Formed in 1989 as an accessible alternative to traditional Wall Street firms, LPL Financial is among the most successful companies in wealth management. Through the company’s vast network of independent financial advisors as well as advisors affiliated with financial institutions, including banks, credit unions, and insurance companies, LPL now manages approximately $2.26 trillion on behalf of approximately 8 million Americans.
However, LPL had yet to create an advertising campaign that targeted its consumer audience--not once in 36 years. Its audience had previously skewed toward financial advisors. As a company embracing a belated first impression, we knew that the company had to break through the typically conservative and expected wealth management marketing.
Instead of featuring retirees living their best financially secure lives, we flipped the script with the always affable Oscar-nominated actress Anna Kendrick to provoke ambition and practical aspiration--and curiosity--in a brand serving the aforementioned 8 million American customers.
We anchored the integrated campaign with a 60-second spot starring Kendrick, the first from LPL to directly engage the consumer in the company’s history. The ad opens with Kendrick pulling a giant, plush field of green grass through city streets, asking viewers a variety of aspiring questions—with a dose of her witty humor—because LPL wants its customers to know that, when it comes to their goals, nothing is more powerful than knowing you can reach them.
We approached the campaign with a simple message through visual metaphor and inventive expression, aiming to create something engaging, memorable—even poetic—to invigorate the financial category and show that these institutions can be interesting, culturally relevant, and connect with people in more meaningful ways. ‘The grass is always greener on the other side’ might be a well-known cliché, but we refreshed the metaphor by pushing it to preposterous lengths. In doing so, we gave the sentiment new life, demonstrating that even a well-worn metaphor can be reborn.
Director Tucker Bliss and DP Rodrigo Prieto, best known for The Wolf of Wall Street and Argo, brought a naturally cinematic and effortlessly charming quality to the ad, bridging the gap between fantasy and reality to make a giant patch of green grass draped over Kendrick’s shoulder seem effortless. The “greener grass” was brought to life through both puppetry and visual effects.
The spot aired during the PGA Championship and on CNBC & local cable with linear, digital, audio, social, OOH, print, and search, kicking off across business, sports, local, and lifestyle outlets nationally. The creative concept was further brought to life with Fast Company, Axios, and Vox podcasts, and homepage takeovers at WSJ, Forbes, and Fast Company.
With an initial goal of 5-7% brand lift, we saw the strongest lift to date in aided awareness at +31%, followed by favorability showing +16% lift--both far and away above the initial targets.
In just the first month, the campaign drove ~60k website visits, with pages per visit up 12.5% compared to non-campaign visitors (1.79 vs 1.59). Google Paid Search is driving the most traffic and has shown the most favorable ROI ratio. Across all channels, net impressions in the first month exceeded ~73MM.
