US-based investment firm Blackstone, with more than a trillion US dollars under management, is making a significant marketing push in Japan, a country where ties between investors and the firm’s leadership run deep.
The integrated media campaign launched this week involves print ads in the Nikkei newspaper, television commercials on TV Tokyo’s premier ‘Morning Satellite’ show, digital ads on Yahoo Japan, Google and YouTube as well as an upcoming out-of-home campaign at the Otemachi subway station for two weeks in October. The investment is Blackstone’s first such comprehensive campaign outside of the US and comes at a time of great change for global investors seeking trusted relationships.
The television ad, produced with agency partner Hakuhodo, focuses on Blackstone co-founder and CEO Stephen Schwarzman, seen up close in black and white in several frames, while also meeting with his Japanese team as a series of global city skylines roll past.
“Blackstone doesn’t wait for change,” Schwarzman says in the ad. “We drive it.”
Blackstone’s television ad
“When you’re introducing a company or a firm like ours, more than anything else, you have to trust us if you’re going to invest capital with Blackstone,” says Christine Anderson, who heads up branding and communications as senior managing director and global head of corporate affairs, in an exclusive interview with Campaign. “Given that Steve has these long-trusted relationships in Japan, he’s well known by Japanese businessmen and Japanese financial leaders. It felt like he was the right conduit to communicate what Blackstone is and does because there was already that name ID and a deep respect for what he’s built.”
Navigating change
Trust in times of change is a critical theme these days, given the significant upheaval in global political and trade relationships this year. It is also a difficult area for many US-based firms to navigate as they position their offerings overseas.
“It definitely is something we think about,” Anderson says, recognising there has been a lot of global discussion around the tariff debate in investment circles.
“We started developing the ‘staying ahead of change’ [message] well before the tariff dispute. But then we felt like it actually worked even better in a way because what we do is try to help you stay ahead of a very dynamic investing environment politically, thinking about how to avoid risk, stay ahead and see around corners, if you will.”
When it comes to politics, Anderson is quick to point out how the firm is bipartisan with ties to both major US parties. Nonetheless, it tries to stay out of such debates as a long-term investor. “Left or right, you will have different environments, and Blackstone has to be able to navigate through all of those,” she says.
Christine Anderson, Blackstone senior managing director and global head of corporate affairs
But in essence, the campaign’s theme of staying ahead of change had more to do with technological developments in AI and Blackstone’s ability as an alternative investor to gain stakes in the infrastructure behind the AI surge through its $85 billion data center platform. Making sure Asian audiences are aware of their approach is what the new marketing campaign in Japan is all about.
Blackstone’s roots in Japan
As Blackstone celebrates its 40th year, the renewed focus on Japan is appropriate. On the company’s website, featuring the new Japanese campaign, it includes a quote from Schwarzman book about their origin story, stating: “To me, our relationship with Japan is the very foundation of Blackstone. Without Japan, Blackstone would not exist.”
“Steve really believes that,” Anderson says, noting how Schwarzman’s book details how one of the first investors in one of their first funds was a Japanese investor. To this day, many of Japan’s top business leaders know him well, including a close friend and Softbank founder and CEO, Masayoshi Son, who has written a new foreword to the book now being relaunched in Japan.
Blackstone’s Nikkei newspaper advertisement
In addition to their network of relationships, an alternative investment firm also needs a more sophisticated market, which Japan provides. Retail traders cannot simply go online and buy Blackstone products, but do so through financial advisors relying on big banks and other distributors. “You really need the ecosystem to be primed for it,” Anderson says.
Japan may be a fertile market for Blackstone in many respects, but not so much so that the company’s ambitions wouldn’t benefit from further brand messaging and education.
Market education
“The goal was really to introduce Blackstone to audiences that may not know it. I think the name ID is in a good place just because we’ve been there for so long. But we do think that there’s just more education about private markets that has to happen. So, we think the challenge really is introducing the category of private markets and… the opportunity for individual investors,” Anderson says.
“We’ve realised that advertising is really a core part of being able to reach the end client. You’ve got to get out there and explain who you are, what you do, how you do it.”
For many years, investing through financial advisors was in stocks, bonds and standard asset classes. But as alternative players like Blackstone open up new vehicles for high-net-worth individuals to invest in private infrastructure and real estate in select markets, it requires explanation as to how long-term wealth deployed over a longer lifespan is generated.
“The education effort is similar in the US,” Anderson points out, “and you will probably see us over time having campaigns in Europe and other places wherever there is that education gap.”
AloJapan.com