Fidelity Launches Unified Fund-Brokerage Campaign on to Record Election Watching Audience
From Boston Globe
The close Presidential may have benefited at least one party -- Fidelity Investments that is. The fund giant was a large buyer of ads during what turned out to be one of the most watch programs of the year. Nielsen Media Research pegs viewer ship of the process at 62 million. "We wanted to get the biggest bang for our buck," Neal Litvack, president of retail marketing at Fidelity is quoted as saying. In addition, Litvack changed Fidelity's newspaper ad buying to place ads near election coverage rather than stock tables as is the firm' usual wont. This is the first time Fidelity made a special ad push around Election Day. Fidelity used the space to combine its previously separate campaigns for its fund business and its PowerStreet brokerage service. Boston ad agency Hill Holliday Connors Cosmopulos, created the fund ads which featured Peter Lynch and the theme "we help you invest responsibly." New York ad agency Gotham created the PowerStreet ads. Litvack reportedly said that the campaigns were merged because its mutual fund investors are not trading online and are becoming the same as PowerStreet users. Both agency's developed the new "See yourself succeeding" ads which emphasize performance and service. "What we're trying to do is to position Fidelity as a personal-investment company," Litvack told the paper.

Levitt Speaks on Fee Disclosure
From USA Today
The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to recommend new fee disclosure rules for funds, the paper reports based on a Thursday speech by Chairman Arthur Levitt. Under current rules fund prospectuses must only include a chart showing the percentage assets paid for management and administration costs and the impact of those fees on a $10,000 investment using a hypothetical 5 percent return. Critics contend the 5 percent example often understates fees. The proposal calls for the use of the fund's past returns in the illustration. Also under debate is how funds must disclose fees -- the General Accounting Office quarterly disclosures while the SEC is considering semiannual reports.

Value Funds Get the Cash
From Wall Street Journal
Tech funds place at the top of the charts is being taken by small-company value funds, the paper reports. The objective has faced hard times since the Asian Contagion in 1998. Over the past two years these funds have seen net redemptions of $12 billion through June 30, an amount equal to nearly a quarter of the assets in those funds. Since June, though, investors are once again placing money with these funds.

MFS' Mark Regan
From Investor's Business Daily
MFS Mid-Cap Growth's manager Mark Regan, 47, is the subject of a profile in the paper today. The fund has gained 27 percent this year.

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