Peregrine Communications, the leading marketing and communications firm for the asset management industry, today announced the findings of its Global 100 2025 Report, the leading benchmark of brand strength and marketing effectiveness among the world's 100 largest asset management firms, ranked by AUM.
This year's report draws on insights from Peregrine Frame, a new analytical tool designed to give managers two critical perspectives: first, how generative AI perceives their brand, a factor increasingly shaping stakeholder perception; and second, how their market positioning compares to competitors, offering valuable strategic context.
The report reveals deep challenges for many managers in building brand visibility and digital presence, while firms with clear, distinctive positioning are capturing exponential growth in AUM.
Read the report here: https://theglobal100.com/
Key Findings
- BlackRock comes out top of the rankings again, followed by Fidelity Investments, Capital Group, T. Rowe Price and Aviva Investors, making up the top five.
- Almost one in six (15%) of the top 20 in our rankings are now private markets firms, representing a generational shift, overtaking mid-sized long only managers in terms of both brand presence and AUM.
- Brand Awareness across the industry continues to stall, with just under half (45%) the industry suffering from stagnant or declining brand awareness for the seventh year in a row. Furthermore, the total volume of Share of Voice fell 5% in the last two years, meaning managers are competing for increasingly competitive media coverage.
- Private Markets Under Fire: 88% of pure-play private markets firms had below-average media sentiment, with more than 75% having very poor sentiment. Industry leaders such as Blackstone and Apollo Global Management both scored just 4/10 on sentiment, becoming "lightning rods" for criticism that risks shaping perceptions across the entire sector.
- Category Authority Drives Growth: New analysis using Peregrine Frame shows a strong correlation between brand distinctiveness and AUM expansion. Most firms cluster around 16 recurring key message areas, with client-centricity, ESG, and research-driven investing among the most common thematic areas. For example. over 90% of firms include client-centricity among their top three key messages, meaning firms' key talking points tend to converge around consensus rather than seeking out and owning distinctiveness.
Peregrine's analysis finds a strong correlation between high category authority (messaging distinctiveness and niche dominance) and AUM growth, and the payoff is exponential. High-authority firms (scoring 8-10) achieved average inflows of ten times greater than low-authority peers. Conversely, one in four low-authority firms saw AUM losses, compared with fewer than one in ten among high scorers. - AI is Shaping Perceptions: With the rise of generative AI, stakeholders from investors to journalists are increasingly using machine intelligence to form narratives about firms. Peregrine Frame highlights how asset managers' positioning appears in an AI-driven information environment, offering an essential lens on reputation in the digital age.
Commentary
"Brand distinctiveness is a board-level imperative directly tied to business growth," said Josh Cole, Co-CEO of Peregrine Communications. "Our 2025 analysis shows that firms brave enough to own distinctive positions are rewarded with outsized inflows, while those content to play for table stakes face invisibility and decline."
About the Report
Now in its 8th year, the Peregrine Global 100 is the most comprehensive study of brand strength in asset management. Using proprietary tools including The Brand Diagnostic and Peregrine Frame, it measures brand awareness, digital marketing maturity, media sentiment, and messaging distinctiveness across the world's top 100 managers.
Read the report here: https://theglobal100.com/
About Peregrine Communications
Peregrine Communications is the leading marketing and communications firm for the asset management industry. Founded in 2002, Peregrine partners with clients to enhance visibility, sharpen positioning, and drive growth in an increasingly competitive landscape.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251016555094/en/
Contacts:
For more information or to request a copy of the report, please contact:
Peregrine Communications
josh.cole@peregrinecommunications.com
+44 (0)20 3040 6000
