Showtime!
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Business Objective
Reinvigorate Prudential’s brand around the world by lifting brand awareness and consideration among our target audiences — and increasing employee pride and engagement.
Creative Strategy
For the second consecutive year, we served as title sponsor for the Curtain Up Broadway Festival, in partnership with Playbill, the Times Square Alliance, and the Broadway League.
This Times Square celebration of a New York cultural and economic engine gave us the opportunity to create an on-going, trackable engagement with customers and prospects. Equally important, it helped us provide greater access for diverse communities to the types of inspiring stories and ideas expressed on theater stages everywhere.
Results
Curtain Up delivered on its goals by embedding deeper lead generation and experiencing one-of-a-kind media opportunities and PR.
Our Exposure ROI was >1.24. In other words, for every $1 spent on Curtain Up, we received $1.24 in media equivalent dollars. Our brand social media handles and social selling programs helped us:
• Increase awareness of the event to a wider audience and drive attendance.
• Generate over 1,000 quality leads through social media, email, and on-site engagement; and
• Target desired demographics via paid and boosted posts.
Bringing down the house on Broadway,
with Prudential.
By combining dynamic footage from last year's event with an exciting new animation of Times Square, we hyped 2022's Curtain Up Festival.
Promo Video
Activations
We created an animated version of Times Square, using design elements so viewers could feel the electricity and excitement of Curtain Up with our animation partners, King & Country. Footage from last year's event and custom animations wrapped around buildings with vibrant colors as we moved around abstract letters until we revealed, in the end, the name and logo of Curtain Up.
Stages
Digital Experiences
Ads
Influencer
Main Stage
The centerpiece for the Curtain Up Broadway Festival featured show-stopping musical numbers from Broadway's biggest stars, exciting celebrity appearances, and thought-provoking panels. On the festival's final day, actors from more than 20 hit Broadway shows performed in our grand finale hosted by Jessie Tyler Ferguson and Amber Ruffin, which was broadcast live by ABC7 NY.
Belt It Out On Broadway
The Dueling Piano Stage drew big crowds. From sing-alongs where the audience chose the tunes via smartphone to curated programs with Broadway stars, standing ovations were par for the course.
Our AR Experience let fans become characters from hit shows like “Dear Evan Hansen” and “Beetlejuice.” Users chose a costume, struck a pose, saw their image in character on our billboard—and had their character placed on a Playbill cover.
Event Info Towers and App
To help fans know what was up at Curtain Up, we created and positioned four 12-foot towers around Times Square. With a QR code scan, attendees were then linked to a specially design app with schedules, maps and activation interfaces.
Light the Way for Broadway
Our interactive experience let Broadway fans thrill to the sight of their name in lights on a theater marquee. The activation also triggered Prudential's $60,000 donation to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Playbill Live Broadcast
From September 30 to October 2, Curtain Up was available for live streaming by everyone, everywhere -- via playbill.com.
Times Square Cube DOOH
We partnered with Accenture to create a Prudential digital ad in the heart of NYC during the Curtain Up event.
Digital and Print Ads
Leading up to the event, we targeted the Prudential family and the NYC area with banner and print ads, created by Accenture, focused on building hype and anticipation for Curtain Up. Messaging established in this work was also reprised in Times Square via the design of our Financial Advisor tent.
Curtain Up Highlight Video
Increasing access for diverse audiences to the inspiring, inclusive world of theater: such was a key goal of our free, three-day Curtain Up Broadway Festival. As this socially distributed video points out, it was a smash hit.
Thank You!
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Activations
Earned Media
A surprise meeting with our partner, Brittney Johnson -- star of Broadway's “Wicked” -- gave our nationwide ticket giveaway winner the thrill of a lifetime. It also gave our brand tremendous exposure, thanks to a wave of editorial coverage.
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Be A Star On Broadway
