Over these past three months, we’ve worked hard to secure outstanding media outcomes for our clients but also expanded our horizons at a few philanthropic and networking events, convened as a team during our offsite retreat, and welcomed some fantastic new clients into our fold. Read on for a peek into our action-packed Q3!
Leveraging data to tell meaningful stories
This year’s LGT Crestone State of Wealth report, now in its fourth year, was launched in August. The report’s findings serve a crucial purpose: to discern and contextualise trends in sentiment and behaviour amongst Australia’s high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.
Madden supported LGT Crestone’s engagement with this influential segment of Australian investors with purposeful insights from the report. The impact of our strategy left a solid footprint across media and digital channels. Newly appointed AFR Wealth Editor Jo Mather ran the key findings in The Australian Financial Review weekend edition, highlighting an interview with LGT Crestone CEO Michael Chisholm. Subsequent media coverage unfolded with a series of insightful pieces by national and state-based media.
This data-led collaboration with LGT Crestone drives home the important role of anchoring your public position in proof points and evidence. Data injects rich narratives with relevance and substantiates the overarching thought leadership and segment ownership for the client brand. Our thanks go to the media who picked up the quality stories from the 2023 State of Wealth report and to the CoreData and LGT Crestone teams. We look forward to the 2024 report.
Team work makes the dream work
The Madden team came together during August to align on our shared strategy and goals whilst continuing to build team spirit at our 2023 offsite retreat. The day was a chance to reflect on each of our individual strengths as well as our shared values of excellence, respect, and integrity and how we can best leverage these attributes to produce high-quality results for our clients.
This year we welcomed back corporate communications leader Susan Redden Makatoa (Managing Director, Morrow Sodali) as a guest speaker. Susan shared valuable industry insights through the lens of her formidable agency experience with corporate and consumer brands. Susan has been a trusted friend and casual advisor to the Madden team, and her wisdom and integrity as a strategic communicator has benefited the Madden team on its journey as a firm.
As a boutique, Madden has always taken pride in its focus on professional development. Our regular group sessions have proven invaluable to realign on purpose and quality in our day-to-day work.
Working with leading names in Australian finance
This past quarter brought opportunities to play a part in newsworthy developments within the Australian financial services sector, and included the onboarding of new brands to our client roster:
Fintech elemnta was announced to the wealth and advice sector last month. The media activity announcing the launch of the brand articulated the company’s enterprise-level digital integration offering in Australia. elemnta is on a mission to accelerate the digital transformation of the advice and wealth sector, a market worth circa $10.9 trillion in Australia.
Madden also welcomed Global Credit Investment (GCI), an innovative private credit business. Australia’s private credit market has experienced strong growth over the past three years – reaching a market size of about A$1.4 billion compared to a total credit market of A$1.56 trillion – this space is certainly one to watch!
Madden is also advising SuperConcepts, a leading provider of SMSF administration services, to build awareness around the brand’s new direction under private ownership. The industry-leading software Super Mate forms part of our brief, and this digital side of the business brings exciting future potential within the fast-growing SMSF market segment. Underscoring the growing interest in this sector, Australia has seen a rise in SMSF members to 1,130,640, compared to 1,120,459 in the March quarter, and the total estimated assets of SMSFs now stands over A$12 billion higher than in the previous quarter.
Staying with the digital theme, Madden facilitated the announcement of a strategic investment between leading robo-adviser Stockspot and Mirae Asset Global Investments. Mirae Asset’s substantial capital infusion into Stockspot bolsters its investment advice and financial services platform.
Madden team’s event experiences
Our team attended the Future of Financial Services Forum in August, exploring essential topics, such as the incursion of AI and other technology. At this event, we were given the opportunity to chat with and hear from technology, digital, and business leaders from banks, insurers, and wealth managers from across the country and worldwide.
Madden also attended an informational breakfast to mark the launch of Capital Brief – a new masthead covering Australia’s new economy. Capital Brief will add depth and diversity to the current media landscape. We had the opportunity to connect with the publication’s leaders who shared their perspectives on the future of journalism and its role in shaping public discourse, paving the way for future engagement.
As a team, we continue to prioritise the importance of giving back to the community. This past quarter we continued to support Lifeline – a national charity providing crisis support to all Australians experiencing emotional distress – with an annual donation. We also extended our support to three remarkable local charities, Confit Pathways, Consent Labs, and ReLove, during this year’s 10×10 event. These organisations are dedicated to serving the community, and we are humbled by their important contributions.
We look forward to continued participation in events like these that empower us to better serve our clients and contribute to meaningful conversations in our field.