KAFFEINE / Lifestyle

FIVE TIPS FOR TARGETING HIGH NET WORTH INDIVIDUALS VIA MEDIA BUYING

4 April 2023

High net worth individuals (HNWI) – individuals with investable assets of $1m or more – represent a highly attractive market segment for many brands.  However, this group represent less than 1% of the world’s population and about 609,000 individuals in the UK, according to Capgemini World Wealth Report in 2022, and can be challenging to engage and influence.  

Rupert Bean, Media Director, highlights five paid media channels that brands looking to reach these audiences should consider: 

Book a time to chat with Rupert

1.     Optimise Digital Display

HNWI have tended to be early opters to digital technology, a PwC Survey showed 85% of HNWIs use more than three digital devices and 98% access internet apps daily.  This high level of digital literacy will only have accelerated over the recent years and provides advertisers with a range of digital display options to consider when targeting HNWI individuals online: 

• Geotargeting enables the targeting of selected demographics living or visiting a defined area. For example, if a target customer lives in W1K, Grosvenor Square – the most expensive postcode in the UK¹ – and holidays in Monaco, then it’s possible to target them in both locations, right down to specific streets or nodal points, such as stations or airports. 

• Behavioural Influencer Amplification (BIA) takes selected social media posts from the advertising brand’s own organic social feeds and turns them into display adverts across selected media (e.g. The FT’s How To Spend It).  Because brands that target HNWI normally have carefully curated social media feeds BIA can be highly cost-efficient and a effective.  This is because it enables the brand to fully exploit their own social content beyond their own channels and followers to reach a wider audience with curated content that requires no further creative costs, yet is highly engaging and specific for the audience they’re reaching.    

• Behavioural and contextual targeting are one of the simplest but most effective ways to reach specific audiences by running advertising across targeted media reaching HNWI individuals or those that advise them.  For example, running adverts across financial titles (FT, Forbes, Bloomberg, City AM, Robbs Report, Wall St Journal etc), to luxury titles and interest areas such as titles covering luxury travel, cars, yachts, watches and art.  Don’t forget that like millions of people around the world, HNWI individuals like watching sport and it’s possible to target such individuals through sports websites as well as specific sports such as Polo and Formula One. Take a deeper dive into the benefits of contextual targeting. 

2.     Maximise LinkedIn

LinkedIn provides brands with one of the largest databases of business people in the world.  Here you can reach HNWI, those that advise them and, importantly, those on their way to becoming HNWI.  Brands can target advertising around by the users’ job title, function and seniority, as well as by company via digital ads such as MPU formats. This enables highly specific targeting messages to reach Founders, CEO or COOs. 

While Meta (Facebook / Instagram / WhatsApp etc) provides a huge reach across multiple demographics, we’ve found LinkedIn is far more effective when targeting HNWI and those that advise them while being just as trackable and measurable as Meta. 

3.     Embrace Print 

Broadly print titles fall into two categories – ‘advisory’ such as Financial Times, City AM, Daily Telegraph and City Matters, to niche magazines including The Economist, The Week, Square Mile and Hedge.  These are read by HNWI and their advisors.  Brands can run straight ads with these titles, or more creative solutions such as advertorials, promotions and partnerships.

‘Lifestyle’ is the other broad category.  These are luxury (How To Spend It, Robb Report, JetSet, Boat or status titles like Tatler and Vanity Fair. These titles have evolved in response to the boom in digital publishing to become even more luxurious, increasing the quality of the print, size and layout to optimise advertising opportunities for brands.   

They provide a physical touchpoint that is tangible and “in one’s hand” they can be targeted for specific months and seasons – from ‘bonus month’, to Ascot, or even Christmas gift guides.  Plus, they often remain in people’s homes, are shared and read by family members and others.  

4.     Don’t overlook outdoor

While outdoor may initially be thought of as a more mass broadcast medium, but with the ongoing growth of digital Out of Home it can be used in much more targeted ways in order to reach niche audiences, such as the HNWI audiences – or the firms and advisors that help them manage their wealth and lifestyle.  For example, you can target outdoor around: 

• Digital screens in City office blocks
• Large impact digital sites at Canary Wharf
• Taxi supersides, using taxis based around the City (as opposed to West End)

5.     Enhance the power of partnerships 

High net worth individuals – or those that advise them - will often gather in specific places and can be targeted via strategic partnerships with event owners or rights holders.  One example is Investor Media, an independent publishing group that runs events and publishes media-targeting the HNWIs and Ultra High Net Worth Individuals. These titles include Yacht Investor, Family Office Investor, Art Investor, Alternative Investor and Luxury Plus.  Through them – and others like them - it is possible to reach specific groups of HNWIs or their advisors around specific points of interest or work.    

We can negotiate partnerships with Investor Media and others like them to deliver print ads, editorial, TV interviews, event sponsorship and direct targeting of their database. 

Interested in finding out more? 

Book a time to chat with Rupert and find out how we can help you maximise your brand’s potential through meida planning and buying.  

 

1 MoneyWeek