Bill McNabb tripled advertising spending two years ago for the "Vanguarding" campaign. That tidbit and more came out when Natalize Zmuda of Advertising Age interviewed Vanguard's [profile] retail advertising chief, Michael Ma.

Ma told the trade pub that when Vanguard launching "Vanguarding" in 2010, its measured-media spending jumped to $61 million, from $20 million in 2009. In 2011, Vanguard spent another $54 million, pulling back from some channels.

"In 2011, we retrenched heavily into digital and killed almost everything," Ma said. "We're 100-percent transparent with senior management when things don't work — had X loss or X negative impact. But we explain the thinking and then we kill it and move on to the next set of experiments."

Ma previously served as principal and chief business officer at mutual fund industry consulting shop kasina. He joined Vanguard in June 2010.

Fundsters interested in a glimpse at the logic behind Vanguard's retail may want to take a look at the full article. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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