• by Tanya Gazdik , December 4, 2015

Prudential Financial is launching a campaign that features a call to action for consumers to start saving an additional 1% of their annual income for retirement.

“Race for Retirement” includes two TV commercials featuring Harvard University psychology professor and best-selling author Dan Gilbert. The intent is to showcase retirement as a solvable problem while creating a sense of urgency for people to take action.

Scenes for the two spots -- “The Prudential Race For Retirement” and “The Gates Experiment” -- were filmed Nov. 7 at the Prudential 4.01(k) Race for Retirement in Washington, D.C. At the event, more than 5,400 people took the pledge and ran 4.01 kilometers on a course containing retirement readiness questions they could answer by running through specific gates.

The core media target is ages 35-64, but the campaign platform is designed to resonate across the adult age spectrum, says Niharika Shah, vice president, head of brand marketing and advertising, Prudential Financial.

The campaign was created by the company’s in-house agency in collaboration with its brand AOR Droga 5. Brand media investment comprises an optimal mix of TV, radio, OOH, digital and print. TV Programming is generally aligned with early and late news, sports, syndicated programming and selective specials

“This year we continued our Holiday Cinema buy for longer form content,” Shah tells Marketing Daily.

The TV spots are a continuation of the Prudential Bring Your Challenges series that includes “The Magnets Experiment” and “The Dominoes Experiment,” also featuring Gilbert. In these commercials, Gilbert highlights the behavioral challenges that often get in the way of retirement planning, such as procrastination and optimism bias.

After four years of educating people about the behavioral barriers that get in the way of better financial planning, a 2015 "Retirement Readiness" white paper commissioned by Prudential called for a shift in approach, Shah says.

“It revealed a startling fact: one in three Americans is falling behind in saving for retirement, putting millions at risk running out of money in the future,” she says. “A challenge this big called for a shift in strategy. We needed to go beyond just educating people about behavioral challenges; we needed to urge them to act now by taking steps toward retirement readiness.”

The effort also includes www.RaceForRetirement.com, a digital hub where consumers can take the pledge and see the impact that saving an additional 1% more can have on their retirement savings. The site tracks all pledges and aggregates the collective impact that saving an additional 1% more can have on retirement savings in the U.S. over 30 years.

The campaign also features a partnership with MapMyFitness, where people across the country can chart and complete their own 4.01(k) runs and share their participation across their social media channels.