Gregory FCA is proudly celebrating a pivotal moment in our history — recognition as the “Best US Public Relations and Communications Firm” by influential industry outlet ETF Express. Adding to the excitement, we saw our name emblazoned on the Nasdaq building in Times Square this week in proclamation of the honor.
This prestigious award is a testament to decades of diligently developing our financial services consultancy practice. Founded by current Gregory FCA President Joe Anthony soon after he joined the firm in 2002, our “finserv” department has since expanded to 40-plus dedicated professionals serving more than 50 clients in the space nationwide.
Finserv focus
Amid other important verticals such as real estate, health care and cybersecurity, finserv has carved out a unique niche in our company of approximately 120 professionals, with Gregory FCA consistently ranking among the top financial PR agencies in the nation by O’Dwyer’s.
“Our business today is media relations, investor relations, social media, digital marketing, video, graphic design and content creation,” said Anthony. “We offer a well-rounded, integrated operation with teams of specialists to support our clients.”
ETF issuers represent a significant component of our finserv client base, with some of the most prominent names including Allianz, Amplify ETFs, GraniteShares and Pacer ETFs. In fact, our relationship with Sean O’Hara, president of Pacer ETFs, began more than 15 years ago when he worked with RevenueShares, our very first ETF client.
“RevenueShares hired us to promote their initial slate of ETFs,” Anthony shared. “We held our program kickoff right before New Year’s Eve in 2007 and they launched a financial sector ETF in early 2008, which felt crazy at the time given how troubled the markets were. That said, the subsequent trajectory of the markets made the launch look brilliant. When you launch products at what seems like the worst time, there can be a longer-term storytelling opportunity. There was a really strong interplay between two forces on that occasion — very entrepreneurial, which is exciting with big ideas, but also small budgets.”
Alternatively, when large-scale firms seek to promote ETFs in a smaller way, the specific public relations needs differ. But Gregory FCA prides itself on offering the versatility to accommodate a wide variety of client objectives.
“If someone wants to dominate the ‘hot’ space, such as buffer funds, they look to PR to advance their growth objectives, but also to drown out the opposition,” noted Anthony.
Integrated initiatives
He also finds that typical ETF issuers today are still very interested in traditional media relations, which can work well in tandem with digital marketing initiatives.
“It’s two-pronged media relations with a digital presence, so we’re doing SEO work and also looking at digital distribution via influencers,” Anthony explained. “They want the short strokes to hit target audiences in a way that is not traditional PR.”
Amid driving factors like the pandemic and resulting widespread transition to remote or hybrid work, digital marketing is likely to play an even greater role moving forward.
“Prospects or clients might say they want a PR campaign based on what they did five years ago, but they’re often interested in the digital aspect too,” said Anthony. “If you were a startup issuer, it used to be $40,000 over six months for PR. Now it’s $80,000-$100,000 if they want to play on a full-scale basis, since the digital piece has become so prevalent.”
We take great pride in the accomplishments of our ETF clients, with just one impressive example being Pacer’s recent milestone of reaching $20 billion in assets. Pacer is now an eight-year-old firm and industry success story, but Gregory FCA still caters to new entrants in the ETF space as well.
“We worked with a fund that went from $3 million to over $100 million in less than a year,” Anthony noted. “We’re not the bottom of the funnel ourselves, but like to think of ourselves as part of the winning formula.”
Always improving
Gregory FCA recently reinforced its strong commitment to the ETF industry by paying for our first cohort of staffers to take the Certified ETF Advisor training course offered by the ETF Institute. To date, eight of our employees have completed this course to earn the prestigious CETF® credential, with several others nearing certification.
“We have about 45 people in our finserv department right now, and our goal is for each of them to eventually earn CETF® certification,” concluded Anthony. “There can be no shred of doubt in the industry that we’re the PR agency most committed to knowing and serving the ETF space.”
- Please contact us to learn more about how Gregory FCA can help with your public relations and marketing needs.