Objective and opinionated insights on current trends in corporate branding, advertising, marketing, sales, and PR communication strategies; all colored with pithy punditry and comments on the current events of the day.
The JLC Group is pleased to announce that Rareview Macro LLC, the Stamford, CT-based advisory and publisher of “Sight Beyond Sight”, a daily macro-strategy newsletter subscribed to by leading investment managers and hedge funds focused on global events and related investment strategy ideas and insights, has engaged JLC to advise the firm and implement a menu of brand awareness, business development, corporate public relations and marcom-centric initiatives.
Rareview Macro LLC principal Neil Azous is a 20-year financial industry veteran who, prior to forming Rareview, spent much of his professional career in senior, trading market strategy roles for the world’s leading investment banks. Since launching “Sight Beyond Sight” in late 2013, Mr. Azous has been frequently cited by leading industry news publications for his expert insight to global geo-political and macro-economic events impacting equities, fixed income, commodities and currency markets. In addition to proffering opportunistic, yet objective alpha-generating and risk mitigation ideas to highly-sophisticated investment managers and hedge funds, Mr. Azous also provides consultative portfolio management guidance to clients of Rareview Macro.
Now that Macau has become the gambling capital of the Far East, the Near
East, Western Europe and of course “The West”– all courtesy of the Las
Vegas legacy and Vegas-style, star-studded attractions emulated by every
casino venue on the Planet Earth, more than a few of Wall Street’s top
gaming industry’s analysts, along with the entertainment industry’s
branding gurus, Hollywood talent agents and corporate sponsorship sales
genies think its time to bet big that at least a handful of the major
Macau hotel/casino marketer will want to import Vince Van Patten,
aka World Poker Tour (WPT) Celebrity Spokesman/Star to promote their
venue. For those handicapping celeb spokespeople and Vegas caliber
whale-catchers, Vince is someone with more than a few extra cards up his
sleeve; aside from a 5-star celeb rating and for being the top gun calling the
shots at major poker tourneys broadcast to global viewers, Vince’s CV
includes his being a world-ranked professional tennis ace, a
celeb-pro-level golfer who is close-to-scratch-on-the links, thanks to a mean 9 iron, AND two dozen+
credits as a major film and TV actor.
Let’s not forget, Vince is without a doubt, one of the most
entertaining folks you’d ever want to cross paths with…Now, Vince Van Patten’s
lawyer/talent agent has tapped The JLC Group’s corporate sponsorship practice to
field inquiries from Macau-located major hotel/casino venue EVP marketers and
sponsorship execs who know that your deck needs to be stacked and that it
requires star power to rake in the whales, and in turn, the chips. If you fall
into that category, you’re cordially invited to dial us in; but only the smart
ones who know that American icon celebs are the biggest brand magnets for
high-rolling whales and your 4-star guests.
To Shelly Adelson’s exec team re
Sands Macao: Don’t stand on ceremony, even if your stock price keeps heading
higher; Vince is who you want on your team..sign him up now–before
one of your competitors shoes him in. All you need to do is watch the
sizzle reel below to know this is the safest bet you can make.
