Cantor’s Comms 25 Years After 9/11
Cantor (formerly Cantor Fitzgerald) suffered the largest loss of employees of any company on September 11, 2001. What the company communicates on this 25th anniversary offers lessons in audience segmentation and how to commemorate tragedy without exploiting it.
Cantor’s website has no special message today. On the “Who We Are” page, we see the story integrated into the company’s “six core pillars.”
No other Wall Street institution has a story like ours.
Our company was founded upon six core pillars . . .
They present the message subtly in the lead-in and describe it explicitly in this pillar:
Resilience and Perseverance
Not only have we persevered through every market fluctuation over the past seven decades, but we’ve built a global financial services powerhouse in the wake of unprecedented hardship. In 2001, we tragically lost 658 of our 960 New York-based colleagues in the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks. Due to the unwavering dedication, determination and ingenuity of our employees, we stand stronger now more than ever before.
The paragraph doesn’t mention the most emotionally compelling fact—that every one of its employees who was in the building on 9/11 was killed. Perhaps that’s just too gruesome to fathom, or maybe the individual numbers better respect the loss, as each of the 658 lived a life and left loved ones.
Cantor must be careful to avoid using the loss to benefit the company. Focusing on resilience and perseverance, leaders position the company as survivors of the tragedy, which helps deflect criticism of exploitation. Charitable work also can mitigate this risk. The challenge is using the tragedy to serve others—not the company itself, as the content block shown here does.
Under the Philanthropy tab, we find information about the Cantor Relief Fund, and “Donate Now” leads to another site: cantorrelief.org. This separation is important to segment audiences and recognizes that Cantor’s younger clients may not have a meaningful connection to the event. On this site, the company describes its Annual Charity Day, a book created by families affected by 9/11 losses, and a private area for families that requires login. This, too, reflects an ongoing commitment to serve rather than capitalize.
The Relief Fund site feels positive and hopeful. We see people marching, gathering, smiling—and a lot of little kids. Cantor isn’t asking for sympathy for itself, just support for others.