Vanguard launched a new advertising campaign last week encouraging investors to “stop just investing and start Vanguarding.” The company began the marketing campaign by running ads on the front page of each section of The New York Times Monday, March 15 and a full page ad in section A, page five.

A key component of the launch was tying the message of the ad with the content of the media. An ad on the front page of the paper stated, “Reading only the front page is just investing. Getting the whole story is Vanguarding.” The ad on the front page of the arts section read, “Going with the latest fad is just investing. Choosing a timeless style is Vanguarding.”

Vanguard’s marketing campaign takes a cue from companies like Bing and Google, who have sought to create verbs out of their names. The campaign seeks to return to the basics of investing and in doing so uses an old-fashioned approach—turning a company name into a verb.

Why this approach? Vanguard stated that with competitors’ increased advertising, it couldn’t take a “me too” approach. Vanguard wants to establish its way of investing as the best way—following sound principles, investing at-cost and partnering with a client-owned firm.
A digital component is also part of the campaign, with advertising placements on websites such as CNN Money and Yahoo Finance. Half of Vanguard’s advertising budget will be allocated to the digital space, compared to 30-40% in the past.

This new campaign is a great approach for the company and will definitely help differentiate it from competitors. However, since this campaign is different from Vanguard’s past approach, it will have to prove very successful in order to continue.

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