Over 70% of a typical U.S. investor's portfolio is concentrated in U.S. equities and bonds, yet more than three quarters of global economic output comes from the rest of the world. This is called home bias. And if you have home bias, your investments are missing out on a world of opportunity.
OppenheimerFunds is a global asset manager that has been serving investors with investment strategies for over 60 years. The brand needed to make a case for why global investments are necessary for an investment portfolio, and in an extremely cluttered investment landscape, they needed to find the right way for investors to engage with their perspective.
In 2018, OppenheimerFunds, which prides itself on differentiated, first-to-market advertising strategies, assessed the category to find the white space. Podcast consumption has been on the rise and yet are a rarity to the asset management industry. Further, competitor podcasts that do exist tend to lack the high-quality storytelling that makes this medium successful.
OppenheimerFunds looked to leverage the power of storytelling to persuade their target to think differently about the global economy. Being known in the industry for their global investment knowledge and tenured investment teams, the brand had a lot of interesting stories to tell.
OppenheimerFunds partnered with a company known in the podcast industry for innovative, high-quality, award-winning shows to bring their stories to life. Through a partnership with Gimlet Media, Megatrends was a born, a series that transports listeners around the globe to explore the trends that are shaping how our world does business. The 6-episode miniseries educates investors on compelling, tangible investment opportunities in 20 minutes or less, and features conversational interviews with OppenheimerFunds' investment professionals and outside experts who live the ins and outs of the trends explored.
OppenheimerFunds knew a host could make or break the show. They needed to find someone who was charismatic and progressive, yet wouldn't be questioned on his or her investment acumen. Maneet Ahuja, CNBC producer and Wall Street veteran, proved to be the perfect voice to navigate and translate complex investment trends into stimulating stories for investors of all ages.
The show was promoted across other business and finance podcasts, as well as OppenheimerFunds' paid social channels, to generate buzz and downloads.
Within three months of launch and with only one month of paid promotion, Megatrends garnered over 27,000 downloads and a 91 percent episode completion rate, proving that investors were engaged with OppenheimerFunds' global investing stories. Listeners called the podcast "engaging", "smart" and "inspiring", and asked for more episodes shortly after the series concluded. Given Megatrends' success, OppenheimerFunds plans to resume paid promotion of the show in February to gain further momentum in the show's quick-to-grow following.
