Several firms have launched marketing and advertising campaigns to highlight a resurgent interest from investors who want to protect their financial well-being with a firm they can rely on.

Milwaukee-based Northwestern Mutual was one of the first firms to identify this phenomenon as part of its 2022 Planning and Progress Study. The firm saw the opportunity to appeal to this interested group of investors and launched a comprehensive ad campaign to align with the start of the NFL season.

“There’s a real sense that the time is now,” said Tim Gerend, executive vice president and chief distribution officer at Northwestern Mutual. “People tend to think about financial planning as far off into the future, but because of Covid people decided that they weren’t going to wait some unknown time in the future.”

The campaign features investors taking action to participate in major life events such as taking a vacation or visiting family. It is that push that Northwestern is looking to promote and demonstrate how their financial advisors can help.

“The idea is to seize on this sentiment that people are having,” Gerend said. “And let them know that it is possible for them to live the life that they want and a great next step for them is to connect with an advisor who can help them put together a plan.”

The campaign launched with the start of the NFL season and featured ads throughout the first weekend of games, including those on the Peacock Network, and during Sunday Night Football. The firm is also running ads on digital platforms as well as social media platforms, including Instagram. The campaign will run through next year, at which time the firm will evaluate it and make any necessary changes, Gerend said.

Other firms are looking to tap into those clients who are considering a financial plan. San Fransico-based Wells Fargo & Company is encouraging its banking customers to take advantage of the financial advisors housed in the firm’s 4,600 branches.  

The firm rolled out a new Premier program targeting investors with $250,000 to $10 million in combined assets. Premier is an effort to bundle all the services that Wells Fargo offers from banking to investing in one place.

“Our branches in the recent period have migrated from transaction centers to advice centers,” said Frank Barbieri, executive vice president and head of Wells Fargo Premier. “This gives our clients the ability to meet with not only the banker but the entire team.”

These clients will then have access to Wells Fargo’s entire brokerage network. The firm has also armed bankers and advisors with marketing tools to help clients, including a pitch flipbook that will highlight the value of Premier.

While the program’s goal is to encourage Wells Fargo’s banking clients to consider investing with the same firm, it is also about getting the investment clients to bank with Wells Fargo, Barbieri said. Those advisors housed in offices outside the branches will also be highlighting the Premier banking options as well.

To promote this program, the firm has been running digital and social media ads throughout 20 of the top designated marketing areas around the country.

Barbieri added that when clients seek guidance from advisors, it provides them with peace of mind, which is something that many sought in the wake of the pandemic. He believes that Premier can provide that peace of mind and help existing clients understand the total spectrum of products Wells Fargo offers. 

“We’re really deepening our relationship and it leads to higher revenue per client,” Barbieri said. “This is a way to demonstrate what else Wells can do outside of just banking.”

To push its investment options within the branches, Barbieri said that Wells Fargo is in an active campaign to bring in more advisors. He did not provide a specific number, but said that the firm is actively growing. 

While there are firms looking to speak to those investors looking to focus on their financial well-being, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) wants to assure its clients about its stability. The Springfield, Mass.-based company’s ad campaign, which launched in June, but ramped up this fall, promotes the message that no matter what takes place in the world, MassMutual is always there for its clients and advisors, according to Jennifer Halloran, head of brand and marketing at MassMutual.

“We really need something that resonates the core pillars of what we do as a company in that way it represents our support to our advisors and distribution network is much the way it represents our support for institutional partners as much as our end consumer,” she said.

Those core pillars include focusing on the customer, acting with integrity, valuing people, working collaboratively, and achieving results. The ads present the message in a unique way as they use imagery more associated with financial services ads and contrast them with the faces of the real people who work at the firm.

MassMutual is running ads on sports networks and digital channels with ads also running on social media platforms. The overall campaign is expected to last 18 to 24 months. It targets mass affluent individuals between 35-65 years old.

Halloran said the Covid-19 pandemic and how investors reacted to it demonstrated to MassMutual why it was essential to push this particular message out now.

“If there was anything that we couldn’t predict, it was a global pandemic and to be there when the truly unexpected happens that was really important to us that we could have the message ... to remind people in a real way that we have to be there,” she said.