Investment Manager Ninety One Shows 'Change is Inevitable' in Campaign

Anglo-South African investment manager Ninety One launches targeted campaign, ‘Change is Inevitable’, to establish itself as a modern and relevant partner for British financial intermediaries seeking to navigate times of change. ‘Change is Inevitable’ is the first campaign targeting a UK financial audience and builds on Ninety One’s long-term brand platform ‘Investing for a world of change’ established in 2020.

In March 2020, Ninety One demerged from Investec Group, establishing themselves as an independent entity under the brand platform, ‘Investing for a world of change’, and launched the campaign ‘The Times That Made Us, Named Us’, which were both developed by Publicis•Poke. The investment manager’s new name and positioning reflect its heritage and expertise, having been established in South Africa in 1991. The firm is dual-listed on the London and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges, with £140 billion in assets under management as at 30 September 2021. Since 2019, integrated creative agency Publicis•Poke has acted as Ninety One’s global brand strategy partner.

Building on the successful global launch of its new brand identity, Ninety One is launching the ‘Change is Inevitable’ campaign to support its growth ambitions in the UK.  The campaign will drive awareness and understanding of Ninety One’s ‘change’ proposition to financial intermediaries as the business looks to tap into the private wealth sector. In a saturated market, the campaign aims to differentiate Ninety One by asserting that whilst ‘Change is Inevitable’, identifying the opportunities is not - that is where Ninety One can provide extensive insight, expertise and solutions to intermediaries.

The campaign leads with a series of five print executions featuring scenes juxtaposed with incongruous captions to show the humble origins of some of the world’s most significant and influential cultural changes. The striking scenes show how renewable energy vehicles before 1996 were horses, how social networking used to be clubbing in 1996, how libraries were our search engines in 1992, and whilst the significant changes that the scenarios heralded may seem obvious and inevitable, identify the associated investment opportunities they represent are not.

Courtney Waterman, head of creative marketing, Ninety One, said: “Change is constant, and is the only thing that is certain. This campaign challenges how we perceive change and the opportunities that can be born from it, in a thought-provoking and intelligent way”.

Dave Monk, executive creative director, Publicis•Poke, said: “If you’ve come from great change as Ninety One has, you understand how change works. ’Change is inevitable’ is a campaign that builds on the existing Ninety One foundations. It’s an idea that is not only timely, but timeless, lending itself to change and to evolve over time”.

The print executions will appear in both national and trade press such as Financial Times, The Economist and Bloomberg. The print media will also be supported by a film of the same scenes, iterations of which will be served across VOD, social and display. Finance sector specialist media agency Fundamental is handling the media planning and buying for the campaign. 

The campaign will run until March 2022.