the restaurant. 

In a similar fashion, issuers will often put up ads that mention tickers or, if on the internet, link back to landing or product pages. For many potential clients, a direct pitch can be offputting. Financial advisors managing large AUM know that issuers want their business and can be guarded against direct first-party appeals. 

But sponsored content presents analysis from a third party. This offers a host of advantages for an issuer. For one thing, a third party is not beholden to the same compliance standards. Because they have their own authorial perspective, they can more seamlessly fold in ticker references and mentions. 

Websites like ETF Trends offer ETF issuers an opportunity to sponsor channels. These channels operate like a micro-site to present financial news and information, while also being a home to product endorsements. Not only does this help with top-of-funnel ticker and brand recognition, but the content itself is useful for getting prospects further down the funnel to understand how and when a product might be used in their portfolios. It can showcase a product without being a direct pitch. 

Today, and today, and today

As much as investors are thinking about tomorrow, intellectually, emotionally, and experientially, it is always today. Today matters. Which means issuers need their products and services to not only fit into long term narratives, but make sense of the moment, particularly if a market moment is highlighting the need for a product. 

For example, in 2024, energy started the year as the strongest performing sector in the market, but then fell off. When October rolled around, a geopolitical crisis between Iran and Israel suddenly altered the performance of the energy space. Having news and analysis that walked through the events leading up to the crisis and unpacking how the crisis could impact energy investors gave Alerian’s midstream funds a moment to shine. If investors had the market view that the crisis could be ongoing or worsen, they now understood that investing in one of Alerian’s MLP funds could give them more exposure. 

Even if investors were to take up the opposite view, this kind of coverage and the ability to tether a product to a recent news event can linger in a reader. An investor who thought the crisis would be mitigated and energy would fall again might not invest right away. However, if their perspective changes in the future, they now understand MLPs to be an energy exposure option amid times of geopolitical strife.

The ongoing active management surge

Looking a bit more at the present, the Trump administration, through its tariff policy, is creating market uncertainty. The world is pivoting away from the U.S. dollar.

In a broader sense this means that now, more than ever, asset managers need to contextualize products amid current events. Investors are seeking guidance on what to do. This specific story itself, though, has ripples across a variety of sectors and products.

T. Rowe Price has successfully leveraged sponsored content to stay ahead of the tariff news and remind investors of the importance of active management. In this article, VettaFi’s Peters-Golden writes, “Active management can help a fund adapt to tariff news. For example, an ETF’s fundamental research capabilities could help it better predict which firms will be more or less harmed by tariffs. Rising supply chain costs may impact certain firms more than others. At the same time, fundamental analysis can also help identify firms with healthier balance sheets.” He then pivots to describing specific T. Rowe Price funds.

International investing and the value of sponsored content

U.S. stocks have had an historic dominance in recent years, but nothing lasts forever. Though many analysts have noted that large-cap U.S. companies might be overvalued, it's hard for that kind of analysis to stick when the market news is just a line going up on large-cap performance. The Magnificent Seven and FAANG before them were juggernauts.

Issuers with international products had a more challenging time, but current events have helped them articulate their case. VettaFi’s Karrie Gordon, writing on the China Insights channel sponsored by KraneShares, noted in a March 19th article that “Economic policy concerns, trade wars, recession risks, and more plague U.S. markets. Meanwhile, in China, another round of policy support announcements and major earnings beats from China internet giants sent stocks surging in March. The KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB) provides exposure to the category and is up 29% year to date.”

Demonstrating the practical applications of a product helps investors understand how they could use it. Seeing a product perform well amid specific news events can help prospects move further down the funnel and begin to consider an allocation.

Playing offense and defense

Sponsored channels are also terrific vehicles for helping investors think about complex stories in a way that can be beneficial to a sponsor. They have a capacity to both play offense by demonstrating investor use cases and defense by helping investors see the upside amid troubling news. 

For example, back in 2023, international investors had questions about the Biden administration's new rules on China investments. This piece from Peters-Golden helped alleviate concerns investors might have about how these rules could impact their China exposures. Peters-Golden wrote, “Despite short-term pain from these headlines, however, analysts at KraneShares believe there’s a silver lining for investors interested in China. Yes, the U.S. has implemented a range of regulations on U.S. investors and companies’ ties to Chinese tech sectors over the last few years. However, KraneShares sees this latest drop as a positive for investing in China. Per the firm’s recent note, it believes these new regs could be the ‘final guardrails’ in the U.S.-China trade and investment relationship. In such a scenario, investors may be freed from concern about further, looming regulations.”

Set yourself up for success

Issuers looking to scale their products and share their investment ideas need clear, compelling messaging. But that’s not enough. Like a well-constructed portfolio, marketing strategies should be diversified. Sponsored content can enhance proprietary materials and offer another effective way to connect with the investors who matter most.

Looking to be top of mind for investors and contextualize your products within the broader market environment through sponsored content? Learn more here.

 

While global defence spending was already growing, focused on the modernisation of defence capabilities and NATO’s spending target of 2% of GDP, a large-scale conflict on EU borders was a wake-up call for NATO and its European members. Today, the war still rages on, and after a contentious meeting at the White House with Ukraine President Zelenksy, the U.S. paused all military aid and intelligence to Ukraine, with far-reaching repercussions. A new European era of defence was ushered in, with a resolve to be less reliant on the US as an ally with a commitment to European rearmament and autonomy. The EU Commission has devised a “ReArm Europe/Readiness 2030” plan the tenants of which were published in a White Paper for European Defence and the ReArm Europe Plan-Readiness 2030 on 19 March 2025, outlining its 5-year plan.

The EU white paper offers solutions to strengthen the defence industry by closing capability gaps and ensuring long-term readiness. It also suggests ways for Member States to invest heavily in defence, buy necessary equipment, and support the industry’s growth over time. The plan calls for €800 billion of investment for a massive ramp-up of defence spending.  It will also include a €150 billion credit facility, the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) plan, that will help fund this investment. By activating the national escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact, EU members will be able to increase defence spending an additional 1.5% of their GDP, equating to 650 billion euros over the next 4 years.

Key areas of action explored in the piece include:

  • Closing military capability gaps in areas such as air and missile defence, artillery and munitions, and drone and counter-drone systems.
  • Supporting the European defence industry by buying European first with the goal of 65% being sourced from the EU, Norway, or Ukraine. 
  • Deepening Europe’s defence capabilities with development of future of defence technologies like AI, quantum, and cyber defence.  
  • Enhancing Europe’s readiness for worst case scenarios, by stockpiling, improving military cooperation, harmonization, and mobility across Europe.  
  • Continued support for Ukraine and what is being called a “Porcupine Strategy” aimed at deterring further Russian aggression. 

The benefits of sponsoring and attending industry events and conferences can be highly impactful to your bottom line. They offer a chance to connect to clients in-person, share thought leadership, and supplement your digital distribution efforts with face-to-face business opportunities. Additionally, they are terrific content vehicles. Photos, social media posts, and think pieces can all be created and deployed before, during, and after a big event. 

But many issuers who opt-in to sponsoring a conference fail to take full advantage of the opportunity. Think about the exhibit halls of most conferences. Have you ever seen someone manning a booth and just scrolling on their phone? A presence at a conference is always a net gain. Simply showing up has benefits. But conferences present a host of opportunities to sponsors. If you are spending the time and resources to create swag and sponsor an event, you should squeeze every ounce of value out of it that you can.

The recent Exchange conference in Las Vegas showcased several asset managers who deeply understood how to make the most of the event.

Tap into the moment

Conferences exist at specific points in time. Most points in time are associated with broader cultural forces. Tying an activation to something that is happening, even outside of the world of finance, can deepen the activation. A shared experience is humanizing, after all. Exchange 2025 happened in March, which means March Madness is top of mind. 

State Street Global Advisors set up a Connect Four basketball exhibit on the lawn at the conference venue. Attendees could approach, grab a ball, and try to connect four shots in a row on a grid. This became a popular spot for networkers who just connected to deepen nascent bonds through competitive play. With State Street’s branding all over it, the activation facilitated conversations, provided attendees with social media fodder, and spoke perfectly to a specific event happening at the same time as the conference. This activation was rooted in a simple idea that accomplished a lot through being tethered to something that people were already interested in. Because March Madness is a phenomenon, social posts about the activation were more likely to see traffic boosts and the impact of the activation was enhanced as a result.. State Street also had speakers at the event, and the presence of thought leadership mixed with a clever activation inspired good will among attendees. All it took was a little planning in advance and understanding of what conference-goers might be interested in doing.

Tap into the location

Conferences exist at specific points in time. Most points in time are associated with broader cultural forces. Tying an activation to something that is happening, even outside of the world of finance, can deepen the activation and bring a timeliness element to the activation. A shared experience is humanizing, after all. Exchange 2025 happened in March, which means March Madness is top of mind. 

The Las Vegas Grand Prix is a big deal in the Formula 1 world. Formula 1 has seen increasing popularity amid a Netflix documentary and growing fan base. CF Benchmarks put a race car directly on the floor of the exhibit hall, creating an activation that resonated with the host city for the conference. The presence of the vehicle on the exhibition floor became a natural conversation starter for attendees and was impossible to miss. 

When in doubt, lean into basic needs

There are no doubts that creative, unique event activations can move the needle. In Exchange 2024, Grayscale set up a drone laser show that dropped jaws and had the entire conference talking. But not every activation needs to incorporate out of the box thinking or have the budget for an elaborate drone laser show. Asset managers can earn tremendous good will simply by thinking about the basic needs of conference attendees. 

Every conference runs on coffee. Conferences are also hotbeds of happy hours, dinners, and late nights, so there is a premium placed on good coffee. Even people with relatively light evening schedules and plenty of down time need a pick-me-up. Lazard responded by curating an entire coffee bar, complete with seating and tables, in the exhibit hall. Now, the conference itself was also offering urns of coffee, so Lazard understood their café needed to be next level. Crack baristas quickly and efficiently put together top tier coffee beverages for anyone walking by at any time, creating a networking hub within the networking hub that is the broader conference. Anyone who walked the exhibit hall at Exchange 2025 probably noted the constant traffic near Lazard’s cafe. Lazard was also trying to generate hype for a new product launch, and having one of the most consistently crowded booths on the exhibition floor helped reinforce that buzz.

Nuveen had a similar activation. Understanding that happy hours are a big deal at professional conferences, they set up a “muni-rita” bar to cleverly showcase their muni products and give attendees an easy-to-get-to happy hour spot. ROBO Global, meanwhile, had a similar idea, programming a robot arm to mix drinks for attendees. Both of these activations spoke to basic needs among attendees and provided plenty of good attention to the brands that deployed them.

Work everything you have at the maximum level

You don’t have to have bottomless spending to have a successful conference experience. Sometimes all it takes is being present throughout the lifecycle of a conference.

Conferences are more than a couple of days on a calendar. They are months of lead up and preparation. They are also their own aftermath. Before a conference, you can be setting up meetings, inviting prospects, and putting yourself in position to succeed. After the conference you can be active on social media, sharing reflections, and taking every possible opportunity to put your product, ideas, and people in the spotlight. 

X-Square Capital came to Las Vegas from Puerto Rico. Their purpose in going to Exchange was to share their Triple Tax Exempt muni fund with a broader financial advisor audience. 

In advance of the conference, they booked interviews. At the conference, their team worked. They talked to everyone they met. They handed out swag. They took every opportunity they could to talk to people, share their ideas, and put their best foot forward. Showing up can be enough, but truly showing up means embracing possibilities and being an active partner with the conference host. Many firms are content to just let their branding do the work, but the firms that get the most from any conference are the ones who put in the effort on the floor. X-Square certainly did that at Exchange.

Set yourself up for success in 2026

At the end of the day, all of this comes down to preparation. Committing to going to a conference early gives you time to plan and prepare. Making a smart or useful activation happen can lead to a huge ROI. 

As asset managers are crunched for time and resources, it can be hard to give any task its due. But taking the time to have a smart conference plan and then executing on that plan can pay huge dividends. There is an opportunity cost to any event. You are spending money to get your logo in front of prospects and take advantage of all that a conference has to offer. As discussed, even phoning it in can make the opportunity cost worthwhile. But why phone it in when, for just a little bit more effort, you can get exponentially more dividends out of your sponsorship?

Interested in setting yourself up for conference success? Speak to our experts.

While broad energy ETFs have largely seen outflows over the last two years, midstream or energy infrastructure ETFs have enjoyed solid inflows. Often, these will be categorized as MLP ETFs. It is a simple delineation among the more than 4,000 ETFs. However, most “MLP ETFs” only own up to 25% MLPs.

For investors allocating to energy infrastructure, it is important to understand that there are two types of MLP funds with notable differences. This note explains MLP funds, their use cases, and other ways investors can access the midstream space. Investors are encouraged to review prospectuses and fund materials for more detail.

The two types of MLP funds.

Investors may prefer to access MLPs through funds to avoid the Schedule K-1 that comes with direct MLP investment. There are two types of MLP funds, whether looking at ETFs, mutual funds, or closed-end funds. Both types issue Forms 1099 but have other important differences in tax treatment. Specifically, any fund with more than a 25% weighting to MLPs is taxed as a corporation.

On the other hand, funds that own up to 25% MLPs are structured as RICs. Most funds registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (often called ’40 Act Funds) are RICs. RICs are considered pass-through entities and aren’t subject to corporate taxes.

MLP-focused funds taxed as corporations.

Among midstream investment funds, there is a small subset that predominantly own MLPs and are taxed as corporations. The number of these MLP-focused funds has declined over the last several years (read more). There are only three MLP-focused ETFs structured as corporations. The largest of these is the Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP). AMLP is the second-largest energy ETF.

MLP-focused funds tend to appeal to investors who are looking to maximize income. Historically, MLP funds structured as corporations have retained the tax characteristics of MLP distributions, including the potential for tax-deferred return of capital (read more). For longtime holders, the tax treatment of distributions from MLP funds is typically return of capital or qualified dividends, but investors should consult fund documents.

MLPs typically offer higher yields than midstream corporations. The Alerian MLP Infrastructure Index (AMZI) was yielding 6.8% as of March 27. AMZI is the underlying index for AMLP.

Additional detail for MLP funds taxed as corporations.

Due to their taxation as C-Corps, MLP-focused funds can experience tax drag, and fund performance would be reduced by the taxes accrued. There can also be times when the fund’s tax drag is negligible due to past losses.

An MLP fund, taxed as a corporation via its partnership holdings in the underlying MLPs, will accrue deferred income taxes for any accelerated deprecation taken by the MLPs and for the unrealized net gain on its underlying holdings. Deferred income taxes are based on the corporate tax rate (currently 21%), plus a few percentage points for state taxes.

For example, if an index of MLPs gains 10%, the ETF tracking that index may only gain 7.7% if it is accruing for a deferred tax liability (DTL). On the other hand, a DTL can act as a buffer if equities are falling. In that scenario, a 10% decline in the underlying MLP index would equate to only a 7.7% decline in the fund as the DTL shrinks (similar to adding an asset). This simplified example is depicted below.

Deferred tax liability on hypothetical MLP fund performance relative to its underlying basket

There can be times when tax drag for MLP-focused funds is minimal due to past losses from holdings declining in value. In simple terms, past capital losses can offset capital gains. Fund-level taxation adds complexity, but the attraction of MLP-focused funds has historically been their generous yields.

Midstream ETFs structured as RICs.

Most midstream funds, including ETFs, are structured as RICs and only own up to 25% MLPs. There are around a dozen midstream RIC ETFs, encompassing active and passive approaches. Alongside MLPs, these RIC ETFs will typically own U.S. and Canadian midstream corporations. Some funds have sizable allocations to utilities, which tend to have lower yields and greater interest rate sensitivity relative to midstream. Because MLPs are only up to 25% of RIC-compliant “MLP ETFs” by weighting, it is important that investors understand what is in the other 75% of the portfolio.

An investor may prefer to get midstream/MLP exposure through a RIC if they are primarily seeking total return. RICs do not have the potential tax drag associated with MLP-focused funds taxed as corporations but also have lower yields. The Alerian Midstream Energy Select Index (AMEI), which caps MLPs at 25% and also includes U.S. and Canadian midstream corporations, was yielding 5.1% as of March 27. AMEI underlies the Alerian Energy Infrastructure ETF (ENFR). The 10-year average yield difference between AMZI and AMEI is ~200 basis points.

Investors may also prefer RIC products if they desire greater diversification. RICs must adhere to diversification rules, while MLP funds structured as corporations are considered nondiversified. Funds with corporations and MLPs provide broader exposure to the midstream universe.

Investors may also want to own familiar corporations like Kinder Morgan (KMI) or Williams (WMB) that no longer have related MLPs. Additionally, funds with U.S. midstream corporations tend to have more exposure to natural gas infrastructure, which has benefited from a strengthening outlook for North American natural gas demand (read more).

Other ways to access the midstream space.

Often, listings of MLP ETFs will also include exchange-traded notes (ETNs). There are currently five energy infrastructure ETNs. The largest is the JPMorgan Alerian MLP Index ETN (AMJB). The main appeal of ETNs is little or no tracking error. Midstream ETNs also issue Forms 1099. ETNs tend to be most suitable for investing in tax-advantaged accounts, because their coupons are taxed at ordinary income rates. When using ETNs, investors should be comfortable with the credit risk of the issuing bank (read more).

For international investors, there are two UCITS ETFs that provide exposure to North American energy infrastructure. For context, UCITS is a European regulatory framework intended to protect investors. The Alerian Midstream Energy Dividend UCITS ETF (MMLP LN) tracks an Alerian index that includes U.S. and Canadian midstream corporations with an allocated exposure to MLPs through AMJB.

Bottom line:

Midstream investors primarily seeking income will likely prefer a fund that predominantly owns MLPs. Investors who are more focused on total return and broad midstream exposure will likely prefer a RIC-compliant midstream ETF.

Vettafi.com is owned by VettaFi LLC (“VettaFi”). VettaFi is the index provider for AMLP, MLPB, ENFR, ALEFX, and MMLP.LN, for which it receives an index licensing fee. However, AMLP, MLPB, ENFR, ALEFX, and MMLP.LN are not issued, sponsored, endorsed or sold by VettaFi, and VettaFi has no obligation or liability in connection with the issuance, administration, marketing or trading of AMLP, MLPB, ENFR, ALEFX, and MMLP.LN.

This article was originally published April 1st, 2025 on ETF Trends.

Last month’s Exchange conference brought together financial advisors, asset managers, and financial professionals for a face-to-face experience. Experts like Dr. David Kelly offered in-depth market analysis, providing attendees with their knowledge and deep understanding. Geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer shared a sobering outlook on the implications of broader global politics and investing.

There were sessions devoted to practice management and plenty of solid, concrete information circulating to make the conference more than worth the opportunity cost of attending. But what Exchange 2025 truly revealed was the importance of the human side of finance. 

Take a walk on the human side

Retirement expert and author of “Your Best Financial Life,” Anne Lester, led a powerful discussion keyed into helping advisors connect to their clients on a human level. “I think it’s challenging for people who spend their lives in a compliance-controlled environment, surrounded by numbers and graphs sometimes to remember that our clients are human beings,” Lester shared.

Jennifer Morgan started her keynote dancing to Pitbull and spent a sizable amount of time off the stage and in the audience, connecting directly with attendees. Aptly, her session was titled “Escape the Sea of Sameness.” Morgan argued that relationships are increasingly important for financial services professionals. In a crowded marketplace, it’s one of the few ways you can stand out. “If you build a relationship, business can come later,” she noted.

Put the spreadsheets down

Lester and Morgan weren’t the only ones prodding attendees to exit out of Excel and take in the people around them. Shaping Wealth’s Neil Bage and Brian Portnoy moderated a workshop devoted to “human first” financial planning. “What got us here isn’t going to keep us or sustain us going forward,” Bage said ahead of the workshop. “We need to pivot in the way we engage with the people we are here to serve.”

Bread’s founder Kyla Scanlon also brought her unique talents to Exchange. Again, the focus was on humans. “I try to center people and the economy because people are the economy, at the end of the day,” Scanlon shared when discussing her session on The Road to Exchange. Scanlon is known for bringing economic information and learning directly to her Gen-Z audience over social media. 

Products in the modern world

Like any industry, finance offers products and services to customers. An asset manager creating a unique ETF and getting investors to put money in it might be more complicated on paper than a diner selling a customer a cup of coffee, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to transactions.

Advertising has evolved as channels of communication between people have changed and developed. In the 1950s, Brylcreem advertised in black and white on TV that “a little dab will do ya” in a minute-long spot airing on prime time. By the aughts, restaurant chain Denny’s was advertising via an absurdist Tumblr account that replied to social media posts — often in the middle of the night.

