How do you get more assets flowing into a five-star mutual fund? For the folks at Windowpane Advisors, one answer is TV advertising.

San Diego-based Windowpane this spring hired ad agency Seiter & Miller, a Manhattan-based firm that helped build brands such as Smith & Wollensky, Kyocera and New York University. The 30-second spot promoting the Jordan Opportunity Fund started airing last week on Bloomberg TV.

The fund currently has $96.4 million of AUM.

The commercial replicates the experience of looking up mutual funds on Morningstar.com and coming across the Jordan Opportunity Fund.

The ad carries the "possibility of discovery, of finding something new," said Seiter & Miller CEO Livingston Miller in an interview with The MFWire.com. "If you open your eyes and look, you'll find a gem like this."

He added that the use of the Morningstar site "helps from a regulatory standpoint."

"You're basically quoting the Bible, as it were, if you're quoting Morningstar," Livingston said.

The ad will initially have an eight-week run. "We'll take the temperature after eight weeks to see what we feel about the success of this," he said.

Jordan Opportunity Fund went live on January 21, 2005. The no-load offering is the succesor to a limited partnership managed by the fund's sub-adviser, Hellman, Jordan Management Co.

The fund's portfolio manager, Jerry Jordan, joined Hellman, Jordan in 1996 and is currently the acting president.

Windowpane Advisors is the investment adviser, U.S. Bancorp Fund Services is the transfer agent and dividend disbursing agent, Quasar Distributors is the distributor and U.S. Bank serves as custodian.

In a press release, Jordan said that the ad agency understood that "we can't stand out by playing it safe with financial advertising as usual. This initial spot is as singular as we are, and it positions us perfectly for expansion."

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Company Press Release

JORDX DEBUTS FIRST AD AGENCY AND CAMPAIGN

Independent mutual fund touts five-year performance record in first ad campaign. Agency Seiter & Miller Advertising creates real-world investor experience on TV.

NEW YORK, NY (October 14, 2010)—Jordan Opportunity Fund (JORDX), an independent mutual fund that has outpaced the category since 2005, is taking to the airwaves in its first advertising campaign via newly hired agency Seiter & Miller Advertising. The 30-second TV spot, which airs starting this week on Bloomberg TV, mimics the experience of reviewing the JORDX performance record on Morningstar, the authority in mutual fund information. http://seitermiller.com/clients/jordx/jordx_929.html

It's rare for an independent fund to attempt to make its name through TV advertising. The multimillion mutual fund ad category is dominated by family-of-funds campaigns by such Behemoths as Fidelity and Vanguard. Making the campaign even more noteworthy is its use of the Morningstar website, done with approval from the mutual fund research authority. A voiceover guides viewers through a research session on the Morningstar site, borrowing heavily from the graphic vernacular that is universally familiar to sophisticated mutual fund investors.

"JORDX is a breakthrough fund that deserves breakthrough advertising," said Livingston Miller, CEO of Seiter & Miller. "By mimicking the Morningstar site, we're able to provide an unimpeachable experience that satisfies FINRA regulations."

JORDX chose Seiter & Miller because the agency has vaulted many smaller players above the shadows of category giants, most recently Smith & Wollensky and BDO Seidman.

"Seiter & Miller is like we are: independent, creative and successful," said Jerry Jordan, CEO of Jordan Opportunity Fund. "They got that we can't stand out by playing it safe with financial advertising as usual. This initial spot is as singular as we are, and it positions us perfectly for expansion."

About Seiter & Miller

Founded in 1990, Seiter & Miller Advertising (www.seitermiller.com) is an independently owned advertising agency with a history of generating pre-eminence for smaller companies and brands. Based in New York City, the agency has helped build such brands as Arnold Bakeries, BDO, Kyocera, Smith & Wollensky, and New York University.

About Jordan Opportunity Fund

The Jordan Opportunity Fund is founded on the premise that making money in the market requires intellectual flexibility expressed in ways that defy style-boxes. Superior long-term investing is about judgment, not methodology. Jordan Opportunity is a non-diversified no load mutual fund that seeks capital appreciation. It invests primarily in growth.  

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