Company: RMS and Equilibrium Asset Management Campaign: Adding up financial success Category: Financial PR Campaign of the Year - North - WINNER Objectives Equilibrium Asset Management is one of the leading wealth management advisers in the North West, providing bespoke wealth management services ranging from pension planning, stocks and shares to inheritance management. The firm had ambitious targets for 2012: - To grow its high net worth client base and increase the number of £1million plus portfolios under its management - Attract a younger set of clients aged below 60 - Raise awareness of the work its charitable foundation was carrying out in the North West - Launch an office in Knutsford RMS has been working with Equilibrium since 2010 on a retained base. Taking on board these targets RMS developed a PR campaign for 2012 which would: 1. Establish Equilibrium as thought leaders in the national and regional financial press on investment matters for high net worth’s 2. Secure 50 new clients under the age of 60 3. Position Equilibrium as a key business in the local community 4. Profile the donations and fundraising activities of the Equilibrium Foundation 5. Raise the profile of Equilibrium in the Knutsford area  and attract 20 new clients from the area Strategy and Target Audience RMS took a fully integrated communications approach to the 2012 strategy, using media case studies, topical commentary, expert financial advice, business success stories, and community competitions to achieve the PR objectives. Through a mix of everyday media relations and specific campaigns, three main audiences were targeted: - High net worth individuals in Cheshire - Successful business professionals in the North West - Affluent members of the Knutsford community Action Thought leaders RMS: - Monitored the personal finance and investment agenda and provided up-to-date and insightful commentary and interviews to national personal finance journalists and the IFA trade press on tax, pension , investments and wealth management matters - Worked with Equilibrium to developed client high net worth case studies with interesting investment portfolios for the money pages of the national press Business profiling and attracting younger clients RMS: - Through media relations with business titles in the North West,  profiled Equilibrium’s new services, appointments and business success stories - Secured business profiling opportunities for managing partner, Colin Lawson, in local media - Ensured Equilibrium provided regular commentary on wealth and investment matters specifically to the North West business press Community work and the Equilibrium Foundation RMS: - Developed an art competition called ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees’ with a local high school to pass on advice to children about importance of saving in a creative environment - Launched a fantasy investment league in a local private school to educate pupils on the investment market and raise awareness of Equilibrium’s services to parents - Entered Equilibrium into the community category of Cheshire Business Awards for its charitable work through the Equilibrium Foundation - Worked in partnership with the charities who received donations from the Equilibrium Foundation to developed news stories on how donations were being spent Raising the profile in Knutsford RMS: - Ran, in partnership with the Knutsford Guardian, the Knutsford Community Hero competition to recognise and reward people in Knutsford who go above and beyond in making Knutsford a better place to live Results Headline results - To date in 2012, RMS has secured 156 pieces of coverage for Equilibrium with a total AVE of £483,569 and 5,598,113 opportunities to see - Equilibrium has increased the assets under its management by more than £40million and has a range of new clients with portfolios up to £5million - For Quarter One 2012/13 (August – Nov 12) Equilibrium has secured £20million of new assets, half the 2012/13 target in one quarter alone Thought leaders - For the first time in its 15 years  Equilibrium was featured in the Financial Times Private Client Wealth Management Money Guide - Equilibrium is now one of the first ports of call for national personal finance journalists and the financial trade press - Commentary, case studies and interviews from Equilibrium are regularly featured in titles such as The Times, Money Observer, The Sunday Times,  FT Adviser, New Model Adviser, Citywire, Investment Week, Money Marketing and Investors Chronicle Business profiling and attracting younger clients - Regular business stories and investment advice were included in North West Business Insider, TheBusinessDesk, Greater Manchester Business Week, Manchester Evening News business pages and NW Entrepreneur magazine - Equilibrium has 75 new clients under the age of 60 Community work and the Equilibrium Foundation - The Equilibrium Foundation donated more than £25,000 to 20 different charities and groups - Local titles such as Wilmslow Express, Macclesfiled Express, Cheshire Independent, Manchester Evening News consistently ran Equilibrium charity  stories - The school initiates were profiled in local titles such as the Stockport Express, InCheshire  and Living Edge magazine - Equilibrium won the community award in the Cheshire Business Awards Raising the profile in Knutsford - For over 10 weeks the Knutsford  Community Hero competition was featured in the Knutsford Guardian and hundreds of local people voted - Equilibrium business stories were regularly featured in the Knutsford Guardian - The Knutsford office now has 55 clients Debbie Jukes, partner at Equilibrium, said: “Having been initially apprehensive at committing to a PR budget, I’m delighted to say that RMS’ efforts have delivered tangible results for us with new clients secured directly due to coverage they’d read in the press – which of course was all down to RMS delivering what they said they would do.  They have uncovered lots of opportunities for us and ensured that there’s a regular mention of Equilibrium in both local and national press.  We’ve been pleasantly surprised by their success on our behalf and also the creative ideas they’ve suggested.  The recent Knutsford Community Hero award has achieved the objective of raising name awareness for our firm in a new target market much more effectively (in terms of cost and results) than we could have hoped for. RMS seems to be staffed by a bunch of talented, results-orientated and professional friendly faces who are great to work with!” The PRmoment Golden Hedgehog Awards 2014 are now open for entries. Here are this years updated categories.