To support its separately managed account business, Phoenix Cos. has been running a print campaign, "Money, it's Just Not What it Used to Be," for the past four years to convey the idea that the old perception of money has changed. Just last month, the Financial Communications Society awarded the campaign a gold award for corporate image.
Running in business and lifestyle publications, the ads aim to identify with the various types of people that now make up the mass affluent. "With the overall concept, you want the target to hold a mirror to themselves and see Phoenix. You want them to see themselves in the brand, and we believe we have a very distinctive look," said Frank Sampogna, operating chief of Cossette Post, the advertising company in charge of the initiative.
One of the more recent ads garnering attention is one in which six, smartly-dressed, sophisticated women of varying ages and ethnicities are gathered in a well-furnished room. Four separate captions spread across the two-page layout read "Gives her broker investment ideas," " Is taking her company public," "Earns more than her CEO husband," and "Wonders why anyone would be surprised."
Another ad features a young mother sitting at a desk in a modern workstation with a toddler parked in a chair at the end of the table. The caption next to the mother reads: "Needs a written financial plan that looks at least 10 years ahead." The one next to the child reads: "Looks forward to reading it."
These types of ads are indicative of the image the company is trying to portray: that it is not just older white "board-room-type" males with the money and that there are also a number of different investments that one can plan for. As the campaign has evolved, it has focused much more on products, according to Sampogna.
The ads run on a much more frequent basis in 2003 than in the past, according to Jody Beresin, a vice president at Phoenix. "In the publications we choose we are usually one of the top advertisers. We dominate the pubs we're in."
The idea sprang from the desire to capture wealth and the hope of branding Phoenix's name and making it synonymous with the upper-end investor. Combine that with the notion of "changing money," or at least the shifting demographic of those who have it, and you have got Phoenix's campaign.
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