The pivot to being human

These are all disparate threads that point to a common phenomenon; namely, that there is a widespread need for actual connection and authenticity across all industries. A social media account from a brand directly selling a product feels inauthentic and forced. The genius of the Denny’s Tumblr was that it had a very human voice that reflected the experience of being at a Denny’s at an unusual hour. Because it would reply to people who posted at it, often outside of working hours, it felt less like a brand and more like a human being, which, spoiler alert — it was! Serenity Discko put in exceptional work to be the human behind the brand.

In her session, Lester noted that many young people do not trust banks, institutions, asset managers, or financial advisors. They trust their peers. That’s why Scanlon’s TikToks and short videos have such appeal. She presents herself as she is: a human being trying to figure out the complicated mess that is finance.

Advisors still want to understand the market. They want to know about the opportunities that experts like Rob Arnott see in the market. But, increasingly, they want more than that. Compared to 2024, an additional 10% of attendees at Exchange 2025 indicated they were more interested in networking time, according to a post-event survey. 

Live events offer asset managers a chance to show their humanity

All of this is not to say that asset managers need to find their own version of Denny's Tumblr. But the world is becoming increasingly uncertain for investors. As global power dynamics shift and the world becomes, in many ways, a far scarier place, being human matters more than ever. 

Advisors are starting to understand the need for this shift. They are learning about the value of traditional soft skills. Exchange is curated in partnership with advisors. That’s why so many of the top spots on the agenda were focused on being human. 

Lester’s session urged advisors to understand the thinking and the shame that comes with money for many people. Morgan was doling out practical, concrete steps about how to make an impression on someone and connect. Scanlon was helping advisors see past their generational blinders to connect with tomorrow’s wealth owners. Bage coached participants directly on how to interact. 

Even the activations encouraged human connection. VettaFi leaned into the Vegas theme with a bespoke set of cards, but on each card was a question you could ask someone you just met. The networking cards provided attendees with conversational icebreakers in the form of a game. It’s not a surprise that the most popular booths throughout the conference were Nuveen’s Muni-rita bar and Lazard’s exhibit hall coffee shop. People wanted to enjoy a beverage while networking.

Fix your ability to connect, or stagnate

Behavioral finance is in vogue for a reason: People are seeking ways to connect to and understand each other. As Lester astutely noted in her session, often, when intellectual finance experts talk, people hear Charlie Brown’s teacher. Experts have a tremendous amount of knowledge, but the connection is critical. The smartest, most prescient products will continue to die on the vine if the issuer can’t connect with potential clients.

Conferences like Exchange offer a unique opportunity to get in front of an advisor community as a human being navigating the world. Experiential marketing is an easily overlooked tool in the marketer’s toolkit. Given today’s uncertain climate, it could be more important than ever. If the global economy slows or goes through a period of transition, many firms will be tempted to cut costs and lean on old tactics. The firms that will make it to the other side will be the ones that understand the importance of connecting as humans to other humans. To paraphrase Brylcreem’s legendary jingle, a little dab of face-to-face connecting will do ya.  

Interested in sponsoring a live event? Talk to our experts here.

VettaFi Head of Index Products Brian Coco and Head of Index Strategy Jane Edmondson discussed custom indexing at Exchange. In the session called “How and why asset managers are turning to custom indexing,” Coco and Edmonson explored the latest data and research driving new and innovative approaches to investing. They also covered how index providers can help transform a great idea into a concrete reality.

“There’s been a lot of talk about active ETFs,” Edmondson noted. According to Coco, active managers are frequently using custom indexes. Coco said, “Even though many of them are active, they are still using benchmarks behind the scenes.”

VettaFI’s evolution in indexing

Regarding VettaFi’s evolution, Coco explained, “It’s all premised on one indexing platform and one distribution platform.” VettaFi has acquired eight firms, and Coco shared that beyond bringing those strategies in, it has also benefitted from bringing in the innovators behind them.

Coco also shared his journey in the industry, which started at Credit Suisse. When TMX VettaFi was ready to be in the bond indices business, Coco had the unique opportunity to get his own work back. “It’s really fun to get your baby back,” he quipped.

Fixed Income index possibilities

“This acquisition really gives us the building blocks, which is table stakes if you want to innovate,” Coco offered. “Increasingly, people are looking for specific duration targets. They are looking for indices that are better designed for the ETF wrapper.”

Brian Coco and Jane Edmondson at Exchange 3-23-25

VettaFi Head of Index Products Brian Coco and Head of Index Strategy Jane Edmondson discussing custom indexing.

Being better partners 

Coco said that the ongoing partnership throughout the product lifecycle has made VettaFi’s indexing services stand out. “Our partnership doesn’t end when the index is licensed – that’s when it begins.” Having a marketing arm that helps grow the product has been the differentiator

Coco on theme

Coco also spoke about interesting approaches to broader thematic ideas, sharing one idea that involved looking at the average age of workers in given regions and using that data.“

When I think about the things driving us right now, I think about robotics.” He doesn’t know when C3PO-style robots will be in every house, but it is coming. Edmonson noted that most people already have robot vacuums.

Coco gets direct-to-direct indexing

Direct indexing has been disruptive to the ETF and index industry. “The platforms are really coming into their own partnering with index providers to develop better index solutions.”

VettaFi CMO Jon Fee discussed key trends in distribution to kick off the Industry Conclave at Exchange. Fee led the audience through some icebreakers and then began digging into the disruption driving durable growth.” I fundamentally believe data is greater than opinion,” he said. 

Fee on the cost of success

He shared a sentiment that the cost of entering the ETF market is low but that it is high to succeed. This is due to disruption. “Usually, people don’t like disruption because of its commonality with change.” Distribution has had disruption in multiple vectors, technology has been a big driver. Tech like ChatGPT and artificial intelligence is changing the landscape on various fronts.

How disruption happens

Disruption happens when power is consolidated. Fee noted that Uber broke the taxi and medallion model. Disruption also occurs when an outdated technology is updated. According to Fee, it can also occur when business practices aren’t changing despite negative sentiment. Importantly, it also happens when the data says so. 

“Think about the ETF when it came along. At the end of the day, the ETF is a technology and what did it disrupt?” Fee noted that the mutual fund had consolidated power, was an outdated technology, and the business was ripe for change.

VettaFi CMO Jon Fee on distribution

The “What” and “How” of disruption

Fee believes that distribution has always been about the act of sharing, making for a consistent “what” over time. The “how” is changing, however. Ultimately, much of the disruption has been pointed toward empowering the end investor. “The gap is so wide for financial literacy, but it closes a little bit every year.”

With 4,000+ U.S.-listed ETFs, these funds have created a lot of competition. People are always looking online for any product, including ETFs. This means that issuers and asset managers need to change with the times. Fee said that thinking about people is key. He asserted that issuers could find more success if they hire sellers who think like marketers, hire marketers who sound like sellers, and put AI in their org chart. “You have to start thinking that way.”

Fee on distribution strategy

Looking at how issuers approach distribution, Fee urged them to consider a pivot to client-centric functions. “Put on your values, client-first, whatever it is.” Getting out of asset class structures and leaning on cross-trained people who deploy data-backed tactics. “Those that are winning now, they are allocating to data -backed tactics.” Fee also urged that it is essential to align your business with partners who share success metrics. “Push for outcome-based pricing. [It’s] super common in the tech industry.” Having partners who are invested in your success and who are dedicated to your success can be a difference-maker.

Executing strategically, these days, is very much about service. The speed at which an issuer can bring a product to market and out-service the competition is crucial. “The issuers who are treating speed as IP – they’re winning. They’re also leading from the outside in.”

There have been several recently launched ETF products, seeking to provide investors with private credit exposure in a liquid ETF wrapper. These include new products combining public and private credit instruments that cap illiquid assets at 15%. However, the pricing of the illiquid portion of the portfolio remains a sticking point for regulators. There are also more traditional approaches that provide exposure to liquid private credit instruments such as Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs). 

But why are investors clamoring to get private credit exposure in the first place? Private credit offers attractive yields from an alternative asset class that is less correlated with equities and bonds. This diversification benefit can reduce portfolio volatility and improve risk-adjusted results. 

The rise of private credit

It used to be that companies in need of debt financing would go to their community bank and apply for a commercial loan or line of credit. But, that paradigm shifted after the global financial crisis (GFC). Sweeping regulatory reforms applied after the crisis resulted in banks being unable to take on as much balance sheet risk. As a result, private credit solutions outside the traditional banking system emerged to fill this financing gap. Private credit loans can be tailored to meet borrower needs in size, type, and term. Similar to bank loans, most private credit loans are floating-rate debt, moving directionally with interest rates. 

The private credit sector includes four main types of private credit instruments:

  1. Direct lending – Non-bank lenders provide credit to private, non-investment-grade companies as part of the senior debt capital structure.
  2. Mezzanine, second lien debt, and preferred equity - These loans are collectively viewed as “junior debt,” providing borrowers with subordinated debt not secured by assets. It ranks below senior debt and often comes with equity “kickers,” which are additional incentives that can help supplement returns.
  3. Distressed debt - When companies are in financial distress, they work with existing creditors to improve their prospects by implementing operational changes and restructuring their balance sheets. Distressed debt is highly specialized; the abundance of opportunities tends to coincide with periods of economic stress and credit tightness. Lenders are willing to take on higher levels of risk in exchange for the potential for future higher returns.
  4. Special situations - Special situations refer to non-traditional corporate events that require custom and complex lending solutions such as M&A transactions, divestitures or spinoffs, or other situations driving borrowing needs.

VettaFi’s private credit index 

VettaFi’s Private Credit Index (VPCIX) uses publicly-traded, liquid instruments to provide exposure to private credit through Business Development Companies (BDCs) and Closed-End Funds (CEFs) that primarily invest in the private credit sector. Through our composite index of closed-end funds, we identify CEFs and BDCs with significant private loan participation and CLO exposures. Our diversified index approach, consisting of 50-60 holdings, helps mitigate individual credit risk. In addition, the underlying funds are actively managed by some of the best private credit investment firms in the industry such as KKR, Ares Capital, and Blackstone. 

Attractive alternative income opportunity

The VettaFi’s Private Credit Index (VPCIX) construction methodology considers volatility and dividend yield adjusted by float-weighted market capitalization. This index approach overweights funds consistently rewarding investors with high dividend income. The dividend yield of the index is currently over 12%. 

If you would like to learn more about VettaFi’s new VettaFi’s Private Credit Index (VPCIX), please reach out using the form here.

VettaFi CMO Jon Fee recently hosted the webcast, “Turn Data Into Sales: Strategies for Asset Managers.” The hour-long presentation featured Microsoft Director Gaby Marano and J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s Global Head of Business Intelligence & Analytics Danius Giedraitis. This event covered a variety of topics centering around how organizations can evolve their data practices. Here are the six key takeaways:

1. Financial services lags behind other industries when it comes to using data

Organizations that take advantage of customer behavioral data outperform their peers by 95% when it comes to sales growth, according to McKinsey & Co. Despite this, many asset managers are underdeveloped in their data capabilities. “There are probably some things that are far along relative to other industries, but there’s a lot of opportunity to do things more thoughtfully,” noted Giedraitis.

Looking at the consumer side, many companies have extremely sharp data deployment. Food-ordering apps are able to track preferences and send push notifications about deals to their customers, while map apps immediately provide the quickest directions to a destination and account for traffic. 

Financial services, particularly in distribution, have only scratched the surface of customer behavioral data. Investors who are actively researching commodities and alternatives, for example, are more likely to invest in diversifiers than an equity fund. Streamlining this data and providing it to sales gives the team an opportunity to pitch the right product to the right client — much like how Grubhub recognizes a customer’s preference for vegetarian takeout and tailors its recommendations accordingly.

2. More data does not always equal better outcomes

One common error organizations might make when beginning to implement new data practices is attempting to sponge up as much data as possible. Data can be a signal, but it can also be noise. When assessing key metrics for distribution performance and growth, the panel recommended focusing on six to eight metrics. Data-driven teams have a playbook on how to react depending on what these metrics do and a deep understanding of how they relate to one another. Once teams start employing more than eight key metrics, the data deluge can be distracting, especially if there’s no plan on how to proceed if the numbers fall above or below certain thresholds.

Additionally, organizations that are getting their feet under them when it comes to data lack the capacity to track and interpret a deluge of information. For such organizations, having a data partner is a smart investment that can save bandwidth for sales and marketing teams that might already be spread thin. 

3. Data evolution takes time and organizational buy-in

It is important for an organization to know where it exists on the data maturity curve.

Moving along this curve takes time. Different parts of the company might not be ready to take on new tools, while other parts of the firm may be eager to leap forward. The reality is that good data practices are an organizational relay race in which every department is working in lockstep with every other department. This means transmitting and sharing the right data at the right time. Fee likened it to a “relay race,” in which marketing is handing the baton to sales smoothly and keeping up momentum. Getting to this place takes time, effort, and organizational buy-in. It's important to not skip steps and to bring everyone along as a firm moves from underdeveloped status in data use to optimized status.

4. Your ‘super users’ can lead the way

Of course, organizations are composed of people. Different people have different skills, talents, and interests. Some will be “super users” of data. These are people who have an understanding and interest in data, who are eager to experiment with new tools and procedures, even if those tools and procedures aren’t fully cooked. 

Super users aren’t just early adopters — they’re the champions who can drive organizational buy-in for better data practices and tools. They provide critical feedback, help refine processes, and support colleagues who may be less comfortable with change. Since many professionals are too busy to experiment with new workflows, organizations need to present fully codified tools that are ready to implement. Super users play a key role in this by stress-testing solutions, guiding adoption, and ultimately easing the transition to more effective data practices.

5. The AI era is here, but it’s early innings

“I think the AI era is here, and it's here to stay,” said Marano. Distribution has always been impacted by tools and technology. Everything from phones to social media have changed the way sales and marketing do their work. Artificial intelligence is no different. Having AI that can tackle administrative tasks, take meeting notes, and free up employees to focus on mission-critical work can be a huge boon, but it's important to understand the technology is still in its early days.

In theory, AI will be able to remove the “no joy” parts of work so people can focus on the things that matter most to them. But the technology is still evolving. That said, Giedraitis warned that “every minute you wait is a minute that someone else is moving forward.”

Data teams experimenting with AI could be helpful for companies looking to evolve their data practices.

6. There is no silver bullet 

There’s no denying well-implemented data practices can transform an organization and help it grow. Proper data usage can increase efficiency and drive substantial AUM growth. But it's important to understand there is no silver bullet to success. There’s no one metric or data stream that can instantly solve all of an organization's issues. Data requires multiple touch points, and it needs to be vetted for quality and deployed with thought and care. It's useful to also understand that data goes beyond just numbers. When a sales team has a meeting with someone, there are linguistic data points. Marketers can use behavioral data to look at what people are researching. Data isn’t just about numbers going up and down. 

Importantly, you need to read the tea leaves and understand how everything relates to everything else. Clients will engage with products and services in multiple ways. Having a 360-degree view is essential.

Most firms struggle with data and systems integration. The firms that successfully navigate these challenges become industry leaders. In a recent webcast, VettaFi CMO Jon Fee, J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s Danius Giedraitis, and Microsoft’s Gaby Marano discussed how asset managers can turn data into sales.

Jon Fee kicked off the virtual event with brief remarks on the value of data and introduced his co-panelists. Fee said, “Data used wisely can make your organization so much more effective and efficient at the same time.”

Marano and Giedraitis introduced themselves and shared their data “a-ha” moments. “When I first started in the industry, data was a foreign language,” Giedraitis said, sharing how it later became the driving force behind the firm’s distribution strategy.

Gut decisions or decisions based on optics have their place, but Fee noted information stored in someone’s “gut” can’t be shared across a team, whereas data can.

Data maturity in asset management

Financial services lags when it comes to using data to drive distribution and growth. Yet organizations that leverage customer behavioral data outperform peers by 95% in sales growth and more than 25% in gross margin, according to McKinsey & Co.

Giedraitis commented, “There are probably some things that are far along relative to other industries, but there’s a lot of opportunity to do things more thoughtfully.” Though the finance industry has come a long way in regard to data, Giedraitis sees plenty of room for improvement and innovation. 

In contrast, Marano noted GPS apps and even food service apps are quite advanced in their data usage and deployment, saying, “I think that sets the bar really high on the consumer side.” In other words, there are industries that are further along in their data maturity journey, and those industries know when to use data to push their consumers to make a purchase. Uber Eats or Seamless will ping consumers when their usual go to restaurants are having a special deal at a time when the data says the customer could be most eager to purchase, as an example. Looking at finance, she added, “Those using AI are closing 10% more pipeline.” Marano continued, “The numbers are there.”

Common data misconceptions in asset management

Fee offered that there are misconceptions that hijack effective data usage in asset management. The first misconception was “more data equals better outcomes.” Other myths included, “Having data means you are data driven,” and “AI will replace human decision making.”

Speaking to the first myth, Marano agreed. “Getting your data sets to talk to each other is a prerequisite for getting the results you are seeking to drive,” she said. “[If] I had to add one more [myth] I’d say, ‘Data isn’t just numbers, it's text too.’” Language can be data too, and conversations that sales teams have matter.

“Data teams feel like every number, attribute, or field they can report on they should,” Giedraitis said. “With respect to all other metrics, a few metrics matter more.” Finding the metrics that drive the most important signals is critical, and it is easy to get lost in the weeds if you over-engineer. Speaking to AI misconceptions, Giedraitis said “The biggest misconception is people think it will cure all their problems. It won’t.”

Fee shared that the relationship between different pools of data is critical in making informed decisions. “It's never going to be a singular data point, it's going to be multiple data points you are triangulating that give you the trendline that helps you course correct.” When working with clients, he frequently asks what people do when a metric is positive or negative. Many don’t have an answer. “I typically encourage folks to go back and rethink the data that they are pulling.”

The evolution of data deployment

Organizations move through multiple phases in their data deployment evolution. Starting from an underdeveloped place, the initial integration of data can provide information from which they can make ad-hoc reactions. At this stage they have no data-specific roles, but they are beginning to see the value of data. From here, companies evolve into being proactive. Proactive companies start thinking about data quality and metrics, eventually becoming “optimized companies” that have data professionals on staff and implement procedures.

Sharing a graphic about the process of becoming an underdeveloped organization when it comes to data use, Marano said, “The message here is it's a journey, but it requires many foundational pieces to get there.”

Giedraitis added, “You can’t jump from undeveloped to optimized, because that scares people.” It requires a slow articulation toward being optimized. “Crawl before you walk before you run,” he said, sharing the old adage.

“The most important thing is the level of trust in data,” Fee said. When firms, enterprise wide, buy into and trust the data, that leads to success. “There’s a caveat to this — nobody trusts data until they're knowledgeable on what that data means.”

Data personas

Driving impact demands organizations to buy-in. Giedraitis shared, “What works well is finding the power users, the more data-literate individuals across teams.” These individuals can articulate the value of data from within and help build trust. “Doing that from just a small, centralized group is very hard.”

“Innovation is inherently uncomfortable. In disruptive times, trust is more important than ever,” Marano said. Building trust, camaraderie, and joint visions is crucial to getting an organization on board with building data practices.

Within organizations, some people are “super users,” some are “data explorers,” and some are “time-constrained decision makers.” Each will have a different relationship with data. Super users will try new things and be a champion for new technologies and ideas. But some folks are busy. The time-constrained decision maker isn’t interested in experimenting. “Eventually we try to look and empower each of these people differently.”

There are clearly other personas than these, and unpacking where the individuals in a firm are on their own journey and relationship with data can help firms evolve their organizational thinking and data practices.

The 360-degree view

Clients engage in products and services in a variety of ways. “Being able to see someone from all angles is paramount,” Marano said. “AI is only as good as the information it has.” Clients and customers are more than just purchases. What events do they attend? How do they behave digitally? 

“One of the things that’s important to think about,” Giedraitis said, “is to connect the engagement across these often fragmented systems.”

Marano also noted that sometimes organizations try to measure everything and flip what they are prioritizing frequently. Less can be more, and every decision requires time to pan out. Teams need the right data delivered in the right way to truly drive impact. Answering an audience question, the group agreed that six to eight key metrics is a healthy number. More can be too much, while less can limit the full 360 view.

Sales and marketing enablement

Mapping out a work system can be helpful for organizations. Fee compared growth to a baton, noting that teams have to pass opportunities to one another and everyone needs to be prepared to give it their all. Automating these systems and being able to pass data around easily and coherently can be a difference maker for an organization.

Tech and AI

Within the space of distribution, technology is constantly changing the landscape. Phones, social media, and AI are all big things that have changed the way distribution happens. 

