MUNCmedia_Retail_Investor_Targeting

MUNCmedia acquires new client: Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) - MUNCmedia's RetailInvestorConferences.com 2011 into 2012

NEW YORK, Nov. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Aflac Incorporated (NYSE: AFL) the insurance company that helps employers offer their workers a financial safety net at no direct cost to their businesses, has been declared a World's Most Ethical Company for a fifth consecutive year, today announced that their November 3rd RetailInvestorConferences.com presentation is now available for on-demand viewing.

via www.thestreet.com

MUNCmedia acquires new Digital Public Relations / Investor Relations client; Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) 2011and services will conitnue into 2012.

Aflac Details: Client Sector: "Insurance" (a worldwide leader in individual and group) Services provided: Retail Investor Targeting, Digital PR utilizing MUNCmedia's RetailInvestorConferences.com service along with supporting traditional newswire and digital PR awareness through our over 1,000 news publication which MUNCmedia exclusively powers the breaking news financial updates for. We pride ourselves n simple engagment rules; We do all the "heavy-lifting" and "pick'n shovel" work involved to make clients like Aflac experience not only as easy at possible but effective and complately turn-key. The process involves complete digital Public relations calendar identifying what the monthly or quartly objectives are. Next media relations and retail vestor targeting, capital market and tier-2 analyst coverage education on Aflac's objectives prior to the IR/PR event to ensure maxamin exposure - speak to thousands of pre-registered, qualified and interested investors, media, and analysis all at once. Casting a wider net for Aflac's Investor Relations growth initiatives through RetailInvestorConferences.com and a well co-ordinated Public Relations and Investor education canmapign that drive attendacne. More over the process also supports their corporate Aflac insurance brand. The Nov 2011 conf thousands of investors and media analysts attended, it was their 3rd presentation following their earnings announcements 3 consecutives quarters in a row.

"RetailInvestorConferences.com provided a nice way for me to be able to reach out to individual investors in a cost efficient manner. I was able to reach a group of investors that I likely would have normally not been able to do if it were not in a virtual format."

Delia H. Moore, Manager,
Investor Relations
Aflac Worldwide Headquarters

MUNCmedia's primary focus is iincorporating modern media technologies, news publishers, social media along side your traditional Public Relation and or investor relation inicatives to gnerate s sustainable regional, national and global digital exposure in as many online newspapers, magazines, portals, trade publications, TV news networks and radio stations. Ranging from national publication visibility of client corporate profiles, educating our clients on how to accelerate current social media operations, or manage for them, retail investor education (over 100 million savvy investors), and lastly keeping brand and services integrity across 1,000s of news publications by providing featured exposure. meanwhile managing any negative media pressure by counter digital pr tactics to remove or push unfavorable news off the search engines - while highlighting positive progress, your news and your Services.

 

 

MUNCmedia is here to help you get exposed to the global economy: Phone: (212) 699-0999 x801 or email clientservices@muncmedia.com ATTN Frank Lane or Matthew Bird www.muncmedia.com

RetailInvestorConferences.com is a official trademark of MUNCmedia, all rights reserved. it wouldn't be possible without the collaborative efforts of our partnerships with BetterInvesting.org, PR Newswire & Parent UBM that make RetailInvestorCnferneces.com such a sucess. 

 

 

-- 

Matthew BIRD

CEO

Market Update Network, Corp. 

MUNCmedia 

800 3rd Ave, 17th Floor

New York, NY 10022 USA

Phone: 212.699.0999 ext. 801

Mobile: 646.401.1186

Fax: 425-671-0669

SKYPE: mattbird1

Email: matt.bird@muncmedia.com 

Website: www.MUNCmedia.com

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/matthew-bird/6/8b/159

 

NASDAQ reinforces commitment to Retail Investors: MUNCmedia and now Loyal3

NASDAQ OMX announced another partnership with a firm that exclusively focuses Main Street: Loyal3. From the WSJ: “Nasdaq, the stock exchange run by Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., and Loyal3 say they are trying to reach small-time investors who don't use a brokerage but do have strong loyalties to favorite companies. They say they can turn the noninvesting customers of well-known, consumer-oriented public companies into shareholders, giving the companies more loyalty in both areas.”

“The company, called Loyal3, plans to offer an online interface to help publicly held companies sell stock directly to consumers through their own websites or social networking sites like Facebook. A key selling point is that investors won’t pay any fees to buy or sell stock, and can invest as little as $10 to buy full or fractional shares.” Ah, yes… Investormers!  We've spoken on that topic prior, include a quick video of our head of Client Operations. Building shareholder trust with individual investors begins with baby steps.... and perhaps a $10 purchase is exactly that. Once you have them targeted that is. : ) Have a great day.

