Fidelity and Arnold Take Top Entertainment Marketing Award
Fidelity Investments has been awarded the 2006 Best Overall Entertainment Marketing Award (EMMA) by PROMO for work developed with Arnold Worldwide to support music programs in public schools. Now in its eighth year, the EMMA program recognizes the best entertainment marketing campaigns of the past year in 10 categories.
Tapping into the perennial appeal of Paul McCartney, Fidelity Investments launched the Music Lives Foundation last October to raise awareness and funding for music education programs in schools throughout the U.S.
“Music education is a critical program of study that gets scant attention, and fewer and fewer dollars every year. The Music Lives Foundation wants to combat this trend and keep music alive in our schools for years to come,” said Robert L. Reynolds, Fidelity vice chairman and chief operating officer, at the time of the launch.
In its first half year, the program has raised $500,000 to fund grants for schools in five major metropolitan markets. At the same time, it has helped Fidelity re-cast its image as a provider of financial services, transforming itself from a somewhat stodgy grey-suit firm to one that shares its clients’ enthusiasm for the future.
“It has fulfilled our every goal: philanthropic, branding and fiscal,” said Kathleen Hall, Fidelity’s executive VP, marketing. The key to the program’s success, she said, is the perfect fit between boomer icon McCartney and Fidelity’s goal of getting those boomers to save more intelligently for their retirements.
“Both ‘brands’ are smart, hardworking, established but innovative, original and enduring. [McCartney] is the perfect embodiment of Fidelity’s creative concept, ‘Never stop doing what you love,'” said Beth Rice, executive VP, director of Arnold Brand Promotions.
While the relationship between McCartney and Fidelity began with talks about a potential sponsorship of his 2005 U.S. tour, it quickly elevated when Arnold began to talk about building a campaign around his life story, in particular his willingness to evolve personally and professionally.
“Paul McCartney is never going to do a commercial endorsement,” Hall told PROMO on the day of the launch. “But two things sold him: funding retirement is a social cause in the U.S.—people don’t have enough to retire on! And when he saw the execution around him being a regular person, he loved it.”
Even so, she said, the music program sealed the deal. In addition to promoting music education at his concerts, McCartney has backed premiums that reward Fidelity clients for reviewing their portfolios with an advisor (a review results in a gift CD featuring an exclusive mix of McCartney’s music); clients opening new accounts receive a pewter “Music Lives” bracelet and a donation made on their behalf. A direct donation to the foundation is also rewarded with the bracelet.
In addition to visibility at McCartney concerts, Fidelity has pushed the program online, in its branch facilities and via media advertising.
Unwilling to disclose the numbers of accounts opened or reviews conducted, Hall is delighted with the success of the Music Lives partnership. “I don’t know how we’re ever going to top it,” she said.
The 2006 EMMAs will be awarded in 10 categories on June 7 at Star Power, a conference on entertainment marketing hosted by the Promotion Marketing Association.
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