Financial Services

CS

G

2

csg-pr.com

how we workDo you have a relationship with the journalists, industry

analysts, individual brand advocates, association leaders and others who have influence over your potential buyers?

Are you capturing the attention of those influencers and engaging them with compelling and relevant content?

Does it drive sales?

Do you have a dashboard that allows you to take a measured approach to capitalize on success

and improve on weaknesses in your plan? If you can’t answer yes to all of those questions, you need

Communications Strategy Group.

3Communications Strategy Group

how we work CSG’s award-winning team of financial services communications professionals provides strategic advice and tactical execution for its clients, leveraging its unique combination of deep industry expertise, carefully calibrated content marketing and deeply rooted influencer relationships to achieve its clients’ business objectives.

The CSG financial services team is composed of the industry’s brightest communications professionals who are well-versed in the challenges, opportunities, themes and trends within each segment of the financial services industry.

“Success doesn’t just come from breakthrough innovation but from flawless execution.”

Financial Services Sector Expertise

Asset Management

Financial Technology

Banking

Insurance

Payments

Private Equity

Personal Finance

Accounting

5Communications Strategy Group

Strategy

Integrated Communications Planning Brand Development and Awareness Message Development and Media TrainingReputation Management Thought Leader Development Conference Speaking PlacementCompetitive Analysis Crisis Prevention and Management Strategic Sponsorship and Philanthropy

Influencer Engagement

Influencer Mapping and PrioritizationInfluencer RelationsProprietary Conference HostingPublicity Events Internal Communications Online Influencer Engagement Social Media

Content Marketing

Internal Content Audit and AnalysisContent Editorial PlanningContent Creation • Byline Articles • White Papers • Infographics • Presentations • Case Studies Sponsored Content and Native Advertising Guest Blogging SEO-Driven Content

Personal Finance

Accounting

6

Influencer Relationships Matter In today’s interconnected market place, companies who aren’t building long-lasting relationships with the people who exercise an inordinate amount of influence over potential buyers are missing out on the most effective form of marketing.

It isn’t enough to simply compile a contact list of reporters and analysts. Organizations must build relationships with influencers or find a partner who has those relationships to maximize a marketing budget.

Four Step Process

1. Identify and prioritize influencers

2. Communicate With influencers–activating influencers into brand advocates

3. Communicating Through influencers–leveraging their influence to target buyers

4. Communicating To influencers–increasing brand awareness with influencers

Influencers

Journalists

Individual Brand Advocates

Industry Analysts

Academics and Associations

“An Influencer is a trusted, unbiased and objective third party

who can significantly shape the purchase decision of a

far-reaching number of buyers.”

Communications Strategy Group has mapped out the most critical influencers in each segment of the financial services industry and built strong relationships with those individuals and organizations. CSG employs a CRM to maintain and continuously refine our core influencer database.

7Communications Strategy Group

We break down silos across organizations from the sales department to the marketing department, we work to squeeze maximum mileage out of every piece of content we produce.

CSG’s in-house content strategists are skilled at creating persuasive and captivating content that attracts and engages the right audiences ranging from financial advisors to retail investors and bank directors to consumers. We streamline and integrate the marketing process into a simple supply chain:

Creation & Extraction Impact and RecalibrationPackaging Promotion

Content is Our Core StrengthContent is essential these days, playing a huge role in marketing, social media, public relations and sales strategies. But it’s often the biggest challenge for an organization.

Where do you find the resources and expertise to create high-quality content? And how do you leverage that content to its full potential?

We can help with that.

“We engage buyers, current customers and influencers with effective content-driven strategies, or what we call a content value exchange.”

8

BancVueBancVue is a three time Inc. Fastest Growing Company that provides banking technology, Kasasa-branded consumer banking products and services to more than 800 community banks and credit unions nationwide. In 2008, the then-startup hired CSG to help establish the company as a leader in the community banking and credit union industries and make its Kasasa brand and CheckingFinder.com a household name with consumers and among personal finance reporters, bloggers and other influencers. CSG’s work during BancVue’s formative years has substantially increased the company’s brand recognition, and our efforts continue to further BancVue’s ambitious growth goals.

