Peregrine Communications is an international, asset management marketing communications specialist, providing brand building, brand protection and lead generation services to help clients grow AUM. It has been delivering integrated marketing communications for hedge funds since 2002, supporting an increasingly international client base from its primary offices in London and New York.
Factor in that Peregrine has a bench of senior advisors, including Savuti's founder, Ben Scales, Tim Bell, former Head of Alternatives at UBS, and Rob Allard, former head of structured products at Goldman Sachs, and one can appreciate the weight of expertise Peregrine clients have at their disposal.
At Peregrine, they use experience and analytics to understand how each piece of marketing communications fits into the overall business strategy. The construction of a website, social media management, digital advertising; each one plays its role in building a brand and growing AUM. Being able to create effective campaigns that reach the right audience by delivering meaningful insights using a variety of communication channels has become a key requirement for fund managers, as they look to stand out from the crowd, especially for those offering UCITS versions of their offshore strategies.
"There are an increasing number of US and UK hedge fund managers offering these vehicles and they need help with marketing because even if they are on a platform, they are not necessarily getting a lot of support," says Anthony Payne, Chief Executive. "Investors into UCITS are very different to those who invest in offshore hedge funds and tend to be located across multiple geographies. Therefore, building insights into who the investors are, how they break down into different types, different geographies, and then determining the best channel(s) to deliver tailored messaging is very important."
If one considers the offshore hedge fund market it is becoming increasingly saturated. There are now more than 11,000 hedge funds. In the US regulated '40 Act fund space, it's double that number.
For hedge funds diversifying into the regulated marketplace, it is vital to have a robust brand strategy "that articulates their story, demonstrates their edge, but at the same educates investors. For the most part, hedge funds buy in to the underlying notion of market transparency and external communications but to be effective they need to work with specialists that have the requisite expertise in crafting that message, and building a comprehensive marketing communications strategy," adds Max Hilton, who heads up Peregrine's New York office.
For a specialist like Peregrine, building greater insights is partly a response to the fact that clients are increasingly asking for tracking and analytics. "Getting more insights on the end investors, packaging content effectively, working on websites, marketing collaterals, branding; all the packaging that goes into building excellent thought leadership. This is something we have developed with our clients quite a lot over the last 12 months," says Payne.
To help build greater insights, Peregrine has established joint ventures with FCA-regulated Savuti Capital, a marketing services firm which has built a global network of institutional investors, and White Spider Media, a media planning and buying agency. "We are in the process of building software with White Spider, which will track interest areas on Twitter and other social media channels and allow us to see in real time what IFAs and intermediaries are interested in.
"The point to this is that we can help our clients to build content that investors actually want to hear about, rather than what they think they want to hear about," stresses Payne
