Fidelity follows green line to 'Thinking Big'

Fidelity Investments has been called a lot of things over its 66-year history, but 'provocative' probably isn't one of them. Lynne Goldman, executive vice president at Fidelity Financial Advisor Solutions, and the rest of the team at Fidelity are out to change that though. Fidelity has launched a new thought leadership initiative, titled “Thinking Big,” that will showcase its analysts' investment ideas in what it hopes will be a more thought-provoking way than how it has presented ideas in the past, Ms. Goldman said. “We've got a lot of great insights about global investment themes," she said. "For us this is a way to showcase things that the average person might not come up with on their own.” The new microsite will feature videos, a social-media component, and interactive web components that should be more interesting than traditional white papers and articles, Ms. Goldman said. Fidelity will leverage its global research team of 420 analysts for the content. Ms. Goldman said the new feature isn't a direct response to Fidelity's asset outflows — the firm had almost $28 billion of outflows last year — and the content won't be directly linked to the Fidelity mutual funds. The goal, she said, is to get people to start thinking of Fidelity in a different light. She wants investors and advisors to come away from the new site thinking “This is an organization that's really thought about it in a different way than I have. This is someone I want to do business with,” she said. Christopher Davis, mutual fund analyst at Morningstar Inc., said Fidelity has fallen short in the thought leadership department compared to its peers, and this should shore up some of those shortcomings. He doesn't think the new initiative will have a turn-around effect on Fidelity's fund flow woes, at least not at first. “General brand-building doesn't lead directly to more flows, but having a strong brand does. It builds investor confidence,” Mr. Davis said. The “Thinking Big” theme is also being featured in print and online ads. It's seen as an extension of the “follow the green line” campaign Fidelity launched in 2009.