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Nuveen - Art Direction

Company: Nuveen Investments, Chicago, IL
Company Description: Nuveen Investments proudly manages over $100 Billion for individual investors, the financial advisors that serve them, as well as corporations, unions, endowments and foundations.
Nomination Category: Advertising/Design Craft & Technique
Nomination Sub Category: Best Art Direction

Nomination Title: Smarter Ways To Be Conservative - Single Entry: Infinity Pool/Earn

   1. The date in 2005 on which this nominated ad was first run, aired, or otherwise made public:

April 2005

   2. Briefly describe this entry’s communications objectives and how it met those objectives (up to 100 words):

Marketing Challenge: By January 2003, the NASDAQ Index had lost approximately 70% of its values since peaking in January 2000. In this same time frame, the S&P 500 Index had dropped by almost 50%. This massive decline in the stock market prompted a movement toward conservative investments.

As an asset management company that specialized in disciplined, conservative investing, this was Nuveen Investments’ time to shine. However, many of the investment companies that had previously fueled the performance craze of the 1990s had turned tail and started touting themselves as conservative asset managers. These former mavericks were claiming Nuveens’ rightful position in the marketplace and because of a lower profile and smaller media budget, Nuveen risked being left in the shadows.

Adding to Nuveen’s difficulties was the perception in the market that it was an outdated municipal bond expert specializing in capital preservation. Financial advisors were unaware of Nuveen’s leadership in separately managed accounts and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), two product offerings that placed Nuveen at the forefront of innovation in conservative investing.

Nuveen needed to defend its rightful position as an enlightened expert in conservative investing and drive its business during this favorable market cycle.

Campaign Objectives:1. Drive Nuveen’s net income and total assets under management.2. Lay a foundation for the successful launch of new exchange-traded funds (ETFs). (SEC regulations prohibit explicit promotion of a new security, so the job of advertising was to condition the target to the general benefits of Nuveen ETFs.)

Target Audience:Our target was a professional segment we called “Volatility Reducing” Financial Advisors.

Through qualitative research, we learned that while investors saw the values of their portfolios drop dramatically over the past few years, financial advisors saw a similar increase in the volatility of their relationships with their clients. As a result, many advisors were turning to disciplined, long-term investments to help their clients achieve financial goals and, thereby, improve their own client relationships.

With every downturn in the market, this group grows as more advisors were humbled into realizing that picking the “hot stock” over time was impossible. “Volatility-Reducing” Financial Advisors were no longer interested in chasing performance at all costs and, in turn, putting their client relationships at greater risk. They wanted to help their high-net-worth investors (and themselves) reduce risks to achieve long-term financial goals.

Creative Strategy:Our strategy was defined by a curious contradiction: “conservative ingenuity.”

Risk reduction is the foundation of Nuveen’s conservative investment philosophy, and always has been. However, throughout Nuveen’s hundred-year-plus history, the company has continuously pioneered new approaches to managing risk and constructing quality portfolios across all market cycles. The ETFs and separately managed accounts that we needed to support were contemporary examples of “conservative ingenuity” at work.

It was Nuveen’s legacy that would allow us to differentiate from our opportunistic competitors, for whom conservatism was a flavor of the month. The campaign needed to communicate Nuveen’s unwavering commitment to quality conservative investment management delivered with ingenuity. In other words: Nuveen is the smarter way to invest conservatively.

   3. List the appropriate creative and production credits for this entry: Advertising Agency/City: Client: Art Director: Cinematographer: Creative Director: Designer: Director: Illustrator/City: Music Producer/City: Photographer/City: Printer/City: Producer: Production Company/City: Programmer: Writer: Web Development Firm/City:

Advertising Agency/City: Fallon/Minneapolis
Client: Nuveen Investments
Art Director: Scott O'Leary
Creative Director: Bruce Bildsten,
Executive Creative Director; Mike Gibbs,
Group Creative Director
Writer: Dean Buckhorn