Marano said, “I still think we’re in very early innings.” Having machines handle administrative tasks, like taking meeting notes, can help free up time for employees to do what’s most important and interesting about their job. Done well, AI could improve productivity and help manage risk and compliance. 

“Doing more with the same is how we’ve been framing it,” Giedraitis said. Transforming client experience and modernizing market and data platforms are green spaces where the tech can improve, but Giedraitis agreed that taking out the “no joy” parts of work can be hugely beneficial.

“I think the AI era is here, and it's here to stay,” Marano said.

Giedraitis added, “Every minute that you wait is a minute that someone else is moving forward.”

Watch the full webcast here and speak to our data experts.

Evan Harp sat down with VettaFi’s Head of Index Products Brian Coco and Head of Fixed Income Products Samarth Sanghavi to discuss the recent acquisition of Credit Suisse Indices from UBS.

Evan Harp: Can you tell me a little bit about how this acquisition came about and why it is useful for the partners that VettaFi serves?

Brian Coco: To give you a little background, both Samarth and I worked on the team that created these indices at Credit Suisse. I started working on them in 2001 and Samarth joined the team in 2010. So we have a lot of history with these indices.

When the opportunity came about to potentially acquire them, we jumped at it. There are not that many bond index businesses out there. It's a small competitive space dominated by four or five firms. So this was one of the last potential acquisitions available that had history going back 25 years.

Evan Harp: VettaFi’s index team has a reputation for its work in the equity space, can you talk about how this expansion into fixed income will benefit our clients and partners?

Brian Coco: Our clients have been sharing for a while with us that they are looking for a partner on the Fixed Income side that delivers what we aim to do in Equities in terms of product innovation, speed to market, and attention to detail.  They often choose us as a partner not just because of our ability to quickly customize and develop new products for them, but ultimately because of our ability to help educate investors and promote their products. We help explain to their end investors the benefits of using that particular index. 

We knew we could take some of those same concepts and frameworks that we built for equities and roll them out to fixed income. The fixed-income space hasn't seen quite as much innovation as there has been on the equity side. We think we can put a lot of the work we've done on the equity side to good use here.

A long track record

Evan Harp: You mentioned that you have a history with these indices from going all the way back to 2001. Can you talk a little bit more about what your role was back then? Did this opportunity come about because of that history, or is this just a happy coincidence? 

Brian Coco: I was hired onto the team in 2001 as an index research analyst focused on gathering and organizing all the data we would need to build advanced bond analytics.  Big investment banks would build these indices as a soft-dollar service to their trading clients.  It helped them do more advanced portfolio analysis and performance measurement.

Once we made the decision that we wanted to be in the Fixed Income Index business, asking UBS if they would consider selling us the indices was a no-brainer.  I also couldn’t be happier to bring Samarth on board to partner with clients on growing this franchise.

Evan Harp: Samarth, what are you most excited about in regard to this acquisition?

Samarth Sanghavi: I am really excited to be able to work with the products that Brian and I developed many, many moons ago. Frankly, as Brian mentioned, the remit at an investment bank is to develop indices that can help grow our trading volumes.  That often meant that indices were supporting the larger business, as opposed to being the revenue drivers.   For me, it’s exciting to join an organization like VettaFi, where our core focus is serving clients through innovative products and developing a sustainable business powered by our index products.  My goal is for VettaFi to become the premier shop that clients can rely on as a key partner.

The importance of history

Evan Harp: Samarth, you also have a history with these products, can you talk about your career and what led you to become part of VettaFi?

Samarth Sanghavi:  I  started my career at Lehman Brothers as a risk analyst.  A few years into the role, I went back to school to earn my MBA.  After that, I worked as a trader at Bridgewater Associates. Post-Bridgewater, I joined Credit Suisse in the Index Strategies team.  I started out as an Associate on the team, and by the time I left the bank 11 years later, I was running the global Fixed-Income business on behalf of the bank.

Evan Harp: Let’s talk about that 25-year history of these products. Can you speak to what that history means and why it's really interesting and useful?

Brian Coco: Not only do most of the products go back to the late 90s, but most of them were constructed in the early 2000s. They have not just a long history, but a long live track record of being computed and being modeled to represent those individual markets. I think there are only a few other products out there in the space that have that depth of history, especially in High Yield.

What's unique about this particular set is that it's not just the main index levels, but all the deep analysis underneath the covers. You can slice and dice the indices by ratings, sectors, maturity buckets, regions, countries, and other relevant aggregations.

The product line covers government bond indices in over 30 currencies. It covers corporate bond indices in major currencies, including investment grade and high yield within emerging markets - it actually covers credit really well as well. It's quite a broad offering that we're bringing to the table.

Closing thoughts

Evan Harp: In this particular market moment with where the fixed income space is, is there anything else that people should be aware of about these indices?

Samarth Sanghavi: These indices were designed to represent the market. As Brian said, they've been built in a flexible manner so they can be sliced and diced to cater to clients' custom portfolio needs. For those looking for high-quality benchmarks or looking to build bespoke exposures in Fixed Income, VettaFi has the capability to not only create that slice but to create that slice on an index that has a very long live track record so you can benchmark that to your products.

 

Key takeaways

  • Distribution growth is a key tailwind for MLPs today and is expected to continue as companies largely generate free cash flow.
  • When distributions are growing, AMZ price returns tend to be positive or roughly flat.
  • While past performance does not guarantee future results, investors can likely feel comfortable with the performance outlook for MLPs if they expect distributions to grow.

One of the ongoing tailwinds for MLP performance is distribution growth. Distribution trends are very important for MLP investors, who often allocate to the space primarily for its income. Today’s note looks at distribution trends for the benchmark Alerian MLP Index (AMZ) and compares year-over-year distribution changes with index performance. Spoiler alert: MLPs tend to perform well when distributions are growing.

Understanding index-level distribution growth and recent trends.

VettaFi publishes a detailed recap of midstream dividends each quarter (stay tuned for the 4Q24 update next week). However, it can be helpful to look at changes in payouts over time at the index level through a simplified chart. AMZ is used here as our broadest MLP benchmark, but keep in mind, the Alerian MLP Infrastructure Index (AMZI) is a subset of AMZ.

To be clear, there can be different ways to calculate index distribution changes. The methodology used in the chart below compares what AMZ constituents are paying out on an annualized basis. It compares annual normalized total distributions with the prior year to calculate a percentage change. (Read more on the methodology here.)

Digging into the chart, distribution growth has clearly been strong in recent years. MLPs have historically focused on distribution growth, but trends have improved since an inflection in free cash flow generation that began in 2020/2021. In some cases, MLPs have been growing payouts after painful cuts made in 2020. Since July 2021, there has only been one distribution cut for an AMZ constituent. (USD Partners, which had a very small weight in AMZ at the time, suspended its payout in 1H23.)

AMZ: Y/Y change in normalized total distribution paid

While the data points from 2015 to 2020 are bleak (explained more below), it is important to note that MLPs have improved drastically over the last decade. Highlights include lower leverage and stronger balance sheets, a shift to self-funding equity capital, free cash flow generation, and widespread buyback authorizations instead of equity issuances (read more). Burdensome incentive distribution rights have been largely eliminated. MLPs are much better positioned today than they were during the oil downturn of 2014-16 or during the growth capital spending frenzy of 2018-19.

Why was 2015 to 2020 so bad?

Distribution trends were clearly lackluster from 2015 through the pandemic. Recall, energy was broadly under pressure from 2H14 until oil prices bottomed in February 2016 at $26 per barrel as OPEC fought U.S. shale for market share. While oil and gas producer MLPs are not currently eligible for AMZ, there were seven producer MLPs in AMZ at the end of 2014. Those names were quick to cut their payouts when oil prices fell. As their equities plummeted, they became ineligible for the index. There were no upstream MLPs in AMZ by late 2017.

Even in 2015, the vast majority of AMZ constituents were increasing or maintaining their payouts. For AMZ, cuts had an outsized impact as high-yielding producer MLPs were replaced by MLPs with lower yields. For context, normalized distributions for AMZI, which has never included producer MLPs, were only down 5.9% in 2015. Some larger MLPs cut their payouts in 2016 and 2017, but the impact on distributions was less pronounced because they were not replaced with lower-yielding names. Importantly, Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) and MPLX (MPLX) are examples of MLPs that have never cut their distributions.

Fast-forwarding to the pandemic, 16 AMZ constituents cut their payouts for the first quarter of 2020 (read more). Prior to this, the largest number of distribution cuts in a single quarter had been five. This helps explain the drastic drop in normalized total distributions shown above. In 2020, cuts generally came from names focused on gathering and processing or petroleum transportation with elevated leverage and below-average distribution coverage. These were largely small-cap names that were trying to shore up their balance sheets in an unprecedented energy macro backdrop.

Performance has been strongly tied to distribution trends.

Generally, MLPs tend to perform well when distributions are growing, but distribution cuts weigh on performance. The chart below plots year-over-year distribution changes since 2007 from the bar chart above with the annual price return of AMZ. When distributions are growing, price returns tend to be positive or nearly flat as highlighted in the top right quadrant. The Global Financial Crisis in 2008 marks the only exception (i.e., significant distribution growth with very weak performance), as shown in the lower right quadrant.

AMZ price return (Y-axis) vs. Change in normalized distribution (X-axis)

Typically, negative price performance coincided with lower distributions as cuts weighed on equity prices. This is particularly exemplified by 2015 and 2020, when the impact of distribution cuts was most pronounced, and AMZ performance was particularly weak. These examples are shown in the lower left quadrant.

There have been a few occasions since 2007 when AMZ saw positive price returns amid declining distributions. This was the case in 2009, 2016, and 2021, as shown in the upper left quadrant. In short, the index was rebounding after painful 35%+ price declines seen in 2008, 2015, and 2020.

So what?

Investors often ask if the positive momentum in the MLP space can continue. Arguably, investors can likely feel good about future MLP performance if they expect distributions to continue growing. We believe the outlook for MLP distribution growth remains positive, as companies largely generate free cash flow and prioritize distribution growth. Additionally, companies are in a stronger financial position today given lower leverage, better balance sheets, and greater financial flexibility.

Of course, past performance does not guarantee future results. Looking at distribution trends alone as an indicator of MLP performance is admittedly oversimplifying. However, in the absence of a crystal ball, the outlook for distributions can provide helpful context for expected MLP performance.

AMZ is the underlying index for the JPMCFC Alerian MLP Index ETN (AMJB), the ETRACS Alerian MLP Index ETN Series B (AMUB), and the ETRACS Quarterly Pay 1.5x Leveraged Alerian MLP Index ETN (MLPR). AMZI is the underlying index for the Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP) and the ETRACS Alerian MLP Infrastructure Index ETN Series B (MLPB).

This article was originally published February 25, 2025 on ETF Trends.

Recently, VettaFi CMO Jon Fee was interviewed by the CMO Network’s Jay Sen. The interview is available on the Content Marketing Virtual Summit Podcast.

“What got me into marketing was one part curiosity, and one part just pure luck,” Fee said at the top of the interview. Coming into marketing from more front of office roles, such as distribution, Fee was asked to take on additional marketing responsibilities. “The curious part of me loved the unknown of trying something new, but then also how much technology was being used back then even as it just relates to the birth and rapid expansion of the internet.”

How VettaFi leverages data to help issuers

Fee sees VettaFi as working primarily with issuers and asset managers. After explaining VettaFi’s role as an index provider is to help issuers develop products, primarily ETFs, Fee said, “the second thing we like to do is help those companies better understand who to bring those products to market to, who to target. And that’s where our data & analytics gets involved.” VettaFi has data & analytics products that can help issuers find quality leads, shorten sales cycles, and optimize their marketing efforts to reach the prospects most likely to convert.

“Common challenges that clients are trying to overcome include how to optimize their digital marketing online, using more data and analytics,” Fee said. “It's not uncommon for a lot of our clients to be operating with a mix of different marketing tactics, but not sure which ones to weight, one over the other.” He noted that data and analytics are particularly useful for unpacking which audiences are connecting with a product and which audiences need bolstering. Perhaps RIAs aren’t connecting. In such an instance, VettaFi’s data and analytics tools can help chart what marketing collateral is working well for those audiences and help issuers strategize their outreach efforts from there. 

If a given issuer wants to innovate a new product, VettaFi’s indexing capabilities come into play. “We’re constantly helping clients of all size,” Fee shared. “Through data, we help make healthier connections throughout the marketplace.”

Going on about go-to-market

Asked about his go-to-market strategy, Fee said, “core to any strategy within marketing or distribution has to be your go-to-market.” He offered three things to look at.

Are we achieving product market fit? If the product is new, it’s worth reflecting on whether or not you’ve cracked the code for untapped demand in the marketplace. Are the functions right? Is the product ready?

What are clients’ outlook? Buying journey is one thing, but understanding how clients feeel about the current market environment and changing regulations is essential. Understanding headwinds can help you understand what budgets might look like for potential clients. A lot of headwinds  can create challenges in generating new business.

What’s everyone else doing? Fee stated the importance of understanding what the competition is doing. “Are they innovating faster than you? Are they setting prices lower than you? Are they placing prices lower but actually giving up a lot of quality and value add that a client actually needs?”

Generating leads and building demand

When asked about his preferred channel for generating leads, Fee said, “everyone is looking for a silver bullet. But, spoiler alert, there isn’t really a silver bullet.” He shared that he likes thinking about his relationships with clients and prospects through the lens of friendship. Authenticity, dependability, and trust are all critical traits in a friendship. “You start to think more and more about how do you achieve that in a friendship, and you realize its not through a single touch.”

One phone call, email, or dinner does not deepenreal connections. Rather, a mix of those things over time does. Similarly, there is no one channel that will forge a true business partnership, but rather, the right mix of channels.

Content and distribution

The idea that “content is king” is something of a cliche in marketing, but Fee believes it to be true. “I believe it to be as true today as it was a decade or even two decades ago,” he said. The “how” has evolved and changed over the years. Ten years ago you might not be using social media, and twenty years ago you might not be using email as much. But the “what” goes back to the content.

“We’ve said historically that content is king in marketing. I think content is king in distribution.” Sales teams require sales enablement and a good talk track. That’s content, according to Fee. “Whether you are dripping it out through [email] nurture journeysl or making it snackable on social, content is still king because that is what you are putting in front of your clients.”

Fee sees the limitations of generative AI 

AI has been a buzz word throughout 2024. The technology has its champions and its skeptics. There’s no denying that it has invited curiosity and interest among many. “I play with AI almost every day as part of my daily routines of putting pen to paper and pushing myself to be a better communicator,” Fee shared. “What I’ve learned in using AI quite a bit this year is you can’t spell ‘plagiarism’ without ‘AI.’”

If content truly is king, Fee sees some issues with creating content using ChatGPT. Because generative AI relies on a pre-existing set of content, the content that it creates is neither genuine nor authentic.”You could be doing a disservice to your brand.” Fee noted that though you can get a short term win by creating content in seconds that might have taken longer, there is risk of long term damage, as the content will not be original.

Metrics: Finding the right Indicators of success, now or never

According to Fee, “You never really know the value of a creative campaign until it is in market.” Something could seem to have a lot going for it, but until it is in the market place you can’t really know whether it works. Fee noted that there are many metrics that can tell you a given piece of creative’s effect once it is in market. Did it get clicks? Did people stay on the page and see it through to the very end? “I think those metrics are fantastic and it’s taken a lot of the subjectivity out of whether or not the marketing is good, or at least it’s created a grounding.”

Fee took care to express that there is innate value in doing something creatively and artistically sound, but at the end of the day you need to drive growth, and these metrics help show that. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

Fee urges marketers to rally around two kinds of measurements: quality and quantity. “If you are only measuring the success of your website by the number of people who visit it, you’re only looking at quantity.” Getting people to show up is a success, but you need to think about the experience of being on that website. Are people immediately turned off and leaving, or do they want to stay and look at other things? “Time on site is fairly easy to measure.”

Branding challenges

Marketers face lots of challenges. According to Fee, one of the biggest challenges is just a lack of understanding of what marketing is and the value of marketing. “A lot of that lack of understanding of marketing or frankly of brand typically surfaces between functions in an organization.” Financial organizations might not understand why they need to spend on marketing, while sellers might not understand why things can’t happen on a certain timeline. Much of the friction within organizations around marketing is ultimately rooted in a lack of understanding. Fee advises that marketers should approach their colleagues in a similar fashion to how they approach a prospect. “You can not assume that people get how it all works together from a marketing perspective, so you have to take the time to educate folks on it.” A common lexicon is vital, and it takes time for people to understand why there is more to a brand than a logo. 

“I’ve heard this before, folks used to say ‘marketing is colors and fonts.’ That’s like saying selling is just cocktails and dinner!” Fee said. Creating a common lexicon can help create cross-functional opportunities and break through the friction.

Building a top-tier marketing team

Fee shared his belief that the most important decision any leader can make is who they hire and what they acquire. Acquiring anything, from another company to a new technology or service, can change the way that your team works. Fee says that people come first, though. “There’s an ongoing war for talent that I don’t see changing anytime soon.” Brands that hire the best people and get them working together will better set themselves up for success. “The [teams] that can align to common success metrics, align to how to work together in a work system, the teams that can be the most transparent and accountable to each other are the teams that are winning and will continue to win.”

Giving advice to new up and coming marketers, Fee underscored the importance of building a network from moment one of your career. Everyone you work with is in your network. “I can’t urge you enough to keep that network healthy and connected.” 

His final piece of advice is for marketers to “stay forever curious.” There will always be a way to do things better, and you need to be curious to be open to it.

Learn more strategies to sell your funds effectively by joining this upcoming free webcast.

Professional conferences present asset managers a host of opportunities. They are useful vehicles for connecting with financial advisors, showcasing thought leadership, and raising brand awareness. But every firm comes into a conference with a different set of opportunities.

Small and medium-sized firms share the conference floor with some of the largest industry leaders, creating enormous potential to codify your brand’s strength. Being present at the event, the brand status of a smaller firm gets a boost. But there are also unique challenges. Smaller firms come to conferences with less boots-on-the-ground than larger firms, and typically sponsor at lower tiers. With tighter budgets and less on-the-ground resources, smaller firms need to exercise their creativity and innovation to create memorable experiences for attendees.

Smart event activations create the potential for small firms to stand out amid big names. Understanding how to create and deploy a smart activation strategy can make a huge difference for these firms, as they look to spark growth.

Here are six tips for creating activation experiences that can further boost your brand and promote growth.

Align your activation with what your brand does and your brand identity

An event activation is an opportunity to express your brand’s values and personality. It can also express the purpose of your product. Deutsche Bank’s plain vanilla ice cream activation is a great example of how a brand used what the industry was calling “plain vanilla beta,” and created a fun idea that resonated among attendees. Vanilla might be a synonym for boring, but vanilla ice cream on a hot conference day is extremely welcome for many.

Larger brands need to cast a wide net. They typically have bigger budgets, but not necessarily the same wiggle room a small or medium-sized firm has. This limits some of their messaging potential, as they need to try and be all things to all customers. Smaller brands don’t have this obstacle, and they can find enormous success simply by expressing who they are and what they value in a meaningful and striking way. In other words, smaller brands have some permission to disrupt expectations and cater to niche markets with more direct messaging.

Brainstorming a smart activation means understanding your brand identity. What is your brand? How do advisors think about your brand, and is there a delta? If there is, how could you position yourself as the brand you want to be in your activation?

Be the talk of the conference by using new technologies

At Exchange 2024, Grayscale put on a laser drone show for attendees. This splashy activation leveraged drone technology to create an unforgettable spectacle for everyone present. As a cryptocurrency-focused asset manager, Grayscale didn’t just stick to the usual conference giveaways. Instead of sunglasses and water bottles, they delivered a full-scale laser show—using drones, lasers, and cutting-edge tech to create a brand experience that truly stood out, and aligned to their brand identity.

New technology can push budgets for smaller firms, but it's an investment that could pay dividends. Professional conferences are where your potential clients are gathering. Spending a little extra resources to create a memorable experience can be a vital component of how you transform your small firm into a medium-sized firm, or your medium-sized firm into an industry leader. Beyond driving content creation and brand awareness, cutting-edge tech activations hold real value in making your brand the highlight of the conference. New tech is always fascinating to people. Most people haven’t yet donned a VR headset. They don’t have a “moving headshot” and they probably rarely see drone laser shows. Look for interesting technology and a way to deploy it to create memorable experiences.

Build anticipation outside the event

Anticipation is a critical tool that storytellers, creatives, and marketers have leveraged throughout human history. Your favorite television series will frequently tease future events to build audience buy in. Foreshadowing is often employed in literature. Whether it is Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which features witches talking about Macbeth’s rise to power near the start of the play or Luke Skywalker having a vision in Empire Strikes Back that teases at the reveal of Darth Vader’s true identity in Return of the Jedi, anticipation can capture imaginations and draw in audiences.

