How creative storytelling brought a company’s new strategy to life
A multi-channel communications strategy put people at the heart of Prudential plc’s transformation
When Prudential appointed its first Asia-based Group CEO, it presented a unique opportunity to shape a new direction. The company was crafting a fresh purpose, strategy, and set of employee values – but the real challenge was how to inspire and engage 14,000 employees with this journey.
How did we do it?
We took a creative storytelling approach that spotlighted the organisation’s own people – and rolled content out internally first.
Leading with ‘why’: We kicked off the campaign with why the company exists, going back to the story of Prudential’s 175-year-old humble beginnings, and co-creating a new purpose with its own people that spoke to their vision for a sustainable future.
Designing a visual identity: We brought the purpose and strategy to life with a new visual style that involved a fresh masthead, typography and photography that marked a clear shift in the company’s branding.
Thinking creatively: Inspired by filmmaking, collaborated with video production team Casual, who built sets and took these on location around Asia to create campaign content with a difference.
Building anticipation: To maximise impact and return on investment, we released teaser assets such as video shorts and digital posters ahead of the main launch, sparking curiosity and engagement.
Teaser for Prudential's new corporate purpose Featuring employee voices: We included real employee voices from across markets in the content to ensure the message felt authentic and relatable.
Creating seamless storytelling: The campaign assets worked across all touchpoints – from videos to digital screens to events and even annual reports – so that we had a consistent narrative.
Enabling consistency: We developed a message toolkit containing all new material and shared this with stakeholders across all the markets to ensure consistent understanding and communication.
From the inside, out: We launched the campaign internally before external release, to emphasise the critical role of employees in living the purpose and enabling the strategy.
Bringing it to life: We took the campaign offline with office takeovers and launch events across the 24 markets to immerse employees in the new vision.
The results
Over 80% of employees understood the new purpose and strategy within the first three months (post-launch survey)
Email open rates reached 60% with a click-through-rate of 26%
LinkedIn engagement grew 30% year-on-year
Interested to learn how storytelling can support your business growth? Email me at charley@greaterheightscommunications.com