We turned the hardest conversation at the table into the most important one.
Most financial services ads talk at people. We wanted to spark a conversation between them. While 92% of Americans say planning for the future is important, nearly half avoid talking about it altogether.
So instead of another fear-based push to call your advisor, Lincoln Financial did something no other brand in the category would dare: we invited families to talk about death and money over dinner.
At a surprise pop-up restaurant in New York, real families arrived expecting a meal, then got served tough financial questions instead of appetizers. The only way to pay? Talk it out. Hidden cameras captured the emotion, the hesitations, the breakthroughs.
That real, raw footage became a full digital-first campaign: disarming social videos, cliffhanger teasers, and long-form storytelling built to play natively where people actually watch. The message stayed human. The tone stayed honest. And the work resonated.
The results:
+22% brand awareness, the highest in Lincoln’s history
+16% increase in consumer intent to talk to an advisor about Lincoln
+21% lift in advisor interest in recommending Lincoln
Over 100M earned media impressions
Lincoln started the conversation the category had spent decades avoiding.