Bronze: Best B2B Campaign 2015

Flexibility and control, according to financial services provider Nationwide, were the concepts that most resonated with its top independent financial advisers. Nationwide and Wilde Agency used that knowledge as the basis of a campaign to make advisers more aware of the firm’s Flexible Advantage product.

The three-phase campaign kicked off with a direct mail piece to advisers that included Tegu magnetic building blocks, which tied in to the flexibility aspect of the product as well as to Nationwide’s established theme positioning financial planners as “architects of the future.” The mail piece drove recipients to Nationwide’s Flexible Advantage website, which included a short video titled, unsurprisingly enough, “Architects of the Future.”

Phase two tied in to the annual Plan Adviser National Conference. Prior to the trade show, advisers were mailed invitations to Nationwide’s booth with the promise that they’d be able to “drive circles around their competition.” The booth featured Spheros, robotic balls that can be controlled via Bluetooth. Attendees could race them around a specially built track that incorporated imagery from the website video and enter to win a Sphero of their own. After the show, the participants received a thank-you email that also drove them to the Flexible Advantage website.

The final phase promoted Fund Window, an add-on feature to the Flexible Advantage product, with a direct mailer that included a mobile charger to enable recipients to power up on the go for maximum flexibility and control throughout their day.

Financial advisers were sold on Flexible Advantage, and they sold their clients on it too: Fourth-quarter sales of the product rose 40% year over year.