These Main Street Investors say they ARE proxy voting ( poll results from RetailInvestorConferences.com)

Whether on the phone, online or as a database, I interact with retail investors all day - facilitating investor relations interaction between them and public companies. Last month, with help from our new friends at Moxy Vote, I asked some of the individual investors whom attended our recent RetailInvestorConferences.com event what they do in regard to proxy voting. The results are encouraging on many levels: Voting is important to proactive (passionate) retail investors (our audience) Long-term investors vote their proxies Our targeting is reaching an engaged audience Below is a really big pie chart showing the proxy voting participation breakdown of 859 of the identified Main Street investors. I kept the questions simple - no discussion of eproxy v paper, etc.   Retail investors WILL vote, but they need to be engaged. ( which our targeted audience is ) That said, engagement is a two-way street - the investor needs desire too. However, we must do our role here - let's make sure fincom professionals are doing our vey best to reach, educate and guide our retail investors through the maze of regulation changes. Have a great day.

Retail Investors work weekends. (Fortunately, so does MUNCmedia targeting)

Main Street (buy and hold) investors are very active on the weekend (and evenings).
It's when they do their research. This is a SUNDAY news viewed report.

Have a great day.

Advice for LinkedIn about their eleventy kabillion potential retail investors-in-waiting.

As a marketer, there is nothing worse than "missed opportunities." And that is what many companies do when it comes to cultivating individual investors. If I had 23 million retail customers, my sales team would be beside themselves trying to upsell them other products. Why not IR upsell? "Investomers" is the goofy term - but VERY appropriate. Certainly, the Netflix share price is beyond many most of us and our E*Trade accounts... but you understand the point. These people already like your company. They already trust you. ( and they may already be subscribed coughcoughLinkedIncough) Next step: check your IR forms for email alerts, webcast sign-in, etc. In my opinion, these choices below would be of more value for understanding your total stakeholder base: 1.) Institutional Investor 2.) Individual Investor 3.) Analyst: Buy-side 4.) Analyst: Sell-side 5.) Media 6.) Employee 7.) Other AND THEN... have a radio button!  > " I am a Netflix Member / Customer   o YES  o NO " Cross the silos, that is the real point. I spend all day at MUNCmedia helping companies connect with retail investors. You may already have them waiting for you. Oh dammit - wait....you still need MUNCmedia though!!! I am only using Netlix as an example as I was on the member site picking a movie. ("The Big Sleep" Bogart/Bacall) Have a great day.

How many investors and stakeholders read YOUR news release yesterday?

How does 19,000 sound? How does 19,000 delivered to relevant active investors at the exact moment they were online RESEARCHING stocks sound? Sounds pretty dang real-time cool to me.

Have a great day.

How many individual investors read your news release? What do mean you don't know?

We know EXACTLY how many.

Have a great day.

Retail Investors: the Rodney Dangerfield of the Capital Markets?

Last Thursday, I had a lunch with Kamie Zaracki, CEO of BetterInvesting. In addition to discussing the ancient Italian secret of soaking the octopus in milk overnight to make a finer Calimari, we discussed the growing (evolving) respect for retail investors. Many factors contribute to this - Wall Street inaccessibility, eProxy, Dodd-Frank, etc. Certainly, MUNCmedia's exponential success is a result of this expanding "appreciation." Kamie commented that, on more than one occasion, she has seen shock, surprise and ultimately pleasure cross a CEO's face when a... "little old lady walks up to the CEO and starts grilling him with detailed questions about the EBITA reconsolidation of the cash flow on the Q3 balance sheet." That would have been my wife's grandmother. Ex-bookkeeper.

In this same vein, below is a snippet from a conversation on NIRIs egroups from last month regarding communication with retail investors.( I am not sure I am supposed to show this but I removed names.) ...for many years as an IRO, agency and corporate, I worked only with institutional investors. I had neither respect for nor need to reach out to the retail market. However, ( I love this "however" part - BHS). I have had an opportunity to see this "new" market in a whole new light. A few points I would make are: Retail does not look anything like institutional Retail investors tend to be more seasoned and more casual Retail investors can be less aggressive in their style, but can have just as pointed questions - do not come unprepared Retail investors are less likely to go long first and loud second. In other words, where institutional investors can be more secretive up front as they build a position, in contrast retail investors are more likely to engage in a social manner about the stocks in which they have an interest. Do not take audience 'chatter' as disinterest Above all, they are eager to see the financials and investment potential of the company Do you respect numbers? This month, 2,500+ investors, media and professionals took the time to answer a few quick questions at RetailInvestorConferences.com. Have a great day. Learn more!

Consistent Communications With Main Street Spurs Success of New Retail Investor Relations Program

