Content and advertising agency Bullish Studio, known for its portfolio of finance-oriented influencer and content brands, will enter the collectibles market for the first time Friday by hosting a one-day, pop-up event outside the New York Stock Exchange.
The event will feature more than 300 collectibles related to the stock market.
Bullish CEO Brian Hanly told cllct the company began accumulating its collection of stock certificates, bonds and investing-related paraphernalia almost immediately after the company’s founding four years ago.
Stock and bond certificates are the ultimate melding of creativity and commerce.
— Ticker History ???? (@TickerHistory) June 5, 2024
To celebrate this history ahead of Father's Day, we’ll be outside the @NYSE (cross of Wall St and Bond St) this Friday, June 7th from noon - market close offering our collection of over 250+ old… pic.twitter.com/oouOEGKhNc
Hanly sees the NYSE as the perfect venue to showcase the collection and sell items to business people and tourists alike. But the broader vision is for Bullish to utilize unique collectibles tailored toward the interests of its audience, which amounts to millions across various social platforms.
This specific initiative is focused largely on Ticker History, Bullish’s Twitter account, which posts about the history behind stocks.
“Our followers are very much made up of an institutional Wall Street audience mixed with the new retail investors who are more focused on passion-led investing,” Hanly said. “So, this is a way to monetize our audience in an appropriate way. We wanted to sell goods to our audience, but instead of doing what everyone does, we're gonna bring it back to the good old days and set up right on Wall Street and sell our wares there.”
Bullish has a unique advantage when it comes to curating products for its audience. By watching and evaluating the performance of its social-media posts, in this case, from the Ticker History account, it helps remove the guesswork from the equation.
“Some of our top performing content over the last year or two has been content relating to all certificates of all different shapes and sizes,” Hanly said. “Thinking about how we monetize our audience, this has been one of the most appropriate because incentives are aligned rather than trying to sell them advertising or telling them to open up a brokerage account.”
Among the items Bullish will sell Friday (noon to 4:30 p.m. ET) are rare Disney World War II bonds, 19th-century train bonds, stock certificates from Disney, General Motors, American Express and Hertz, as well as a list of books about Scripophily (the study and collection of stock and bond certificates). Prices will range from $10 to $2,000.
Hanly views stock certificates as a perfect category for the Bullish audience.
“There’s so many stock certificates from so many different industries, there’s really something for everybody. Whether old train and mining bonds or iconic American companies. It’s accessible, cheap and meaningful to people who love this stuff.”
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.