John Hancock Funds
Company: John Hancock Funds, Boston, MA
Company Description: At John Hancock Funds, we are guided by the values our parent company, Manulife Financial, has established -from strategic planning to day-to-day decision making, to the manner in which we treat our customers and other stakeholders. Represented by the acronym PRIDE, our values are: Professionalism Real Value to Our Customers Integrity Demonstrated Financial Strength Employer of Choice
Nomination Category: Creative Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Creative Department of the Year
Nomination Title: John Hancock Funds
1. Tell the story about what this nominated organization/department achieved since January 1 2009 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
We Are Creative…
Optimism, professionalism and dedication to the success of John Hancock Funds
drove the Creative Team through the most difficult market our company has ever
faced. Despite the challenges of 2008, we emerged a stronger, more focused
Creative Team that was determined to continue to propel sales and secure the
Hancock brand.
Given the turbulent economic environment, our corporate strategy had to change
to reduce costs while developing a more effective marketing strategy. We
adapted nimbly and our support was vital to the company’s marketing efforts.
The John Hancock Funds Marketing Team recently won “Best Overall Communication”
from the Mutual Fund Education Alliance for the fourth year in a row.
The Creative Team provides creative, financial publishing, print procurement,
literature fulfillment, multi-media services and document center services.
2009 saw the launch of our most anticipated new web tool — Portfolio Insight,
which helps financial professionals build custom proposals using variable data
publishing. For this launch, we developed a comprehensive marketing campaign
featuring an “x-ray” themed direct mail piece, a premium item, video
commercials, tutorials and brochures. The campaign was incredibly successful.
In our college savings business unit, we created something unexpected for a
financial services company — we published a children’s book! The purpose of Oh,
the Possibilities was to give financial professionals a clever way to introduce
the importance of college savings for their clients’ children. We have seen an
unbelievable response to Oh, the Possibilities and the book is already in its
second printing.
Our Creative Team produced an entire series of material focused on providing
brokers with the resources to educate and reassure their clients by helping
them understand market volatility. The “A Special Focus on Volatility and the
Financial Markets” piece is our most ordered brochure ever. We also developed
videos for National Sales Meeting and the Signature Board Top-Producers
Meetings.
During 2009, we worked on the next volume of our popular interactive web-based
tool, Client Connections. Using a calendar format, Client Connections provides
financial professionals with monthly tips on how they can better connect with
their clients. It features a function that allows users to create their own
customized connection plan.
With the introduction of new regulations regarding fund prospectuses, our
Financial Publishing Team developed innovative ways to produce the newly
designed summary prospectuses. We successfully leveraged existing technology to
reduce the time to market on both print and electronic communication. Our
Document Center provided unparalleled document production services to over 500
John Hancock customers.
Not only does the Creative Team support corporate initiatives, but we have been
fortunate to offer our services to non-profit organizations, such as Horizon’s
for Homeless Children and the Pan-Mass Challenge, as well as to various
children’s education programs.
A combination of innovation, motivation and a unique culture drives the John
Hancock Funds Creative Team to provide the best marketing services possible.
Year after year, we continue to prove how an internal creative group can
support the company’s vision and play an integral role in its success.
2. List hyperlinks to any work samples, online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
http://jhfcreativeservices.com/portfolio/2009/creative/
3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated organization/department:
John Hancock Funds Creative Team is led by Dan Rollins, Assistant Vice
President. Prior to joining John Hancock Funds in 1994, Dan was an art
director, printing press operator and general manager of a publishing company.
Dan holds a degree in Advertising & Graphic Design. He is a member of AIGA and
serves on the advisory boards of Boston Print Buyers and Print and Media Buyer
Magazine.