OppenheimerFunds Invites Investors to “Challenge Borders” in New Ad Campaign

OppenheimerFunds, a leading global asset manager, this month launched a series of new advertisements focused on the firm’s global investing expertise. The campaign will run across mobile, tablet, desktop and other applications and highlight the firm’s suite of global investment products by leveraging imagery and language that seek to challenge U.S. investors’ home market bias. 

“The average U.S. investor’s portfolio is overwhelmingly concentrated in U.S. equities and bonds despite the fact that more than three quarters of the world’s economic output comes from the rest of the world,” said John McDonough, Head of Distribution and Marketing, OppenheimerFunds. “OppenheimerFunds has a proven history of helping clients broaden their horizons to find global opportunities that others might have missed.”

With the launch of its first global equity product in 1969, OppenheimerFunds is today one of the longest tenured and most well regarded global investment teams in the financial industry. The firm manages $250 billion in assets, including a broad array of solutions to meet a diverse set of investor needs, with $140 billion in assets under management in its global fixed income, and global, international and developing markets equities strategies (as of March 30, 2018). The team focuses on leveraging long-term structural growth tailwinds such as mass affluence, new technology, restructuring and aging to identify investment opportunities for clients.

“Powerful demographic and economic shifts are stimulating growth around the world,” said George Evans, CIO of Equities at OppenheimerFunds. “The unprecedented expansion of the global middle class, for example, means that more people have moved from needs to wants. We look for companies globally that are well positioned to benefit from these shifting spending patterns.”

The ad campaign is built on the foundation of OppenheimerFunds’ award-winning Challenge the Index communications platform launched in 2017. One ad set to launch in mid-June, entitled “Cowboy,” depicts a man at work in a wheat field. The viewer might assume the scene takes place in the American heartland, until the man turns around to reveal a Chinese cityscape in the background. The ad copy reads, “America is 24% of global GDP. Want to meet the other 76%?”

“Our Challenge Borders ads creatively reveal how investment opportunity can transcend language and culture,” said Erik Schneberger, Head of Marketing, OppenheimerFunds. “The imagery is intended to challenge U.S. investors’ perceptions and encourage them to see long term benefit beyond regional or sector-focused home bias.”

The Challenge Borders ads lead clients, which include financial advisors, broker dealers, RIAs, high-net-worth and institutional clients, to an Interactive Global Investing digital experience with stories that illustrate the firm’s global investment themes and related products. The campaign’s creative work was led by agency partner MRM/McCann.