As our nation’s elected leaders debate the financial bailout and investors anxiously reset their expectations of their investments and plans, financial services marketing and communications will face heightened scrutiny. It’s unknown how the current situation will be resolved or when. But, it’s a safe bet that there will be a hue and cry for greater transparency and disclosure from all money-taking organizations.

Transparency and disclosure? That implies Web-delivered. In these days how companies appropriate their Web sites and prepare content to be syndicated for use on other sites will be a differentiatior. The investment management industry has invested millions in time and effort to build out tidy publishing platforms capable of supporting product stories and investor account access. Now is the time to tap the speed-to-market capability afforded by these platforms to support a continuous stream of relevant communications. (“Relevant” is the operative word here—companies with emails in the queue touting Morningstar rating updates may want to rethink either their timing or messaging. Many believe the financial world changed last week.)

A commitment to communicating portends additional collaboration and creativity between Marketing, Investment and Compliance groups in order to achieve greater transparency and disclosure while complying with the regulations (which no one believes will become less stringent!). IT, too, may need to be drawn in as Marketing favors richer media over HTML-based messages.

Having listened to several asset managers’ market podcasts over the weekend, I’d submit the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds’ On the Trading Desk as a best practice for transparency. The September 19 podcast featured Peter Nulty, writer and editor of Wells’ daily and Thomas J. Pence, Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager, Wells Capital Management, and included a review of the events of the tumultuous week and an outlook. It’s informal, engaging, informative and shows none of the stiltedness that can characterize much of our regulated communications. I almost forgot that the producer was an investment manager—well done!

The following articles are a sampling of what the media has had to say in the last few days about financial services advertising:

• In Scary Times, Advertising Firms Offer Messages of Strength, September 21, New York Times
• Memo to Marketing: Cut the Bull From Wall Street Ads, September 20, Washington Post
• Financial Services Firms’ Ads Mum on Wall St. Chaos, September 19, Brandweek

How many visitors to your site are using Chrome, the browser Google launched as a beta in early September? It’s a good idea to download and use yourself just to see what your users see. (And you might like it.)

But the data can also serve as a proxy of your site users’ adoption of new “technology.” It could help influence the pace at which you introduce site innovations.

Now is the moment for financial services communicators whose work has never been more sought after–or more perishable as the progression of events forces a reconsideration almost every day.

We thought we’d give it until today (the Thursday following the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers, the sale of Merrill Lynch, the announced federal bailout of AIG, et cetera) to survey investment management sites and sample the commentary made available for customers and distribution partners.

(Of course, we expected each site to have a comment on their home page, front and center just as the crisis is front and center in the world today. And yet, a disappointing number of companies’ Web sites give the impression that they are oblivious–and not accountable to Web site visitors who mistake their site as a communications channel. Even worse are those whose home pages don’t mention the market decline but host product promotions that continue to flash and spin and roll. Translation: The Web site is no more than an electronic marketing brochure.)

At such a time, market commentary preparation and review hurdles may be somewhat easier to clear as the call center, sales staff, executive management all may be clamoring for Marketing “to update the Web site” or “provide something we can email.” Still, we acknowledge the focus and effort required for Marketing to secure the message from strategists or investment managers who themselves are adjusting their perspectives in real-time. To be communicating at a time when customers and partners are seeking your views is to be building your organization’s relevance in a marketplace in turmoil.

Here’s a random sampling of some of the asset management industry communications out there.

• By Wednesday morning, Fidelity Investments had published at least two market commentaries, including graphics (e.g., a diagram illustrating how large asset write-down can influence the capital base of a financial company).
• Vanguard's News and Media Center provides a peek into not only what Vanguard’s thinking but also what its investors value. By mid-day Thursday, almost 300 users had rated the Monday post, resulting in a composite 4 stars. A 4 ½-star video with Chief Investment Officer Gus Sauter, published Monday, topped Vanguard’s list of most viewed.
• The very first of ProFunds’ Frequently Asked Questions about Lehman Brothers and AIG–”Do you use Lehman Brothers as a SWAP counterparty?”–sheds some light on the sophistication of its investors.
• In one of its multiple pieces, Franklin Templeton provides its holdings in Lehman, Merrill Lynch, AIG, Bank of America and Washington Mutual as a percentage of its assets under management.
• In an essay titled, “Wall Street, Heal Thyself,” Calvert Investments provides a narrative dated September 17 about the events’ impact on both its equity and bond funds.
• While most of the commentary is in HTML or .pdf format, Van Kampen offers a few podcasts.

Is there a company whose communications leadership you’re admiring during this time? While we realize that your employer may limit your ability to comment on a blog, please email us with your thoughts. No comments will be attributed unless you give your express permission.

It rained all weekend in the Chicago area. That’s my excuse for why I ran a Google Trends search on “mutual funds.”

I really was just wasting time on Google Trends. It was idle curiosity that drove me to see how “Lehman” searches spiked recently and I also ran a Bear Stearns search, both just to confirm my suspicions that they’d probably enjoyed relative search obscurity until this year.

But then I ran a “mutual funds” search. Early Saturday morning, I’d read a Wall Street Journal article about the “ostrich effect,” which quoted Vanguard as reporting that their mutual fund shareholders checked their account values far less often in June than they did in mid- to late 2007, when the market was up.

Typically, search volume is believed to be a proxy for relevance. In that context, the decline in searches for “mutual funds” at a time when mutual fund news references (see second, smaller graph) were actually higher than in previous years is just something that could cause one to invoke Jeff Foxworthy–you know, the comedian who tracks “things that make you go Hmm.”

As a P.S. but not to make a point because of course ETFs have been gaining awareness since 2004, I also ran an “ETFs” search. And noted the difference in the scale between the volume on the two search terms. Hmmm. (Still raining.)

What does your Web site look like on a mobile device? If your target market includes affluent investors, you might want to look into that sooner rather than later.

Consider a datapoint cited in Friday’s issue of MediaPost’s Behavioral Insider e-newsletter, highlighting the recently released 32nd annual Mendelsohn Affluent Survey.

While less than 20% of all cell phone subscribers use their mobile devices to access the Internet, 40% of affluents (the 23 million Americans earning $100,000 or more) do–and 57% of those making $250,000 and above.

“My impression is that as you go up the income strata, the [affluents] clearly are using media much more for informational purposes, for financial transacting…As you go up the income and wealth strata, people are using it for different purposes. The wealthier person in most respects is using it to further their economic success. The lower-income users are using it to entertain themselves,” Ipsos Mendelsohn President Bob Shullman told the Behavioral Insider.

(You’ll have to sign up for a free MediaPost account in order to read the interview in its entirety.)