We went back the brand’s foundation, to the deep sense of empathy that had inspired the brand’s long standing promise of ‘always listening, always understanding’. With this lens, we could see that Prudential was operating in a society that was facing new kinds of pressures. Pervasive personal technologies, long working hours combined with anxiety for the future placed a new level of stress on personal relationships. Even the Prudential CEO felt that workplace relationships in the company were suffering.

Inspired by American research psychologist Arthur Aron’s ground breaking experiment on developing intimacy between strangers; we developed the ‘Relationship Reconnect’ platform. We used this experiment to bring Singaporeans together and the resulting films provoked people of Singapore to reassess their relationship and strengthen their emotional bonds with people that matter most. We used a relevant social tension and the brand’s voice to help people reconnect, contributing to their emotional well-being.

The hero film was uploaded on the brand’s Youtube and Facebook pages and hosted on a campaign microsite - PrudentialReconnect.com.sg. A series of buses, OOH media placements and targeted digital advertising directed people to the campaign microsite where they could watch the films and explore additional video and written content regarding relationships including an interview with the consulting psychologist, and Prudential’s own CEO explaining why we are conducting the ‘relationship reconnect’ experiments.

Concentrated effort was made on PR to generate awareness of the initiative. Video ad networks and programmatic placements on top sites ensured everybody in Singapore saw the videos. To keep the campaign fresh, different thumbnail images were used to appeal to specific set of target audience. Local celebrities and influencers organically picked up the video and shared it on their pages.

The 7 weeks campaign was produced with less than USD 1 million media budget.

The films evoked a response far beyond our imagination. After just two months into this branded content campaign, most Singaporeans recognized the need to reconnect. Thousands left comments on the videos tagging their friends and families to spend more time together. Our agents saw a different behavioural change with new and potential clients – their perception towards their family members had changed and their willingness to talk to our agents had gone up.

Employees felt a sense of pride in the organization and the film was shared all across the world with people wanting to connect better with their friends and families.

With an addressable audience of 3.3 million the campaign results were overwhelming:

15 million+ views

20,000 shares

120,000 likes

25,000 positive comments

26% expressed an intention to try it for themselves

Top-of-mind awareness +28%

Unaided awareness +13%

Brand communication awareness +41%

'Willing to talk to Prudential agents' +51%