Let’s
not forget, Vince is without a doubt, one of the most entertaining
folks you’d ever want to cross paths with…Now, Vince Van Patten’s
lawyer/talent agent has tapped The JLC Group’s corporate sponsorship
practice to field inquiries from Macau-located major hotel/casino venue
EVP marketers and sponsorship execs who know that your deck needs to be
stacked and that it requires star power to rake in the whales, and in
turn, the chips. If you fall into that category, you’re cordially
invited to dial us in; but only the smart ones who know that American
icon celebs are the biggest brand magnets for high-rolling whales and
your 4-star guests. To Shelly Adelson’s exec team re Sands Macao: Don’t
stand on - See more at:
http://thejlcgroup.com/macau-hotel-casino-moguls-go-sign-tennis-ace-wpt-poker-celeb-vince-van-patten/#sthash.4DvIy3kI.dpuf
Let’s
not forget, Vince is without a doubt, one of the most entertaining
folks you’d ever want to cross paths with…Now, Vince Van Patten’s
lawyer/talent agent has tapped The JLC Group’s corporate sponsorship
practice to field inquiries from Macau-located major hotel/casino venue
EVP marketers and sponsorship execs who know that your deck needs to be
stacked and that it requires star power to rake in the whales, and in
turn, the chips. If you fall into that category, you’re cordially
invited to dial us in; but only the smart ones who know that American
icon celebs are the biggest brand magnets for high-rolling whales and
your 4-star guests. To Shelly Adelson’s exec team re Sands Macao: Don’t
stand on ceremony, even if your stock price keeps heading higher; Vince
is who you want on your team..sign him up now–before
one of your competitors shoes him in. All you need to do is watch the
sizzle reel below to know this is the safest bet you can make. - See
more at:
http://thejlcgroup.com/macau-hotel-casino-moguls-go-sign-tennis-ace-wpt-poker-celeb-vince-van-patten/#sthash.4DvIy3kI.dpuf
Let’s
not forget, Vince is without a doubt, one of the most entertaining
folks you’d ever want to cross paths with…Now, Vince Van Patten’s
lawyer/talent agent has tapped The JLC Group’s corporate sponsorship
practice to field inquiries from Macau-located major hotel/casino venue
EVP marketers and sponsorship execs who know that your deck needs to be
stacked and that it requires star power to rake in the whales, and in
turn, the chips. If you fall into that category, you’re cordially
invited to dial us in; but only the smart ones who know that American
icon celebs are the biggest brand magnets for high-rolling whales and
your 4-star guests. To Shelly Adelson’s exec team re Sands Macao: Don’t
stand on ceremony, even if your stock price keeps heading higher; Vince
is who you want on your team..sign him up now–before
one of your competitors shoes him in. All you need to do is watch the
sizzle reel below to know this is the safest bet you can make. - See
more at:
http://thejlcgroup.com/macau-hotel-casino-moguls-go-sign-tennis-ace-wpt-poker-celeb-vince-van-patten/#sthash.4DvIy3kI.dpuf
Let’s not forget, Vince is without a doubt, one of the most
entertaining folks you’d ever want to cross paths with…Now, Vince Van
Patten’s lawyer/talent agent has tapped The JLC Group’s corporate
sponsorship practice to field inquiries from Macau-located major
hotel/casino venue EVP marketers and sponsorship execs who know that
your deck needs to be stacked and that it requires star power to rake in
the whales, and in turn, the chips. If you fall into that category,
you’re cordially invited to dial us in; but only the smart ones who know
that American icon celebs are the biggest brand magnets for
high-rolling whales and your 4-star guests. To Shelly Adelson’s exec
team re Sands Macao: Don’t stand on ceremony, even if your stock price
keeps heading higher; Vince is who you want on your team..sign him up
now–before one of your competitors shoes him
in. All you need to do is watch the sizzle reel below to know this is
the safest bet you can make.
- See more at:
http://thejlcgroup.com/macau-hotel-casino-moguls-go-sign-tennis-ace-wpt-poker-celeb-vince-van-patten/#sthash.4DvIy3kI.dpuf
Now
that Macau has become the gambling capital of the Far East, the Near
East, Western Europe and of course “The West”– all courtesy of the Las
Vegas legacy and Vegas-style, star-studded attractions emulated by every
casino venue on the Planet Earth, more than a few of Wall Street’s top
gaming industry’s analysts, along with the entertainment industry’s
branding gurus, Hollywood talent agents and corporate sponsorship sales
genies think its time to bet big that at least a handful of the major
Macau hotel/casino marketer will want to import Vince Van Patten,
aka World Poker Tour (WPT) Celebrity Spokesman/Star to promote their
venue. For those handicapping celeb spokespeople and Vegas caliber
whale-catchers, Vince is someone with more than a few extra cards up his
sleeve; aside from a 5-star celeb rating and the top gun calling the
shots at major poker tourneys broadcast to global viewers, Vince’s CV
includes his being a world-ranked professional tennis ace, a
close-to-scratch-on-the links, thanks to a mean 9 iron, AND two dozen+
credits as a major film and TV actor.
