In financial services, many firms are focused on providing bottom-line value to their clients. What most of them forget is how to properly communicate that value.
A good PR strategy has a greater impact on the bottom line than most firms realise. This book shows how to put in place an effective PR program in the financial services industry, and how great communications can add significant value to a firm.
Between them, Claudia Pritchitt and Leeanne Bland have over 50 years’ experience in public relations, communications, and marketing. Here, they explain the key tools needed in an effective communications strategy as well as why plain English is imperative in the jargon-heavy world of financial services.
What’s driving growth in the global toy industry? Not kids.
The kidult economy is no longer fringe, it’s franchisable, brandable, and increasingly investable, according to Travis Prentice, CIO and portfolio manager at the Informed Momentum Company (IMC).
By applying a momentum approach to global small cap investing, it becomes possible to identify cultural and technological trends just as they begin to scale.
“Momentum is the best performing factor in global small caps, however, can be overlooked because it lives outside the traditional style box,” says Mr Prentice. “If you can only be exposed to one factor in global small, make it momentum.”
IMC’s investment approach identifies companies that have both price and business momentum. It is an unbiased, systematic process designed to deliver consistent exposure to momentum, which can pick up on powerful global themes.
“Last year, we identified adults (‘kidults’) as the fastest growing demographic for the US$100 billion global toy market, driven by the blind-box craze and a reshaping of the collectibles sector,” says Mr Prentice.
PopMart (HKG: 9992), the Chinese toy maker behind the viral Labubu dolls is the recent posterchild for this trend. They have seen rapid global expansion with the US a key area of future growth.
Legacy players are also riding the wave: Build-a-Bear Workshop (NYSE: BBW) has seen its adult customer base grow from under 20 per cent a few years ago to nearly 40 per cent today.
“Investors often overlook niche consumer subcultures until they scale, and the kidult economy is a great example of this,” says Mr Prentice.
IMC’s investment approach has also recently helped Mr Prentice and his team capitalise on consumer trends and the AI boom.
The process picked up on momentum in the global data centre cooling market, which is projected to triple from US$12 billion to over US$35 billion by 2030. This is being fuelled by the explosive infrastructure demands of AI.
“AI workloads generate intense heat. As hyperscalers like Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon invest in more powerful and tightly packed computer chips, thermal output is surging past what traditional systems can handle. Cooling technology has become just as critical as the compute power itself,” says Mr Prentice.
“Global cooling specialists are stepping up to keep the AI boom from overheating - literally. Companies like nVent (NYSE: NVT), a pure-play on liquid cooling, and SPX Technologies (NYSE: SPXC) a diversified thermal solutions provider expanding liquid cooling capacity for hyperscale data centres, have been beneficiaries of this trend. Asia-based enablers have also had momentum, including Asia Vital Components (TPE: 3017), a key supplier of cold plates and liquid cooling modules.
“The next generation of winners may not be chipmakers, but the companies keeping them from melting down,” says Mr Prentice.
From kidults to cooling solutions, IMC’s investment approach continues to identify and invest in global trends before they become mainstream. In global small caps specifically, momentum can help restore the small cap premium and provide investors with a powerful tool for portfolio diversification and potential outperformance.
