Getting the message across for Fidelity

Tell me about the green line that appears in your ads and seems to map out a path.
All good creative work starts with a core idea. We were thinking about the idea of being a financial partner now and at every stage of your life, and the notion became to think of Fidelity as your "financial GPS through life." You'll see that line in the TV spots, in print, in everything we do. That's the core positioning, the notion of being a guide and navigator. Truth be known, I was the one who came up with the idea. It hit me one night as I was driving home, and thinking about what was the core idea we could wrap everything around. It was the GPS. Arnold (the advertising agency) and our internal agency came up with notion of expressing it as a green line. The other thing we introduced was a new tagline. The former tagline was "Smart Move." The new tagline, "Turn Here," ties in very nicely to this notion of guidance and navigation. At a literal level, it's about guidance.

What was wrong with the old tagline, "Smart Move"?
All good theme lines grow out of the creative concept. So the minute you make a shift to positioning strategy, "Smart Move" wasn't relevant to the notion of guidance.

Did you think about using former Beatle Paul McCartney, who Fidelity built a campaign around in the past?
I remember the campaign, but it was so far removed from what we were doing, it really was not a factor in the consideration set. What we're hearing from the marketplace is consumers want guidance - that's coming through loud and clear.

Everyone's seen their 401(k)s go down and they're nervous. Is your challenge to reassure people to leave their investments alone, figure out their strategy, and stay the course?
I think investor confidence in general has been shaken in the market, given the considerations. What investors want is some reassuring guide to help them navigate the economic turmoil. Their goals haven't changed . . . and what they want to work with is a trusted resource to guide them. And of course, a lot of the investment is predicated on personal risk tolerance.

Fidelity's mutual fund performance in 2008 wasn't so good compared to peers. Isn't that something you need to address in marketing?
No, what we're doing is positioning the company, not an asset class. There's a big difference. The direction we're in here is about getting people to think about Fidelity, the brand, as a guide and a navigator. You could certainly go down the path of talking about mutual funds or CDs or whatever, but then you're defined by the asset class.

Is it the right time for a major campaign? With the markets so volatile, maybe another option would be to pull back on the advertising and wait until the market levels out?
Well, I was also chair of the Association of National Advertisers, the advertising trade association. If you look at any of the historical research that's been done around periods of recession or depression, those companies that market themselves strongly during those periods typically come out even stronger than their competitors. So we never thought about taking our foot off the pedal because as other companies weaken, Fidelity is in a very good competitive position right now.

Have you seen less advertising from competitors?
Obviously, there are fewer competitors around right now. Financial services advertising as a category has declined somewhat, but I think that's the perfect time to gain market share.