Thrivent - Insurance Marketing Campaign of the Year

Company: Thrivent, Minneapolis, MN
Entry Submitted By:Prophet Strategy
Company Description: Thrivent is a Fortune 500 not-for-profit financial services organization headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Appleton, Wisconsin, and founded by Lutherans. As a member-owned fraternal benefit society, it operates under a chapter system, serving nearly 2.3 million members
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Categories - Industry
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Campaign of the Year - Insurance

Nomination Title: Thrivent "Invested In" Launch Campaign

Thrivent's new brand campaign debuted in in media on June 14, 2020.

Despite strong financials, Thrivent was suffering from a decade of membership declines and stalled growth. Thrivent was built as a Fraternal Membership organization serving a specific market in financial services (particularly within the Life, Health and Annuities categories) but prospective customers were moving to more well-known financial services companies offering advice and investments. To survive and evolve for the long-term, Thrivent needed a new and broader strategy for brand-led growth. With Prophet’s partnership, the Thrivent decided to transform the organization with a renewed focus on financial expertise and ability to drive financial clarity for customers, so that all of humanity may thrive.

The new corporate strategy led to a re-definition of Thrivent’s brand and marketing strategy. Through a robust segmentation, Thrivent identified a new target to build a competitive advantage with. Prophet partnered with Thrivent to launch the brand in-market with a campaign to drive awareness, emotionally connect with a new audience looking for more purpose in their finances, show the world how Thrivent helps their clients achieve financial clarity, and ultimately, drive new client growth.

This campaign needed to not only position Thrivent as a leader in financial advisory, but also ensure it appealed to prospects who are actively in the market for Life Insurance and Annuities products, categories that grew dramatically in 2020 (29% of adults were likely to buy Life insurance as reported by LIMRA) as more people looked for life insurance solutions & coverage to protect their families, and Retirement options to guarantee future income.

To hit aggressive goals of building awareness among a new target audience and generate demand in market for life insurance and Annuities, the campaign needed to break through category clutter, while laddering up to a new, broader brand strategy for Thrivent.

Research showed that this target values living a life of meaning and gratitude. With Thrivent’s rich heritage as a purpose-driven organization, this led to a new positioning “Thrive with Purpose” and an integrated marketing campaign: “Invested In” to convey it.

The campaign debuted in June with a multi-channel strategy including TV spots, print and digital media in financial publications such as The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Yahoo@ Finance, broadcast/streaming/OTT and online video with radio, social, digital display and podcast placements.

To support Thrivent’s life insurance and annuities products, the campaign stayed true to the new brand while speaking to prospects actively considering Life Insurance or Annuities, as part of their financial strategy. Most consumers don’t know their options, how much coverage they need to protect their family, and how life insurance fits into their overall financial strategy, so they tend to put it off in frustration.

The campaign, on TV, social and digital channels, re-framed Life Insurance as something more aspirational in protecting their loved ones (“Love Insurance”), and convinced the target that Thrivent, a leader in financial advisory and an AM Best Superior A++ rated company, can take the mystery out of life insurance, and guide them on how life insurance fits into their overall financial strategy.

In just six months since the brand launch, the campaign is already seeing tremendous results against the aggressive goals set by Thrivent, including:

-Increase in aided awareness, on pace with our three-year goal
-+99% in brand favorability (also above benchmarks in believability and relevance) among our new target
-+100% across all key brand equities
-Expert +267%
-Confident +308%
-Charitable +199%
-Modern +141%
-Relevant +123%
-74% higher website visits for 2020 (vs. 2019) credited to the integrated campaign, with traffic to local financial professional web sites up by 20%
-Increase of 387% in new leads (45% driven from life insurance) from previous year.

In addition, Sales organizational feedback at Thrivent has been very positive:

From Thrivent financial professionals:

"Lead Quality is generally high. Brand awareness of new prospects is increasing. We’ve written business on 100% of our leads"– FP Janice Mowen

"Love the program. Wrote one fee-based plan with Life, DI, and investments likely to come"– FP Darin Stevens

The learnings and success of the 2020 campaign is now extending into 2021, as the brand campaign will move from launch to brand storytelling, and personalized for different life stages, triggers and financial services journey needs.

Attached is a PPT featuring creative highlights across the campaign including print, TV, digital display, social, and content marketing. Two of the brand TV spots are embedded within the PPT, as well as links provided to them and one of the DRTV spots “Love Insurance.” Thank you for your consideration.