Let’s not forget, Vince is without a doubt, one of the most
entertaining folks you’d ever want to cross paths with…Now, Vince Van
Patten’s lawyer/talent agent has tapped The JLC Group’s corporate
sponsorship practice to field inquiries from Macau-located major
hotel/casino venue EVP marketers and sponsorship execs who know that
your deck needs to be stacked and that it requires star power to rake in
the whales, and in turn, the chips. If you fall into that category,
you’re cordially invited to dial us in; but only the smart ones who know
that American icon celebs are the biggest brand magnets for
high-rolling whales and your 4-star guests. To Shelly Adelson’s exec
team re Sands Macao: Don’t stand on ceremony, even if your stock price
keeps heading higher; Vince is who you want on your team..sign him up
now–before one of your competitors shoes him
in. All you need to do is watch the sizzle reel below to know this is
the safest bet you can make.
- See more at:
http://thejlcgroup.com/macau-hotel-casino-moguls-go-sign-tennis-ace-wpt-poker-celeb-vince-van-patten/#sthash.4DvIy3kI.dpuf
Not 1, but 2 of The JLC Group’s clients were recognized for their excellence by a panel of financial industry peers who were assembled by top financial news media platform Pageant Media (which has 11 mastheads in their digital and print portfolio) to weigh ‘best-in-class’ service providers…in a competition that fielded 100 of Wall Street’s best known firms.
Taking home the gold medal in the category “Best Research/Broker-Dealer” the 2014 Wall Street Letter Institutional Trading Awards went to Mischler Financial Group–which also happens to be the industry’s oldest and largest minority firm owned and operated by service-disabled veterans.. ..
WallachBeth Capital LLC Mgn.Dir. Tom Quigley (l) accepts industry award for Best DMA Offerings
In the category “Best DMA (Direct Market Access) Offerings”, which recognizes top gun trading technology capabilities–a category typically over-weighted by firms whose names are ubiquitous across the global trading market landscape, the industry judges gave the gold to boutique execution specialist firm WallachBeth Capital. Runner ups were Bloomberg LP’s Tradebook, among others.
Both of above-noted firms were also “in the medal” and short-listed nominees for perhaps the most important of the WSL 2014 award 20 categories: “Best Client-Service/Broker-Dealer.” The winners were awarded their honors during a gala event attended by 250+ of Wall Street’s finest in NYC on Feb 24.
It seems the flavor of the week for marketing wonks is story-telling, which is necessarily the art of using metaphors to articulate what sets you apart from the rest. Enough can’t be said about the impact of using metaphors within a business setting, whether in the course of internal discussions to relay the importance of a new product or initiative, in a ‘client-facing’ mode, or my favorite: when making a large audience presentation.
Once you accept the above premise, here are some pointers:
The metaphor should necessarily be one that will resonate with your recipient.
Reminding us of the “know your customer/prospect rule.”
i.Before engaging in a dialogue,you either already posses, or you will research and capture as much intel (business as well as personal interests) that will enable you to make an educated guess when selecting appropriate metaphors that illustrate your value proposition.
ii.Even if you believe you know your customer, be deferential and solicit your target to share what his/her ‘hot buttons’ are.
iii.Present yourself as being objectively informed, not presumptuous as to the intentions/motivations and goals of your target.
7 Signs You Need A Metaphor
Your listener is confused.
Your client is stuck on an objection.
Your client sees no difference between you and your competition.
You want to drive home a point vividly and memorably.
If you’re outsourcing B2B and IR-related brand management services, you obviously want to use a firm (or expert consultant) that “gets it” when it comes to you, your business and what you want to accomplish, even before you do. Someone that is fluent in your industry, what you do within that industry, your competitors, your customer base, and most important: the most innovative ways to influence how your enterprise is perceived. You want someone that is both a corporate-level sales guru and marketing madman, and also sensitive to your cost/benefit concerns. And of course, someone you can trust to manage your expectations properly, which means they under-promise and over-deliver more often than not.
