What advertising does for Prudential

Prudential has launched its latest campaign "Listening to the Smallest Voices" injecting humour to its otherwise serious "Always listening. Always understanding." series of ads.Marketing caught up with Tomas Urbanec (pictured), chief marketing and partnerships distribution officer of Prudential Assurance Company to ask what advertising does for its brand, considering that customers are flooded with insurance ads anyways.Urbanec agrees that there is a deluge of ads by insurance companies in the market. Therefore, he says, Prudential advertises not with a sales objective in mind but to raise brand awareness."Selling is still done best one on one."Watch full video here.The ads which aim to raise brand awareness, make it easier for agents and partners to approach the public."While our directive to ad agencies could be to create award-winning ads, the intent is not to have outstanding ads solely for the sake of being creative; rather advertising serves to reinforce our position and to instill confidence in the brand," he added.The latest Prudential campaign that runs until the end of the year aims to reinforce Prudential's brand proposition. It uses children with their candor to address hard-hitting insurance issues in a manner that is not offensive.The campaign runs on TV and various out of home mediums such as buses, MRT sites and with the mega billboards at Suntec. The creative agency in charge of the campaign was Ogilvy and Neo@Ogilvy while Mindshare handled its media buying.The creative concept was developed by Prudential's regional office and later adapted for the local market.