New York Life Launches New Television and PrintAdvertising Campaign; Landmark Headquarters...

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 29, 1997--New York Life Insurance Company today unveiled a new advertising campaign designed to underscore the company's 152-year commitment to its basic beliefs.

Building on New York Life's reputation as "The Company You Keep," the multi-faceted campaign,

Each ad features the company's landmark Manhattan home office building, which was built in 1927, as a means to represent the solid foundation and bedrock of beliefs that have been a part of New York Life's reputation since 1845. Each television commercial and print ad features this well-known building with the gold-tiled tower at 51 Madison Avenue. The 40-story building, designed by architect Cass Gilbert, stands on the site previously occupied by the original Madison Square Garden. A plaque commemorating the building's landmark status was erected by the New York Community Trust in 1961.

"Our objective in this campaign is to highlight who we are and what we stand for," said New York Life Chairman and CEO Sy Sternberg. "People buy a product or service because they trust a brand. This campaign reminds our customers that they can rely on New York Life, that we are the `company you keep' because beliefs such as integrity, strength and humanity have been and always will be an integral part of the products and services we offer."

To build immediate broad exposure and recognition, the $23 million campaign will debut this week with a sixty-second television commercial broadcast nationally on A&E's acclaimed Biography program, and a fifteen-second commercial to run nightly on PBS's award-winning The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, which New York Life has co-sponsored since 1993. Print ads will appear in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BusinessWeek, People, Reader's Digest, Biography, and Inc. magazine, as well as selected Sunday editions of daily newspapers across the country, including The Idaho Statesman, The Baton Rouge Advocate, The Cedar Rapids Gazette, The Lafayette Advertiser, The Rochester Times Union, The Yakima Herald Republic, The Montgomery Advertiser, The Sioux Falls Argus Leader, and The Anchorage Daily News. In each of the five major markets, the commercials will air on broadcast and cable television stations featuring professional sports programming and prime time entertainment. In addition, the print campaign will be supplemented by outdoor advertising, appearing on New York City subway cars, San Francisco cable cars, Chicago rail lines, wrap buses in Philadelphia and New York, and roadside billboards in all five markets.

The new campaign was created for New York Life by TBWA Chiat/Day, the award-winning advertising agency that has served as the company's agency of record since 1989. "We were asked by New York Life to develop a campaign that would appeal to the values everyone seeks in financial transactions today -- integrity, humanity, and reliability. At the same time, we wanted to appeal to an underinsured segment of the population, middle income couples with children. These are people who, according to statistical evidence, need to think more about the financial security of their family unit in the event their circumstances change," said Bill Tragos, chairman and CEO of the agency.

"The life insurance ad talks to the financial strength necessary to back up the insurance contract, while the ad about agents speaks to the humanity that New York Life's 10,000 agents bring to their clients every day. The television commercial launching the campaign wraps these and other New York Life beliefs like integrity and compassion together in an anthem, and very effectively we think, to give people the opportunity to think about the kind of company they would want to do business with," said Mr. Tragos.

By launching the campaign in New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas and Chicago, the company is positioning itself for business growth. It has large concentrations of agents in those markets, and it has room for market share growth as well. Moreover, the large size of the markets enables the company to specifically target three audiences: the advanced market of high net worth individuals; business decision makers; and the middle market, which is defined as parents between the ages of 25 and 54, with household income of up to $75,000. Research has shown this last group to be underinsured, which presents New York Life with an opportunity to grow significantly as it steps up communications to potential customers. The company will also continue its marketing support of growth objectives in all sectors and in all lines of business.

"We see enormous possibilities in the middle market, which represents 34 million potential customers, or approximately 17 percent of the adult population," Mr. Sternberg added. In addition to targeted advertising, New York Life has developed programs and augmented its variable life and annuity products to make life insurance and financial services more attractive and affordable to this segment of the population.

New York Life Insurance Company, a Fortune 100 company, is one of the largest insurance companies in the United States and the world. Founded in 1845 and headquartered in New York City, New York Life and its affiliates offer traditional life and group insurance, annuities, and managed health care. On the investment side, New York Life and its affiliates provide institutional investment management and trust services and, through a subsidiary, NYLIFE Distributors Inc., provide an array of securities products and services such as institutional and retail mutual funds, including 401(k) products.

CONTACT: New York Life

David Pomerantz, 212/576-6038

or

Hill and Knowlton, Inc.

Ann-Marie Gantner, 212/885-0471