If you find yourself switching ‘agencies’ too often, or if you have ongoing frustration with what you expect vs. what you are getting from your ‘consultant’, its likely those vendors were (are) missing 3 of the most critical qualifications noted above.
Will somebody tell me why major news media outlets are hosting ‘experts’ to continuously debate the “rights” of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson??
I’ll tell you why-or rather, if only because nobody at CNBC knew how to put the issue into real perspective: its because Duck Dynasty has in just one year, become a $400 million annual revenue business. That’s right, the real story, not the reality TV version, is that the brouhaha that has since taken over any remaining intellect on the part of CNN’s programming team, is about money. Do-Re-Me. $400 million a year’s worth.
It is not about any so-called debate as to whether Phil Robertson’s constitutional rights have been violated; A&E, the network that airs this modern version of Beverly Hills Hillbillies, is a corporation whose business is business. Like any other entertainment company, they pay for content that entertains, but they reserve the right to cancel those payment agreements if they, in their sole determination, determine it is not in their best business interest to continue to broadcast said content. This happens when too many members of the audience voice their displeasure and protest, and in turn, causes sponsors/advertisers to cancel their agreements in conformance with standard clauses.
Let’s put this into perspective. The Ducksters attract the world’s biggest retailer’s audience. We’re talking about Walmart. Walmart is the store du jour every day of the week for a vast majority of our country’s underemployed, “economically-disenfranchised” and financially-challenged. This includes a vast population of rednecks such as the personas the Robertson family works hard at emulating. Along the way, their raking in $400 million a year (or at least their ‘brand’ is courtesy of multiple licensing, advertising and sponsorship deals on top of merchandising deals).
Which brings me back to the opening rhetorical: why are seemingly intelligent news organizations dedicating so much air time to this issue, and more important, why are they framing it as if A&E’s corporate decision should be misconstrued for being anything more than a corporate decision?
Is it because programming execs are focused on maintaining the highest standards of journalism, and reporting stories that have a meaningful impact on society? Do these media czars really and truly believe that this issue even deserves consideration for being a ‘constitutional rights’ debate? Help me by emailing me and telling me this can’t be true.
Or, have the lunatics taken over the asylum and we can attribute this latest insert into the news cycle for the latest rendition of an industry that is merely focused on serving up crap that advertisers are happy to underwrite, simply because the diners are zombies who happen to like eating crap and the other low-priced items those advertisers happen to sell?
By the way, the Ducksters and the folks at A&E are salivating because this ‘incident’ has just added a 2x factor to the value of the Duck Dynasty franchise. The major news networks will simply be remembered for their irresponsibility for profiling this most current example of human stupidity, while the Ducksters laugh all the way to the bank.
Courtesy of today’s WSJ, reporter Melissa Korn regurgitates an earlier story re: bootcamps for corporate bosses who, despite their leadership roles, remain clueless about social media technologies and best practices–whether blogging, tweeting or how to position yourself properly and leverage social networks.
Excerpts from the WSJ story below..the bold/italicized comment is the take-away–and one that every/any C-Suiter should subscribe to:
“….Boardroom commanders are being assigned to basic training….Fearful their companies will fall behind because top bosses don’t have a firm grasp of technology or digital media, senior managers are taking lessons on how the Internet works….
Some firms are pairing individual leaders with young mentors, while others are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach the entire c-suite how to use social tools that most of their entry-level employees use without a second thought…
The goal isn’t for the CEO to parse the difference between a “like” and “share” on Facebook or take a spin on the company TwitterTWTR -3.60% account, though that is covered, too. Rather, instructors and managers say, a basic understanding of the digital landscape helps leaders make better decisions about what to invest in, as well as how to talk about it…”
Below video provides insight courtesy of a “young-in” whose business is teaching grey-beards the ropes. Click here for the WSJ article
Its official, JLC Group, the corporate marketing, branding and advisory to disruptive thought-leaders is now accepting Bitcoin in connection with payment for services, or if you simply want to send us some.
