Recently, Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) moved away from no-load mutual fund products to a purely load platform. Now, the firm is ramping up its efforts to say "hey" to institutional investors and the advisor community and convince them that they are CSAM's focus.

"We've begun a new ad campaign specifically targeted at institutional investors and what is broadly called the advisor channel," Shiv Metha, head of product management and marketing for CSAM Americas, told the MutualFundWire.com.

"Recently, we made a decision that our investment style is not a good fit for the retail channel. Our customers tend to be more sophisticated; they are certainly from the high-net-worth end of the spectrum. We have decided to focus in on their needs," the executive continued.

The ads for the new campaign will appear in such publications as Barron's, Pensions & Investments, On Wall Street, and Registered Representative. Metha describes the campaign as raising awareness among the targeted audiences. "We are looking to keep the ads light and interesting. There is little body content," he explained. Future campaigns will provide more specific information in them.

The ads will carry such tag lines as "The best research is rarely found in an e-mail attachment" and "In our experience, the most unappreciated companies sometimes appreciate the most". The firm will follow-up the ad campaign with meetings with advisors and, perhaps ironically, targeted e-mails. CSAM developed the ads in conjunction with the advertising firm Kirshenbaum, Bond and Partners.

Current CSAM no-load customers will be grandfathered in, but there will be no new no-load customers allowed to invest in the funds.

The new ads should be hitting the streets this week. 

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