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Citron Haligman Bedecarrƒ Shifts Company’s Focus to Retirement
SAN FRANCISCO-With tax time looming and baby boomers making appointments with their financial planners, Dreyfus has broken a new campaign touting its mutual funds as tools for retirement dream fulfillment.
The campaign was created in light of research by Citron Haligman Bedecarrƒ indicating the target market “finds the word [retirement] a turnoff,” said Neil Saunders, agency planning director. As such, the word is not mentioned in any of the ads.
Themed “Someday I plan to,” three 30-second TV spots shift the client’s focus from its palette of mutual funds to investors’ retirement goals. Each stylish, black-and-white spot (all directed by Herb Ritts) shows a man or woman in his or her 40s or 50s portrayed in a studio with the docile Dreyfus lion. The actors describe what they would like to do “someday.” Plans include: “Sleeping through rush hour looking forward to Mondays starting a business with my son.” The “Rule your kingdom” tagline is retained.
Previous spots from CHB had featured the lion walking across the screen with a caption stating: “In life you are a king or a pawn. It’s good to be the king.”
The estimated $30 million campaign broke last week with both spot and cable buys on news and sports programs in the Northeast. Print ads are running in business newspapers and magazines.
“We are trying to make the brand less stodgy and more contemporary,” said agency president Kirk Citron. “Boomers think about [retirement] in terms of … having the freedom to do the things they’ve always wanted to do.”
