Although banks put tons of money and resources into their advertising campaigns, advisors at the bank-owned investment dealers say they want distinct and separate strategies for their businesses. But as the banks dither on making this a priority, it’s giving the boutiques and the regional and independent brokerages an opportunity to pick up the marketing ball and run with it.

As a result, when it comes to performance ratings, advisors at the six bank-owned firms gave their firm’s consumer advertising an average score of 6.2 in the 2008 Brokerage Report Card, while advisors at all the other brokerages rated their firm’s advertising an average of 6.9. The boutiques as a group, though, were tops, with a rating of 8.5.

So, firms that are looking to improve their consumer marketing campaigns could take a cue from the top-ranking boutique — and this year’s overall leader in consumer advertising — Richardson Partners Financial Ltd. The Toronto-based firm blew away the competition with a score of 9.1 in the category, a significant improvement over the 7.1 rating it received last year.

“We already have a great reputation built on the credibility and respect of the Richardson family,” says the firm’s president and CEO, Sue Dabarno. “The family and senior management regularly attend client events, and advisors are always out in the community. We have a comprehensive media strategy that we think will raise our profile.”

That media strategy was kicked into high gear last year with the Richardson family’s 150th-anniversary celebrations, during which the firm told the story of the Richardson family’s legacy in business to the Canadian media. Most of the firm’s advisors pegged that campaign as the reason for giving the firm top marks.

A Richardson Partners advisor in Ontario calls the campaign “tremendous public relations.”

A colleague in Ontario adds: “People don’t open accounts because of ads. But the 150th-anniversary ads were good.”

The other boutiques and independent firms were not to be outdone, however. They used print ads, corporate sponsorships and television commercials to keep themselves in the public eye.

Vancouver-based Leede Financial Markets Inc. , a firm limited to Western Canada, does little to no advertising year-round, but uses its Calgary Stampede party to raise its profile. “Our Stampede party is the best in town every year,” says a Leede Financial advisor in Alberta who gave his firm a rating of 9.5 in the category, vs the 5.3 score it garnered overall. “It actually goes a long way for business.”

As for the national independents, Edward Jones has the highest-profile advertising campaign, rating an 8.6 in the category. The firm draws in business with its national TV commercials, as well as with more localized efforts such as print ads and community outreach programs.

But while advisors say having an advertising campaign is important to business development, they recognize the costs of such publicity. “We do very little advertising and I’d like to see more,” says a Leede Financial advisor in British Columbia. “But, then again, it’s my money they’re spending on it.”

With that in mind, firms are putting greater emphasis on making advisors the face of their practices in their respective communities. It’s considerably cheaper than a broader campaign, so many firms are either splitting the cost with their advisors or shouldering the entire expense of marketing support — something advisors rated for the first time this year, with an average importance score of 7.6 and a performance score of 7.5.

Toronto-based Blackmont Capital Inc. is the prime example of this. The firm’s entire advertising effort is built around its advisors. Blackmont supports its advisors in any way they need, from in-house graphic artists and copywriters to computer-age efforts such as podcasts and their own TV segments on the Business News Network.

“We can individualize in a big firm,” says a Blackmont advisor in Ontario, “and brand ourselves as the advisors we choose to be.”

The bank-owned firms would also prefer to invest their marketing dollars on advisors rather than on ad campaigns. “We have never really found advertising to be that effective,” says Hamish Angus, head of ScotiaMcleod Inc. in Toronto. “I don’t think advisors would say that that’s where we should be investing the firm’s money. We’ve looked to the advisor to be the face in the community.”

@page_break@But while advisors look favourably on receiving marketing support, they say it is not a substitute for the campaigns they want their firms to launch — apart from their parent bank’s advertising initiatives.

“Scotiabank does a good job, but ScotiaMcLeod doesn’t,” says a ScotiaMcLeod advisor in Alberta. “And people don’t make the connection.”

That sentiment was echoed by advisors at all the bank-owned firms. A TD Waterhouse Private Invest-ment Advice advisor in Quebec says that the parent bank’s advertising “doesn’t clearly separate TD Waterhouse.”

A CIBC Wood Gundy advisor in Ontario says, “I see a lot of CIBC, but not much of Wood Gundy.”

However, there’s a true disconnect between what advisors want and what the bank-owned firms are willing to do. The firms don’t see much value in broad advertising campaigns.

“We don’t aspire to have National Bank Financial Ltd. become a household name,” says Gordon Gibson, senior vice president and managing director of the Montreal-based firm. “The amount we would have to spend to achieve this would simply involve unacceptable compromises in other areas. And surveys confirm that advertising is a poor way of attracting new clients.”

And while this disconnect exists, it will continue to plague the bank-owned firms. NBF advisors, for instance, rated their firm’s consumer advertising a lowly 4.5, the worst among the bank-owned firms but rated it a 6.1 in importance. IE