Feeling the squeeze of competition from big banks like never before, Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund, or TIAA-CREF, has launched its first national campaign, with expensive TV and print ads that represent a significant hike in spending for the investment and insurance firm. Its message, "For the Greater Good," contrasts sharply with the tarnished images of Wall Street.
New York-based TIAA-CREF sells investment and insurance products to employees in academia, healthcare, research and cultural institutions. The firm hasn't advertised extensively because, until recently, it had cornered its target group: educators, doctors, scientists, museum curators and others. But other financial services firms are increasingly encroaching on TIAA-CREF's territory, says Jamie DePeau, vp of marketing for the New York-based firm, which claims $320 billion in assets under management and 3.2 million customers.
Plus, an increasing number of entrants to the fields TIAA-CREF targets may not know the company at all. "Many people are making mid-career decisions about going into teaching and we're finding that a lot of these people simply aren't aware of us because they haven't spent their career in academia, healthcare or research," DePeau says.
The company severed long-term ties with heavy hitter Ogilvy & Mather last year and hired the small Boston shop Modernista! TIAA-CREF is its first financial services client. DePeau says the company was happy with Ogilvy's work, but it was time for a fresh start. Previous campaigns spotlighted famous academics, scientists and other customers of the 85-year-old company, including Albert Einstein and Kurt Vonnegut.
"What they are doing is unusual in the magnitude of spending on a broad-scale advertising camp," says Robert G. Markey Jr., partner at Bain & Co., a brand and marketing consultant. "My guess is that this'll rank in their industry among the highest investments, at least in a short burst, in a broad-scale ad campaign among any of their direct competitors." TIAA-CREF officials declined to provide budget figures. Mutual fund and insurance firms tend to invest heavily in distribution channels and direct marketing, because products are consultative in nature, he says. "Leadership of these companies tends to think that every dollar they put into brand or broad-scale advertising is a dollar that is not going to advisors, financial planners or direct marketing."
With the tagline, "For the Greater Good," the ads remind constituents why they chose TIAA-CREF and to introduce itself to newcomers in the fields its serves. Executives considered changing the name to something less perplexing, but studies showed sufficient brand equity to warrant keeping it.
The ads, in local media in 22 markets, make an emotional appeal to those "whose career choices inherently add value to our culture," as the brand manifesto in one print ad says. "Sure, there are richer career paths these people could walk in life, but perhaps none as worthwhile," it says. This print ad kicked off the campaign during the Olympics, running in publications like The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and BusinessWeek, along with a 60-second TV spot debuting during opening ceremonies.
TIAA-CREF's brand manifesto is long, making for a copy-heavy print ad. Marketing experts usually shun a lot of text, but Modernista!'s associate creative director Tim Vaccarino says that the "greater good" message and clean layout will captivate the right audience. "The point of the manifesto is to tell our story, and in order to do that, you need to write a little more," says Kirsten Hano, account director for Modernista!
The 60-second TV commercial shows scenes of real people doing their jobs: a surgeon scrubbing in at a hospital, a piano tuner in an empty concert hall, a professor lecturing. The West Side Story song, "Somewhere," plays in the background. At the end, the logo appears as a voiceover says, "TIAA-CREF, financial services for the greater good." Says Vaccarino: "We're just tipping our hat, showing what they do and honoring that."
The 30-second commercials and print ads focusing on specific vocations are gradually rolling out to focus on teachers, doctors, curators and other groups. The shorter spots borrow footage from the longer one, while print ads have less copy, but keep it a centerpiece. "It's tough standing out because you're not advertising a washing machine, you're talking about finance," Vaccarino says. "So we basically knew that a lot of it was language and tone." Print ads avoid visual cliches, like a teacher at a chalkboard, and use more implicit imagery to evoke the professions TIAA-CREF serves.