Public Companies Guided to Present Their Vision and Financials Directly to Investors Without Hyperbole or "Promotion" NEW YORK, Feb. 8, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MUNCmedia, #1 in Retail Investor Targeting, today announced that the sales of their newly released Cmessaging(TM) package has exceeded sales projections, with almost one-half million dollars in booked sales in January 2011. The company attributes this immediate influx of new clients to the program's appeal in response to OTC and small-cap companies' ongoing frustration towards the lack of shareholder communications options. "When it comes to communicating with Wall Street, small-cap and micro-cap companies hit a communications wall," stated Matt Bird, CEO of MUNCmedia. "Certainly, there are several factors that affect this, but one hard fact is many companies are just too small an investment for large holders. For reporting purposes, many institutions need to own less than 5% of a single company's stock. For a large fund, less than 5% of a small-cap company is too insignificant an investment. They won't talk to a small-cap company, let alone an OTC-listed company," finished Bird. Wall Street's inaccessibility has forced many publicly-traded companies down a path that is uncomfortable for Investor Relations practitioners: stock promotion and pay-per-opinion spam. MUNCmedia's CMO, Bradley H. Smith, is a staunch opponent of unprincipled shareholder communications practices. "From a marketing perspective, the mechanics of stock promotion are sound... straight forward one-to-many communications. Unfortunately, due to countless one-shot pump-and-dump schemes, the whole practice and often the associated public companies, are painted with the same dark 'scam' brush," said Smith. "MUNCmessaging is a new, consistent and, importantly, company-direct alternative." Consistency builds credibility: MUNCmessaging is a calendared package for companies to present their shareholder communications -- in their own voice - directly to proactive individual investors and large, sophisticated investing groups. It combines MUNCmedia's exclusive Retail Investor Targeting solution with best practice elements from MUNCmedia's network of partners and alliances. These relationships include leading shareholder communications organizations like the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and their new alliance with BetterInvesting / NAIC and PR Newswire who recently partnered with MUNCmedia to launch RetailInvestorConferences.com. MUNCmessaging's program provides a strategic and tactical 12-month calendar of events that includes Monthly Retail Investor Targeting into MUNCmedia's network of 90+ million real-time investors with guaranteed message delivery to hundreds of thousands of investors Two presentations at RetailInvestorConferences.com, one at program launch, the second at a strategic point in the calendar year Introductory email to BetterInvesting member-base of sophisticated retail investors BetterInvesting Magazine - 84,000 subscribers: Featured company half-page showcase profile plus one quarter-page showcase profile each quarter throughout the year Featured company article in BetterInvesting eNewsletter - 54,000 subscribers Four quarterly company listings in BetterInvesting Magazine and company profile on the BetterInvesting website Five MUNCmessaging program specific newswire press releases Six month NIRI educational scholarship for IR best practices and peer-to-peer network Detailed analytics & quantitative data of all outreach programs The MUNCmessaging program fee is $3,500 a month. The package can be upgraded to include an IR website, live video media & investor events and more guaranteed direct real-time engagement with prospective investors from the MUNCmedia network. The MUNC messaging program is available now. Public companies and their IR agencies are invited to call + 1 212.699.0999 or visit MUNCmedia.com About MUNCmedia MUNCmedia is the first Information Media Network and world leader in web-based Retail Investor Targeting solutions. We provide online corporate communications, research and media solutions to companies worldwide. From targeting press releases one-to-one to individual investors to network media content syndication, MUNCmedia helps companies deliver targeted and scalable messages to the precise audience in real-time. Hundreds of companies, IR and PR agencies, stock exchanges and integrated newswires rely on MUNCmedia services to deliver news messages to the retail financial community every day with measurable results. MUNCmedia was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in New York, NY with regional offices in Bellevue, WA, Chicago, Boston and Vancouver, BC. The firm currently service over 300 direct public company issuers, 40 IR agency partners and other shareholder communications organizations including tterInvesting, GlobeNewswire, a NASDAQ OMX company.

Survey targeting retail investors – Question 4: how do you research stocks?

The answers from my final question in our MUNCmedia “3-second survey” surprised me – at least, the middle score for IR websites did. My Shareholder.com/NASDAQ corporate services DNA expected more that 42%.

Here are some probable reasons:

• As our question #3 illustrated, “day-traders” are a sub-group within retail investors. Personally, I equate these investors to institutional-based algorithmic / high frequency traders IE: they have no interest in the company history, message or vision. (“Why bother researching on the equity’s IR library? My HotTopTraderTips email just said WXYZ is going up today!”)

• If you subtract all the tangible datafeeds, does the company deliver content beyond what the web delivers elsewhere? What are the intangible and unique research (sales) points on the IR site? (The companies themselves need to address this. This is not an IR website vender issue.)

• IR websites are for single ticker deeper dives – essential for re-enforcing current individual shareholders’ buying decision but not so much for “shoppers.”

• Many small and micro-caps do not even HAVE a dedicated IR section. Yike. 

Have a great day.

Learn more.

Survey targeting retail investors – Question 3: long or short-term holders? (...or all of the above)

Last week’s survey question confirmed that our targeted ONLINE REAL-TIME network of investors actually purchase their stocks online via retail brokers. They are researching and buying online.

Next we asked WHAT TYPE of individual investor our targeting identifies.

At first, the survey results surprised me, and I was not sure its importance. But after a couple days of noodling here at MUNCmedia and via discussions with a few clients - the consensus is the survey defined the PERFECT retail investor targeting mix… especially for small and OTC companies.





“The day-traders” – although nomadic and fickle in their behavior, deliver much needed IMMEDIATE volume and subsequent liquidity. Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am.

