Prudential challenges you to stare at the ones you love for 4 minutes

Client: Prudential Asia

Agency: FCB, with Mindshare and Weber Shandwick

Market: Singapore*

Name of campaign: 'Relationship reconnect'

Campaign scope: Broadcast, Facebook and YouTube, programmatic and outdoor, plus a social strategy with original content and influencer outreach.

Details: This is the first work FCB has turned out for Prudential after winning a pitch for the business. In the long- and short-form videos shown above (the playlist includes 15 clips), six Singaporean duos (couples, siblings, parents/children) stand in a stark white studio and look at each other for four minutes, then share their often emotional reactions. The experiment is based on work by an American psychologist who found that this experience creates higher levels of intimacy and empathy. The tagline: "Your relationships are precious, so protect them.”

Quotes:

Sean Rach, CMO, Prudential Corporation Asia:

The thinking that the team from FCB shared and have brought to life builds on our strengths and brand character with a modern sensibility. Using an almost 'un-advertising' approach, this first work together provides an authentic and meaningful way to communicate what our brand is about.

Edward Bell, CEO, FCB Greater China:

We want to make sure the communications helps contemporise the brand but also connects directly with the fundamental premise of Prudential’s business. Insurance is about protecting the people you care most about. The campaign aims to help people reconnect and build stronger relationships with their loved ones at different life stages.

Campaign Asia Pacific's comments: Although we're starting to groan when we see the words 'social experiment' attached to any kind of marketing effort, this one is compelling to watch and thought-provoking. It also aligns well with the company's 'Always listening. Always understanding' tagline, and fits elegantly with its business aims; once you pause to recognize (or remember) how important loved ones are, the desire to protect them arises naturally.

We like that the brand has surrounded the work with supplemental material about the psychological underpinnings of the concept and that it plans to employ the ideas in an internal initiative aimed at improving work relationships and productivity—although we're not going to try staring at our colleagues for four straight minutes anytime soon.  

We also appreciate how the work stands out from more conventional fare in the insurance segment.

CREDITS

Edward Bell, CEO, FCB Greater China
Jocelyn Tse, General Manager, FCB Hong Kong
Andy Chan, ECD of FCB Shanghai
Ashley Chin, Group Head FCB China
Estelle Wong, Account Director FCB China
Tina Shen, Account Manager FCB Hong Kong
Penny Huan, Account Manager FCB China
Simon Lockyer, CEO FCB Singapore
Maggie Chan, Producer FCB Singapore

* As originally published, this article incorrectly stated that the campaign was a regional one.