Pam Hamlin, President, Arnold Worldwide

Pam Hamlin, President, Arnold Worldwide

By Carl Steffens, Adobe Systems

Theme: How to get a decentralized organization with multiple offerings to work more effectively together by going to market as one unified brand.

Fidelity has 6 different lines of business, each with a President and P&L:

Fidelity Management Research

Fidelity Brokerage

Fidelity Life Insurance

Fidelity Employee Services Co

Fidelity Institutional Investor Services

Fidelity Estate & Wealth Management

Fidelity engaged Arnold to help unite the six different businesses in their go-to-market around a single campaign

Issues in designing campaign:

• No unified approach in marketing and communications (shared samples of marketing assets and programs to demonstrate)
• Despite the disconnect, business was going well. Given that, how to get people to make a change? Answer: focus on the opportunity

 

Fidelity and Arnold identified seven principles to guide the effort:

1) Demonstrate the upside – lifetime customer relationships

- Given the multiple businesses, Fidelity had a chance to engage with customers throughout their lifetimes. Different offerings/vehicles apply at different times

- Opportunity was to help customers move through their financial management “lifetime” by utilizing the various Fidelity products

- Fidelity has significant position in 401k management; this represents a feeder opportunity to the other products where Fidelity’s share was lower

- Industry trends for next 10 years will cause shift of investment products to “income” orientation (such as annuities) from “growth” given aging of boomers

- Social value was also a driver: by helping individuals adequately plan for and provide for retirement, Fidelity can help society. Do good while doing well. Helped people rally around the opportunity.

2) Make it an executive priority:

· Executives were briefed to help reinforce the need for change and the opportunity

1) Develop a platform that embraces all of the business:

· 3-4 month development process including research, concept testing, internal interviews, etc

· Language used and strategy embraced revolved around the “Fidelity Advantage” – which had both rational and emotional components such as confidence in making the right decision

· The tagline “Smart move” emerged – tangible reinforcement of a good decision made

2) Phase the roll-out to get traction:

· Given Fidelity’s size, roll-out had to be phased and incremental

· Phase 1: the investor – new and improved retirement planning tools & processes (Fidelity Retirement Income Advantage)

· The visibility of Phase 1 helped build momentum for other elements/phases

3) Propel excitement – make employees feel proud/engaged

· Created call to action with Paul McCartney tour. Chose McCartney given that he was 60 yrs old yet still performing and reinventing himself

· McCartney would not enter into a simple endorsement deal. He wanted to design the program such that it would have the highest impact; he cared about the outcome.

· Campaign launched within Fidelity with a voice-mail from Paul McCartney to 41,000 employees

· “Music Lives” foundation was created with campaign. Helps educate children in inner cities about music; variety of social benefits. People could make donations as part of Fidelity campaign.

· Also an exclusive CD for Fidelity customers

· Ref: Fidelity commercial with McCartney

4) Seize the moment – involve the entire company in brand building

· Unified brand guidelines, etc.

· Collateral system overhauled

· Merchandising system, retail branches, and web-site redesigned

· This was lens for seeing the multiple businesses have one appearance

5) Winning is a team sport

· Shared results with all employees; made them feel a part of the success of the campaign

Results:

• Fidelity saw a 447% increase in “Net Flows” (new investment vs. withdrawals) from 2003. 
• ROI of the campaign was 2.6x.

Four learnings from campaign:

1) Patience: transformations take time. 4 years in the making

2) Conviction – overcoming obstacles

3) Think incrementally – monitor small steps

4) Inspire vs. Mandate – motivate with the upside

Q&A with Bob Liodice, CEO of ANA:

Q: Partnerships: what’s working for Arnold in the client partnership?

A: The two organizations were aligned on the mission from the beginning, made all follow on work easier.

Q: Commitment from the top. Given a CEO + six (6) Presidents, how did they all get aligned?

A: Upside was demonstrated, and the division presidents believed in the opportunity for the company.

Q: Financial services world is highly competitive and somewhat commoditized; how did Fidelity differentiate?

A: Drive, passion, intensity in Fidelity’s DNA to help investors succeed. Arnold worked to translate that passion.

Q: How did the internal organization react to desire for change?

A: Fidelity culture embraces change. People were comfortable and understand that change is often required to stay at the top of industry. Arnold did a lot of listening; emphasized to people that it would help them do their job better.

Q: Did the campaign rely heavily on traditional media?

A: Many of assets shared were television ads, but web-component was very prominent as well. Analysis informed how to reach the different types of customers by media type.

Q: Were other agencies involved, or just Arnold?

A: Fidelity has a large internal organization that Arnold partnered with. Specialized design organization was brought in for some parts as well.

Q: Who owns integration?

A: Primarily owned within Fidelity, but Arnold worked to act as brand steward.

Q: One parting message?

A: Stay focused on customers and insight, and utilize that knowledge to rally internal troops.