The “long-term holders” take more relationship nurturing (coughcoughinvestorrelationscoughcough), but deliver essential stability and create an ever-building shareholder base. Investors that you can nurture a relationship with. My Endless LooOOooooove…… 

Have a great day.

Learn more.

Survey targeting retail investors – Question 2: buying behaviors of Main Street

Last week’s survey question verified the effectiveness of our platform for targeting retail investors.

Next, we asked these individual investors HOW they buy stocks. Interesting point – almost 70% of the investors targeted via MUNCmedia buy their own stocks online.

That’s a qualified group. And that’s exactly the point. ( Gives yah goosebumps, right? )





Other databases we watch give us insight into the other 22% - mostly other companies (peers & competitors) and research agents.

Have a great day.

Learn more.

Survey targeting retail investors about, um… Targeting Retail Investors – Question 1

In December, MUNCmedia embedded a VERY brief questionnaire ( “3-second Survey” ) in all our client campaigns. I thought asking for more than three seconds was greedy. I am pleased with the amount of respondents, especially considering I did not offer any prize for participating other than a “thank you.”

Question #1 was to verify our clients’ investor relations messaging is reaching its desired audience. Remember, our targeting is not list-based. It’s REAL-TIME delivery to people as they are reaching equities IN REAL-TIME.

Oops. My Caps Lock was on.



Kudos to our tech team… nice to have a product that delivers its promise. Pun intended.

Have a great day.

Learn more.

62,000 investors saw our client's news in just one day!

We use two separate 3rd party analytics services to verify our client's news release reached its target... simply a
SLEIGHFULL of engaged investors in REAL-TIME. 

Have a merry little day!

A 2011 tactical plan for shareholder communications to Main Street

Since the launch of our MUNCmessaging program, I have been joining our sales people on many of their sales call ( four or five a day...phew ) – sometimes participating, always listening. On ALL these calls, without fail, I am hearing the same statement again and again: “You are the first company ever to create a real-time [continual] plan for reaching retail investors.”

One prospect - who is becoming a client ;) - said “Our communications [to retail] was always shooting from the hip. We’d do a webcast or live conference once in a while. No follow-up. Nothing consistent.” No realistic, easy to execute plan. Of great interest to me– this sentiment was mirrored from companies across all capitalizations. IRO perception is that most IR service providers only offered “shoot-from-the-hip” solutions. A webcast here, an email list there. Plus… Small and micro-caps are furiously preyed upon by promoters who offer short campaigns to day-traders “that cost tens of thousands even for one week” Larger and mega-cap companies would like a individual investor program, ( with all the new proxy access pressures, etc) just didn’t know “how to start one” Corporate IR is often criticized for ignoring the individual investors; however I have never taken to that thought. By default, corporate IR is limited by both budget and subsequent bandwidth – thus their support mechanisms lean towards institutional outreach. Like any sales organization, they have to focus on “the big deals.” Executed poorly, retail investors will be a time consuming, un-measurable exercise. Working with a consistent, sustainable shareholder communications map to retail investors – WITH a thoughtful IR website – will give your senior team measurable analytics while demonstrating your company's commitment to Main Street without burdening your 2011 investor relations "to-do" list. Contact me here to see the 12-month MUNCmessaging calendar and case studies. Have a great day.

Enhanced Video Capabilities in Response to Retail Investors’ Appetite for Video

We just announced our new VIDEO technical enhancement. Faster server, easier conversion and an embedded player in all our client commutations - at no extra distribution fee Read the press release here. "Video and the web are now synonymous and those companies that have not begun to incorporate video into their online IR and shareholder communications, particularly to Main Street, are missing an opportunity to differentiate themselves from competitive investment options,” said Matthew Bird, CEO, MUNCmedia. “Video has gone beyond the actual content and is now perceived as an important visual creditability generator."

"Retail investors need to feel a one-to-one connection with the company – a video delivers a tactile presence – separating the CEO’s and your overall IR messaging above from the rest of the online noise," finished Bird. BOTTOMLINE: We believe that video deepens engagement, especially with sophisticated online individual investors... so much so that we are including video streaming within all our clients' shareholder communications - and within our new MUNCmessaging program. Learn more.. Have a great day.

 

That’s all I can stands and I can’t stands no more! (stock scams)

Judging by the large number of inbound emails and calls this week, I am not the only person who follows the prose the great philosopher Popeye once opined “That’s all I can stands and I can’t stands no more!” I am referring to our new alliteratively named MUNCmessaging program. VERBATIM COMMENTS: Bradley, I have been involved in small/micro-cap IR now for over 13 years and found myself nodding (unfortunately) in agreement with much of your email content. So the humbling question…  Hello Bradley,   I read late October release that you put out and was quite impressed by your no nonsense approach. I would like to see… Hi Bradley, I am always looking for ways to improve investor awareness on a long term basis.   Can you…

One CEO at an OTC cap commented, quite simply, “It’s nice to have a plan written down.”  Other comments included that “a lot of stock promotion is like Chinese food” and that it’s "...an expensive, endless cycle of cash in and cash out” and that “…it sets unsustainable expectations for shareholders.”   My favorite comment was that “… you’ve created a very real well planned outreach program.” Contact me HERE for more information. And finally, in the spirit of transparency, my opinion is that canned spinach is gross Have a great day.

