‘IFAs are very busy people. They just want the facts and figures. They haven’t got time for flim flam.’

How many times have we heard that?

Well here’s a surprise. IFAs are human beings. They laugh at funny things, cry at sad things, are interested in interesting things. Just like everyone else on the planet.

Talk to them with intelligence and wit and they’re more likely to remember you, more likely to like you.

And people prefer to buy from people they like.

There’s a well-known quote from the Mad Men-era of advertising: “People don’t read ads. They read what’s interesting. And sometimes that’s an ad.”

Performance figures don’t make an ad interesting. Especially now that the facts and figures are just a click away. Writing the name of the fund at the top of the ad isn’t going to get anyone’s attention. And no one is going to be captivated by yet another picture of The City, a lighthouse or a rowing eight.

When our Profit Hunter campaign for Artemis started running, we came in for a lot of criticism. Too flippant, we were told. No one will read all that copy. Where are the graphs, the ratings logos? These people clearly know nothing about financial advertising.

In a way, they were right. Artemis was our first investment client. In our naivety, we ignored the conventions of the sector. Instead, we followed the universal principles of brand advertising. Get noticed. Differentiate yourself from your competitors. Be interesting.

In other words, we treated IFAs like normal human beings.

And – guess what – it worked.