Almost three years ago, Micky Onvural made a surprising move. She left her role as CEO of a B2C fashion brand, Bonobos, to become CMO of TIAA, a century-old B2B brand focused on retirement plans.
“This was a whole new ball of wax for me,” says Micky, who has also held marketing-related roles at B2C brands eBay and L’Oréal.
That fresh perspective is just what TIAA wanted. Micky was hired as its chief marketing and communications officer shortly after CEO Thashunda Brown Duckett took the helm.
TIAA knew it needed to break free of the perception it was a “stuffy, old, white man’s brand” because of its heritage in higher education and not-for-profit insurance. Instead, it wanted to be known for its modern, fast-moving, and dynamic work.
2024 B2B Content Marketer of the Year
A rebrand like that is already a big goal, but another big hurdle compounded it. TIAA had never really had a marketing strategy. For its first 95 or so years, its market dominance was enough. When Micky joined, TIAA needed to raise awareness and cut through a crowded market in a way that would get people’s attention.
“I’ve been incredibly fortunate to get somewhat of a blank slate,” Micky says.
To tell a new TIAA story, Micky and the team turned to two staples of B2B content marketing: an event and a publication, both called TMRW.
In 2024, TMRW (the publication) won Best B2B Branded Content Campaign at the Content Marketing Awards. And Micky, who championed and led the work, won the 2024 B2B Content Marketer of the Year title.
An event that’s the offspring of TED and Coachella
The TIAA reinvention started with an existing annual conference for its core customer base — retirement plan sponsors. Traditionally, attendees would spend a day and a half earning their industry’s continuing education credits as TIAA promoted its products.
Micky wanted to transform the event into something she conceived as the child of TED and Coachella. Her team leaned into the idea.
They named the “baby” TIAA TMRW and planned content to help retirement plan sponsors do their jobs better and get smarter about the retirement-related challenges employees face in the higher education industry.
The transformation worked. “We have seen people’s perception of the brand change dramatically and quickly,” Micky says. “I think it’s because of things that I call ‘symbols of reevaluation.’ There are moments where you go, ‘Oh, that wasn’t what I was expecting to see.’”
Evaluations showed that more than 80% of people at their first TIAA TMRW event positively shifted their perception of the brand. “It has become a want-to-go-to event because who doesn’t want to get better at their job and engage with their community,” Micky says.
The incredibly successful event prompted the TIAA team to expand the educationally focused marketing strategy to include a full-blown content brand.
Expanding the TMRW content brand
TMRW now encompasses a digital content hub and a print publication in addition to the event.
The editorial team, led by former journalist Beverly Goodman, tackles dense topics (like the retirement crisis and financial literacy) without the jargon typically associated with corporate thought leadership in the financial services sphere.
Using conversational language and a human element, TMRW breaks down complex concepts into relatable terms.
TIAA launched TMRW online in June 2023 and followed with the first edition of a 30-page print magazine. The second edition in October 2023 totaled 34 pages and was mailed as an insert in PLANSPONSOR magazine.
The team created more than 300 digital assets to support the first issues, including webinars, social media posts, promotion on online trade publications, and internal automated marketing sequences.
TMRW articles are also cataloged in TIAA’s content library (on the Seismic platform). Sales and distribution teams, some of whom provide feedback at editorial planning meetings, can “shop” for the content they need.
TMRW’s results exceeded every benchmark TIAA set to increase awareness and improve the perception of TIAA as a thought leader.
In the digital arena, in less than three months, TIAA received 764 online subscription lead records (a 2.6% subscription rate). Of those, 625 were new leads, resulting in a 2.1% lead generation, which was better than expected.
The second edition produced even better results. An added 365 subscribers helped to spur a 176% increase in web traffic.
TIAA also added TMRW webinars to the content distribution model, which produced more lead generation.
While they showed TIAA TMRW was good for business, the metrics also helped guide the editorial planning. Page views, average time-on-page, email messaging, and A/B testing across social media and digital advertising provide essential feedback. For example, the team had theorized that clients wanted more regulatory news, but legislative updates received the least engagement.
More proof the future of TIAA TMRW is strong: A trade publication picked up one of its articles. And relationship managers (sales team members) continue receiving positive feedback.
One client even took the time to write, saying, “Thank you for sharing this new publication with the Retiree Roundtable! I’ve subscribed and look forward to reading each of the segments.”
Committing to print
Print (yes, print) is essential to the TMRW strategy. TIAA treats readers to beautifully designed issues that look and feel like a high-end consumer magazine.
Designed by agency partner Transport, TMRW is a literal manifestation of TIAA’s reinvention.
“I don’t think our first edition would’ve achieved that same sit-up-and-pay-attention impact without the physicality of a print edition,” Micky says. “(It’s) quite unexpected for us as a brand and for the [financial services] industry.”
TIAA publishes two issues of TMRW a year — a February/March issue targeted to plan sponsors and an October issue focused on consultants. Though the issues differ slightly in content and tone, Micky says they both build the TMRW franchise and “the perception of who we are as a more forward-leaning organization.”
Print also allows the TIAA team to offer a plethora of content with different insights and points of view — internal and external — into a single package. TIAA reps teams bring copies of the magazine to the events where they host or exhibit and to client and prospect meetings.
Micky says print magazines usually don’t work well in B2C marketing. However, they can work well for B2B brands with finite audiences. And TIAA has that in its institutional plan sponsors and financial consultants.
Print also has the “passable” factor, as Micky calls it. A chief human resource officer will hand it over to the CFO at their institution and say, “You should take a look at this.”
Looking to TMRW’s future
The TIAA team isn’t resting on TMRW’s laurels. Micky says they plan to evolve the digital experience to include more video and other elements. “We’ve been playing with some of that on a smaller scale, and we will continue to work on that through 2025.”
Continuing to prove TMRW’s impact is critical to its sustainability. But the results involve more than numbers.
“What’s been exciting is to see people engaging with us differently because they see us differently,” Micky explains.
Employees, including those who distribute the magazine at events and client meetings, have more positive experiences because they are involved with something new and exciting at the 116-year-old brand.
And now, TMRW’s stories fill Micky’s once-blank slate.
HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:
Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute