A reader of the Financial Times this week might have felt momentarily transported back to the heady days before the financial crisis. For on its pages was a full-page ad in vivid color listing recent transactions completed by the busy bankers at Barclays.
Such chest-thumping displays are rare among investment banks these days. Why would Barclays do it, and why now?
The first reason is the usual one: Barclays wants clients to know it’s in the investment banking business and doing deals, which they had reason to doubt after the bank made deep (and well publicized) cuts to the business earlier this year.
But the ad is more than just a message to clients. It’s also an effort to rally the investment-banking troops, who must be feeling battered. They’ve endured not only severe cutbacks in their ranks but public floggings by politicians (and even a few shareholders) who see them as overpaid.
A splashy advertisement is an easy way to appear serious about investment banking. Buying a full-page in the FT doesn’t come cheap, either, something north of $200,000, which says you’re really, really serious. Naturally, buying half-page ad would mean you’re only half-serious.
The design of the ad – a list of deals in little blocks or “tombstones” as they’re lovingly called – is also a throwback to another age. Ads like this have been used for about as long as ink has been printed on paper, and they have a style all their own, which usually means a bit of flummery to make the bank look better.
In the case of Barclays it uses some inventive terms for its role on the deals, calling itself “Active Joint Bookrunner” and “Lead Left Arranger” on another. Clients must scratch their heads, but banker egos – and bonuses – revolve around such terms.
Advertising is nice, of course, but its effect can be short-lived. Burnishing the bank’s standing in investment banking will take more. Stronger communications across the board would help, but it all starts with a much stronger business performance and better results for shareholders. No amount of advertising will achieve that.