Unum began rolling out a large-scale advertising campaign this month in select markets, including a heavy focus on the Chattanooga area, the company reported in a news release.
Encompassing print, TV and Web advertising, the campaign targets human resource managers, said Peter Neiman, Unum vice president for corporate brand and advertising.
“Our competitors are much more consumer-friendly, so we’re trying to talk to benefits managers in a way that gets them emotionally,” Mr. Neiman said. “It’s not ducks and Snoopy and rocks and things, we actually want to have a real conversation using real people, so that’s how we try to differentiate.”
The new 30-second commercial, titled “Days Fly by,” features a company that stands by an employee throughout her career by offering benefits that support life changes such as maternity or injury.
“There’s so much bad news between layoffs and cuts and all this stuff that what we’re trying to do is actually show that employers and employees truly care about each other,” Mr. Neiman said. “If a company takes care of its employees, the employees will take care of it back.”
Mr. Neiman said that the ad should appeal to regular consumers, who will enjoy the flash-forward progression of hairstyles and clothing through several decades.
“You’re sort of getting the working girl thing going from the ’80s, and the career woman stuff from the ’90s, and as we go through 25 years in her life — it’s interesting,” he said.
Seth Seymour, corporate communications consultant for Unum, said the the commercial will air for 20 weeks and be viewed an estimated 175 million times.
“This is the typical time when many employers chose their employee benefits providers, so it’s a good window of opportunity for us to highlight our products and services,” Mr. Seymour said.
The company will be primarily targeting the professional female, Mr. Neiman added.
“We know that many benefits managers and HR directors are female-oriented, so this commercial has a bit of a skew that talks to women a little bit more than men.”
The spot, designed by Portland, Maine-based ad agency Via, will air nationally on cable networks such as HGTV, Food Network, Travel Channel and CNBC. Other ads will run in magazines for HR professionals and on the Internet.
“We’ll target women-orientated programming, like “Grey’s Anatomy,” “House,” “Law and Order,” “The Office,” “30 Rock” — things where we know there are a high concentration of women watching,” he said.