The Establishment

Introducing a new way of financial planning to the next generation.

Situation

MassMutual has long been known by boomers and retirees for its insurance, retirement and investment planning, but was less known by millennial audiences. To tap into this younger generation and change their way of thinking about finances, The Martin Group helped launch The Establishment—a first-of-its-kind initiative designed to help millennials think about long-term financial planning by engaging them with educational classes on retirement planning, buying a first home and investing.

Solution

To understand our target audience further, we studied secondary data describing the key characteristics of millennials nationwide. The research helped us hone in on five key points most relevant to our goal of promoting The Establishment: Millennials are the most educated generation to date (34% have a Bachelor’s degree); while they may believe they could “do financial planning themselves,” they either haven’t made time for it or are secretly overwhelmed and intimidated by it; they value “community, family and creativity in their work;” they tend to get married later than previous generations; and they are less likely to be homeowners than young adults in previous generations. Based on these insights, we created a communications strategy that informed all other elements of the brand, including a new logo and “Retiring financial stereotypes” tagline, as well as a responsive website, direct mail pieces, outdoor advertising and social media—all designed to drive potential clients to sign up for financial classes and engage further.

Results

The brand rollout was a huge success, with a 14% conversion rate for event registrations and 131 average attendees at events in 2016, with even higher average registration rates in 2017. The digital media earned 75,000 combined impressions from 50,000 users each month, and continues to gain attention as The Establishment becomes more well known in the community.