Prudential’s recent campaign for its asset management arm, PGIM, broke conventional advertising norms, according to Richard Parkinson, the company’s chief brand and marketing officer.
Called “Keep Asking,” it features a claymation world where people ask questions about various topics, including investments. Parkinson said they came up with the idea for the campaign after research found that PGIM’s customers are problem solvers. That insight led to the “keep asking” theme and the prominent hand raise in the campaign — the universal sign for asking a question.
Internally, Parkinson said, people were a bit scared to do such a campaign because it was different. “Everybody’s a bit, ‘Gosh, this is different. Can we be that different?’ And yes, of course we can be different,” he said. “We have the right to be different.”
Parkinson told Business Insider about the strategy behind the campaign, its reception, and how he’s thinking about marketing in the age of AI.
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
About a month ago, we launched a new campaign for PGIM, our asset management arm, which broke conventional norms in terms of advertising because it was based in an animated claymation world.
It was designed to stand out in a marketplace that loves windmills, roads, and skyscrapers. You’ve only got four seconds to make an impact with a brand that not many people know about. So we decided to go down that route to give it an edge and make it differentiated in the marketplace.
The strategy behind the creative actually was around getting into the minds of our customers and what really enabled them to think about us. And what we discovered was that they are problem solvers. They are people who like the puzzle, who like the challenge, which led to our campaign around “keep asking.”
We noticed in the process that one of our competitors came out with a campaign that was going to look very similar to ours. So we did a pivot. We actually thought, “Well, what is the universal symbol for asking a question?” That is the hand raise — so we use that in our animated claymation world, and you will now see that goes across all of our campaigns for PGIM and around “keep asking.”
It’s interesting in terms of impact. I think actually, internally, everybody’s a bit scared. Everybody’s a bit, “Gosh, this is different. Can we be that different?” And yes, of course, we can be different. We have the right to be different. And so I think there’s a bit of nervousness in terms of the impact internally. And that’s OK.
Externally, we’re starting to see that people are noticing it across our social channels. We’ve got a bit of a way to go to find out what the impact is in broadcast, but certainly on socials, it’s getting noticed. We are seeing the difference, and people are engaging with it more than our previous campaigns.
Prudential FInancial
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