Nail the Narrative: The PR Playbook Behind Wall Street's Biggest Brands

Key points

Key takeaways from Source interview with Prosek Partners Founder & Managing Partner Jennifer Prosek (September ​2026​):

Nine-figure revenue. Prosek says the firm hit nine figures in annual revenue in ​2026​ and was ranked number one globally in M&A communications by deal volume, alongside FGS Global

$70tn of client assets. She advises clients representing around $70tn in AUM across private markets, asset management, venture capital, banking and tech; the interviewer describes the firm as having "a clear monopoly" on the branding, marketing and comms strategy of the largest institutions.

Born out of the GFC. Prosek started the business in her 20s pitching "offense" brand-building when no one wanted to buy it;the global financial crisis brought Goldman Sachs and others to market for reputation expertise,and her early long-term bet on private markets, VC, PE and credit later "super paid off".

Talent, deals, capital. Her three-part ROI rubric for brand: make talent want to work for you instead of begging, compete better for deal sourcing,and make fundraising more efficient and effective — the call founders respond to most.

Nail the narrative first. Before saying anything externally, firms need a distinctive story, sharpened through internal and external research,and then amplified via media, thought leadership, digital and crisis capability. Typical marketing budgets run from roughly $250k for firms under $2bn AUM, $0.5–4m for complex global players,and up to about $10m for retail-facing sponsorships like F1 and the US Open.

Content is an asset. Podcasts work as long-form assets that can be replayed and advanced to investors, recruits and customers; she rates her LinkedIn newsletter among her top three most effective channels,and preaches experimenting, doubling down on what moves hearts and minds

Offense is good defense. Firms should feed search engines and LLMs "momentum content" so the "digital blink" —the first impression formed by an LLM query —is accurate, correct untruths fast before they calcify,and never let an untrue negative narrative calcify

Reputation resurrections. She rates Apollo's recovery after the Leon Black era under Marc Rowan and Citadel's brand shift under Ken Griffin as among the best case studies in surviving founder-centred crises,and credits Blackstone's early retail marketing —John Gray's running videos,"the cheapest marketing ever on LinkedIn" —as a pioneer play

Read more: Sorcery — The Secret Behind Wall Street's Biggest Brands