Marketers use anticipation to build up hype. There are a number of hooks that can be deployed to create anticipation. Building anticipation in advance of an event is a powerful tool that small and medium-sized companies can deploy ahead of a conference to start building buzz. Something as simple as a countdown clock with no further explanation can have audiences immediately asking questions. What is this clock counting down toward? What will happen on the target date? The desire to understand draws audiences in. Many people find pleasure in cracking the clues before the main event.

Your firm may not be as widely known as other sponsors, but if you can get people curious about your upcoming presence as a conference, you’ll have helped make your impact greater before even setting foot in the space. This means announcing your presence as a sponsor early and then doling out tiny teases of what your activation might be to build excitement and anticipation.

Consider Gamification

Gamification is an easy way to drive interest. Human brains are hardwired to seek rewards, even if those rewards are purely symbolic. There are apps that give points for completing daily chores, and they are enormously successful because they work. Doing the dishes is a dull activity, normally. Award points for doing dishes, and suddenly people are motivated.

When you look at activations, gamification can generate buzz and promote discourse. If you have an ongoing trivia game (or something where you can display a leaderboard) as your activation, people will be interested. Their competitive nature will kick in, and they’ll want to “win” which only increases engagement in your activation. 

Put the audience first

It can be easy to get into your own head as you plan out your event activation. Something both small and large firms need to keep in mind, is that an activation is ultimately about the audience. You need to think through the experience of the activation from the attendees’ perspective. 

Imagine not knowing anything about your brand and activation. What would it be like to experience it? Is it engaging, informative, and interesting, or is it distracting and confusing? If it is the latter, how do you make it more engaging?

At the end of the day, an event activation needs to be in service of the attendees. Yes, you are communicating something about your brand, but to make the activation truly special it has to surprise, delight, and uplift everyone involved. Especially as a smaller firm, you want people to walk away from the experience having unambiguously had a great time.

Use the activation to capture interest

Activations have a ton of value from a branding perspective, but they can also be crafted to capture interest and identify leads for future nurture opportunities. 

One way to capture interest is by asking for information in exchange for a reward. This can be done ahead of the conference, to build hype and booth traffic, as well as during the conference at your activation. J.P. Morgan Asset Management did both. Its “Built to Last” activation asked financial advisors to upload a portfolio “built to last” into JPMAM’s digital portfolio analysis tool. The insights team analyzed it against key risk measures with the winning portfolio getting a complimentary interview with a media partner. 

This was also supported by using a steel booth (because steel is built to last) and pivoting away from low cost junk tchotchkes to things that are more robust or have more utility (phone chargers, metal water bottles, etc.) There was an engraving station at the booth which engraved these higher value giveaways live. This was used to capture advisor information, as they needed to submit details to get the live engraving. 

This activation followed every step in this tip sheet: it aligned with brand identity, it leveraged modern technology in the risk assessment tool, it built anticipation in advance, it gamified the event, and it created a fun experience for all participants. But the real clutch move was it captured concrete information and generated leads.

Final thoughts

Simply attending a conference has innate value. Firms that show up to a big industry event can set up business and get things done. But once you commit to attending, there’s no reason not to put in the extra effort and try to create a memorable experience aligned to your marketing goals. 

Taking a chance on a clever activation and thoughtfully executing it can attract attention, make your brand stand out, and capture concrete leads. The buzz also gives you social media fodder and something to write about in blogs and articles long after the event itself.

With the Exchange conference coming in March, you still have time to create a memorable activation that can put your brand in front of advisors. Looking to start bringing your event activation strategies to life? Our team can help you brainstorm and execute an activation strategy at Exchange.

In this month’s CMO Views, I connect with Karrie Van Belle, Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer at AGF Investments Inc. in Toronto, Canada. 

I’ve learned more talking to leaders one-on-one than I have reading books or staring at dashboards — and that alone says a lot because I love to read and I really love dashboards. I am a data guy, but as I continue to digitally transform professionally and personally, I find human connection more important than ever. We can learn so much from each other, and that’s why I’m excited to launch VettaFi’s CMO Views — built by marketers, for marketers. This look into some of the most brilliant minds in marketing will (hopefully) keep you entertained, inspire you, and teach you something you did not know. 

Karrie is a strategic driver of AGF’s digital transformation agenda, focused on driving efficiencies and enhanced client experiences for the firm, in addition to overall responsibility in leading the firm’s marketing and communications strategy across its diverse range of investment management platforms, and leadership of the firm’s product initiatives globally. Karrie has more than 20 years of marketing and communications experience rooted in the Canadian asset management industry. 

Jobs and careers — From first job to dream job 

Jon Fee: I think a lot about the difference between a job and a career. We all spend a huge slice of our lives working, and that time can drive satisfaction and growth, or it can leave us feeling disconnected and unhappy. What do you think is the difference between a job and a career?  

Karrie Van Belle: A job is something you go to from 9:00 to 5:00 for the paycheck, while a career is something that you are passionate about. A career is gratifying and something longer-term and evolutionary. A career should always provide you with opportunities for growth.   

Jon Fee: I completely concur. Tell us a little about your first job.  

Karrie Van Belle: I started working as a teenager and gained experience with typical jobs in fast food and retail. I even spent some time working on a tobacco farm. These first jobs taught me work ethic, responsibility, and independence.  

I was also a bank teller at Canada Trust. In many ways, I consider this to be my first real job. Looking back, the lessons I learned at this job have stayed with me throughout my career. My experiences taught me about the importance of engaging with clients, being transparent in my communications, and showing empathy. On any given day you did not know who was going to enter your branch, what their day had been like, and what their money situation was, and being able to deliver the client experience and service was critical despite how they may have been feeling when they came in that day. 

Jon Fee: What about your dream job? If you could pivot to a passion project as a dream job, what would it be?  

Karrie Van Belle: Anyone who knows me knows that I am passionate about sports and marketing. My dream job would be to combine these two passions. Advertising, as an interest and passion, for me, started at a very young age — I will always remember my grade six speech which focused on the role and impact of ads where I sang the Mr. Potato Head jingle at the front of my class. If you know me, you’re likely surprised to hear that I even had the nerve to sing in front of 30+ of my classroom peers. I am not a singer and I am introverted and quiet by nature, but this topic brought out my passion.  

Jon Fee: Oh my gosh — I would love to hear you sing the Mr. Potato Head jingle! What was your first job in marketing?  

Karrie Van Belle: My first job in marketing was with Edward Jones in Canada. It was a role that gave me experience as both a graphic designer and a writer. From there I continued to extend my learnings into new areas of marketing and communications including brand, advertising, market research, as well as digital and data strategy.  

Jon Fee: Marketing is constantly changing and evolving. Tell me about how marketing was defined when you first entered the field vs. how you, as a CMO, define it today.   

Karrie Van Belle: Previously, marketing was about making something look pretty or sound right. I think marketing has become more science than art these days. While not to diminish the creative aspect of our industry, I think marketers, now more than ever, are required to understand the data that is driving their end creative output. The CMO role itself continues to be elevated within firms, recognizing the role it serves in accelerating and understanding business strategy. We are seeing the evolution from a creative production house to a strategic partner.   

Pets and pet peeves  

Jon Fee: Probably the most important question I will ask you: Do you have pets?

Karrie Van Belle: For me, a home is not a home without a four-legged fur monster to come home to. My pets of choice are dogs, which I have had all my life. Growing up, I had beagles around the home, and since my first home with my husband, we have been proud lab owners. We first welcomed home a loyal and loving chocolate lab named Wendel, who gave us 14 perfect years. More recently, our home is filled by a soon-to-be three-year-old fox-red lab named Bowie, equally loving and loyal, able to play ball for hours on end, and notoriously believes he is starving in true lab fashion.   

Jon Fee: Bowie is stunning! To flip this “pets” section on its head a bit and tie it back to work, what about pet peeves? What annoys you the most in the workplace?   

Karrie Van Belle: My biggest pet peeve is when people don’t take the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.   

I encourage people to take risks. But if the risk doesn’t pay off, they need to be willing to learn, grow, and not repeat the same mistake. My other pet peeves include people talking over each other, not being transparent, having to repeat myself (which might be because I speak so quietly), and a messy desktop.  

Lessons in leadership

Jon Fee: Let’s talk about leadership. What daily habits or weekly routines do you have that keep you sharp as a leader and evolving as a marketer?  

Karrie Van Belle: As a leader, I always ask a lot of questions. I never think I’m the smartest person in the room, and frankly never am, and that allows me to ask questions.   

I believe in always being curious. I’m willing to question the status quo, which is something you need to do to grow and learn.   

Of course, it’s also important to challenge yourself to do better. You can never be complacent if you want to evolve as a leader.   

Jon Fee: That’s so true. The moment you think you have everything figured out is the moment you start making mistakes. Is there something you can point to (a book, an experience, a person) that has helped keep you moving and evolving, and had a big role in shaping your leadership style?  

Karrie Van Belle: I feel fortunate that throughout my career I have had exposure to great leaders, mentors, and training programs.   

It has been a gift for me to be around leaders that challenge me and make me think differently. At the same time, the training programs I participated in gave me permission to invest in myself and use the resources to develop as a leader.   

I have also worked with some great agencies, and looking back, those relationships really taught me the ropes — especially when it came to learning the advertising side of the business. These relationships still exist today, and I have a network of people I can call to bounce ideas off of or to get advice.   

Throughout my career, I have worked with a lot of smart people. They have challenged me and really given me the opportunity to learn and grow as a marketer. As a result, I am committed to giving my team members the same experiences including the opportunities to develop and evolve.   

Digital transformation 

Jon Fee: That’s an incredible answer, thank you! For the next section, I want to talk about digital transformation. This is a challenge I love to ask of marketers: Describe digital transformation without using the words digital transformation.   

Karrie Van Belle: It is about using emerging data in different ways to accelerate change. It’s about using data and insights to drive efficiencies and improve the client experience.   

Jon Fee: Good answer. What is something in this space that nobody is thinking about?   

Karrie Van Belle: I think something that everyone needs to think about or be aware of is that when it comes to digital transformation, you will always be playing catch up.   

By the time you’ve thought of something, it’s already old. And the reality is that you need to be okay with this. Digital transformation is about evolving, and you need to move forward even when it feels like you’re playing catch up.  

Giving back  

Jon Fee: We’re big on community in VettaFi, and personally, I always find one of the best expressions of community to be volunteerism. Tell me about your volunteerism and giving back to make a greater impact.   

Karrie Van Belle: Giving back is very important to me, especially when it comes to supporting initiatives related to financial literacy and education.   

When I was a teenager, I had a family friend go above and beyond to help me save money. Her gesture set me up for success as I was preparing for university. I will never forget what she did for me or the lessons I learned.   

As a result, I am passionate about supporting organizations that help set students up for success at an early age.   

I have recently been involved in Junior Achievement and the Merit Award Bursary.   

Junior Achievement is the world’s largest not-for-profit organization dedicated to educating young people about business. Their programs are focused on financial literacy and emphasize the advantages of staying in school and how this choice can positively impact future dreams and career choices.  

Similarly, the Merit Bursary Award works to inspire high school students to continue their education while recognizing the contributions they’ve made to their communities.  

Jon Fee: I know we saw each other down at the Exchange conference. I’m over the moon to share that Exchange attendees volunteered 130+ hours and we contributed over $50,000 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, The Surfrider Foundation, and JA Worldwide (Junior Achievement). 

Crystal ball - What's next for marketers

Jon Fee: I love that you can recognize how people have lifted you and are endeavoring to do the same for others. We’re coming into the home stretch here, and I’d love to cast our gaze on the future. Thinking one to five years out, tell me about your predictions for marketing and marketers. What’s coming next? How do we prepare?

Karrie Van Belle: If only I had a crystal ball. While I don’t have a prediction, I would say to all marketers to strap in as it is going to be a fun, fast, and bumpy ride. I don’t think anyone can know what is coming next, so you just have to remember to be nimble, agile, and open to the unknown.  

A parting gift from Belle

Jon Fee: Karrie, it has been amazing talking with you. As we reach the end of this CMO View though, I’d love for you to leave a parting gift for our readers. Can you share with us an album, book, movie, TV series, or other creative work that brings you joy right now? Also, tell us what is it about this creative work that fires you up. 

Karrie Van Belle: When it comes to a TV series, I highly recommend “Ted Lasso.” As you probably know, it is a show about an American football coach who is hired to manage a British soccer team. I was a fan from the very first episode and couldn’t wait to keep watching.   

My family enjoys anything sports-related, but I was also drawn to the show because of Ted Lasso’s positive attitude. There isn’t another character like him on TV, and he’s being recognized for his leadership style. In fact, there are articles about how the character is reinventing leadership and proving that nice leaders can finish first. It’s all very refreshing and reminds me of the lessons I learned about engaging with others, being transparent in my communications, and showing empathy in my first job as a bank teller.   

And when it comes to books, I’ve always been a fan of Douglas Coupland. While Ted Lasso is redefining leadership, Douglas Coupland literally defined a generation with his book “Generation X.”

He is a Canadian short story writer, essayist, and visual artist, but it’s his books that have really left an impression on me. Some of my favorites include “Shampoo Planet,” “Microserfs,” and “Girlfriend in a Coma.”

Through his work, he has been recognized as one of the most original commentators on mass culture of the late 20th and 21st centuries.   

Follow Karrie Van Belle on LinkedIn.

This article was originally published on March 14th, 2023 on ETF Trends.

 

A new era for defense

Global defense spending reached an all-time high of $2.4 trillion in 2024, rising 6.8%, which represents the steepest increase since 2019. Beyond the heightened demand being created by prolonged conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, is the need for equipment modernization and increased spending after many years of underinvestment.  

Global Military Expenditures 2013 - 2023

The “Peace Dividend” era when countries could focus on domestic programs instead of military defense spending is over. Among NATO member countries, the 2% of GDP spending target has been another driver behind increased spending. With 23 of NATO’s now 30 member countries (Finland and Sweden joined since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) meeting the 2% of GDP target, higher targets are being proposed. The European Union has proposed an increase to 3% of GDP, while the Trump Administration is demanding an increase to 5% of GDP. Regardless of the end spending target percentage, the trend for spending on defense is moving higher to the benefit of defense stocks. 

Modern defense story

In addition to more spending, the kind of spending is also changing in favor of modern approaches that leverage technological solutions over more boots on the ground.  Cyberspace has become a new military domain in addition to land, air, and sea. This translates into more spending in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, unmanned vehicles, drones, cyber defense, and other modern defense solutions. 

VettaFi’s Global Defense Leaders Index

VettaFi’s Global Defense Leaders Index (VGDEF) tracks the market performance of companies listed globally in select exchange countries that provide exposure to the national defense industries of NATO and major non-NATO ally countries. Global military spending among NATO members and its allies has accelerated in response to rising global aggression around the world and the rising need for modernized defense solutions. NATO members currently comprise 55% of the world’s military expenditure.

Companies in the index are exposed to global defense spending such as military aircraft, defense equipment, and future of defense technologies stand to benefit from increased spending levels and the need for modern defense solutions like autonomous vehicles, counter drone systems, and artificial intelligence.  

The largest holding in the index is AI big data analytics firm Palantir Technologies which was the top-performing stock last year in the S&P 500, up 340%. Rising military spend and increased order backlogs are driving outsized returns among defense and defense technology companies.  

Changing story requires change in exposure

Our Index construction methodology provides exposure to the changing realities of modern defense, holding both traditional defense players and companies on the bleeding edge of modern defense technological innovation. While past performance is not indicative of the future, our index approach has delivered strong returns relative to traditional defense indexes and those focusing on technology alone. 

If you would like to learn more about VettaFi’s new Global Defense Leaders Index (VGDEF), please reach out using the form here.

Setting the right tone for a new year is critical to any brand seeking sustainable growth. Here are four things you can do to boost the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and position your brand for long-term success.

1. Commit to the full-funnel campaign

After launching a new campaign, a common mistake brands make is pivoting before the campaign can truly begin to pay dividends. Flows may seem static for weeks or sometimes months after launching a campaign. But this is normal as it takes effort and time to drive conversions at scale. All prospects are different and so are their digital journeys. They may need to see your brand logo, hear about the product multiple times, and perhaps see the ticker referenced in media before they even research and consider your product.

Building brand awareness is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires multiple touchpoints and continuous effort over an extended period. At the same time, full-funnel marketing means giving every part of the funnel attention to set yourself up for ongoing success. It’s common to want to concentrate resources on lower funnel tactics as they can more easily tie to revenue. In the short term, this can help with boosting a few key metrics, but it comes at the cost of ignoring the rest of the funnel and harms your long-term success.

Time-tested awareness tactics, like display ads, have a place. Your campaigns should be built with all stages of the funnel in mind with tactics deployed in each stage - awareness, interest, consideration, and intent. Focusing on a well-rounded campaign will help generate long-term success and build consistent lower-funnel opportunities.

2. Complement digital campaigns with in-person event sponsorships

The world might be increasingly digital, but that has only increased the value of live events. Connecting with clients and prospects in person can be the differentiator in moving a prospect through your funnel and building brand loyalty. 

An event that happens early in the year, like the Exchange Conference, gives you a chance to showcase your thought leaders and make real connections with advisors - both clients and prospects. Event sponsorships can fuel content for future marketing efforts. Aside from the live connections, they can also be leveraged to generate additional digital content. Write-ups, recaps, and deep dives about topics brought up at the event can provide quality content opportunities.

Studies also indicate that combining in-person events and digital efforts is more effective than digital marketing alone. Event activations can help reinforce your digital campaign messaging, bolstering brand awareness and consistency across mediums and platforms. 

3. Improve your data game to sharpen prospecting efforts

Once prospects are ready to convert, they’ve likely conducted their own research. With the right approach to data, including a good blend of first- and third-party data, you can get a picture of which prospects are ready to purchase, and which ones aren’t as progressed in their journey through the marketing funnel.

Optimizing the efforts of your sales team relies on quality data. For example, a prospect could be interacting with content, clicking through emails, and even doing research for similar products. If your sales team has the ability to see this information, then they can strike at an opportune time to make the conversion. But if this data is obscured from sales, they might not know how to best prioritize their reach out. Putting time and energy into leads that are actively on the cusp of making purchasing decisions instead of on cold calls can boost sales efficiency. The key is leveraging the right advisor data, prioritizing actions, and delivering the information directly to sales.

4. Develop products that resonate with investors, with the right partners

Some issuers are concerned about product saturation, fearing they should be conservative with new products. The ETF marketplace is indeed more crowded than ever. However, fear-mongering about the oversaturation of the ETF market has been a constant refrain. It happened when there were only 100 ETFs and when there were 1000. New products to solve investor problems will always have a place in the market. You shouldn’t pump the brakes on product development, you should be looking for the right partners to help create useful products that solve client problems.

The right partner is responsive and provides cost-effective services and solutions to your indexing needs. Your index should accurately capture the part of the market you are seeing opportunity. Additionally, your index partner should be able to rapidly backtest and come up with smart solutions and ideas. The right partner will not only help your design and build your product but also assist you through launch and as you scale.

Let us help you get ahead

Planning ahead is always useful, and there’s still time to set yourself up for success in 2025. VettaFi can help issuers on several fronts. The Exchange Conference is one of the most valuable financial advisor-centric events of the year and happens in March. VettaFi’s index factory can help you create new products or benchmark existing funds more efficiently. With a variety of digital marketing and data services, VettaFi can be a go-to, one-stop shop for issuers.

Learn more here.

It's hard to believe it, but I've been going to industry conferences for about a decade. 

Prior to my role at VettaFi, I worked for a major asset manager running their U.S. ETF marketing efforts. Sponsoring and attending in-person events was a key component of our distribution strategy. Initially, this meant attending multiple smaller industry events as we tried to gain initial traction. Eventually the focus narrowed to a few larger key events, such as Exchange, and showing up in bigger ways as our ETF suite picked up momentum, ultimately growing to over $20 billion in AUM at the time of my departure.  

Now, in my current role, I'm part of an organization that produces a large financial services conference. In its fourth year, Exchange is an annual event that brings over 1,900 members of the financial services community together - and a large part of being able to make an event on this scale is through our sponsors.

As such, I’ve been on both sides of the sponsorship equation. I have been both a sponsor of a big event as well as the host of a conference. I've seen my fair share of event activations spanning various sizes - small, medium, and large. Here are three of my favorites. 

P.S. This is a personal opinion and not a representation of the firm’s view. All of our sponsors and partners are highly valued. I just want to share what spoke to me specifically.