Start Making Sense ( and stop stock promoting )

We just released our new MUNCmessaging package, a 12-month program that was expressly created as an ethical alternative to stock promotion.   Read the press release here. I don’t know what has changed in my world – probably just more online exposure – but over the past month I have had a deluge of calls from stock promoters all trying to get to my clients. They all offer the same pitch… a bullpen of telemarketers calling day-traders and publication on “newsletters” to drive volume regardless of the company’s actual story or message. I have a visceral creepy reaction to this investor relations “philosophy” (rooted from my 9.5 years heading marketing at Shareholder.com/NASDAQ products

I believe to create high-value long term-holders, you need to sell the story THEN the stock. And you need some IR structure. But rather than only bitch about this underbelly of IR outreach, I have put our money where our MUNC is and made a package that matches the typical fees of these pump and dump enablers. To quote myself from the press release ( this ain’t no foolin’ around ahem ahem) "To price our new MUNCmessaging initiative, we engineered backwards from the monthly price point that stock promoters and stock opinion bloggers typically charge companies," said Bradley H. Smith, MUNCmedia's CMO. "We worked with our partners to build the smartest and most transparent shareholder communications program at this set price point. If companies are looking for a "pump and dump" product, stay with the stock promoters...don't bother calling us," emphasizes Smith. "MUNCmessaging is created for companies that are committed to grow their complete business, not just looking to fallaciously inflate their stock price." More to the point, this is not about “pricing” – MUNCmessaging is a calendared plan. Many of our clients are lacking IR as a function. This is a clean structure start. Have a great day. PS: Retail Investor Conferences NOV 4 event is ready to rock!

 

How would YOUR management team react if you showed them 34,705 investors saw your press release in just one day?

With MUNCmedia Retail Investor Targeting, investors don’t find your press release. Your press release finds them... targeted at the exact moment they are online researching investment opportunities or checking-up on their current holdings. We find individual investors, cross reference them in real-time with your company and if it’s a match – we deliver your company news, financials, current share activity and even a Retail Investor Conferences.com presentation. And now, our new third party analytics (daily samples shown above!) demonstrates and validates your IR ROI dollar spend for DIRECT distribution more than ever before. Have a great day.

I know, I know. “Investomers” is a goofy term. (…but there is nothing goofy about shareholder communications funding from the marketing budget)

Don’t you love it when you can actually see the lightbulb turn on over a prospect’s (soon to be client's) head? I am acutely aware that, for many companies, the IR budget is extremely lean and inflexible. However, yesterday, we were able to help a large-cap, consumer-products company have a “financial breakthrough.” By adding video (TV commercials) into their Retail Investor Targeting campaign, they are entitled to have marketing dollars allocated into IR. (cue the goofy term “investomer.”) The Investor Relations Officer was so enamored with the idea, he spontaneously conferenced in their head of MarCom during our meeting. Needless to say, we pesky marketing folks love anything verifiable and targeted. (cue another lightbulb)   Dual ROI. From a 12/09 study: “The investomer strategy is mutually beneficial for shareholders and the company. It helps drive commercial objectives and improve investor returns, resulting in long-term loyalty.”  If a retail investor believes in the product, they’ll probably believe in the stock too. < Maybe we helped turn the lightbulb on. It's called "consultative sales." Have a great day.

 

 
 

This ain't no pumping! This ain't no dumping! This ain't no fooling around!

Untitled 15

The Case Study I recently posted generated a far amount of prospective calls and emails into MUNCmedia. I was very happy to have that happen, of course. I want to share one email in particular. It’s a extremely important differentiator that defines not only who MUNCmedia is, but also the type of client and investor that we bring together. I asked Frank to speak on camera about it as well.

Bradley, Read your blog post from today. Question: Is the stock price gain for your client as a result off their MUNC program sustainable? It sounds like something a company would do to artificially inflate the stock price in the short term, similar to a stock promotion plan? I know that’s not what ‘you’ do, but your blog post sounds an awful lot like it: penny stock, needs to pump up their price, hires a third-party to promote their company, and the stock price jumps 50% overnight. - Cole What Retail Investor Targeting does is assure that a company's official press release is served up DIRECTLY to a proactive investor. If the news is material and/or meaningful - it will have impact. Retail investors will read and react (even though Wall Street won't). If the news is meaningless, the reaction from Main Street will be "yaaaaaawn." Is it sustainable? Absolutely - if the company's message and delivery method is sustainable. The lion share of our 2010 growth is due to most of our clients buying multi-month (sustainable) services from us - they have differentiated MUNCmedia from "stock spammers" and "investment opinion" firms. They don't need to "invent" news - they already have news. The problem was no one was reading it. Many small-cap companies are forced (out of frustration and desperation) to use those promoters as, well, they have not found MUNCmedia yet. HEY! We're over here!!! We are a new, transparent and unique alternative. Have a great day.

Retail investors’ activity prevented company delisting from NASDAQ

Client profile: NASDAQ Client sector: Technology Client mission: Meet exchange listing requirement Client news: Several news releases Campaign description: Reach 40,000 retail investors Campaign period: Ten days

Commentary: Our client was notified by NASDAQ that they were in non-compliance of the exchange’s listing requirement and that the company needed ten consecutive business days of a stock price of $1.00 or more to keep their listing. Stock activity was essential.

Volume and liquidity increase during campaign (daily average) 

 

Price activity during campaign

Impact: The result was instantaneous: the morning of the campaign launch, the stock opened at just $.85 but had a day high of $1.24 succeeded by the following twenty trading days of over a dollar, well in NASDAQ listing compliance. Again, another example of a Small-cap company with a great story for investors – their news was not reaching an active “buying” audience.    

From the client: "In the implementation of our investor relations strategy to retain [our] NASDAQ listing, MUNCmedia proved instrumental in attracting a broader retail audience to receive the series of announcements highlighting the significant business milestones that [we have] accomplished since the close of our fiscal year. As an important component of our objective to regain NASDAQ listing compliance, MUNCmedia was a reliable partner in accomplishing our goal."  

Please contact MUNCmedia for confidential details on this case study.

 

NYSE listed company acknowledges their strategy to target Retail Investors

An important (for MUNCmedia, anyway) press release crossed the wire today from Wizzard Software (NYSE Amex:WZE). You can read it here. It is very affirming to read that a company not only acknowledges but embraces the value and strength of individual investors. Like many of our clients, Wizzard is a terrific company, with VERY clever ideas – but Wall Street finds their story inaccessible. Main Street is perfect. I was personally pleased to see they used my blog as a reference. Also, they have selected Q4 to build out their IR wedsite and certainly, their IR social media outreach execution. <Be vewy vewy qwiet. We're targeting wetail.

I spoke briefly with their CEO. He’s not afraid of Retail Investors. Wizzard has set a solid strategy for their growth via consistent shareholder communications and investor relations to Main Street. Wall Street will follow. Have a great day.

MUNCmedia Introduces Retail Investor Targeting Suite Specifically Designed to Generate Needed Awareness and Activity for Delisted Public Companies

Today's press release is another tangible example of 2010 MUNCmentum.   Main Street resurgence to fill widespread void left by exodus of Wall Street analysts and subsequent loss of sell-side coverage NEW YORK – MUNCmedia, #1 in Retail Investor Targeting, today announced the introduction of a new Retail Investor Targeting solution specifically designed to help delisted companies, as well as those at risk of being delisted, generate interest in their company’s messaging with the express goal of getting the company back onto the appropriate exchange. The new package combines MUNCmedia’s core Retail Investor Targeting with engaging video content and social media networking focused on directly reaching individual investors.
	“Delisting is a hard pill to swallow for a public company and its current investors,” said Bradley H. Smith, Chief Marketing Officer, MUNCmedia, “however, we believe in many, many cases, these corporations are casualties of Wall Street’s ongoing turmoil. Delisting is not an indication of the company’s or its management’s performance… it’s a financial communications problem. A small-cap company message just doesn’t resonate for an institutional investor as their funds are too large to take a position. The percent holdings math doesn’t work out.” As recently reported by Instinet, Wall Street has seen an 84 percent head-count reduction in the sell-side analyst ranks over the last decade. This drop, paired with the collapse of newspaper and media employment, has created a “communication vacuum” for small-cap and OTC corporations. “There’s no one left to socialize the company’s story except the company itself. Our clients are building great products, designing important drugs and delivering meaningful services which are creating profitable corporations,” Smith continued. “Unfortunately, the institutions have stopped listening to their stories. MUNCmedia assures that that message will be heard on Main Street and, more importantly, reaching investors who can buy the stock.”
The new MUNCmedia package includes exclusive MUNCmedia video content, multi-month Retail Investor Targeting and social media campaigns as well as guidance on online shareholder communications. MUNCmedia will be presenting at the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) Annual Conference, June 6 – 9, in San Diego. For case studies and pricing, please contact Bradley H. Smith, +1 917 680 6011. Follow MUNCmedia on Twitter @BHSMITH and visit our blog. ### About MUNCmedia: Market Update Network Corporation MUNCmedia is the first Information Media Network and world leader in web-based Retail Investor Targeting solutions. We provide online corporate communications, research and media solution to companies worldwide. From targeting press releases one-to-one to individual investors to corporate video PR content, MUNCmedia helps companies deliver targeted and scalable messages to the precise audience in real-time. Hundreds of companies, IR and PR agencies, stock exchanges and integrated newswires rely on MUNCmedia services to deliver news messages to the retail financial community every day with measurable results. MUNCmedia was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in New York, NY with regional offices in Bellevue, WA and Boston. We currently service over 300 direct public company issuers, 40 IR agency partners and have a fully integrated partnership with GlobeNewswire, a NASDAQ OMX Company ---------------------------------------------------------- Have a great day.

MUNCmedia Releases Advanced Financial Communications Platform in Response to Increase in Retail Investors’ Online Research

Today's press release is another tangible example of 2010 MUNCmentum.

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New “MSS 4.0” engine expands Retail Investor Targeting reach and ROI metrics for public companies

  

 

NEW YORK, June 1, 2010 – MUNCmedia, #1 in Retail Investor Targeting, today announced the technical upgrade to their financial communications media network. This new platform, MSS 4.0, broadens the capabilities and speed of MUNCmedia services for public companies, financial publishers and the individual investors they serve.

  

“Retail Investors are taking increasing control of their own research and investment strategies,” said Derek Reisfield, founding Chairman of MarketWatch and member of MUNCmedia’s Board of Advisors. “This significant behavioral change is precipitated by individual investors’ ongoing wariness of Wall Street combined with the ease of access to investment information – exactly what MUNCmedia is building on.”

  

Matthew Bird, CEO, MUNCmedia stated “The number of Main Street Investors whom now feel they need to better inform themselves absolutely has affected both our exponential 2010 growth as well as placed high-volume delivery demands on our network. This new MSS 4.0 platform increases the traffic capabilities of our core Retail Investor Targeting service and allows MUNCmedia clients to better hone their material disclosure and outreach, in real-time, to the exact retail investor profile for their company,” finished Bird.

  

MSS 4.0 is being implemented throughout MUNCmedia’s publishing network including high traffic retail investor sites like Nasdaq.com.

  

Matt Bird and his senior team will be presenting the new platform at the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) Annual Conference, June 2 – 9, in San Diego.

For more information please contact Bradley H. Smith, +1 917 680 6011. Follow MUNCmedia on Twitter @BHSMITH and visit our blog.

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About MUNCmedia: Market Update Network Corporation

MUNCmedia is the first Information Media Network and world leader in web-based Retail Investor Targeting solutions. We provide online corporate communications, research and media solution to companies worldwide.

From targeting press releases one-to-one to individual investors to corporate video PR content, MUNCmedia helps companies deliver targeted and scalable messages to the precise audience in real-time. Hundreds of companies, IR and PR agencies, stock exchanges and integrated newswires rely on MUNCmedia services to deliver news messages to the retail financial community every day with measurable results.

MUNCmedia was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in New York, NY with regional offices in Bellevue, WA and Boston. We currently service over 300 direct public company issuers, 40 IR agency partners and have a fully integrated partnership with GlobeNewswire, a NASDAQ OMX Company

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Have a great day.

Transparency is great marketing. And no one said it was free.

	Jeff Morgan and the NIRI team demonstrated great leadership in regard to the ongoing discussion surrounding the SEC’s 2008 web disclosure interpretation: NIRI asked the IRO for their opinion. To me, the 2008 interpretation was watershed for a single factor. The SEC acknowledged that a company’s website’s value to shareholders as a news vessel is equal to Yahoo’s (for example) value. The SEC's new opinion on disclosure is that the web is flat. Remember, RegFD was penned as law October 2000. Web-years are like dog-years. The new interpretation reflects that the web grew up since RegFD’s inauguration. For example, earnings webcast are de rigor now, in 2000 they were magical. RegFD’s 2000 goal was not to rank different disclosure points – it was to stop selective disclosure to favored analysts. So where does that leave us with the 2008 interpretation discussion? Exactly where the NIRI survey’s said we are.
Using a commerical newswire is no longer a compliance decision for a corporation, it’s a business decision or better yet, it’s a transparency decision. Perhaps even a marketing decision. If a company’s goal is just to be web compliant, here are some handy-money-saving-tips for investor relations. 1.)   Take down your IR website. The only pages required by the SEC are your Section 16 files and recently, your XBRL raw files - no rendered view needed. The rest is just transparency flotsam. 2.)   Post your earnings “somewhere” on your corporate site. Ask your web developer to put it in his work queue – no rush. He’ll get to it right after he posts the CEO’s new photo and bio. And the new lead generation form for sales. Oh wait. He's on vacation this week. 3.)   No more newswire feeds to the Street. Analysts and portfolio managers spend too much time in their Bloomberg, ThomsonOne, etc. terminals anyway. It will good for them to stretch their legs and walk over to the fax machine. They will thank you. 4.)   Stop holding earnings calls!  Simply and simultaneously tell nothing to no one. 5.)   Obviously, nix the annual shareholder meeting webcast! Your board is dull anyway. 6.)   Just file your Ks and Qs with the SEC. Prospective and current investors should show some initiative and just go to the SEC.gov site for themselves anyway. 7.)   No more road shows or investor conferences. Make those lazy analyst bastards come to you. 8.)   And CERTAINLY – don’t fuss with Retail Investors at all. They are a scary bunch, right? Transparency outreach is akin to marketing.  It drives investors (customers) into the investment (sales) funnel, builds their confidence about the company and hopefully compels them to take a position (buy the product). Compliance will not do that. Caveat. I build and market IR transparency solutions and I have a zillion friends, across many companies who do the same. And - (spoiler alert) - we make money from these services. It’s an individual corporation’s business decision whether to value (purchase) these services. Most transparency solutions, like marketing solutions, have costs.  A company does not have to “advertise.” Heck, I love it when my marketing budget is cut. Gives me tons of free time to blog. Have a great day and look for me at NRI / San Diego. I’ll be trying to sell you something in Booth 320.

Extremely compelling media story but limited investor penetration

Client profile: NASDAQ listed Small-cap Client sector: Biotechnology Client mission: Raising investor awareness Client news: Major sales update Campaign description: Live conference and 18,000 retail investors Campaign period: Three day (segment)

Commentary:  The company was enjoying positive attention within vertical publications however, despite a compelling product, they were not having sucess getting their message to investors. MUNCmedia was engaged to conduct extensive outreach to sector analysts, NYC-based media and Retail Investors - all framed around a live video Media & Analyst Conference. The company also wanted to raise awareness as vanguard to an upcoming material disclosure regarding private placement funding success.

Volume and liquidity increase during campaign (daily average)

 

   

Price activity during campaign

Date	Open	High	Low	Close	Change	Percent
Campaign period	3.88	5.01	4.38	4.26	+0.38	+9.8%

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Impact: Anticipation from media and analyst outreach was so positive that on the day prior to the announcement, volume was 423,601 - over seven times the daily average of the previous three month period. The two days immediately following the live webcast, over 1.4M shares traded.

Please contact MUNCmedia for confidential details on this case study.

The optimism and growing self-reliance of Retail Investors

Last week, one of our European sales partners asked me if I had research that links Retail Investors to liquidity. A MUNCmedia report on that is underway ( a consensus from our hundreds of campaigns… much to do, I just started here afterall J ). In the meantime, they found our library of one-off client case studies to be very helpful. (please request them here or email me directly) In addition to our case studies, I sent the excellent “ING DIRECT USA’s ShareBuilder Investor Study” which has very enlightening findings and  - to ING’s own admission - surprising OPTIMISTIC points about Retail Investors. This perception report is especially relevant as it’s fresh. January 2010. Love it. Any conversations and insight regarding the expanding self-reliance of Main Street is new wave music to my MUNCmedia ears. FROM THE ING REPORT: 2.) A movement toward greater independence and individual responsibility   The fact investors remain optimistic and committed to their investing strategy is not to say they aren’t making any changes. The losses they incurred in 2008/2009 and the questionable practices of some financial institutions have caused investors to re-evaluate their reliance on financial advisors and brokers for investing advice. Forty-five percent (45%) of U.S. investors say they have either reduced or eliminated all together their use of financial professionals for investing advice.

Older investors are leading this trend. Almost half (49%) of those 40 - 65 have reduced or eliminated their reliance compared to 37% of investors aged 21 – 39. The ING report supports much of what we speak on with clients and prospects: the economic crisis has changed the Retail Investor. ING, Scottrade, Etrade, Ameritrade, etc. all know that. Individual Investors want direct commumications - no middlemen. Thanks to the #irchat group (in Twitter) for bringing this report to my attention.  Hey! – the NIRI Annual Conference is soon. Look for me, booth 320.   Have a great day.

A Frank discussion: real investors in real-time

Video length: 45 seconds

Other than the cheeky little video I posted about Investor Relations and Social Media, the snippet introducing Frank Lane, was the highest blog traffic to date. Thank you - here’s more video about how MUNCmedia works. Certainly, Retail Investors are an elusive bunch. Until MUNCmedia, the main outreach paths to directly engage with Main Street was at Investor Fairs (Money Show, Better Investing, etc.) or via opt-in databases.

Of the two, I’d say Investor fairs bring in qualified “shoppers” as if an individual is going to invest their time and effort to attend a fair, if follows that they would invest their dollars too. Opt-in databases have gone the way of passenger pigeon (metaphor intended). Last month, I received another retail investor checklist for more information IN. THE. MAIL. This retail investor direct mailing stemmed from a request for a single annual report I made over six years ago. Am being sold on a list as a qualified retail investor? Like many individuals, my personal email has changed a couple times since my initial opt-in, (this was before the ubiquitous gmail) so I do not receive their retail investor emails anymore. Safe to say, the retail investor of six years ago is not the retail investor of today. Retail investors are dynamic. So is Frank for that matter! J  Have a great day.

A Frank discussion: retail investor targeting and your broad newswire

Video length: one minute	I am very pleased to introduce you to MUNCmedia's VP of Client Operations, Frank Lane. Frank has guided ALL our clients through their campaigns - assuring that their news is material and compelling for individual investors. In this video, he's taken a brief moment to discuss why our  Retail Investor Targeting is an effective complement to your current broad (and regulatory-minded) newswire.
I'll be featuring Frank each week. Please contact me directly if you would like a set of our case studies or, if you prefer, I can help you schedule some time to speak with Frank. Also, follow me >  @BHSMITH Have a great day.