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        To view this site properly you need Read the Whole Story Challenge ~ Manulife Financial, a leading Canadian-based financial services company operating worldwide, needed a full-service branding and interactive partner to help them launch their 529 college savings plan in a relatively short time frame. Since the college savings arena was new to Manulife, the launch support program needed to both educate and sell across a broad range of target audiences with disparate needs and expectations. Solution ~ RainCastle developed and implemented an integrated strategy that differentiated Manulife College Savings from competitive 529 plans. RainCastle kicked off the process with an intensive focus session designed to gain consensus among internal stakeholders with regard to current and desired brand perceptions, appropriate brand personality and a wish list of program components. RainCastle then validated these internal findings with a brief external survey conducted amongst Manulife's key wholesalers. RainCastle rounded out the discovery phase with an audit of the print and online communications tools utilized by Manulife's competitors in the 529 arena and developed a compelling brand promise as the foundation for the visual identity system. The RainCastle creative team developed three distinct visual brand systems based on the brand promise. The chosen creative concept avoided the "cute kids" approach taken by many of the competitors in favor of a more upscale look that combined photography and fine art to evoke memories of parents' and grandparents' own college experiences. The program included a Web site for use by financial advisors and consumers, web calculators, an interactive repository of sales tools, a sales kit (product brochure, FAQs, disclosure document and enrollment forms), a seminar program (invitations, ad slicks, and a PowerPoint presentation), training manuals, trade show materials and direct mail. Results ~ With strategy in place, RainCastle launched the full initial communication system from print through Web - in 90 days. The Manulife College Savings Web site successfully launched and was followed shortly thereafter by the delivery of 50,000 sales kits. The integrated strategy developed by RainCastle successfully differentiated Manulife from their competitors, tangibly augmented Manulife's business development and marketing impact and gave Manulife a brand identity that was cohesive online and offline. The program was an instant hit and Manulife College Savings went on to exceed - by a huge margin - their revenue goals. Within 2 years, Manulife College Savings was doing $300,000,000 of business a year and was the #4 player in a market in which they had been invisible. |
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