Waddell & Associates – Thought Leadership
Waddell & Associates (W&A), an award-winning wealth management firm based in Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee, has engaged REED since 2019 to aid with its public relations and award submission efforts. Establishing a robust thought leadership program for the firm during the COVID-19 pandemic, the REED team focused on expanding the firm’s presence in the media and further establishing W&A as a long-term leader within the industry.
INSIGHT
Slow and steady wins the race.
STRATEGY
Become the trusted wealth advisor for clients and other industry professionals.
ACTIVATION
The REED team developed a list of relevant, educational topics to pitch to the media on behalf of several W&A team members, ensuring each opportunity would resonate with the firm’s target clientele, like-minded professionals or potential recruits. As the topics garnered interest from aligned media outlets, we worked closely with the W&A team to flesh out the articles and position the pieces as informative rather than promotional. We also worked with one of their senior team members on a Forbes Council membership, through which we drafted and published articles regularly. While maintaining a presence in print and online publications was pertinent, we expanded W&A’s thought leadership through national speaking engagements.
RESULTS
Over the past year, the REED team secured over 70 media placements, including four well-received thought leadership pieces. Overall, these placements led to over 137 million impressions. Media hits were secured in national, local and trade publications such as the Nashville Business Journal, Financial Planning, MoneyGeek, Forbes and Financial Advisor Magazine. REED also obtained and coordinated two podcast opportunities, one MorningLine segment and two summit speaking engagements for the W&A team and positioned them to be the recipients of seven local and national awards, including Forbes/SHOOK Top RIA Firm 2023, The Nashville Business Journal’s Best in Business and AdvisorHub’s Advisor to Watch.
Through our efforts, the Nashville chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) awarded our team in 2025 in the Executive Communications category for our campaign, Building a Trailblazer in Women’s Wealth Management.