Branding a Priority for Private Markets in 2025

GPs and LPs investing in conferences, website redesigns and PR programmes to support business objectives.

London, UK — 27 November 2024— A new survey of private markets professionals released by Prosek Partners, a global integrated marketing and communications firm for financial services, reveals an increased focus on branding and PR as firms navigate a challenging fundraising and dealmaking environment.

The third annual Prosek Private Markets Survey, conducted at IPEM, a leading European private markets conference in Paris, polled 100 private markets professionals including general partners (GPs), limited partners (LPs) and service providers. Results of the survey indicate that branding and PR are front and centre for the private markets industry, with more than half of respondents (51 percent) planning to increase their branding and PR efforts in the year ahead.

Key findings:

• 72 percent of GPs cite attracting LPs and facilitating fundraising as the leading impact of having a strong brand. This comes as 74 percent of GPs cite the current fundraising environment as the top challenge they face in their business.
• 97 percent of all respondents use LinkedIn to support business objectives, with more than half using it for primarily for brand-building (51 percent), followed by sharing and consuming news and thought leadership (32 percent).
• 70 percent of LPs and 71 percent of GPs expect that allocations to private markets will continue to rise in 2025. 

“Branding is no longer optional in private markets – it’s a business driver,” said Jennifer Prosek, Founder and Managing Partner at Prosek Partners. “As competition heats up, firms recognise the impact of sophisticated communications strategies to raise capital and source deals, and this shows no signs of slowing down.” 

The primary areas firms plan to invest in to enhance their brands in 2025 include:

• Conferences and networking events (63 percent): Leveraging speaking and networking opportunities to build visibility and brand preference
• Website & brand redesign (40 percent): Refreshing their visual identities to stand out
• PR programmes (36 percent): Leveraging media relationships to elevate visibility and manage their reputation
• Investor materials (26 percent): Updating presentations and pitch decks

New Pools of Liquidity
Respondents predict that new sources of liquidity—including secondaries, continuation funds and other avenues to access capital—will lead the industry’s megatrends in 2025, with 33 percent of respondents citing this as the top trend in the new year.

Reaching for Retail
The democratisation of alternatives is the second-most anticipated trend to dominate the industry in 2025 according to 30 percent of respondents, as private markets firms compete in the Alts Arms Race to make their products available wider audiences and capture market share among the wealth channel. Prosek recently explored the democratisation of alternatives trend in its Reaching for Retail report, which analysed  the progress the private markets industry is making in its marketing and communications efforts to tap the wealth channel, and where it still needs to adapt.

LinkedIn Standing Strong
The survey underscores LinkedIn’s continued strength as a key tool for private markets firms to achieve their business goals. 97 percent of respondents cited they actively using the platform in 2024, a steady increase from 2023 (93 percent) and 2022 (83 percent). While GPs rank videos as their preferred form of content to consume on LinkedIn, LPs increasingly favour infographics in 2024.

About Prosek Partners
Prosek Partners builds – and protects – the top brands in business. We are a certified Woman-Owned Business and among the largest independent, integrated communications and marketing firms globally. Specializing in providing a full range of communications solutions to financial and professional services companies, Prosek delivers business impact through an unexpected level of passion, creativity and marketing savvy. Services include media relations, thought leadership, social and digital media, public affairs, investor relations, financial communications, transaction services, crisis communications and issues management, content creation, conference support, publishing, media training and more. Prosek’s strategic branding and integrated marketing arm – Prophecy by Prosek – offers brand strategy, award-winning design, digital and advertising capabilities. Prosek has been named PRovoke Media’s “Global and North American Financial Agency of the Year” and a top-five global M&A and shareholder activism agency. For more information, please visit www.prosek.com or follow the firm on LinkedIn.

Contact
Evangeline Barata: ebarata@prosek.com