E-Trade Rolls Out Ad Campaign
Flush from its romp on Wall Street, E-Trade continues romancing investors in a new ad campaign breaking Wednesday.
E-Trade Group (EGRP) said Tuesday it's touting its status as the "The Number One Rated Place To Invest Online," taken from the quarterly scorecard by Gomez Advisors, which ranks online brokers.
The move comes the day after the company's shares shot up 11 3/4 to 56 3/4 on the heels of its report that its stock trading site, Destination E-Trade, attracted more than 500,000 members since its September launch.E-Trade's Wall Street love story continued on Tuesday, as shares rose 4 3/8 to 61 1/8. Ameritrade (AMTD) gained 2 1/2 to 35 3/4; Schwab (SCH), whose market value approached Merrill Lynch's (MER) on Monday, slipped 4 1/4 to 59 3/8.
E-Trade is debuting the second phase of the campaign that helped drive up its membership. It bills the effort as one of the largest in the history of online brokers.
"We believe that if we can attract investors to our site, Destination E-Trade will speak for itself," Jerry Gramaglia, senior vice president of marketing, said in a statement.
Ads focus on customer acquisition through a combination of brand advertising and direct promotions, both online and off-line.
E-Trade will target the 10 to 15 million investors now using the Internet for investment research, but who don't yet trade online.
One new TV ad features a young broker talking about early retirement with his middle-aged client with the tagline, "Who's looking out for your investments?"
The ad says E-Trade won the number one slot in for two quarters in a row by Gomez Advisors.
Another TV ad features a confused repairman unsuccessfully working on a mess of computer equipment to illustrate the importance of underlying technology for online brokers.
The ad closes with another kudo: E-Trade as the first financial services site to be granted the WebTrust Award, a seal of assurance for electronic commerce.
Playing off the TV ads, a new round of print ads breaking in January will focus on customer benefits suh as free, real-time quotes, Smart Alerts and access to IPO subscriptions.
Written By Steve Gelsi