Con

sum

er B

anki

ng

Insi

ghts

Stu

dy

PerkStreet, Kasasa & the War Over Your Checking Account

Community Banks Team Up to Fight the Megabanks

Checking Account That Offers 4% Return

Bra

nd A

war

enes

sTa

ke B

ack

Your

B

anki

ng C

ampa

ign

Partnership with Marketing Research Firm

Nationwide Take Back Your Banking Events

Client Snapshot

9Communications Strategy Group

CheckingFinder.com showcased on the Today Show

4% Interest, Without Fees: Too Good to Be Checking?

Survey Finds Why Consumers Are Leaving Big Banks

Take Back Your Banking War Against Megabanks

Americans Dislike Big Banks, But Few Willing to Switch

Americans Hate Big Banks, But Can’t Quit Them

“CSG is a trusted extension of the BancVue marketing team. Over the six years we’ve worked with them, they have been committed to our success and have

deeply invested in understanding not only us as a company, but also what makes us unique in our marketplace.”

“We’re seeing awesome results from the CNBC article that included Kasasa. We’ve seen a frenzy of activity from this piece, consumers going on Kasasa.com (and calling our call center) to find out how and where they can get a Kasasa account, and financial institutions inquiring how they can offer it as well!” – Carrie Dolan, EVP at BancVue

Gabe Krajicek, CEO of BancVue

• Thousands of new visits to Kasasa.com• TV coverage in 40 markets• More than 300 news stories

10

Market Performance and the Party in Power:Is There Really a Connection?

Summary The relationship between domestic securities market returns and U.S. Presidential elections is a favored topic of Wall Street commentators. As the 2012 Presidential election heads toward the tape, the pundits are in full swing once again, and claims about the impact of a Democratic or Republican victory on U.S. stock and bond markets pop up almost as frequently as political ads. In this paper, we address the question, Should investors take these prognostications to heart and, more importantly, apply them to their asset allocations?

The predictions generally focus on two areas where Presidential politics and securities-market performance intersect: Presidential cycle theory (i.e., the pattern of year-by-year market returns during a President’s four-year term) and the market impact of election/re-election of a Democrat or Republican to the White House. After reviewing a wide range of the current literature, we concluded that neither cycle theory nor election-impact claims provides a sound basis for an investment strategy. Although certain rough patterns can be gleaned from reviewing stock and bond market returns during past Presidencies, specific outcomes are not a given.

Our bottom line: A long-term investment strategy is better served by downplaying bipartisan politics while maintaining a diversified portfolio and keeping abreast of prevailing economic, geopolitical and secular trends—in short, the larger context within which the next U.S. chief executive and corporate executives will have to act.

Investment Insights Series l October 2012

JanusJanus Capital Group, a global investment management firm with more than $160 billion in assets, has been a CSG client since 2012. Janus cherry-picked CSG to improve its brand reputation, increase its presence in media outlets such as Barron’s, CNBC and The Wall Street Journal, and better leverage the content it was creating in-house. From flawlessly announcing Bill Gross’ departure from PIMCO and arrival to Janus to developing and executing a prominent, live roundtable moderated by Stephen Moore from the The Wall Street Journal, CSG’s experts have been an instrumental part of the Janus team.

Bill

Gro

ss

Ann

ounc

emen

t

Dissecting Health Care

Fund Profiles

Searching for Stocks at the Sweet Spot of Change

How This Contrarian Mutual Fund Beats Its Peers

Bra

nd A

war

enes

sIn

vest

ing

and

Polit

ics

Rou

nd T

able

Janus Chief Dick Weil Revels in Bill Gross

Interview with Bill Gross Inside Janus Fixed Income - Gibson Smith CIO and Portfolio Manager

Behind the Walls at Janus Capital

Janus Roundtable Janus Capital’s CEO on the Stock Market

Moderated by

Client Snapshot

11Communications Strategy Group

Fixed Income CIO Gibson Smith on Street Smart

Dan Kozlowski Talks Contrarian Picks on CNBC

Coming Off a Big Year, Janus Files for Exotic ETFs.

