• by Aaron Baar , March 6, 2011

With financial recovery starting to take hold, the time seems about right to reintroduce a financial services brand.

"The markets are improving, and we wanted to take this opportunity," Marty Dauer, Duff & Phelps chief marketing officer, tells Marketing Daily. "It was important for us to redefine who we are in the marketplace."

Thus, Duff & Phelps has launched its first advertising campaign in about five years, Dauer says. The effort, which started appearing last week, introduces a new corporate tagline, "Powering Sound Decisions," and creative that is less about what Duff & Phelps does and more about "how" it does it.

"This is a real coming-out party. It's the first time in a long time that we've invested in the brand," Dauer says. "We wanted to talk about how we do what we do."

Accordingly, creative from ad agency Doremus uses sports to designate the company's ability to find the "sweet spot" between analysis and instinct. One ad depicts a baseball player taking a swing. A red line has "listening to the numbers" on one side, and "listening to your instincts" on the other. In the middle, designated as a larger circle, is "The Sweet Spot." Body copy asserts that the financial professionals at Duff & Phelps "have the analytical skills to get to the heart of issues and the experience to know which variables matter more."

The campaign has already begun appearing in financial publications such as Bloomberg Markets. The company will also sponsor "The Strategy Session" on CNBC. The campaign also includes online elements as well, Dauer says.