I’ve held several different roles at S&P Capital IQ during different phases of its corporate evolution.  I started at what was then Standard & Poor’s as the head of marketing for the Equity Research business, which was itself restructuring at the time.  The research was purchased and used by wealth management firms and financial advisors, delivered to them via feeds or our platform, MarketScope Advisor.  While our marketing followed a B-to-B-to-C pattern since decision makers at these firms were not the users, we still needed to appeal directly to the users, who would then influence the decision makers.  So we introduced products and enhancements in a broadly integrated fashion.

MarketScope Advisor Product Launch

S&P created a new browser-based platform to reach Financial Advisors.  We supported the launch with an integrated marketing program, leveraging new channels and disciplines, as well as completely re-vamped creative. We appealed directly to them by advertising in advisor publications – online and print – with a free trial offer.

The resulting impact on awareness and lead generation was significant and formed the foundation for subsequent campaigns and product launches.

Social Media

My group was one of the first to leverage social media in our campaigns.  I saw it as an ideal way to support our strategy of increasing awareness and promoting our position as a thought leader.

We began slowly with several corporate Twitter accounts and then expanded our footprint to include several of our more well-known analysts and strategists. Since the context of Twitter was a personal one, we felt that individual analysts would have more impact than a corporate account, which could easily be seen as just another marketing pitch.

In the last year, we built up considerable momentum and now use Twitter and YouTube to promote events, publications and awards – fulfilling our original goal of increasing awareness and promoting thought leadership.