In an effort to remove the stigma around talking about money, life insurance company Northwestern Mutual has partnered with video producer SoulPancake for a digital and social video campaign, appealing to consumers in a non-advertising format.

The Talk encouraged families to have honest, open discussions about money and remove the taboo that keeps it from being a topic of conversation. SoulPancake produced the video, which will be shared on social media as well as SoulPancake?s popular YouTube channel.

"As one of the largest digital media and entertainment companies, SoulPancake launched ?The Talk? first on their Facebook and YouTube page," said Christina Wegner, assistant director of marketing at Northwestern Mutual. "Our Northwestern Mutual financial representatives across the country will share the video with their audiences as well, so that we are taking action at a grassroots level. 

"Of course we are also hosting the video on our site, https://www.northwesternmutual.com/thetalk, and are promoting this through our social channels including Facebook and Twitter."

Money talks
The Talk, which is comprised of a video campaign as well as the surrounding resources provided by Northwestern Mutual, is housed on a mobile-optimized site at www.northwesternmutual.com/nm/the-talk.

The campaign was created in partnership with SoulPancake, which is known most widely for its popular Kid President series, with a young boy playing the part of the president and dispensing words of wisdom. The series encourages viewers to speak openly about money with their friends, family, loved ones and colleagues.

SoulPancake's video is structured as a series of open conversations between people of varying relationships ? a brother and sister, a mother and daughter, a married couple ? in which the participants are asked about what sorts of things they talk about with their friends and family.

Many of the participants experience talking openly about love, religion, politics and more, but few speak openly about money for varying reasons. Some do not want to burden others with financial discussions or stress themselves out thinking about it.

The video campaign and its accompanying mobile-optimized site encourage viewers to have open discussions about money in order to help them be more financially responsible.

The video is viewable on SoulPancake?s social media pages, as well as Nrothwestern Mutual?s and SoulPancake?s popular YouTube channel, which has 1.7 million subscribers.

Viewers are directed to Northwestern Mutual?s mobile-optimized site where they can receive financial advice, tips on how to become more financially responsible and other finance-related resources.

Premium talent
Digital video has become a huge area of an investment for many brands and marketers. With the rise of virtual reality, live-streaming, vertical video and others, there are more channels for marketers to reach consumers with video content than ever before.

Live-streaming in particular has become a popular mode of disseminating video content as big platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all have come out with their own live video capabilities (see story).

Meanwhile, recruiting top video talent for promotional video content is still an effective strategy, as shown by a recent campaign from Procter & Gamble who recruited Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt co-star Titus Burgess for a digital-first video campaign hosted on social media and YouTube (see story).

Northwestern Mutual is banking on a similar investment by recruiting the popular video talent of SoulPancake, whose videos routinely receive millions of views, to create video content that will inspire and engage consumers on mobile devices, where video is becoming increasingly popular

"We wanted to start a conversation about tackling money taboos in a big way, and in a way that was authentic and would truly make a difference in shifting the paradigm about how we view this topic in our culture," Ms. Wegner said. "As one of the largest digital media and entertainment companies, SoulPancake is focused on making and building content that truly matters; this resonated strongly with us. 

"We both share the same passion for bringing this topic to a wider and more public forum, and we loved the idea of doing this through a social experiment video that involved real people and couples, and not actors. We feel that showing real people tackling the money talk will help inspire others to start the conversation in their own lives."