Deutsche Bank’s plain vanilla activation 

This was several years ago - but here's what I remember: It was at an industry conference; every inch of the hotel was sold for branding. The big issuers with the big bucks had secured the big branding opportunities, and it was hard to break through the noise and stand out.

It was also a time when all the buzz was about “smart beta.” What is it, will it last, is it just a fad? Passive beta was old news.

Deutsche Bank faced this challenge head on by using their 10x10 booth in an innovative, creative way. They decided to make their space work as hard as possible for them, in a (I imagine) fairly cost efficient way that could create buzz for their own firm, reinforce their products, and create a value exchange with attendees. 

Instead of filling their booth space with a pull up banner, a table, bored sales reps, and printed material, they brought in a small, branded cart and served vanilla ice cream. This created a buzz amongst attendees. 

The campaign messaging was oriented around their passive index suite, often deemed “plain vanilla beta,” in the industry. The activation was a play on the fact that while passive funds may be considered “boring” (aka plain vanilla), they are still a tasty option for your portfolios. 

Who doesn't like a nice afternoon treat? The activation created a value exchange with attendees through the offer of ice cream. “I remember eating various ice creams near their stand and talking to Fiona Bassett about it,” said Michael Camacho, head of U.S. wealth at UBS. 

Through the fog of time, I can't remember if they had toppings there to make sundaes. If they did, they could've taken the analogy even further, noting that plain vanilla funds (aka vanilla ice cream) are solid foundations for portfolios (for sundaes). 

Regardless, it was a cost-effective way to stand out in the crowd. The fact that it represented their product line up in an interesting, creative way makes it a top activation in my book - and other people share my opinion here. Julia Stoll, vice president at Goldman Sachs Accelerator said, “I… thought the campaign was brilliant.” 

J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s built to last experience 

This next activation is a personal point of pride, as it was the last and my favorite event sponsorship I planned and executed while at J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM). 

JPMAM’s brand is rooted in being a portfolio solutions partner; partnering with clients over time, and building products for investing over the long term. And so the campaign idea was generated with the phrase, “built to last, with your future in mind.” This concept was then threaded through the whole event experience.

Ahead of the event, we asked attending financial advisors to upload a portfolio “built to last” into JPMAM’s digital portfolio analysis tool and had the portfolio insights team analyze it against key risk measures. Not only is this a great lead capture opportunity, but advisor participation also fed the broader set of portfolio data. The winning “built to last” portfolio received a complimentary video interview with a media partner.

Outside of JPMAM ETFs, what is built to last? Steel. The traditional booth was made sexier with a metal reskin and metal accents throughout. For swag, we wanted to move away from the low cost tchotchkes sponsors provided in the past. As someone that is constantly purging my environment of clutter, I rarely grab swag and most seem beyond wasteful. We wanted to provide swag that was, well you get it by now, built to last. We sourced a selection of reusable options, including metal water bottles, luggage tags, and portable chargers.

In tying with the personalized touch that the JPMAM team provides, we brought in an engraving station at the booth so attendees could get their personal information engraved into their choice of metal swag. This was also a lead capture mechanism, as advisors had to “sign up” to participate in the engraving portion.

“Years later, and I still use my JPMAM water bottle and luggage tag today!” Noted Brian Coco of VettaFi. 

Lastly, we held a dedicated breakfast for financial advisors at the event. To break through the email noise that sponsors create ahead of the event, we physically mailed advisor registrants a printed invitation. The breakfast session featured portfolio construction experts walking through common portfolio scenarios of the time, providing them with guidance on how to construct a portfolio that is … built to last! Also, it was another opportunity to identify leads, as attendee information was captured when they participated in the session.

Why am I proud of this activation? The answer is two-fold. First, the campaign concept was threaded throughout for a focused, consistent message, and experience; the activation reinforced our brand and product line up. Second, we put in the work to create opportunities to connect with advisors at the event. An event can generate business opportunities - if you work it right!

Grayscale’s drone show

Want to break through the sponsorship noise and capture attendees attention? Sometimes spectacle is the answer.

At Exchange 2024, Grayscale coordinated a drone show in the night sky of the outdoor closing reception. 

For spectacle to succeed, it truly needs to impress and Grayscale did not disappoint. I've never seen hundreds of drones flying in a choreographed fashion in perfect coordination. Creating a visual representation of a bitcoin symbol, blockchain technology, the Grayscale firm name and their ticker would have been impressive on its own, but it was also paired with music and brilliantly choreographed. It was dare I say… beautiful and oddly moving? Plus, everyone of the thousands of attendees grabbed their phone and took photos of the activation. 

Talk about owning a moment with 100% SOV, attendee penetration and attention. Grayscale also complemented their splashy event with digital buys at local airports, following attendees from home base to the conference to build buzz and excitement before they even arrived. 

Their booth was visually stunning, to add to the strength of the entire execution. This is a minor detail, and many firms would have skipped on putting time and effort into their booth and instead relied on the spectacle of the drone show to carry their branding, but this care and attention to detail matters and lifts the entire experience.

What to remember

You can make an impact at an event no matter how small or large your budget. What’s important to remember is:

  • Figure out an activation idea or theme that is representative of your brand and core product offerings. Something that works to strengthen your message, versus distracts with an unrelated concept. Thread it throughout your whole experience. 
  • Think outside of the box to break through the noise other sponsors inevitably create. Go beyond traditional sponsorships and what sponsors typically do.
  • You want leads? Generate opportunities throughout your conference presence to capture them! Want brand exposure? Pick a primary goal and construct your sponsorship and presence to achieve it.

The healthcare sector is on the cusp of a transformative period, fueled by technological advancements, shifting demographics, and a growing emphasis on controlling continuously increasing costs. As we navigate the post-pandemic landscape, the outlook for the industry remains cautiously optimistic, with several key trends shaping its future. This article focuses on those developments, highlighting key drivers of growth and how the Healthcare Technology and Innovation (HTEC) index is strategically positioned to capitalize on these emerging opportunities.

Technological Advancements and Precision Medicine

The Shift Towards Personalized Care

The industry is increasingly embracing precision medicine, a transformative approach that tailors treatments to individual patients rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all model. This shift is largely driven by:

  • Genomics: Advances in genomic sequencing enable a deeper understanding of genetic predispositions to diseases, allowing for more targeted therapies.
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI algorithms analyze vast datasets to identify patterns and predict treatment outcomes, expediting the drug discovery process.
  • In Silico Drug Development: Testing drugs through computer simulations accelerates clinical stages, reducing time and costs associated with traditional lab testing.

These innovations not only enhance treatment efficacy but also open new avenues for tackling complex diseases.

Harnessing an Abundance of Data

Unlocking Insights for Better Healthcare

An unprecedented influx of healthcare data is being generated from previously unavailable health records, wearable devices, and genomic studies. When fully harnessed through advanced analytical tools, this data can lead to:

  • New Treatments: Identifying novel drug targets and therapeutic pathways.
  • Enhanced Methodologies: Improving diagnostic accuracy and personalized care plans.
  • Predictive Analytics: Anticipating disease outbreaks and patient readmissions, allowing for proactive interventions.

Companies investing in big data analytics are better positioned to revolutionize healthcare delivery and outcomes.

Addressing Rising Healthcare Costs

Efficiency Through Innovation

With healthcare spending accounting for 16.6% of the U.S. GDP in 2022, there’s a pressing need to reduce costs. Companies within HTEC are leading the charge by:

  • Utilizing Robotics: Automating surgeries and routine tasks to improve precision and reduce labor costs.
  • Implementing Process Automation: Streamlining administrative and clinical processes to minimize errors and increase efficiency.
  • Leveraging Data Analytics: Optimizing resource allocation and identifying cost-saving opportunities.

These efforts aim to make healthcare more affordable without compromising quality.

Catering to an Aging Population

Meeting the Needs of a Demographic Shift

By 2050, projections indicate that one in four people in Europe and North America will be aged 65 or older. This demographic shift will:

  • Increase Demand: Higher need for diagnostics, chronic disease management, and regenerative medicine.
  • Strain Resources: Necessitate more efficient healthcare delivery models.
  • Drive Innovation: Encourage the development of treatments tailored to age-related conditions.

Companies focusing on age-related healthcare solutions are poised for growth as they address this expanding market.

Expanding Focus Beyond GLP-1 Treatments

Tackling a Broad Spectrum of Health Issues

While GLP-1 receptor agonists like Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic have grabbed the spotlight with their treatment of obesity, other prevalent health issues remain:

  • Heart Disease: Leading cause of death globally, requiring innovative interventions.
  • Stroke: Advances in rapid diagnosis and treatment can significantly improve outcomes.
  • Cancer: Continuous need for breakthroughs in detection and therapy.

Diversifying beyond current trends ensures a comprehensive approach to global health challenges.

The Healthcare Technology and Innovation Index – HTEC:  Strategic Positioning

Capitalizing on Market Conditions

HTEC is uniquely positioned to benefit from favorable market trends through its focus on key innovations:

  • Robotics: Enhancing surgical success rates and increasing the number of surgeries a surgeon can perform, leading to better patient outcomes.
  • Genomics: Accelerating drug development and enabling early disease detection with technologies like liquid biopsies—a simple blood test for cancer.
  • Artificial Intelligence: Revolutionizing drug discovery processes, which can lead to massive savings by increasing the success rate of treatment approvals.
  • Process Automation and Data Analytics: Reducing costs and improving efficiency across the healthcare chain by optimizing operations.
  • Regenerative Medicine: Developing methods to repair and grow organs, crucial for an aging population.

By investing in these areas, HTEC is at the forefront of addressing the industry’s most critical challenges and opportunities.

Conclusion

The healthcare sector is entering an era of transformative growth driven by technological advancements, data utilization, and the need to address rising costs and an aging population. Positive macroeconomic trends are gaining momentum, providing additional tailwinds that support the industry’s expansion. Companies within HTEC are not just adapting to these changes—they are leading them. For investors and stakeholders, HTEC represents a compelling opportunity to participate in the future of healthcare innovation and reap the benefits of an industry poised for significant expansion.

This article was originally published September 23rd, 2024 on ETF Trends. 

Understand the Post-2025 Landscape: See how emerging policies—from the Biden administration’s AI Executive Order to shifting immigration rules—may accelerate robotics and AI adoption across U.S. industries.

Pinpoint Key Sectors Under Pressure: Discover which areas (construction, manufacturing, agriculture, logistics) face intensifying labor shortages and how automation can fill the gaps.

Forecast the Next Automation Cycle: Identify the policy tensions and structural reforms that could set off a sustained wave of robotics and AI implementation, reshaping supply chains and operational models.

Develop Forward-Looking Strategies: Learn practical ways to spot early movers, broaden your focus beyond mega-cap names, and stay ahead as these technologies reshape the economic landscape.

Looking ahead to 2025, American industry stands at a crossroads, with a policy landscape that appears increasingly favorable for robotics, automation, and AI. The groundwork laid by initiatives like the Biden administration’s AI Executive Order—encouraging broad adoption of AI across government—suggests that further policy shifts could accelerate these trends. At the same time, structural challenges and potential reforms across areas like trade and immigration are converging, creating both obstacles and unprecedented opportunities. 

As domestic manufacturing regains focus and interest rates trend lower, the stage is set for one of the most significant automation cycles in recent memory. Thus, we expect to see a reshaping supply chains, labor practices, and competitive dynamics as American businesses adapt to a new era.

Pent-up capacity & labor constraints:

Manufacturing, construction, and logistics sectors have long awaited greater policy clarity and reduced regulatory friction. Add to this the possibility of new tariffs and potential deportation of undocumented immigrants—who currently comprise a substantial portion of the workforce in agriculture, construction, and processing facilities—and you have a scenario where labor shortages are likely to intensify. Under such conditions, robotics and AI solutions become not only economically attractive, but strategically essential.

I recently discussed these “less obvious” Trump trades on Bloomberg News Network (BNN). While Bitcoin’s recent price appreciation has drawn early attention, the more sustained and impactful story may be in automation and robotics. Watch the segment here.

Key sectors for automation adoption:

  • Construction & Manufacturing: These industries already face a tight labor market. If immigration policies further restrict the labor pool, the incentive to invest in robotics and AI-driven machinery becomes even stronger.
  • Agriculture & Food Processing: Approximately 42% of U.S. farmworkers are undocumented. Any significant reduction in this workforce could disrupt entire supply chains. Advanced harvesting robots, autonomous tractors, and AI-assisted processing lines will help maintain efficiency and output.
  • Logistics & Warehousing: A push toward domestic production—coupled with a diminished labor force—intensifies the need for automated distribution centers, AI-driven inventory management, and autonomous logistics solutions.

Policy tensions & possible paths forward:

There’s a clear tension between policies aimed at reshoring manufacturing, reducing inflation, and constraining certain labor pools. While proposals like streamlined green cards for STEM graduates might fill some specialized roles, they do not solve the larger labor gap in more labor-intensive sectors. Some form of vetted, solution-oriented immigration policy could help, but in its absence, robotics and AI stand ready to bridge the gap.

A potential automation supercycle:

These developments could catalyze a long-anticipated “supercycle” of automation. TSMC’s Fab 21 in Arizona has exceeded yield expectations, demonstrating the viability of high-tech manufacturing in the U.S. I discussed Fab 21 in more detail on Schwab Network TV. This success, paired with the potential policy shifts, may encourage further onshore development and larger-scale adoption of robotics and AI-driven production lines.

Consider Foxconn (Hon Hai), which reported strong results and significant progress in the AI server market. In partnership with NVIDIA, Foxconn is developing substantial server manufacturing capacity in Mexico, diversifying its operations and tapping into new growth areas. Amazon, meanwhile, is advancing its own AI chip initiatives to reduce dependency on a single vendor. Similarly, ASML projects robust long-term growth—despite near-term regulatory hurdles—anticipating a trillion-dollar chip market by 2030. Collectively, these moves suggest that value creation will extend beyond a handful of mega-cap names to a more diverse range of ecosystem players.

ROBO and THNQ: Capturing the full opportunity set:

We cover these two areas of physical automation and artificial intelligence, which are poised to benefit from ongoing policy shifts and industry transformations. The ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index (ROBO) and the ROBO Global Artificial Intelligence Index (THNQ) track a broad range of participants in these ecosystems—integrators, component suppliers, software platforms, and enabling technologies—rather than concentrating on a few dominant names. With lower interest rates and the potential for increased M&A activity on the horizon, smaller and mid-cap innovators included in these indices stand to gain from growth and consolidation opportunities across the sector.

Importantly, this narrative goes well beyond the immediate headlines surrounding cryptocurrency rallies or the dominance of a handful of high-profile AI companies. The deeper, more enduring story into 2025 and beyond is the structural, economy-wide embrace of robotics and AI. By examining the full spectrum of companies represented in ROBO and THNQ, we can identify how these sweeping shifts in labor markets, regulatory environments, and supply chains are creating a lasting foundation for one of the most significant technological growth themes of the coming decade.

This article was originally published December 11th, 2024 on ETF Trends.

There may be no such thing as a free lunch. But for midstream, there can be instances where operating leverage allows for additional cash flow with little-to-no capital spending. A prime example would be an existing pipeline that is not fully utilized. Across midstream asset types and geographies, companies are pointing to the benefits of operating leverage or very capital-efficient growth. This note highlights a few examples and explains how operating leverage benefits midstream.

Natural gas volumes could rebound quickly if prices improve.

Natural gas production in the US is arguably a loaded spring for midstream gathering and processing assets once prices recover. Multiple gas producers shut in production this year due to weak prices. Essentially, it was better to keep natural gas in the ground than to sell it at depressed prices and worsen market oversupply. Some production has likely returned with seasonal price improvement. But more volume could be added relatively quickly if prices are supportive.

On their 3Q24 earnings call, Williams (WMB) discussed 4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas production across their systems in the Marcellus and Haynesville that was connected but not producing. Management noted that some production curtailments from the summer were starting to come back. And production could rebound fairly quickly when prices improve, in some cases just requiring the turn of a valve.

Similarly, Kinder Morgan (KMI) noted plenty of capacity on gathering systems in the Eagle Ford if volumes ramp, though KMI would probably need to add processing capacity. In the Haynesville and Bakken, they would likely need to add lateral pipelines to connect into their larger existing pipelines. But they see the potential for efficient expansions for their gathering and processing businesses when production picks up.

Permian: More bang for the buck at each well site.

In the Permian, pipeline operators can enjoy operating leverage as producers become more efficient and drill more wells at existing pads. Efficiency gains by producers have been significant as noted by Plains All American (PAA/PAGP) in a recent interview with VettaFi, and drilling technology continues to improve.

Higher recoveries and larger developments mean gathering companies can utilize existing infrastructure and make fewer new connections. On their 3Q24 call, Plains noted that close to 40% of their gathering connections in the Permian already have pipelines and facilities in place. This capital efficiency has been ongoing for years and is expected to continue. Plains is forecasting that Permian oil production will eventually exceed 7 million barrels per day. That’s up from ~6.4 million barrels per day at year-end 2024.

Canada: New takeaway capacity supports production growth.

Earlier this month, Canadian midstream corporation Keyera (KEY CN) provided a multi-year EBITDA growth outlook largely underwritten by filling existing capacity. Infrastructure assets, including gas processing plants and pipelines, are expected to see increased utilization over time as Canadian energy production grows. Specifically, KEY guided to a compound annual growth rate of 7-8% for fee-based adjusted EBITDA from 2024 to 2027.

Production growth in Western Canada is supported by new incremental pipeline takeaway capacity for oil and natural gas, namely from the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline and TC Energy’s (TRP CN) Coastal GasLink, respectively. Additionally, KEY highlighted increased drilling activity due to new land owners and the development of emerging plays. The company also plans to pursue capital-efficient growth projects. But most of the expected EBITDA growth is simply a matter of filling capacity with only modest capital required.

So what?

For midstream, major projects tend to garner more attention and are often more needle-moving for cash flows. That said, operating leverage can provide meaningful benefits as production grows. The ability to enjoy increased cash flows with modest or no capital spending is a good example of the value in existing pipelines and other infrastructure. Growth with little capital spending should be welcomed by investors.

This article was originally published December 19th, 2024 on ETF Trends.

Summary

MLPs have made significant changes for the better over the last decade, including reducing leverage, eliminating burdensome incentive distribution rights, and focusing on sustainable distribution growth.

Widespread free cash flow generation among MLPs has supported distribution growth and opportunistic buybacks.

Despite drastic improvements over the last decade, MLP EV/EBITDA multiples remain below long-term averages.

Many investors may be considering MLPs for the first time ever or the first time in many years given a reestablished track record for strong performance and steady distribution growth. Interest in midstream/MLPs has seemingly strengthened following the election. Today’s note is geared toward investors that may not be aware of the significant positive changes that have taken place over the last several years, including free cash flow generation, improved balance sheets, and equity buybacks. For new or returning investors, our MLP Primer may also prove a helpful resource.

Hefty spending replaced by free cash flow tailwinds

Investors may be surprised by how much MLPs have outperformed the S&P 500 in recent years. From the end of 2020 until December 10, 2024, the Alerian MLP Infrastructure Index (AMZI) has generated a total return of 194.4% compared to 70.6% for the S&P 500.

One of the major tailwinds for energy infrastructure MLPs since 2020 has been widespread free cash flow generation (read more). MLPs invested heavily in new infrastructure during the 2010s as US energy production boomed, building major pipelines with billion-dollar price tags and often issuing equity to help fund growth. Self-funding equity capital started to gain more traction in the MLP space in 2017-18, and equity issuances became less common. In 2020, the combination of reduced growth capital spending and new cash flows from completed projects drove a free cash flow inflection. Rather than issuing equity, MLPs began repurchasing equity.

In recent years, moderate US oil and natural gas production growth has required less infrastructure. Instead of building new projects, companies have often been able to expand existing assets like pipelines or export terminals resulting in more capital-efficient growth. This has helped keep capital spending in check, supporting free cash flow. According to Bloomberg, AMZI’s free cash flow yield as of December 13 is 8.2% compared to 2.7% for the S&P 500.

High leverage replaced by balance sheet strength

In the 2010s, hefty growth capital spending resulted in elevated leverage. A decade ago, it was common for MLPs to have leverage around 5x on a net-debt-to-adjusted-EBITDA basis. In addition to large capital budgets and debt loads, MLPs were also burdened by incentive distribution rights or IDRs (i.e. payments made to general partners as distributions to limited partners increased). As oil prices weakened from 2H14 to 1H16, MLPs struggled to raise equity. With many MLPs overextended and capital markets challenged, once-sacred distributions were cut, particularly by smaller MLPs. It was a painful period for MLP investors – many of whom exited the space.

