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BrandExtract and ManhattanLife Light Up Times Square for 175th Anniversary Celebration
In 1850, amid the unpaved streets and horse-drawn carriages of a skyline-less New York City, The Manhattan Life Insurance Company (now ManhattanLife) was formed. The family-owned company quickly became a pioneer in the insurance industry, becoming the first to issue an Accident & Accidental Death policy to a woman and the first to issue a Group policy.
175 years later, on the anniversary of its founding on May 29th, the company returned to its roots. The now iconic New York City skyline, which ManhattanLife helped create with the commission of one of the first skyscrapers in the U.S. in 1894, had a new feature: an anniversary campaign in Times Square.
To celebrate this milestone in the company and industry’s history, ManhattanLife worked with BrandExtract to create an anniversary promotional campaign to run in the heart of the Big Apple, on the exact day of the Company's 175th anniversary.
BrandExtract first began helping ManhattanLife tell its historic story in 2019, working on brand awareness efforts like a rebranded logo, tagline and updated visuals. Since then, the team has worked with ManhattanLife to maintain its presence as an industry leader in the insurance sector by continuing to give the company the tools it needed to reach new audiences and clients.
In mid-2024, ManhattanLife came to the BrandExtract team with a new ask: to create an anniversary campaign promoting its aforementioned 175th anniversary.
“We were so excited to be asked to work on this campaign,” said Laura Keith, Group Account Director at BrandExtract. “It gave us an opportunity to think outside the box and use ManhattanLife’s storied history to create a special campaign.”
And so, BrandExtract’s team went to work brainstorming a campaign that would do justice to the size and scale of a pioneering 175-year history.
The animated campaign would encompass two screens in Times Square, which totaled 22-stories tall. The BrandExtract team picked iconic photos from ManhattanLife’s history that tied into the evolution of New York City and the country. One from 1850 of the company being formed, another from 1894 after the completion of the skyscraper and one from 1945 highlighting the post-WWII Victory Day bonds. The animation includes brushstrokes highlighting the historic images to tie back to the brand's illustrative logo, and ends with an image of the Statue of Liberty transforming into the ManhattanLife logo.
The campaign is running from May 29th through June 5th. To add another layer to the campaign, the BrandExtract team created a print ad that ran in the Wall Street Journal featuring an outro sequence of the animated Times Square ad.
"It’s such an exciting opportunity to be part of the Manhattanlife family during their anniversary year. I’m privileged to manage the anniversary campaign and it is so exciting seeing the combination of all the hard work and seeing the times Square ad promoting us on over 22 stories of screens," said John McVey, Vice President, Corporate Communications at ManhattanLife.
About BrandExtract
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