Exclusive: How Disney and Prudential Surprised Oscars Viewers in New Ads

The race for the Best Picture statue wasn’t the only dramatic narrative playing out on Oscar night. Throughout the evening, viewers have been treated to a four-part mini-movie courtesy of first-time sponsor Prudential.

The custom campaign was orchestrated for the financial giant by Disney’s in-house creative studio, Disney CreativeWorks. (The Mouse House owns ABC and Hulu, the current network and streaming home of the Oscars, respectively.) Prudential eagerly gave the greenlight to the quartet of spots, which showcase the behind the scenes artisans—including a pair of set designers, a choreographer, and a film editor—responsible for the movie magic we can too often take for granted.

And in a high-concept touch worthy of its own Oscar, the ads weave together to illustrate how teamwork makes the Hollywood dream machine work.

“These four stories capture the true breadth of the connected story behind the camera that makes a film come to life,” notes Prudential’s chief brand officer, Richard Parkinson, sitting for an exclusive interview with ADWEEK alongside John Campbell, Disney Advertising’s senior vice president of entertainment and streaming solutions.

“It’s been a challenging beginning of the year for Los Angeles,” Parkinson adds, alluding to the devastating January wildfires that have had a chilling effect on Hollywood production. “We want to be part of celebrating the perseverance and dedication that defines the film community.”

Besides uplifting drama, Campbell says that the Prudential spots also offer something else that audiences seek from a great movie—surprise. As in, people may be surprised to see an insurance provider making a major advertising spend for the Oscars. “They are the entertainment Super Bowl,” Campbell notes about how Disney wooed Prudential into the fold. “It is the destination for innovative marketers to showcase their best and most creative work.”

According to Parkinson, “innovative” and “creative” are two words that Prudential wants to embrace as the company rings in its 150th year.

“The feeling we want to generate is, ‘Wow, I didn’t expect that from Prudential,’” Parkinson says with a laugh. “We want to show up in places where people can take a look at our brand and reappraise it.”

Final draft

It’s a Hollywood truism that a first draft rarely resembles the final cut—just ask anyone who has ever stumbled upon a George Lucas script entitled Adventures of the Starkiller and then immediately cued up Star Wars. Similarly, Parkinson recalls that Disney CreativeWorks’ initial vision for the Prudential campaign lacked a certain… well, force.

“It felt like what every other financial services company might do,” he says, recalling that those earlier versions largely stood alone as stories. “Brands and advertisers can’t be part of the wallpaper—they need to be part of the discussion and part of the culture. Our partnership with Disney works really well because we challenge each other in terms of how we want to show up versus how the initial concept was.”

One thing that remained the same as the concept evolved was the idea of making movie stars out of below-the-line movie creatives. To that end, Disney CreativeWorks assembled a cast that includes set decorators Kelsi Ephraim (Sorry to Bother You, Everything Everywhere All at Once) and Jan Pascale (Argo, Top Gun: Maverick); choreographer Fatima Robinson (Dreamgirls, Anchorman 2); and film editor Myron Kerstein (Garden State, Wicked).

Each spot allows each artisan to tell their own story in their own words, starting with Ephraim and continuing on with Robinson and then Kerstein before ending with Pascale. But as you watched the ads over the course of the Oscars, you might have noticed that they cross over almost as often as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (And if you didn’t, you can rewatch each spot in this article.)

For example, Ephraim is seen decorating a set in her spot where Robinson later leads two dancers through their steps—and footage of that routine is glimpsed on Kerstein’s monitor in his ad. It all comes to what Parkinson describes as a “crescendo” in the final installment, which finds Ephraim and Pascale embracing on the soundstage where this movie has been put together.

“The person that you see at the end meets the person from the very beginning,” Parkinson says of the full circle moment. “The creative really plays to our brand essence around living a better life longer.”

Meanwhile, Campbell ensured that the spots would be threaded throughout the Oscars for maximum impact. “They start right at the beginning of the show and go all the way through the last pod break, like you have closure through the show. We wanted the audience to have that full experience.”

Prudent matters

With the Oscars in the rearview, Prudential is planning to continue threading its relationship with Disney throughout the rest of its anniversary year. “I think you’ll find us showing up in different and unexpected ways,” Parkinson teases while declining to specify what exactly the next collab might be. (Prudential sponsored the Rose Bowl on ABC in February as part of its multi-year agreement with Disney.)

“We’ve been here for the generations before, and we’re going to be here for the generations of the future,” he adds. “We are a trusted brand, and we put our trust in our partners as our customers put their trust in us.”

On the Disney side of the equation, Campbell says that the Prudential campaign highlights the continued drawing power of the company’s suite of live events—as well as the marketing muscle it can flex around said programs.

“Not only did we have the four ads, we also had an in-show throw at the Dolby, tag tune-ins across ESPN SportsCenter, using Disney+ and Hulu for streaming, and tapping into both the ABC and Academy’s social media handles,” he says, rattling off the long list of platforms available across the Disney portfolio. “No matter how you were trying to interact with the Academy Awards, you were going to be exposed to these amazing creative executions.”

To paraphrase a certain Best Picture winner, that’s an offer few brands can refuse.