Yes, those of you who remain skeptical re: use of bitcoin in lieu of government issued currency are justified for wanting to wait until bitcoins become ubiquitous, i.e. when PayPal creates a means to transact with bitcoin, or when FaceBook Bank opens for business (the latter is an idea that we proposed last year, but has not yet resonated with FB execs), or when Jeff Bezos bites into the bitcoin apple.
All of that said, we like to be part of first-mover movements, particularly those that exhibit all of the signs of disrupting (in a positive way) the way in which do business. We were one of the first to extol the use of Google when it was still a garage project, we were a first-wave wonk re LinkedIn’s march to fame and fortune, and we’ve been way ahead of the curve when it comes to embracing video applications as a means of enhancing brand awareness and corporate value propositions.
Caveat: We don’t recommend speculating in bitcoins the way some folks speculate in FX or futures trading. That’s a fool’s errand!
Before you click on either of above, the take-away is that both articles coincidentally profile “this week’s weapon of choice” for today’s “Awareness Creators.”Both also profile derivative forms of what this blogger suggests is a time-proven, “before-there-were-neuroscientists” narrative/story telling approach.
Tag-lines are out; in-vogue are tactics that leverage multiple mediums (traditional, new, digital and social media) and deliver “short-burst” messages over a series of days (i.e. single frames from a film clip, using Twitter to link to upcoming scripts of a widely-promoted TV show (i.e.AMC’s upcoming “Mob City”), or a series of 15 second video vignettes that are ‘episodes’ that tell a story that subliminally promotes a brand
Regardless of the specific weapon of choice, the objective is to assault the target audience with a string of increasingly intriguing (short!) messages such that each subsequent ‘hit’ leads to increasing degrees of recall and resonance..such that your audience, desperate to know “what’s next” proactively seeks you out. That folks is a Holy Grail for the current Madmen Generation.
“..A new breed of social investment networking is popping up, with the aim of helping wealthy suitors and private-business owners meet up and pair off. Call them matchmakers for the deal market. What the networks do best is give buyers and sellers the rough equivalent of a well-lit meeting place for a first encounter. The networks are generally open to “accredited” investors, typically those with an annual income of at least $200,000 or $1 million in investible assets..”
Firms such as Axial.net, Zanbato and FDX Capital are catering to deep-pocketed investors looking to buy majority stakes in closely held firms by introducing investors to business owners seeking that kind of long-term investment commitment. Zanbato and FDX opened their doors in the past year or so, while Axial was formed in 2010.
Zanbato’s network, Zanbato Sutter, launched in the spring. It connects about 800 wealthy families, as well public pensions and sovereign-wealth funds, with potential deals in real estate, media and other sectors. The firm, in Mountain View, Calif., charges investors a fee based on the size of a completed deal, says Nico Sand, its chief executive.
As reported in the WSJ weekend edition, what better way for Citibank to burnish its brand and show its humanity than to have its London-based bankers and traders perform their acoustical skills by singing a heart-rendering version of Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” on BBC’s hit competition TV show, “The Choir” ?
The Citibank Singers not only perform one of Michael Jackson’s best, but the performance by the CitiTroupe was apparently so compelling, clips from their performance are scheduled to be used in the opening of each segment of the show’s Season 2 (which premieres Mon Dec 2).
Ironically, BBC2′s website indicated that none of the promo clips for Season 2 were actually viewable online (yet), and as much as some might liken the snafu to less-than-customer-friendly experiences encountered when dealing with financial institutions (and/or with “healthcare.gov”), the clip to left offers great transparency (a quasi-popular phrase on Wall Street) i.e. the type of returns Citi staffers deliver when prompted to sing for their lunch. For the full story, click here to be redirected and watch the clips,
Well-demonstrated by a short list of Wall Street women recently awarded for their excellence and contributions to their respective organizations and to the communities they serve. We’re proud to be associated with one such winner.
