Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase

Challenge
By November, Prudential was one-third short of its RM1 billion sales target for 2010. How can Prudential soften the market to make consumers more receptive to listen to Prudential agents who approach them, while simultaneously help their agents close more sales with greater ease and speed to achieve their target?

Solution
We asked Prudential agents what they needed to help them close sales. The answer was simple: “Give us something that we can use to start conversations with our potential customer!” With this insight, we conceived the solution of newspaper articles that highlighted the importance of insurance and financial planning, giving Prudential agents a very credible “sales tool” to use as conversation starters, while simultaneously generating publicity buzz that softens the consumer market.

Execution
Working with newspaper marketing teams, we briefed editorial teams on Prudential’s intent to educate the public on the importance of insurance and financial planning, and successfully earned editors’ support to publish a collection of “wake-up-the-nation” articles on insurance. Articles ranging from healthcare to education and retirement were published in relevant editorial sections. Supportive editors even sought information and spokespersons from Prudential, resulting in incidental mentions of Prudential within the articles.

Results
Editorial teams across 6 newspapers supported Prudential’s cause, publishing 35 articles worth RM1.1million, which matched a concurrent ad investment. Prudential agent said, “Most of my agents cut out this article for our selling tool, even forwarding the article to our clients”. Best of all, Prudential exceeded their RM1billion sales target.