On a Mission to Bring More Value to Clients - Bill Gross

Top Stock Picks - Marc Pinto Portfolio Manager

Janus Capital is a Place For Great Investors - Dick Weil CEO

White Paper and Infographic

Exhibit 5Presidential Cycles and Market Returns

As Presidential cycle theory predicts, the second year of Kennedy’s and Johnson’s term in office produced the weakest equity returns, and years 3 and 4 brought the predicted recovery.

A balance of power between White House and Congress did not serve stock or bond markets well during Nixon’s second term. Did the Watergate political scandal trump all other factors?

Presidential cycle fell apart during Reagan’s terms in office.

In this cycle, only year 2 played out as theory predicts.

Clinton’s first term was a textbook example of Presidential cycle theory.

Clinton’s second term is often cited as proof that power-sharing between the President and Congress is good for the markets. Bond yields declined and the stock market soared.

Bush II’s first term followed the Presidential cycle theory of returns. Were the year 1 and 2 downturns due to the 9/11 attacks or fiscal policies?

Bush II’s second term in office defied cycle theory, even before the global financial crisis struck.

Do returns during Obama’s term suggest that Presidential cycle theory should be laid to rest? Also, contrary to conventional wisdom, the bond market has performed well under this Democrat.

KENNEDY/JOHNSON

JOHNSON NIXON NIXON/FORD

CARTER REAGAN REAGAN G.H. BUSH CLINTON CLINTON G.W.BUSH G.W.BUSH OBAMA

Party Control of the House of Representatives (H)and the Senate (S)

President

Growth of Hypothetical

$10,000 Investment

in S&P 500 Total

Return Index

Annual Total Returns of S&P 500 Index

Years 1 to 4 of Presidential term

Comments

61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 11 1270 80 90 10

61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 11 1270 80 90 10Yield Trends of Fixed Income Benchmarks LTGB = Long-term

Government Bonds

T-Bills ▲

LTGB ▲

T-Bills ▲

LTGB ▲

T-Bills ▼

LTGB ▼

T-Bills ▼

LTGB ▲

T-Bills ▲

LTGB ▲

T-Bills ▼

LTGB ▼

T-Bills ▼

LTGB ▼

T-Bills ▼

LTGB ▼

T-Bills ▲

LTGB ▲

T-Bills ▲

LTGB ▼

T-Bills ▼

LTGB ▼

T-Bills ▼

LTGB ▼

T-Bills ▼

LTGB ▼

-40%

-20%0%

+20%+40%

$1.2M

$90K

$60K

$30K

Cuban Missile Crisis

$10,000 Investment

Johnson Announces Plans For “The Great Society”

Nixon Resigns

9/11Attacks

Global Financial Crisis

Iran HostageCrisis Ends

1987 MarketCrash

Berlin WallComes Down

Were the stock market gains due to a division of power beginning in 1995, launch of the Internet, Republican control of the Senate or some combination of these?

Democrat

Republican

Split

1/1/61 - 12/31/11$1,068,002

Ending Investment Value

4 5

Source: S&P 500 returns based on Ibbotson Associates Large Company Stocks Index. Fixed income yield trends based on Federal Reserve Board 1-year and 10-year Treasury rates.

“The CSG team is well experienced with the various financial industry media outlets, which has helped us expand our reach and build our reputation within

the advisor community. Their style of ‘partnering’ versus purely executing is what sets them apart. They are truly part of our team, which has allowed us to align our

communications efforts to the broader strategic priorities of the firm. This tight partnership has made a tangible difference for Janus.”

Robin Beery, Executive Vice President, U.S. Distribution, Janus Capital Group

• Live streamed to more than 3,000 advisors• VIP audience• Fully integrated into sales campaign• White paper distributed to 3,000 advisors• Generated media coverage in top-tier

investor media outlets

csg-p

r.com

Dan Mahoney SVP, Financial & Professional Services Communications Strategy Group720.726.5457 (D) www.csg-pr.com @DanMahoney_CSG