MLPs learned valuable lessons from past challenges. Today, MLPs have already used excess cash to reduce debt and lower leverage. Most MLPs are targeting leverage at or below 4x, even as low as 3x (read more). Today’s stronger balance sheets can also add confidence to MLP payouts. IDRs have largely been eliminated. Only two names representing less than 15% of AMZI by weighting still have IDRs.

Reestablished track record of distribution growth complemented by buybacks

With balance sheets already improved, MLPs have used excess cash flow for distribution growth and opportunistic buybacks. Over 90% of AMZI by weighting has grown its distribution within the last year, and there has not been a cut to a regular distribution for an AMZI constituent since July 2021 (read more). Instead of focusing on growth at all costs, MLPs have prioritized sustainable distribution growth. Investors can have greater confidence in payouts today. As of December 13, AMZI was yielding 7.0%, which is particularly attractive as interest rates fall (read more).

While distribution growth has been the priority, MLPs have also been active with buybacks in recent years, albeit repurchases tend to vary (read more). Over 70% of AMZI by weighting has a buyback authorization in place as of December 10. Buybacks are a particularly strong example of how the space has changed given frequent equity issuances prior to 2015.

Despite improvements, MLP valuations still discounted

By all accounts, master limited partnerships are arguably in a much better position today than they were a decade ago. MLPs are generating free cash flow, growing distributions, and opportunistically repurchasing equity. Companies have simplified their structures, and balance sheets are stronger. The investment case is arguably as strong as it’s ever been.

Despite these drastic improvements, MLP valuations remain subdued. As of December 10, AMZI was trading at a weighted average EV/EBITDA multiple of 9.1x based on 2025 estimates or just 8.7x using 2026 consensus estimates from Bloomberg. The three-year average forward EV/EBITDA multiple is 8.8x, and the ten-year average is 9.9x. Even with strong performance in recent years, MLPs have not become expensive, and multiple expansion has not really materialized. This could be attributed to the niche nature of MLPs, their exclusion from broad market indexes, or perceived hindrances to directly owning MLPs, namely the Schedule K-1 issued for taxes. To be clear, investors can access MLPs through exchange-traded products, mutual funds, and other vehicles to receive a Form 1099 (read more).

Bottom line:
Investors revisiting MLPs should be aware of the broad improvements made by companies in recent years. MLPs represent a compelling investment opportunity given free cash flow generation and attractive yields, which are enhanced by ongoing distribution growth. Even with these improvements and strong performance, MLPs have not become expensive relative to history.

This article was originally published December 17th, 2024 on ETF Trends.

A new poll recently published by health policy research firm KFF revealed that roughly 12% of U.S. adults (or one in eight) have taken GLP-1 drugs, a category that includes Wegovy, Ozempic, Zepbound, and Mounjaro. Of those surveyed, 6% are currently taking a drug from that group.

Although many survey participants rely on these medications for other conditions like Type 2 diabetes, 38% are taking them for weight loss. This level of adoption is despite the high cost of these drugs, which runs $1,000 a month before insurance coverage. Patients, health providers, and insurance companies increasingly realize that the benefits far outweigh the costs.

Battling obesity

Obesity is a global problem affecting more than 1 billion people. The number of adults living with obesity worldwide is more than twice what it was in 1990, with 43% of adults now overweight, the World Health Organization notes. Furthermore, according to Morgan Stanley, there is a macroeconomic toll in addition to the mental and physical consequences for the population. The firm posits that the cost of adverse health outcomes and reduction in productivity whittles 3.6% off the gross domestic product of the U.S.

GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide 1) drugs have been proven effective in promoting weight loss. GLP-1 is a hormone the body produces that is released when a person ingests food. It triggers cells in the pancreas that, in turn, produce insulin, which regulates blood sugar. GLP-1 drugs have been approved since 2005 as a treatment for type-2 diabetes. But new formulations of the drugs for obesity can now promote reductions in body weight by 10-20%.

A breakthrough disruption

For patients considering surgical options, GLP-1 drugs are being hailed as a “miracle drug.” They are said to represent a major advancement in public health. This breakthrough status also carries with it the potential to disrupt other companies in health care. It has broad implications for many industries, from medical device makers to the food and beverage industry to airlines. A study looking at United Airlines finds that the company could save 27.6 million gallons of fuel per year, for $80 million, if the average passenger were 10 pounds lighter.

These drugs are not without side effects. However, data from the largest clinical trial of GLP-1’s to date, the SELECT trial of approximately 18,000 non-diabetic participants, is compelling. The study published in November 2023 showed evidence of reduced incidences of heart attacks, strokes, and deaths from cardiovascular disease. Additionally, 73% of patients did not progress to diabetes. Subjects also saw a 19% reduction in all causes of morbidity. For patients, these are no doubt life-changing results.

GLP-1 drugs are a disruptive economic force, with Goldman Sachs estimating the market for GLP-1 drugs will grow to $100 billion by 2030. These new anti-obesity drugs could see a patient population as high as 70 million, resulting in an increase in U.S. GDP levels by as much as 1% in the coming years.

Our index approach

VettaFi is excited to launch the first Index, the VettaFi Weight Loss Drug & Treatment Index (THINR), to provide diversified exposure to this disruptive investment theme.

Eli Lilly and NovoNordisk, the Index’s two largest holdings, currently dominate in terms of market share. That said, new market entrants and methods (like pills) are on the way, advocating for a more diversified approach.

The Index comprises 70% of drug developers/manufacturers and 30% of enablers.

  • Drug developers/manufacturers are pharmaceutical and/or biotech companies with either a branded GLP-1 agonist product or a product in the GLP-1 drug development pipeline in FDA clinical trials.
  • Enablers are companies involved with the outsourced development and manufacturing of GLP-1 agonist drugs. These are also known as contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs). These companies conduct measurement and analysis of GLP-1 agonist drugs. This also refers to companies involved in the distribution or administration of GLP-1 agonist drugs. That would include the coordination of prescriptions and drug-delivery mechanisms such as injection pens.

To qualify for inclusion in the Index, companies must be members of the VettaFi S-Network Developed World Equity 5000 Index or the VettaFi Developed World Index and meet a minimum market capitalization requirement of USD 500 million. Constituents are float-adjusted market cap weighted within their segment allocation as outlined in the Index Methodology.

Given the fast-changing nature of the space, the Index is rebalanced on a quarterly basis. More information on our Index and backtested results can be found on VettaFi’s website here. and our white paper here.

Since its live index inception on 1/25/24, the Index is up 18% YTD on a total return basis (as of 5/20/24).

An ETF tracking this index has been issued by Amplify ETFs.

 This article was originally published May 21st, 2024 on ETF Trends.

VettaFi hosted a webcast, Bring your brand to life with event activations, on December 3rd, 2024. VettaFi CMO Jon Fee moderated the discussion along with Cassie Hughes, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Grow Marketing, and Kate Gunning, Founder and CEO of Crush Brand Advisory.

As the world becomes increasingly digital, many marketers have forgotten the power of live, in-person events. “As much as I continue to lean more and more digital, you can’t replace the power of looking someone in the eye in real life, shaking their hand, and learning about them,” Jon Fee said.

Experiential events

Fee opened the discussion by surveying attendees about whether they were using experiential marketing in their media mix. Over 40% of respondents claimed to not know enough about experiential marketing. 

Hughes noted that there is a difference between event activations and experiential marketing, though there is some overlap. “From our perspective, experiential marketing is anytime you are bringing people together in real life talking about a product or a service,” she clarified.

Events and sponsorships

56% of attendees claimed that events and sponsorships were somewhat important, but that they rely on other tactics more heavily, with 28% claiming events and sponsorships were very important.

Experiences fill you up with an emotive reaction to something; making people feel can also move them to take action.

Though real-life events do not technically reach as many people as digital engagements, they do move audiences farther and faster. “Deeper connections hold longer in the memory,” Hughes continued.

Gunning added, “Think about your own life and your world and how you feel when you have a combination of DMs and texts from a friend vs. a coffee date or a dinner.”

The digital and real-life combo

Gunning shared that, working for a large firm, she A/B tested doing just events and both events and digital marketing for a certain set of clients. The combination of both is invaluable; digital events complemented with in-person events are more powerful than doing either alone. 

Hughes shared some intriguing stats - 79% of US marketers generate sales using experiential marketing, and more than one in three CMOs set aside anywhere from 21% to 50% of their budgets for brand experiences. Additionally, 67% of B2B marketers think of event marketing as their most effective strategy.

Bringing the brand to life

Figuring out how to do live events and experiential marketing can be a challenge. “The key is the triangulation of partnership between marketing, sales, and the leadership team,” Gunning said. She also outlined the importance of planning for what happens after the event. Events can work on their own terms, but also create opportunities for follow up conversations and content.

Giving an example, Hughes quoted Peter McGuiness, CMO, Chobani, by pointing out, “everything is an event, but everything done well is an experience.” She shared how AirBnB and Barbie partnered for an experiential marketing campaign that was heavily promoted digitally and went viral, but focused on a real space and experience to break through the noise.

Debunking myths

Fee noted that a lot of hesitancy around event sponsorships comes from three myths:

  • Breaking through the noise is easy.
  • Only top-tier sponsors get recognition.
  • Events have weak ROI and are hard to track.

Gunning volunteered that tracking ROI involves having clear goals and a clear plan. For example, having people scan codes at a booth and knowing exactly what you are doing to facilitate that action can make ROI metrics easier to decipher. “What are the opportunities for connection with the audience you are going after?”

Hughes underscored most of the brands that fail to see the ROI of an event sponsorship don’t have clear goals. “Clear goals have ROI and there are ways to track it.” Departments working together is also essential. If marketing is delivering an event, sales needs to participate in it and not feel like it is silo’d off to just marketing but, instead, a shared opportunity.

“As you think about event ROI,” Fee said, “What I think folks often forget is just because the field of opportunity is right in front of you, that doesn't mean you show up without a plough. You still have work to do… It requires everyone to roll up their sleeves and get to work.”

Top sponsors don’t have a monopoly - good ideas shine through

One assumption many small or medium sized firms make is that it is hard to stick out against the big dogs. Hughes countered that the brands that stick out are the ones that do clever, inventive activations. In fact, top brands often only lean on their own name recognition to do the heavy lifting, which creates opportunities for other brands to execute clever activations. 

Smart activations create a value exchange. Breaking through the noise is a matter of being thoughtful about how you present your technology, your brand, or your service. Gunning added, “The way you break through the noise is by being relevant.” Hughes then shared an example from Google. Google had a rough go of introducing the Google Home products, but investing in a clever activation, helped connect the product’s use case and improve its position in the marketplace.

Fee noted, “Even Google has a hard time breaking through with new products.” In a similar way, big asset managers who haven’t touched the ETF space might have trouble breaking in despite their brand name.

Conference preparation

Preparation is critical to make a live event successful. “There’s a pre-, there’s a during, and there’s a post,” Hughes said, so she discussed the value of having an outline and plan for all. Using the Komen Walk from Exchange as an example, she noted finding natural activities at a conference where you can make connections is important. In addition, walking the expo hall can not only introduce you to new folks, but it can also inspire your future activations.

Gunning spoke to the value of structured time and open time. “I try to get deliberate about the 3-5 people I really want to meet,” she said. Then she uses the open time to map out where she wants to be stimulated or pursue learnings. “I love to use these settings to learn, observe, and see if I can pick up on patterns.”

The case for event sponsorships is strong

Firms of all sizes stand to benefit from event sponsorships and activations. Large firms can use the opportunity to appear more human and approachable. Medium-sized firms benefit from appearing next to industry leaders and have the opportunity to stand out with a smart activation, and smaller firms can leverage events to fuel growth. Regardless of firm size, you can rely on event sponsorships to reliably generate content and drive business goals.

Interested in learning more? Watch the full discussion here. 

Bring your brand to life with event activations at Exchange, learn more here.

What are ADRs?

American depositary receipts (ADRs) are financial instruments that allow U.S. investors to buy and sell foreign companies on U.S. stock exchanges. A U.S. bank issues a certificate representing a specific number of shares of the foreign company.  

ADRs allow U.S. investors to gain easy, liquid access to foreign companies without worrying about opening custody accounts, foreign currency conversion, and trading on foreign exchanges. ADRs are priced and pay dividends in U.S. dollars and adhere to U.S. financial reporting standards. The advantage for foreign companies is that by offering ADR versions of their shares, they can provide a convenient vehicle for U.S.-based investors to invest in their company.    

Pros & cons of owning ADRs

Pros

  • Easy to trade and track
  • Available through U.S. brokers and trading firms
  • U.S.-dollar-denominated
  • Provides international diversification without direct currency risk

Cons

  • Potential for double taxation (local and abroad)
  • Limited universe of names available
  • Subject to currency conversion fees

Direct indexing

Direct indexing is one of the fastest-growing segments of the financial services industry, with Cerulli Associates projecting separately managed account (SMA) assets of $2 trillion by the end of this year. 

Direct indexing allows advisors to customize or manage taxation in index portfolios. For example, if a client works for a company and has highly appreciated exposure to its stock, that company can be excluded from the direct index. Direct indexing also accommodates personalization, such as the expression of ESG and value-based screening. Additionally, direct indexing can be used to harvest tax losses and generate “tax alpha.”   

Direct indexing & ADRs

One of the challenges for direct indexing is how to best provide exposure to non-U.S. companies. ADRs are the perfect tool for this, but to date, only a handful of index providers offer ADR index exposure. Arising from this unmet need, VettaFi has created and launched a new suite of ADR Indexes.

VettaFi’s new ADR index family

VettaFi’s suite of ADR Indexes provides a broad range of international coverage using ADR-listed holdings, including developed and emerging markets, as well as full world exposures.

While there are far fewer ADRs than local exchange-traded foreign equities, each index has been constructed to minimize sector, country, and tracking error differences relative to the international equity index upon which it is based.  

These indexes will provide a valuable tool for accessing foreign markets in SMA and direct indexing portfolios.  

If you would like to learn more about VettaFi’s new ADR Index family, please contact the team here. 

One of the biggest challenges facing modern issuers is getting their products to stand out. As investing has become more accessible to the average person, the number of products available has increased to meet demand. But as investing continues to innovate and evolve, the amount of products available to investors has grown. In turn, this has created intense competition and obstacles for new products. 

As products evolve, so can problems

Understanding how we got to the current state of affairs is useful for unpacking how to solve the biggest challenges facing issuers.

Investing has come a long way from its early roots in trading commodities and debt. The creation of the precursor to the S&P 500 in 1923 marked a significant turning point. This index allowed investors to track broad market performance rather than individual stocks, fundamentally changing investment strategies.

Mutual funds emerged as another disruptive force. Starting in an early form in 1924, mutual funds combined risk mitigation through pooled resources with broad market tracking. Institutions and eventually retail investors gained access to diversified, liquid products.

The next big innovative jump came with Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). These transparent, flexible investment vehicles democratized the market further. If mutual funds were the Boston Tea Party, ETFs were the Battle of Saratoga. By 2020, over 3,000 ETFs were trading in the U.S. market, allowing investors to access previously inaccessible regions, sectors, and factors.

The crowded marketplace

While innovations widened market access, they also made it easier to create investment products. The SEC ETF Rule in 2019 streamlined the process, allowing more companies to launch ETFs. Over two decades ago, there were four issuers with 80 different ETF products. Today, there are over 200 issuers with more than 3,000 ETFs. Despite this proliferation, investors often stick to established names, with 75% of global AUM in mutual funds and ETFs being in products at least ten years old.

Standing out in a competitive landscape

With legacy products getting a huge part of the pie, issuers have resorted to lowering fees on newer products, which means that they need to cut costs in other areas. To thrive in the next decade, asset managers must rethink their innovation strategies, embracing new product categories and value-added services, all while competing with a host of existing and new products from other issuers. As daunting as this task can appear to be, there are ways to increase efficiency and grow AUM. Finding the right index can give a product a solid foundation.

VettaFi’s index services 

VettaFi offers a suite of solutions designed to empower asset managers to stand out:

Bring your product ideas to life and minimize risk

Whether you are starting from scratch or optimizing an existing index, VettaFi can turn your new product ideas into reality. Issuers can create their own customized investment products by utilizing VettaFi’s Index Factory, which allows the use of client-proprietary data, as well as 3rd party data to build any desired index. Customization ensures that indexes align precisely with specific investment goals and market views, reducing risk.

Flexible services tailored to you

VettaFi’s services cover daily calculations, corporate action handling, implementation of weighting rules, and fully outsourced administration. Efficient and accurate index management allows asset managers to focus on core investment strategies, freeing up resources for other services.

Reduce costs and attract investors

Investors interested in a specific theme or a disruptive sliver of the market, such as A.I., renewable energy, weight-loss drugs, or robotics, can capitalize on those ideas’ high growth potential. By leveraging VettaFi’s index licensing services, asset managers can reduce operating costs by replicating index performance in their investment products. This cost-efficiency enables managers to offer more affordable products and attract a broader investor base.

The takeaway

Asset managers who create cost-effective or hyper-customized products will thrive as investment opportunities multiply. VettaFi’s index services equip managers to navigate this evolving landscape, stand out, and meet the diverse needs of modern investors.

Interested in learning how to partner with us? Click here.  

Quality is a sought-after, fundamental investment factor whose origins in investment theory date back to the 1930s. Traditionally, quality companies are consistent in their earnings, profitable, and solvent. Firms that have these traits fall under the quality factor umbrella.

However, finding the right quality screens is important, as recent market events have impacted many firms that have fallen under the traditional umbrella of quality.

Quality reimagined in the wake of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic created a surge in the total debt of nonfinancial businesses. After a decade of debt growth averaging roughly 5.5%, debt jumped 9.1% in 2020. On the heels of COVID-19, increased inflation led to higher interest rates. 

This means more firms have more debt that will be harder to refinance. Even firms that traditionally succeeded at being considered examples of quality investing are now contending with higher debt and less ability to navigate that debt successfully. Companies that would otherwise introduce stock buybacks or pay out dividends must instead direct more earnings toward clearing outstanding debt. 

Getting the right quality screen

Screening for quality has arguably never been more important. Solvency is critical. In 2022, almost half of all publicly listed firms were unprofitable despite fewer firms declaring bankruptcy.

VettaFi’s Quality Indexes measure the performance of U.S. companies, focusing on the highest quality scores. Profitability and solvency are targeted, and sector restraints and market cap weight are considered. (A full breakdown of the methodology is covered here.)

The VettaFi US Large/Mid-Cap Quality Index outperformed the benchmark VettaFi 1000 Index, which comprises the largest 1,000 publicly traded stocks in the U.S. market. 

Learning more about VettaFi’s approach to quality

Interested in learning more about how the VettaFi US Large/Mid-Cap Quality Index is constructed? Our recent white paper explores our approach to the new quality factor. Download the paper here.

Want to use the VettaFi US Large/Mid-Cap Quality Index or leverage our index factory to create your product? Speak to our index specialists today.

VettaFi announces that its fast-growing index business has successfully completed its first independent audit of its statement of adherence with the IOSCO principles for financial benchmarks

Focus on index processes, governance, controls, and operations is core to VettaFi’s highly differentiated approach

VettaFi, a global leader in indexing, data & analytics, and digital marketing for asset managers, is today announcing that after a thorough assurance engagement by an independent accounting and professional services firm, VettaFi’s index business has completed its first audit of its adherence with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Principles for Financial Benchmarks. A limited assurance opinion was issued as of June 30, 2023, by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

The IOSCO principles have been the industry standard for more than a decade and cover best practices in governance, accountability, quality and transparency of benchmark design, and more.

“My colleagues and I could not be more pleased with the results of this review,” said Brian Coco, Head of Index Products for VettaFi. 

We are building a world-class indexing business, so it only makes sense that we would want to ensure we are adhering to the global standard for financial benchmarks.
Brian Coco
Head of Index Products 

The full Statement of Adherence and detailed results of the audit, as well as the scope of the indexes included within audit, can be requested from VettaFi.

This announcement caps what has been a busy six-month period for VettaFi indexing. In April, the firm announced the acquisition of the ROBO Global suite of indexes, a leader in powering research-driven disruptive technology portfolios. Just last month, the firm also announced the acquisition of EQM Indexes, an innovative provider of custom and thematic indexing solutions.

These acquisitions, coupled with numerous new client partnerships and organic growth among VettaFi’s existing clients, have pushed the total amount of assets tracking VettaFi benchmarks to nearly $19 billion. More recently, VettaFi launched its new Global Developed Benchmark Series as part of its 2023 index innovation roadmap.

“When we set out to create what is now VettaFi, my colleagues and I knew that solving the industry’s biggest indexing challenges was going to be core to our mission,” said Leland Clemons, CEO of VettaFi.” We have since added new capabilities and brought on some of the most respected talent in the business to deliver this foundation and further align our capabilities to support our clients’ growth ambitions.

