MWW Group selected as AOR for Motley Fool

NEW YORK: The Motley Fool, an investment and financial advisory services firm, has selected MWW Group as its first-ever AOR.

One of the company's products is Fool.com, a Web site providing investment information.

"We enjoy companies that we think are innovative and have the unique culture that we do, as well. We prize skill and irreverence," said Sally Adams, VP of media products and communications for Motley Fool. "We felt that was a lot of what MWW brought to the table."

In hiring MWW, the company hopes to impact overall brand awareness, Adams said.

"The Motley Fool has been a strong brand for a long time. We... have continued to have a tremendous presence on the Web... but we felt like we wanted to focus on traditional media again as a way to keep our brand awareness high," she explained. "We've been really focused on building a really solid business model... and now we're turning our attention to a lot of the new efforts we have."

One of those efforts is CAPS, a free online stock-research service that evaluates the effectiveness of choices from thousands of stock pickers. MWW helped introduce the service last week with an article in The Wall Street Journal.

Michael Kempner, CEO of MWW, noted that the firm will leverage its expertise in branding, product launches, media relations, and new media in its work with Motley Fool.

"It's all about defining, communicating, and reinforcing their core brand proposition," he said.

Matthew Rose, SVP and GM, will lead the account out of the agency's New York office. Adams declined to name other agencies involved in the search.

While Adams would not comment on the account size, she did classify it as a "reasonable investment," She added, "It's an important initiative to us."