Caleb Ferguson for The New York Times Dave Goldberg, left, Shane Snow and Joe Coleman founded Contently, which aims to be the “anticontent farm.”[/caption]
Kudos to NY Times’ David Karr re yesterday’s article profiling upstart company Contently, and narrowcasting on the increasing trend on the part of companies to disintermediate their intermediary media companies by creating [in-house] story-telling-style content and delivering this well-proven, brand value strategy directly to the consumer.
“..At a time when advertising is achieving diminishing returns and public relations has trouble breaking through, companies are learning the value of putting their names around — but not in the middle — of memorable stories.”
“..In 1947, General Electric had an in-house reporter telling the company’s stories — a guy named Kurt Vonnegut.”
“…the bar has been raised by companies like Red Bull, whose incredibly popular extreme sports videos almost make it seem like a media company that sells beverages on the side..”
Call it “brand positioning” or call it “spinning”, companies who aspire to innovate need to pull no punches and understand the art (and science) of telling stories as a means to ingratiate your targeted audience is a critical component to your overall brand messaging strategy.
This self-acclaimed expert re topic of spinning strongly advocates the successful and time-tested use of compelling story-telling as a means to inspire and influence your audience to respond to your story accordingly.
Kurt Vonnegut might have pioneered this corporate branding strategy for GE, but to truly appreciate how a good story can have a meaningful impact your audience is to consider the success of The Bible.
Thanks in part to the “financial crisis of 2008″…whose after-affects remain resonant in the minds and real lives of millions of people, this iconic brand has been the subject of countless critiques and criticism, including the re-purposing of their corporate name from Citibank to “Sh*%tyBank” by certain fun-loving anti-brand protagonists who believe that major banks care only about their bottom lines, and least of all, the consumers they exploit .
Even this blogger has, up until recently, been in the camp that decries the big banks that rest on the fine print that can’t be deciphered, and does everything to squeeze as much money as they can from the millions who have few alternatives re: credit card services. Until that is, last night, when I had an encounter via phone with a Citibank rep in connection with a notice I received about a credit pending to my account with regard to a Citi-promoted credit protection service I had apparently subscribed to during the 2000-2004 period.
The phone number included in the mailing directed me to a lovely lady who answered with “Hi, I’m Cathy xxx (no need to broadcast her last name here)…”I’m your Citi representative based here in Orlando, Florida and I’m here to help you..”
1. The Citi script was perfect..it provided subliminal comfort by immediately informing me I was speaking with someone here in the US (when one typically finds themselves speaking with an outsourced call center staffer with less-than perfect grasp of English and located in a different hemisphere) and their mission was to help me.
2. Before I could fully pose my query in connection with the notification, “Cathy” had my entire Citi history dispalyed on a screen in front of her, and immediately told me why I was calling and explained that I would be receiving a credit to my account that very evening.
3. After that’ business’ was concluded, Cathy offered to address any other concerns I might have. So, I figured that I should raise the issue of the usurious interest rate that seemed to be stuck to my corporate credit card account for the past 5 years. Cathy placed me on hold for 2 minutes and then came back on line, this time with her associate “Angela (whose last name is not necessary to post on the internet), who introduced herself in the same way Cathy did and told me where she was located (Atlanta).In less than 5 minutes, Angela advised me that she was authorized to reduce my annual interest rate by 30%, a change that if accepted, would be implemented immediately.
I had actually attempted to secure the same type of reduction for each of the past 4 years, with barely a budge in the rate. Angela made me feel like a VIP and we proceeded to talk about sports teams and the weather in the northeast vs. southeast. Bottom line? I had 2 different experiences with 2 different Citi employees in 2 different locations, working in 2 different departments. Both of those engagements left me with a warm and cozy feeling and I now tip my hat to Citi for flawless customer service.
The media has convinced us all that Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama’s designated point person re the implementation of the government website to support the Affordable Care Act, should be fired for failing to have taken a much more intelligent and well-informed approach to manage the design and roll out of the federal government ‘web portal’ intended to be used for signing up millions of Americans who need affordable healthcare.