“Today’s announcement highlights that even as we’ve been driving growth with our clients and partners, we have never lost sight of doing things the right way. I’m thrilled for our Indexing team and their steadfast adherence to IOSCO, and equally as excited to continue to tell the VettaFi indexing story to the marketplace,” he added.

In the rapidly expanding ETF community, it can be hard to stand out. So it is with pride and gratitude that TMX VettaFi shares that it received three ETF Express awards last week.

TMX VettaFi is now a three-time winner of the "Best Research" award. It also received the "Best US Index Overall Provider" and the "Best Index Provider - Equity ETFs" awards. The ETF Express awards are chosen in part based on voting by the ETF industry. 

Brian Coco, TMX VettaFi's head of index product, and I joined leaders from across the ETF ecosystem at the awards celebration in New York. It was exciting to see many of our partners in attendance receiving their own accolades.

VettaFi's indexing capabilities

"Winning awards as the Best Index Provider is so special. It shows we continue to earn the trust of our clients," explained Coco. "It is a testament of our ongoing commitment to provide clients a great experience."

VettaFi is the index provider behind some well-known ETFs. Those include the Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP), the American Century US Quality Growth ETF (QGRO),  the Amplify Online Retail ETF (IBUY), the ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index ETF (ROBO), and the VictoryShares Free Cash Flow ETF (VFLO).

"We continually strive to not just be an index provider, but a partner that can collaborate on innovative new products. TMX VettaFi is using unique datasets and insights that are the result of years of our collective experience in the ETF industry," Coco added. Recent indexes include a global suite of companies that have initiated a dividend in the last three years.

Providing high-quality index research

VettaFi provides index research support for some of the more popular ETFs tied to VettaFi. For example, Stacey Morris and Phil Segal are focused on energy infrastructure, while Zeno Mercer and Rafael Silva write and speak with clients about disruptive technology industries..

"We publish timely and insightful research on energy and energy infrastructure for advisors," noted Morris. "However, we are also able to leverage our expertise in creating one-of-a-kind indexes for issuers."

Coverage for nearly 4,000 other ETF children

The TMX VettaFi research team, which I lead, also publishes daily commentary focused on many other U.S. listed ETFs. We consider these funds part of our ETF family too. 

The expert insights content found on this platform usually dives into an investment theme and showcases a few related ETFs that provide exposure. Such efforts help us as we are recurring guests on the ETF Prime podcast and appear in print and on financial TV programs on a consistent basis.  

"Our research team comes from a wide range of professional backgrounds. This brings several unique perspectives to an always changing industry," noted Roxanna Islam. Islam is head of sector and industry research at TMX VettaFi. 

I love working with people who think differently from me and can challenge my ideas in a constructive way.

Educational content is published on a range of topics including commodities, cryptocurrency, equity, fixed income, and options-based ETFs. Our team also hosts regular virtual events with asset management partners and hundreds of advisors. Indeed last week, approximately 400 live attendees joined us for a three-hour Fixed Income Symposium

"The VettaFi research team is dedicated to delivering timely, topical analysis on valuable trends in the marketplace," added Kirsten Chang, senior industry analyst at TMX VettaFi. "However, we want to do so in an actionable way that makes it clear our advisor audience is always top of mind." 

If you are an asset manager interested in partnering with VettaFi and tapping into our award winning index and research expertise, schedule time with our team here.

VettaFi LLC ("VettaFi") is the index provider for AMLP, QGRO, IBUY, ROBO, and VFLO, for which it receives an index licensing fee. However, AMLP, QGRO, IBUY, ROBO, and VFLO are not issued, sponsored, endorsed, or sold by VettaFi, and VettaFi has no obligation or liability in connection with the issuance, administration, marketing, or trading of AMLP, QGRO, IBUY, ROBO, or VFLO.

This article was originally published October 28th, 2024 on ETF Trends.

It’s exciting when the financial services community comes together to learn from one another. VettaFi hosts several virtual events on a weekly basis with leading asset management companies and practitioners. As one of VettaFi’s Voices, I help moderate these discussions — and I learn a lot, too.

Later today, I will be speaking at the NYSE Annual ETF Industry Summit about how to create meaningful engagement in the digital age of content. I’m honored to be a part of this event and always love being at the historic New York Stock Exchange to celebrate the industry.

It’s been four years since the pandemic began. Given that, you might think fellow advisors no longer want to attend remote webinars. However, VettaFi data suggests otherwise.

Advisors still love webinars

Just under 400 people attended the three-hour Q4 Fixed Income Symposium we hosted in October, and more than 200 people are tuning in to hear from us and industry experts during our one-hour events. Upcoming topics include a focus on actively managed equity, mid-stream energy, options-based strategies, and preparing for portfolios for yearend. Register to join us – for added value, during a VettaFi webinar, advisors can also obtain continuing education credits. 

During our virtual events, we ask advisors many questions to help us understand investor’s sentiment toward the topic. In October, we also asked “What is the most effective way for asset managers to keep you informed?” The top two answers were emails (72%) and webinars (69%). 

These ranked significantly higher than whitepapers (39%), websites (33%), videos (23%), social media (5.7%), and wholesaler calls/visits (4.6%). Respondents were able to select all that applied. 

VettaFi voices bring outside perspective

At the NYSE Summit we will likely also discuss how some firms look to collaborate with financial influencers. I am clearly biased, but partnering with a strong third-party firm (particularly one with award-winning ETF analytical expertise) is a great alternative to someone with lots of Instagram followers but limited relevant expertise. 

In contrast, my colleagues Cinthia Murphy, Kirsten Chang, Roxanna Islam, and I are routinely quoted on TV and in the financial press. Due to our daily commentary on ETF industry developments, we bring credible outside views that help in the education process.

I know the next two months of 2024 will be busy but I’m excited to be a part of a community that learns from one another.

 

This article was originally published November 4th, 2024 on ETF Trends.

Data is critical to a financial product's success.

Understanding who is in your ecosystem and how they feel about your products will help you cater messaging and build efficiency. That said, there are limitations to the utility of first party data, which is why third party data is essential.

Here are four reasons you need third party data to bolster your first party data set.

1. Understand your potential customers

First party data can give you a robust view of everyone in your ecosystem. But it does not tell you much about potential customers outside of it. Knowing who your investors are is useful, but to grow you need to break out beyond your current customer base. Third party data will give you access to additional profiles and information about potential investors. Combining this information with the first party profiles you have can help you figure out where to next target your marketing efforts.

2. Fill in the blanks within your own ecosystem

Your first party data can only provide a very specific portrait of your existing customer base. Understanding what advisors and investors are researching outside of your ecosystem can help you develop products and refine your messaging. You might also gain insights into where and how investors are getting to your products and discover opportunities to accelerate growth. You can begin to build out a 360 view of your target investor audience.

3. Build more personalized campaigns

If you want to build AUM, then you need to meet your clients where they are online. Third party data is essential if you want to make truly personalized journeys for your prospects. Having messages that can be specifically tailored is more effective than general marketing. Research has shown that personalized campaigns boost click through rates, increase conversions, and help with sales.

4. Gain a competitive edge

If you have a product in the market, you likely have competition from similar products targeting the same potential investors. Leveraging third-party data can reveal critical insights into who is investing in your competitors' products. By understanding their investor base and behavior, you can uncover actionable opportunities to refine your strategy, differentiate your product, and maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace.

If you're interested in working with a 3rd party data provider, learn more about our investor intelligence data here. 

Being prepared always pays, particularly in the world of indexing.

Though you can't prepare for every eventuality, you can set yourself up for flexibility. It is also important to constantly take stock of where you are and what you can be doing better. Are you using the right benchmarks? Are you paying a premium? Are you being as efficient as you can be?  

At VettaFi, we pride ourselves in our ability to partner with issuers and handle their index needs so their products have the opportunity to grow, no matter the circumstances. 

The SEC has implemented a definition change in form N-1A.

Effective immediately in July 2024, open-ended funds must compare performance to an "appropriate broad-based securities market index." While new rule changes can be bureaucratic hassles, they can also provide an opportunity to explore new index possibilities and reimagine how you could cut costs, increase efficiency, and improve your product capabilities. 

VettaFi has a U.S. and global benchmark index series that can provide issuers with a cost-effective way to benchmark their funds across U.S., developed, and emerging markets. 

Our core benchmark series was built to specifically serve as viable benchmarks that are interchangeable with widely adopted broad-based benchmarks, providing global coverage of equity markets across size and segments.  

Some examples of the indexes that could be used as appropriate benchmarks to fulfill the new SEC rule include: 

We welcome issuers to have a conversation with us and learn about how we can help you take advantage of our benchmark series. 

We also have other indexing services that can help you cut costs, including index calculation and administration. And if you are looking to build an index from scratch using one of our base universes, we can help you do that too! 

Let's talk >

VettaFi is the only issuer services provider that supports the entire product life cycle.

We are dedicated to helping you accomplish your goals from index licensing and calculation to customization.

  Other index providers VettaFi
Partnership Most index providers only provide licensing services with limited longer-term support throughout the product life cycle. We offer hands-on, end-to-end product services from index development and maintenance, to post-launch support including data-driven insights, digital marketing tactics, and conference exposure.
Costs Using different firms for your index needs typically results in higher costs and longer onboarding times. Partnering with one firm can save on costs and build efficiencies of scale.
Value-alignment Off-the-shelf index methodologies may conflict with your goals, investment strategy, or firm values. We can customize to exclude industries, sub-industries, or individual stocks to align the index with your values and vision.
Scalability Boutique firms may struggle to handle increasing data volumes and processing requirements efficiently. Our cloud-based index technology has proven scale and has grown to over 350 indexes and over 200 customers globally, with more to come.
Flexibility Many large index providers do not allow customization, as their index construction process is restricted to using their proprietary datasets. The VettaFi Index Factory allows the use of client-proprietary data, as well as third-party data to build any desired index.
Speed of backtest Some index providers can only deliver one backtest over a period of weeks. Depending on need, we can produce over twenty-five backtests in less than a month, collaborating with the client every step of the way.
Transparency Is your index provider keeping up with the latest ever-changing compliance requirements? We are built to handle compliance and align with the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks to avoid conflict of interest.

 

Speak to our team of index experts to unlock your product potential >

Explosive growth in developing nations

Investors look abroad because the growth potential of developing nations can be explosive. But demographic trends are another important factor in evaluating growth opportunities. Countries like China, have a declining workforce due in part to the one-child law.  While India, on the other hand, has a younger growing skilled workforce. 

Overweighting the regions most primed for growth could create a unique investment opportunity. Investors looking for both strong growth and dividends could find what they seek in VettaFi's new family of demographic dividend growth indexes. These indexes tilt towards countries and regions that have younger, rapidly growing populations going into the workforce.  

The VettaFi Developed Ex United States Demographic Dividend Growth Index (DXUDDG) modifies the VettaFi Developed World ex United States Index (VFDXUS) that focuses on developed countries ex-United States by applying a working age population growth factor to its constituent weight. The VettaFi Emerging Markets Demographic Dividend Growth Index (EMDDG) does the same to the VettaFi Emerging Markets Index (VFEM). 

Growing workforce populations

Growing workforce populations are a fundamental tailwind not often quantified in other models, creating a unique opportunity for issuers to enhance international exposure in areas poised for growth. 

Nations experiencing a decline in their workforce and an aging population are less likely to see economic growth. As older professionals retire, with fewer younger professionals coming up to take their place, underlying economies can easily stagnate or shrink, undercutting their growth potential. In contrast, a younger population with multiple early career professionals ready to take the place of the retiring generation tends to grow as the next generation of laborers takes over. A robust workforce with purchasing power is an enormous catalyst for growth.  

Leveraging the opportunities

Leveraging the opportunities available in countries with favorable demographics and burgeoning young workforces, these indexes can help provide exposure areas of explosive growth potential. To access exposures like the VettaFi Developed Ex United States Demographic Dividend Growth Index or the VettaFi Emerging Markets Demographic Dividend Growth Index, or customize a product based on your individual product needs, partner with VettaFi's index experts.  

Learn more about VettaFi Indexing > 

Indexes are an important foundation, enabling investment products to capitalize on timely market opportunities and compelling investment ideas. The right index can provide a blueprint to success by capturing elements like underutilized growth potential, decreasing operating costs, or increasing efficiency.

Issuers looking to achieve positive results should consider the following:

  • Differentiated investment ideas
  • Low-cost options
  • Fresh takes on a mainstream benchmark concept

Here are three index ideas that follow this formula.

Differentiated investment idea: Tapping into both sides of the energy transition equation

Solving the global energy trilemma - the need for secure, affordable, and low-carbon energy solutions - will require the use of both fossil fuels and clean energy sources for many years to come.

The energy crisis is a long-term problem, and investments in oil and gas will continue even as cleaner energy alternatives start to come online, creating a growth opportunity for investors to capture. For investors contemplating the best way to gain exposure to the companies actively addressing this problem, a combination of alternative and traditional energy companies may be the most practical approach.

However, investment products rarely commingle fossil fuel and new energy companies, even though both are at the center of efforts to de-carbonize our energy sources. Many energy indexes rely exclusively on one or another, but the VettaFi 2050 Energy Transition Index (VNRGT) combines both, offering more diversified and time-based exposure.

Combining clean energy and fossil fuel companies with a dynamic weighting scheme, the VettaFi 2050 Energy Transition Index (VNRGT) reflects the current global energy mix and how it will likely evolve. It includes the companies addressing the world's need for secure, affordable, and low-carbon energy for years to come.

Want to dive deeper into this investment idea? Check out our recent article.

Low-cost option: Benchmark series

Benchmarks are an essential part of a product - whether passive or active. The SEC recently implemented a definition change in form N-1A effective July 2024, that open-ended funds must compare performance to an "appropriate broad-based securities market index."

VettaFi offers the U.S. and global benchmark index series that can provide issuers a cost-effective way to benchmark their funds across U.S., developed, and emerging markets.

This core benchmark series serves as a source of viable benchmarks that can serve as a lower-cost alternative to widely adopted broad-based benchmarks, providing global coverage of equity markets across sizes and segments.

While new rule changes can be bureaucratic hassles, they can also provide an opportunity to explore new index possibilities and re-imagine how you could cut costs, increase efficiency, and improve your product capabilities.

Looking for a more efficient benchmark? We have options - talk to the team.

A fresh take on a classic concept: Demographic Tilts

One way to provide a differentiated product in the market is to take a core offering and apply a fresh, interesting growth-potential tilt.

In addition to diversification, investors often look abroad for more favorable valuations and growth potential accompanied by favorable macro regime shifts. International market allocations are typically sourced by traditional, market-cap-weighted indexes. Demographic trends offer a new lens to view evolving growth opportunities.

Overweighting the countries best positioned for long-term growth based on demographic trends offers a compelling and unique investment approach. Investors looking for a differentiated, growth-oriented approach to investing abroad should consider VettaFi's new family of demographic growth indexes. These indexes tilt towards countries and regions that have younger, rapidly growing working-age populations driving economic consumption and GDP expansion while tilting away from countries whose expected working-age population demographics are less favorable to sustain long-term growth.

The VettaFi Developed Ex United States Demographic Dividend Growth Index (DXUDDG) modifies the VettaFi Developed World ex United States Index (VFDXUS) that focuses on developed countries ex-United States by applying a working age population growth factor to its constituent weight. The VettaFi Emerging Markets Demographic Dividend Growth Index (EMDDG) does the same to the VettaFi Emerging Markets Index (VFEM).

Leveraging the opportunities available in countries with more favorable demographics and burgeoning young workforce, these indexes provide a core allocation with a tilt towards countries/regions poised for growth based on economic trends.

Interested in learning more? Read our latest article about demographic tilts.

These indexes are available for licensing. Be the first to bring these unique investment ideas to market - or consider decreasing your operating costs by switching to a lower-cost benchmark.

We're here to assist with all of your product development needs - book time with our team.

Up-and-coming dividend players unlock growth and income

Growth has been a factor that has earned attention in 2024 due to the success of high-profile megacap companies like the Magnificent 7 stocks in the first half of the year. One often overlooked indication of company strength is the ability to issue and sustain a dividend. Dividends are a signal of financial health and stability. Historically, dividends have been associated with value-oriented companies. However as growth companies mature and generate excess cash flows, these funds can be returned to shareholders through dividend payments. 

Does the initiation of a dividend portend the end of a company's growth cycle?  Not necessarily.  Chip maker Nvidia initiated its first dividend in November of 2012.  Over that period Nvidia has seen company growth soar and its share value rise by more than 41,000%.   

Recognizing this potential, VettaFi has launched a unique suite of indexes that focus on companies that have initiated or reinitialized dividend payments after at least three years without dividends. The VettaFi Dividend Initiators Index Suite offers a comprehensive approach to capturing both the potential dividend growth and the cash-flow stability associated with these companies, covering a range of market capitalization and geographic regions. 

 The Advantage of Early Identification

One of the most compelling aspects of the VettaFi Dividend Initiators Index Suite is its focus on companies starting their dividend-paying journey. These companies are typically not yet included in the most well-known dividend growth indexes tracked by ETFs. By the time a company meets the decade-plus stringent criteria to join these established indexes, much of the initial growth potential may have already been realized. The VettaFi indexes, however, capture these companies at the start of their dividend journey, allowing investors to benefit from their early-stage dividend growth or turnaround success. 

Companies remain in the VettaFi index for three years, provided they continue to make regular dividend payments. This approach ensures that the index reflects companies committed to returning value to shareholders while offering exposure to those in the early stages of a sustainable dividend lifecycle.  

Capturing Payers Often Left Behind  

Many other dividend indexes require a dividend distribution history of 20 to 30 years. This leaves out many higher-performing, new dividend-paying stocks such as:

  • Micron Technology: up 69% in price; declared its dividend on August 2, 2021
  • Constellation Energy Group: up 340%; declared a dividend on February 8, 2022
  • Meta Platforms: up 28%; declared its first dividend on February 1, 2024
  • Alphabet: up 16%; instituted a dividend on April 25, 2024
  • FTAI Infrastructure:  up 207%; instituted a dividend on November 1, 2022
  • Commerzbank AG: up 38%: re-instituted a dividend on February 15, 2023
    Data as of June 30, 2024

Three Versions to Consider  

The VettaFi Dividend Initiators Index Suite is available in three versions:  

VettaFi US Large Cap Dividend Initiators Index  
Designed to track large-cap companies in the United States.  

VettaFi Developed ex US Dividend Initiators Index  
Designed for exposure beyond the United States, the VettaFi Developed ex US Dividend Initiators Index targets large and mid-cap companies in developed markets outside the U.S.  

VettaFi Small Cap Dividend Initiators Index  
Focused on U.S. small-cap companies, the VettaFi Small Cap Dividend Initiator Index offers exposure to companies often overlooked in traditional dividend strategies. 

Performance and Potential  

In 2024, the VettaFi US Large Cap Dividend Initiators Index demonstrated its effectiveness, posting a return of 17%, modestly outperforming the S&P 500. With a robust back-test history spanning over 20 years, the index has consistently delivered strong performance, underscoring the value of early-stage dividend initiators.  

VettaFi Head of Research Todd Rosenbluth stated, "There's a new wave of growth companies paying dividends seldom found in traditional dividend indexes. Dividend payments are a sign of financial strength." 

Despite this strong performance, there are currently no ETFs tracking the VettaFi Dividend Initiators Indexes, which presents a unique opportunity for investors. As more growth-oriented companies, like Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Commerzbank AG begin paying dividends, the relevance of this index will only grow. Investors who recognize the potential of these dividend initiators may find themselves ahead of the curve in capturing the growth and stability these companies offer.

As the market evolves and more companies enter the dividend-paying arena, the importance of early identification through the VettaFi Dividend Initiators Index Suite is likely to become increasingly apparent.  

Would you like to learn more about this or other index opportunities? Speak to our team of indexing experts.

Mastering the product development lifecycle

On June 18th, VettaFi hosted a webcast called From Idea to Market: Mastering the Product Development Lifecycle. The webcast covered how asset managers can best set up a product for success and the panel included VettaFi's Global Head of Index Sales Pete Dietrich, Head of Index Products Brian Coco, and Senior Industry Analyst Kirsten Chang. 

Chang asked Coco about the evolution of indexing. Adapting and keeping up with the times is critical for folks making products. Coco shared that many indexes were designed for a world that existed decades ago. “We have a wealth of data at our fingertips today. It is important to design new benchmarks that fit the times we are in.”

On the rise of active management

Active management has been popular these days, but Coco offered that there will likely be a move toward passive again as mutual funds give way to ETFs. That said, he sees a lot of utility and possibilities in the active management space, pointing to JEPI as an example of active funds in the derivatives universe that have seen success. 

