Design Consultancy
OTM UK
Matt Cowan
020 7478 4400
mattcowan@otmcreate.com
www.otmcreate.com
The Challenge
Man Investments, the asset management division of Man Group plc, manages £29billion (Euro 43billion) across almost 450 funds. Its flagship product, Man IP220, is a structured capital guaranteed investment product which achieved returns of 311% over a decade. In 2006 Man Investments wanted to build on this success by launching a new product, Man IP220 International, which gave investors the opportunity to invest in a domestically regulated product offering. The new fund aimed to raise a record amount globally and was internally dubbed the ‘billion dollar fund’.
The Brief
OTM were asked to create a suite of marketing materials with a design budget of under £50,000 (Euro 74,000). Branding had to be created which would emphasise the individuality of the product, subtly increasing awareness of Man’s products, but maintain strong endorsement from the parent brand. The materials for a global launch had to be engaging and easy to use – in addition to being compliant with the jurisdictional requirements of every region and printed to a tight deadline while maintaining exceptional levels of accuracy. And of course, for a ‘billion dollar fund’, all materials had to meet high management expectations of quality.
The Design
The creative solution, which launched in February 2006, has a controlled, contemporary and premium feel and stands out by using photo-realistic illustrations – a departure from previous products. As the sales team were legally prohibited from pre-selling the product, a pre-launch teaser campaign, featuring ‘Grand Cru’ Swiss chocolates built into a key-points brochure, celebrated the success of the flagship Man IP220 product while suggesting there was bigger and better to come.
The Results
When the offer period closed, the hedge fund had raised £1.2billion (Euro 1.8billion). This exceeded targets by 130% and is the largest sum ever raised from private clients for a single hedge fund product. On announcement of this figure, Man Group share price rose by 4.3%. The number of investor applications received stood at 3,321 – in comparison, a fund launched in the first quarter of 2005 attracted 1,509 applications. This was the first major product launch the newly-formed in-house artwork team at Man Investments worked on and this collaboration with OTM led to a cost saving for the client of 14%, with further savings of 43% made the following quarter.
Judges’ Comments
‘Not only looks fantastic, but influenced a share price rise’ was one judge’s comment. While Mark Allat, Director of Brand Image, Deloitte, praised the project for excelling ‘in a marketplace requiring the communication of complex, detailed information with very short timescales’.
