• by Tanya Gazdik , December 30, 2009

ING Direct's ShareBuilder is launching a new TV spot that encourages consumers to invest in their future, even if it's just a fraction of a share at a time.

In conjunction with the new spot, ShareBuilder is eliminating the $4 cost per automatic investment and offering new and existing customers 10 free automatic investment trade credits in January.

The 30-second spot, "Owners," features three Main Street Americans in everyday life -- a bike courier, a young professional and a construction worker -- who are using ShareBuilder to invest. One segment features the construction worker unloading reams of cable from his truck. He says: "I own my wireless company. Not the other way around." The ad campaign encourages viewers to take a self-directed approach to ownership by buying stock in companies they want to own. The spot closes with the tagline: "It's Your Future. Get Your Share."

The "Owners" TV spot started airing Dec. 29 during the kickoff of the college football bowl season. It will air on various national cable networks including CNBC, ESPN, HGTV, Fox News and CNN. The ad can also be found on ShareBuilder's social media channels at Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. GWP Brand Engineering is the brand communications agency that created the television campaign for ING DIRECT USA's ShareBuilder.

"At ShareBuilder we believe there is an investor in everyone, and that no one should feel buying any stock is beyond their reach," said Dan Greenshields, president of Wilmington, Del.-based ShareBuilder, in a statement. "By letting investors buy fractional shares of stock and invest as little as they want at one time, we're making the market more accessible to everyone."

The ad is intended to spotlight ShareBuilder's strength as a leading online broker for "Main Street Americans." It emphasizes that anyone -- regardless of how much money they have or how old they are -- can be an investor at ShareBuilder.com with no minimum investment required to open an account. The company does not charge inactivity fees, and investors can make real-time trades and set up an Automatic Investment Plan, as well as buy fractional shares of stock with no minimum investment.