How to approach creating a new product 

Asked what clients should think about when creating their indexes, Coco said, “We try to advise our clients to think about what’s the gap that their product sells for?” Speaking to the nuts and bolts of building an index, Coco opined “It’s similar to building a house,” noting that it’s more than literal nuts and bolts that go into it, but you also need an architect and a planner to bring it all together. “We need to be flexible; We need to iterate quickly and often with clients” Creating a product that fits into an issuer's current lineup is important.

Fads and themes 

Identifying the difference between a fad and a theme can be the defining factor of a fund that fizzles and a fund that finds success. Some investment ideas come and go, but others have staying power. “Does today’s theme become tomorrow’s sector?” Dietrich asked, noting that themes like AI and Robotics, weight loss, and the green energy transition are all current themes that could become something even more.  

ESG has been a bit controversial in the U.S. but continues to evolve. “ESG 1.0 was an institutional product. It was solving the problem of: I want benchmark-like returns, but I want to exclude things that do harm to either the ‘E,’ the ‘S,’ or the ‘G,’” Coco said. “I think ESG 2.0 will look a lot more like thematics do today.” 

The challenges of new products 

One of the challenges in creating a new product is the crowded market. Even established institutions will see many of their best ideas fail to hit the $100 million AUM mark. Dietrich shared that a full-funnel approach can help increase the odds. This means building product awareness through ads and media mentions, cultivating interest and providing market context around the product to those researching, and then helping sales teams close the loop at the end of the funnel. Dietrich pointed to VettaFi’s lead generation product, Soloist, which shares high-intent advisor leads with issuers subscribed.  He also expressed how VettaFi is useful at the top of the funnel offering a suite of digital media tactics as well.   

“We at VettaFi have 1.4 million monthly visitors to our websites and about 100,000 financial advisors that attend our webcasts annually. The question people must ask themselves is, ‘Do you know how financial advisors want to be engaged?’ The answer is – digital content.” To reach their AUM goals more efficiently, issuers need to be present where advisors are researching and engaging with them in their preferred manner. 

A full funnel partner 

Asked if VettaFi was best leveraged for newer firms, Dietrich said both have found utility. Newer issuers have leveraged VettaFi’s digital media, behavioral data, and expertise to stand out and make a name for themselves amid the crowded marketplace, while top five issuers have found the VettaFi platform useful for growing beyond their base. “We can just move faster than a lot of other shops,” Coco noted. 

Moving fast is important because idea iteration is essential in a new product. Even good ideas on paper can fall apart when put to the test. According to Coco, “Some great ideas in theory just fall fast once you back-test them. It is important to fail fast.” 

Understanding VettaFi’s suite of services 

VettaFi has a large suite of services, ranging from indexing to digital distribution. Through a data and analytics platform and the biggest conference in the business in Exchange, VettaFi is well suited to being a full-funnel partner. According to Dietrich, this increases the partnership possibilities. “We generally want to partner with firms across the entire lifecycle.” 

Watch the Replay Here. 

VettaFi offers a comprehensive suite of issuer services, ranging from indexing to digital marketing. In addition, it boasts one of the largest advisor behavioral databases and hosts the industry's most valuable conference, Exchange. It’s a company well suited to be an asset manager’s partner throughout the product lifecycle – from ideation and production to launch and distribution.

Interested in learning how to partner with us? Click here.  

In-person events are back

Live, in person events are more than just back. They are thriving. As business returns to normal, asset managers have more reason than ever to take advantage of the opportunities that conferences and other live events offer.

VettaFi CMO Jon Fee speaks to ETF issuers daily and understands the importance of live events. Here are the four big reasons that asset managers should sponsor Exchange according to Fee.

1. Jump start your annual plan

It is rare to have so many people from one industry all at the same place at the same time. Though opportunities for fun abound, conferences are supremely useful vehicles for progressing sales goals.

Beyond just meeting with your ecosystem partners, conferences can be an ideal venue to get a significant number of client meetings in one fell swoop.

The number one challenge I have is getting in front of clients. At Exchange, I can get in front of existing clients and meet new prospects more easily than traveling for a month
Past sponsor

Exchange is the perfect venue to conduct critical business and move things forward with the financial advisor segment. 

2. Brain plasticity

Travel creates brain plasticity. When brains are engaged in activities outside of their typical routine, neurons are more open to making different connections. Accordingly, when we travel or get outside of our normal routines, we’re more open to new ideas or finding different approaches to problem-solving.

“I attend conferences like Exchange to take a pause, get out of the office, and focus intentionally on practice innovation,” said Autumn Soltysiak CFP®, Partner and Wealth Management Advisor at & Wealth Management.

If there are deals or ideas that have been stuck in a rut, trying to make them happen in a different circumstance could yield a different result.

3. Get your brand in front of a captive audience

A conference is the ultimate canvas for branding – and if they take place early in the year, like Exchange, they can be an excellent opportunity to kick-start your annual marketing and distribution campaigns directly to your target audience.

As a complement to your broader marketing strategy, marketers can bring their brand to life with custom, curated experiences at a live event. They provide asset managers with an opportunity to be creative with swag and they are a great tactic to get your products and ideas in front of a captive audience.

Key financial publications and media outlets come to conferences in droves, which provides opportunities to secure features of your spokespeople and thought leaders – rounding out your marketing campaign with earned media. ETF issuers can amplify messages through media partners and extend your message further than just the conference itself.

4. Touch base with your ecosystem partners

Online meetings have become the norm. Though a lot can be accomplished online, in-person meetings offer different opportunities and have perks that Zoom or Teams calls can’t replicate.

A conference provides an opportunity for asset managers to touch base, in-person, with all of their ecosystem partners – from market makers and index providers to listing exchanges and data platforms. So much goes into a product at every stage of development. Conferences are the perfect venue to explore new potential partners or revisit existing partnerships.

This year, an asset manager and sponsor of Exchange, noted, “I get more meetings and business done in two and a half days at Exchange than in two months back in my NY office!”

In-person conferences are a highly efficient option to hold partner meetings at scale. Interested in sponsoring at Exchange? Let us know here. 

The new normal

VettaFi’s Cinthia Murphy, Todd Rosenbluth, and Saleem Khan explored the new normal for marketing to advisors in a recent webcast geared toward asset managers.

Khan shared that according to McKinsey, 75% of consumers recently switched to a new store, product, or buying behavior. “That’s a pretty significant change,” he said. Seventy-one percent of consumers also expect personalized interactions, with 76% expressing frustration when this doesn’t happen. "The bottom line here is personalization matters more than ever,” Khan added.

Marketing efforts now need to extend across the funnel

Asked where they plan to focus their marketing efforts, brand building, content creation, lead generation, and in-person events all lost big to “all of the above.” Murphy noted, “This is a multi-pronged effort. It takes a lot of moving parts to do effective marketing.” Achieving brand success demands well-coordinated efforts across media tactics, ensuring that no opportunity to engage your audience is overlooked.

The VettaFi impact on marketing efforts

VettaFi has positioned itself to be a partner throughout a product’s life cycle. “From a product standpoint, we’re focused on asset manager / issuer enablement,” Khan said.

Digital marketing is now critical for issuers looking to scale. It is a significant part of how asset managers build brand and get their products in front of the right advisors at the right time. Murphy pointed out that, with over 3,665 U.S.-listed ETFs from 249 issuers and 359 brands, standing out can be a challenge. Having the right data and tools to make your distribution effort as efficient as possible is more important than ever.

She also pointed out that, of the 400 ETFs launched so far in 2024, only 18% have reached $100 million AUM. “It's a tough, competitive landscape,” she added.

The full funnel

The webcast also covered a range of strategies that can be used to create a full funnel marketing plan. For example, issuers can use digital ads to maintain brand awareness while also having a third party editorial team, such as VettaFi, write about the market news in a way that contextualizes the use case for a specific product to help with mid-funnel efforts. Data driven efficiencies can be leveraged to make lower funnel efforts more successful.

Digital events can provide a wealth of data and demonstrate lower funnel intent. "What we at VettaFi do is bring the advisor community that cares about learning online with the asset managers that want to communicate online," Rosenbluth said. Having an independent, third party host known for its award winning research can help issuers reach new potential clients. 

End goal: Reaching financial advisors

“There are many ways to reach financial advisors,” Murphy explained, “but none of them is a silver bullet.” According to a survey, advisors have a wide range of preferences on how they keep informed. In other words, webinars, emails, websites, videos, wholesaler visits, and social media all matter.

Content remains critical in this digital world. Accordingly, issuers that frequently generate blogs and thought leadership have more success connecting with financial advisors.

“One of the ways that we at VettaFi can help is that we have third-party websites that allow you to convey the message either with your own content or in working with our team of writers, experts, and research folks that can help communicate this level of expertise in a digestible format,” Rosenbluth said.

Watch the full replay here >

 

Webcast are a compelling medium

As markets have become more complex, investors have diversified their sources of information. More than ever, thought leaders and experts are sought out for their expertise. There are many useful ways for issuers to get their thought leaders in front of investors, but webcasts have become a uniquely compelling medium.

Here are three reasons why advisors prefer webcasts:

1. The opportunity for direct connection

Reading a white-paper, though informative, comes with a degree of detachment. Being able to see someone break down a complex idea or unexpected market conditions live is remarkable. Webcasts also frequently have space for questions and answer sessions. Accordingly, this means that advisors can get the precise information they need. It also makes them feel as though they are “in the room” with the expert. 

Another feature often offered for direct connection are polling questions. Webcasts are more than a platform for issuers to let advisors know about their products, they are also a medium for advisors to communicate their interests and needs to issuers through polling questions. As an issuer, this feedback provides a better understanding of your audience to refine strategies or positioning points. 

2. Webcasts can achieve multiple goals at once 

Good film writers know that every line of dialogue must do multiple things. Dialogue that merely advances the plot is clumsy. If it is advancing the plot and informing character development, while also providing background exposition, audiences are more likely to eat it up. The same is true of thought leadership in asset management.

Time is extraordinarily valuable, particularly for financial advisors. Webcasts accomplish multiple goals in a condensed time frame. Not only is the advisor gaining the necessary information for their practice and clients, but they can also earn CE credits. That is a much more appealing use of their time, especially when registering is free. Asset managers can also achieve multiple goals. Not only, are you able to position your product in front of an interested audience, but you're also developing a targeted list of advisors for sales follow up conversations. This reduces the number of cold calls and can shorten the sales cycle.

3. Replays are clutch 

The ability to go back and reference a webcast replay allows advisors to reference the material again, as well as allows other advisors to view material if they could not join live. Webcasts give advisors something they can come back to again and again, as needed, which creates a nice long tale for sales possibilities. The replay is also valuable to use and promote across your channels including on your website, social, and email.

More and More Asset Managers are Leaning on Webcasts

As issuers become more aware of the value webcasts present to advisors, they have become an increasingly vital component of an overall distribution strategy. Webcasts connect advisors directly to the experts, attendee lists can be used for prospecting, replays can be used for additional content creation and promotional efforts.

At VettaFi, we provide asset managers virtual event services to reach advisors, including end-to-end CE-approved webcast production and promotion services. We've been hearing from partners and clients about the need to purchase professional services online to improve efficiency. As a result, we now offer online purchases of our webcast services.

Learn more about our webcast services.

Most issuers that are just getting started have to make challenging choices about where and how to focus their resources. This can lead to penny wise but pound foolish decisions. Often a full funnel, digital marketing strategy is put in a “nice to have but not required” category when it should be considered an essential.

Here are three big reasons why small issuers need embrace digital marketing:

Reason #1: Digital marketing meets prospects where they are - online

Growing your AUM is impossible if investors can not find your product or know where to look for it. Increasingly, financial advisors and investors conduct most of their business online. If you want people to learn your brand name and become familiar with your logo, then advertising on websites advisors frequent can help. If you want people to learn about your products, there needs to be articles and thought leadership available to them online on places they are already routinely visiting.

Reason #2: To compete with the big dogs, you must act like a big dog

The desire to refrain from resource spend is reasonable. But, at the end of the day, if you want to compete in a crowded space, you need to behave like you belong. Sometimes this can feel risky, but the right partnerships can pay dividends as they help draw attention to your products and generate hot leads.

Reason #3: Innovative new products need ambassadors

Smaller issuers often enter the market with unique ideas that fill gaps in the investor toolkit. However, explaining these innovations clearly can be difficult, making it challenging for sales teams to both pitch and contextualize the product simultaneously. Engaging experts and thought leaders to discuss the product on webcasts or explain its benefits through written content can help investors and advisors understand it before the sales pitch even starts.

Are you a newer asset manager looking to increase your footprint? Here’s how VettaFi can help you in your digital marketing efforts.

Research and development drive solutions

The VettaFi RavenPack Innovation Indexes focus on companies that invest heavily in research and development (R&D). R&D investment drives innovative solutions that can help companies outperform their peers over time.

Investing in research and development to spur innovation and growth

A company's investment in research and development and innovation can be a strong driver of outperformance, but typically a company's financials fail to capture the full story. Traditional, human-based approaches for identifying companies with significant exposure to innovation often fall short.  Data-driven, natural language processing (NLP) techniques like the ones utilized by Ravenpack offer a more efficient and comprehensive solution. This includes leveraging alternative data sources and employing advanced algorithms that identify innovation in real time.  

How to measure innovation

Both the U.S. Large Cap and Small-to-Mid Cap (SMID) versions of the VettaFi RavenPack Innovation Indexes rely on a news-driven systematic procedure to identify company innovation. Utilizing a volume-based, size-adjusted measure of media attention that tracks intellectual property, RavenPack assigns daily Innovation Scores to companies based on its proprietary NLP algorithm. This scoring mechanism is used to select and concentrate Index and Sector exposure in the companies that have the highest levels of reported innovation.

Performance

The VettaFi RavenPack Large Cap Innovation Index (VRLIIT) combines the RavenPack Innovation Score with sector, security weight, and turnover constraints and rebalances on a quarterly basis.  In backtesting, the Index outperformed the VettaFi US Equity Large-Cap 500 Index (SNR500) benchmark, on a since inception basis, in all but one year. 

Interested in learning more about the VettaFi Ravenpack Innovation Indexes? Speak to our index specialists today.

Broader client servicing and index offerings

VettaFi’s Index team is committed to serving our clients where they are, in their local markets. The recent acquisition of iNDEX Research and Development (iNDEX) not only extends the servicing reach for our clients, but also brings a new set of capabilities along with a world class team of professionals with decades of index experience.

VettaFi’s Index Factory is built on a modern tech stack enabling us to build, iterate, and deliver solutions to our clients quickly yet with strict data governance oversight. iNDEX Research and Development also invested heavily in technology and research which expands our existing equity solutions and expands our capabilities across global fixed income and multi-asset classes. iNDEX adds a new set of analytics and tools to our existing capabilities that will enable us to expand our offering and service our global clients more efficiently across times zones.

Fast, efficient services around the world

Issuers looking to develop or iterate on indexes value fast backtesting and reliable servicing. VettaFi Indexes have earned a reputation for its fast turnaround times and excellence service.

Now, with an expanded team capable of servicing the EMEA time zones, we are making the necessary investments and incremental steps of being a truly global index provider.

This will benefit asset managers around the world as they look to find new benchmarks or create indexes that can ballast their products. The new reach promises further speed and efficiency for VettaFi’s partners.

Furthermore, iNDEX has indexes tethered to $10 billion in products spanning fixed income and equities. The Index Factory is now positioned to help issuers create, iterate, and improve upon unique fixed income products with exposure around the world, including bond indexes, fixed duration, risk adjusted strategies based on rates, inflation, and credit ratings.

iNDEX adds value

This acquisition of iNDEX marks the third major indexing firm acquired by VettaFi, which had previously acquired ROBO Global Index Suite and EQM Indexes in 2023.

Tom Hendrickson, President, VettaFi, said in a press release, "The acquisition of iNDEX Research adds new talent as well as operational and client service capabilities focused on European time zones. We look forward to supporting and partnering with even more clients around the globe as we continue to bring VettaFi's offering to Europe and beyond."

Yaniv Kunis, founder and CEO, iNDEX Research, added, "As we embark on this next chapter, I am excited for the entire iNDEX Research team, and for the enhanced value we can deliver to our clients and the global investment community."

Take advantage of VettaFi’s Index Factory

As asset managers look for the right indexing partners to build and innovate with, VettaFi’s Index Factory now offers even more.

Interested in partnering with us? Talk to our team here.

Today's data challenge

In today's world, data is abundant. The challenge is not collecting and capturing data, but stitching it together and deriving insights from it – insights that, in turn, help inform decision making.  

 When surveying asset managers, the top 3 challenges they face when leveraging data include:  

  • Limited actionable insights (54.5%) 
  • Lack data expertise and/or resourcing (45.5%) 
  • Silo’d or inconsistent data (45.5%) 
  • Please note, multiple challenges could be selected

It’s not a surprise that many firms are struggling with the same issue. But it’s not hopeless. Asset managers can easily tap into subsets of behavioral data to drive distribution efficiency.  

How to tap into behavioral data

Let’s use sales teams as an example. We recently partnered with an emerging asset manager in a niche corner of the alternatives market to improve their sales performance. With a small team, their sales department was stretched thin chasing leads. They knew they had a good product, but getting momentum was proving challenging; they were burning valuable time and resources pursuing cold leads and dead ends.

By leveraging our third-party behavioral data, their sales team was able to better identify and prioritize interested advisors when prospecting. We provided them with access to third-party data from a large proprietary pool of financial advisors, and an outsourced analysis of that data. 

With this information, our partner: 

  • Obtained a list of financial advisor leads who, through digital engagement and behavioral data, had indicated interest in related products – including competitor products, as well as their own. 
  • Prioritized this list based on engagement – leveraging a proprietary engagement score that ranks and weights different types of actions. 
  • Identified which advisors were looking into alternatives and eliminated advisors who had no interest in the alternative space. 

By focusing sales teams’ outreach efforts to prospects who have shown some interest, asset managers can shorten sales cycles and ensure distribution resources are operating efficiently. 

 “We were able to secure five qualified opportunities in our pipeline and got four additional meetings set. 

There was a clear connection to engagement. We knew they were looking at our funds and funds like ours, and that made it easy for us to get our message in front of them.”  

Value of data partnerships

Finding partnerships that enhance data utilization or provide data clarity can be highly beneficial. Whether you are a small team striving for efficiency or a larger institution seeking a competitive edge, using data to streamline your sales cycle can drive growth in AUM. VettaFi offers data and analytics services that can help asset managers elevate their products to the next level. 

Interested in learning how to partner with us? Click here. 

“Behavioral data” has become a popular term. In this guide, we will help you fully understand not only what behavioral data is, but how it can be deployed to improve marketing efficiency and grow your AUM.

What is behavioral data?

Behavioral data refers to information collected about the actions, activities, and habits of individuals or groups. Every action someone does online is a behavioral data touchpoint. Clicking on a link in an email or downloading a new app are discrete pieces of behavioral data. You can also think of digital behavioral data as “digital body language.” 

This type of data is often gathered through various methods such as tracking online activities, observing consumer interactions or monitoring user engagement with digital platforms. Organizations collect and analyze behavioral data to gain insights into consumer preferences, habits, and trends. This information is valuable to make informed decisions in areas such as marketing, product development, user experience optimization, and personalized recommendations. However, it’s important to handle behavioral data ethically and responsibly, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations and maintaining transparency about data collection practices.

Businesses are harnessing behavioral data to better understand and reach current and prospective customers.

 

Today, financial advisors have access to an extensive array of investment products to create precise portfolios for their clients. For asset managers, however, this creates a challenge. 

Breaking through the noise and reaching prospective advisors and investors is harder than ever. In this guide, we’ll help you better connect with financial advisors.

Don’t sacrifice long-term success for short-term wins

Aside from the challenge of standing out in a crowded field, asset managers are contending with product fee compression. Profit margins are being squeezed, and sales and marketing teams are increasingly pressured to prove their value and justify their spend. 

As such, we see marketing teams lean into  lower–funnel tactics at an accelerating rate and drop brand–building programs from their media mix. Why?

Lower-funnel measures can tie more easily and closely to sales, making reporting back to management on the results of marketing spend easier. 

Unfortunately, this can come at an expense over the long term. Marketers are trading success that compounds over time for easy, short-term wins today. Full-funnel approaches are critical to driving long-term success. Every stage of the funnel has a role to play in your media mix, and if designed correctly, they will work together to convert prospects into clients. 

Once you realize the importance of the full funnel, the next step is optimizing your campaigns by leveraging data smartly and finding the right partnerships to continue your growth journey.