After all, we all now know the roll-out hasn’t been simply ‘soft’, the snarled software project has increasingly becoming a harbinger of potentially much worse to come: the possible failure to sign up a minimum number of people required to prove the basic economic thesis of ACA.
This writer has been involved in multiple, enterprise-level technology initiatives over the past 20 years. Most have been related to the financial industry or the insurance industry. Mission critical stuff that has been the backbone to $ multi-billion industries. The most important thing I learned is that software is called software for a reason, and this particular project is particularly complex when considering the the number of independent federal and state government databases, as well as insurance company exchange member platforms that need to be linked and synced in order to make the platform work.
That said, when HHS Secretary says “we’re now going to bring in an A-team of technology experts to fix this..”, that’s when heads need to roll, starting with this Secretary–who along the way, has embarrassed herself by appearing on late night comedy talk shows.
Rule #1 re PR Crisis Management: Get out in front of the problem the moment it arises. DO NOT LET THE MEDIA MANIPULATE THE STORY WHILE YOU ARE TOO BUSY HOLDING INTERNAL STAFF MEETINGS DEBATING ON WHAT TO SAY TOMORROW IN RESPONSE TO YESTERDAY’S TWEETS.
Rule #1 re Leadership: DO NOT POINT FINGERS, DO NOT BURY YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND, DO NOT CLAIM TO BE “WAITING ON INTERNAL REPORTS THAT WILL IDENTIFY WHO SCREWED UP”…INSTEAD…YOU NEED TO MAKE AN EXECUTIVE PRO-ACTIVE DECISION AND IMMEDIATELY RECRUIT THE VERY MOST RESPECTED PROBLEM SOLVERS, REGARDLESS OF “ADDITIONAL COST”.
Known for being secretive and stealth in the course of managing Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, Ray Dalio has been called many things; we know him for (among other things) being someone who embraces video, and uses this tool to extend a broad assortment of messages…including the one below that targets the universe of investors.
Sight, Sound and Motion…a time-tested tool that makes your message resonate.
As noted in today’s NYT DealBook story, start-up “Fantex Holdings” is a new trading exchange backed by executives from Silicon Valley, Wall Street and the sports world that can enable investors to buy and sell equity interests in professional athletes, and ultimately, entertainment industry celebrities. The vision is that investors can participate in the revenue generated by these individual ‘brands’ by virtue of owning stock in them.
[For those not familiar with the machinations of Wall Street, the inspiration to this concept comes from the 1990's, when a financial industry genius created "Bowie Bonds"--a bond issue that paid interest from current of future revenue of albums from rock star David Bowie..]
The latest iteration from Fantex (whose execs include a former West Point grad-turned megamillionaire after selling a software company for $600 mil, a former partner of VC firm Benchmark Capital, a former Goldman Sachs exec and now partner of hedge fund Glenview Capital and a former technology wizard from E*Trade), envision Fantex as the ‘hub’ for IPOs and secondary market trading of ‘stocks’ whose underlying value is the revenue generated by the individual ‘brand’ celeb. Sponsorship gurus will necessarily have an ‘axe’ in the equity value of the athletes, as its the sponsors who will serve as a primary source of revenue to that ‘brand’.
If the whole idea sounds convoluted and potentially subject to ‘gaming’, this “pontificator” says:
1. Brilliant Idea. I’d like to be the agent that is selling stock in those athletes.
2. When will Fantex facilitate selling shares in politicians? Once that happens, it will become a lobbyist’s wet dream.
3. Sounds like the SEC will have one more asset class to monitor. Rots of Ruck
The JLC Group is pleased to announce that Rareview Macro LLC, the Stamford, CT-based advisory and publisher of “Sight Beyond Sight”, a daily macro-strategy newsletter subscribed to by leading investment managers and hedge funds focused on global events and related investment strategy ideas and insights, has engaged JLC to advise the firm and implement a menu of brand awareness, business development, corporate public relations and marcom-centric initiatives.
