Flicking through the pages of Tatler, the thought provoking ads for Barclays Wealth with the strap line, "Wealth, what’s it to you?" do not look out of place amidst the glossy advertisements for Chanel, Boodles and Hermes. Ads for other private banks, however, are notable in their absence.

Flicking through the pages of Tatler, the thought provoking ads for Barclays Wealth with the strap line, "Wealth, what’s it to you?" do not look out of place amidst the glossy advertisements for Chanel, Boodles and Hermes. Ads for other private banks, however, are notable in their absence.

Private banks and wealth managers have not traditionally been recognised for their advertising campaigns and perhaps this is not surprising in an industry which targets a relatively niche audience.

Ian Ewart, marketing director for Barclays Wealth thinks that as a sector, wealth management has not historically been good at buying its way into visibility.

Anne Westwood, a media consultant for Investec based at advertising agency The Gate Worldwide agrees:

“It may be a bank, but it’s still a product and the same media disciplines should be applied.”

UBS embarked on what was perhaps the first high profile global advertising campaign in the wealth management industry in 2004, using the theme “You & Us – Could this be the world’s most powerful two person financial firm?”.

Corporate in style in comparison to Barclays Wealth’s ads, the campaign includes print and broadcast advertisements, events, exhibitions, sponsorship and internal initiatives running in the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Barclays Wealth’s campaign set out to achieve brand recognition for the newly configured division with media bought for maximum effect. Mr Ewart says that there is also craft in the creative execution of the campaign which uses different, but reinforcing imagery, to achieve a greater impact:

“You can either spread thinly or you can ‘chunk up’ with bursts of advertising. There is a rhythm to our campaign with intense periods of activity, which is reinforcing. We know that during one burst of our campaign, our target audience will have nine opportunities to see our ads in the Financial Times, The Times, the Daily Telegraph, as well as the weekend editions, plus The Spectator, The Week, Conde Naste Traveller, GQ, Tatler and Vanity Fair.”

He recognises, however, that advertising used alone is ineffectual:

“The sole use of advertising in wealth management is like going to battle with a butter knife – it is neither the sharpest, longest nor most accurate weapon. In order to activate and amplify the campaign so that we engage effectively with clients, we have partnered with luxury goods organisation Walpole and held client events with partners such as Bentley, as well as working with the Economist Intelligence Unit to create Barclays Wealth Insights, a series of reports about different aspects of wealth.”

Wealth management firms need to be mindful of their heritage and aware of other activity across the group. Whereas Barclays Wealth is building a brand in the wealth space, the Coutts brand is already synonymous with private banking:

Perry Littleboy, marketing director for Coutts says: “In the UK we are privileged to have a name that is well-recognised in private banking terms. Private banking is about one to one relationships and shouting “trust me” from the pages of a newspaper just doesn’t work. The majority of our new clients are obtained by word of mouth.”

Coutts advertising in the UK is therefore focussed on supporting charitable interests and augmenting sponsorships such as those with the Royal Opera House and the Almeida theatre. Where Coutts is starting to build a presence in Asia, it is selectively using ads to tell potential clients that it is there, focussing on its English heritage.

Rothschild is also a name which is closely associated with wealth. As its global marketing director Alison Petit explains, the challenge for her is not so much brand building, but creating an understanding around what Rothschild can offer clients and why the services are relevant to them.

“Marketing in private banking is a conversion process and where the advertising works well is in the initial stages, to ensure that your business is front of mind.”

According to Ms Petit, advertising is not something that a business can successfully do and then stop doing and any advertising campaign needs to be a consistent and concerted effort to achieve the desired impact.

So does this mean a big budget is necessary? Anne Westwood, who plans and buys Investec’s media, says not:

“Even when targeting very high net worth individuals it is possible to work with a relatively small budget. You just need to be clever and think laterally. For example, we created a TV ad which was flighted in specific cinemas located in very upscale areas and also selectively on Sky News /Sky Sports. As it was targeted so carefully, people assumed that it was being networked and that they had seen it more often than they had.”

Ms Westwood also chooses poster sites very carefully, for example, sites at London City Airport or only in the first and business class areas at Heathrow. Various events of The Season are identified and media "extravaganzas" are created at Ascot railway station during Royal Ascot or Twickenham and Richmond stations for the Investec Rugby Series.

Ms Westwood said: “Investec’s whole strategy is to be an ‘Out of the Ordinary’ bank and this applies to the advertising too. The zebra is very visible and we look for unusual and unexpected media placements to create the maximum impact.”