THE VANGUARD GROUP // brand CAMPAIGN launch
How can Vanguard shift perceptions from a low-cost products provider to a more relevant, humanized brand that truly cares about its investors?
Image source: DS Reps
THE CHALLENGE
With numerous competitors encroaching on Vanguard’s foundational promise of providing low-cost investment options for everyday investors, how can Vanguard differentiate itself to showcase how being built for investors means putting investors first? Wait, huh? Shouldn’t investors always come first? One would hope, but putting people before business is not the norm.
THE TASK
Plan and execute an omnichannel media campaign across digital and traditional mediums aimed at achieving perception change by sharing a deep cultural brand narrative.
the process
From the outset, our team understood that perception change is achieved by two things – time and repetition. With this approach, we focused on frequency over reach with a campaign strategy that surrounded the target audience in channels they already spent significant time with.
Defined as the “Vanguard End Investor”, we built out the target audience in MRI-Simmons based mainly upon psychographic inputs: (1) currently investing/plan to invest, (2) philosophically aligned with Vanguard’s investing principles, and (3) open and receptive to learning more about the Vanguard brand. Additionally, a competitive analysis was conducted on Vanguard’s top three competitors for their activity in the previous fiscal year; I was personally responsible for researching and analyzing their spend investment in traditional channels (linear TV and print) via Nielsen Ad Intel.
We discovered that TV and streaming audio over-index for usage by the End Investor, with OTT and podcasts specifically being underutilized by top competitors. Recognizing these pockets of opportunities to activate on new and innovative platforms, we delivered an OTT landscape presentation to the clients to describe the increasingly fractured nature of this channel and how Vanguard can have a sizable presence during the target’s “personal primetime”.
We crafted an RFP requesting high-impact and 100% SOV opportunities, sent it to financial endemic and contextually relevant properties, and vetted submissions that gave us ample space to creatively deliver the Vanguard brand story. Working in tandem with the creative team at every step, we arrived at the messaging platform – Vanguard exists to bring radical humanity to the world of investing – that would drive emotional relevance with the End Investor audience, as well as the assets we would deploy in-market. This included everything from social GIFs and custom scripts for podcast host-reads, to :30 TV spots and newspaper print ads. And of course, those handy-dandy standard display assets.
We proposed channel framework and tactical activation plans and with client approval, we went to work! My main contributions during this phase included managing our buys with ten different print publishers (positioning, pricing, the works) and setting up our paid social campaigns in self-service platforms like Facebook Ads Manager and Twitter Ads. I also know my way around Google’s Campaign Manager 360 with CIDs, tags, and all starting from this experience.
the outcome
Launching in September 2019, our team successfully executed Vanguard’s first ever brand awareness-focused campaign, as nearly all previous efforts were directed at lower funnel objectives.
Continuing with the idea of breaking precedent with this campaign, the brand activated on OTT, podcasts and streaming audio platforms for the very first time; trailblazing partnerships with some of the biggest names in these arenas, like Hulu, Roku, NYT’s The Daily, NPR’s Up First, Pandora and Spotify on Vanguard's behalf. Across all channels, brand safety was of the utmost concern to our clients. We partnered with DoubleVerify to create a custom brand safety and fraud controls profile as well as with each individual vendor to ensure we complied with their strict brand safety guidelines throughout the flight.
Midway through the campaign, I went on vacation to SF and just had to stop into a bookstore to see if they had a magazine we had an ad placed in. Sure enough, I opened the November issue of The Atlantic and saw this staring back at me. Suffice it to say, this was a proud mom moment of seeing my direct work in the real world. (Image source: Me!)
As measured through a 3rd party lift study run by Kantar Millward Brown, this campaign led to significant increases in Aided Brand Awareness, Brand Favorability, and multiple Brand Attributes such as trust and being a great investment partner that stands apart from others.
The flight ran through the end of 2019, with a second big push to sustain these initial efforts starting in March 2020 (which I was also a part of). If you ever need someone to build out a detailed flowchart from scratch or client-facing reporting memo, I’m your girl.
Insider Tip: Bogleheads, named admirably after Vanguard’s founder Jack Bogle, is a community of investors who truly love the brand and its long-term horizon investing principles. Fans you say? No, stans is more accurate. Check out their thriving community on Reddit and you’ll know what I mean.
Agency: Media Kitchen
Team: Caterina Bartoli, Clair Bergam, Brandon Clark, Mamie Marbury, Xavier Rosario, Ashley Sobel
Role: Strategist, Researcher, Media Buyer & Planner