John Hancock Funds Launches New Advertising Campaign in Print, Television and Online

BOSTON, Feb. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- John Hancock Funds today announced the launch of a new advertising campaign designed to increase awareness of the breadth and quality of its mutual fund family among investors and financial advisors. The "Who Knew" campaign leverages the strength of the iconic John Hancock brand, one of the best-known and trusted names in life insurance.

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110214/NE48047A-a )

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110214/NE48047A-b )

The key message of the campaign is that, while John Hancock is widely recognized as a leading provider of life insurance, annuities and long-term care insurance, it is also a mutual fund company that offers four- and five-star funds, as rated by Morningstar®, concentrated in large asset-gathering categories that are often cornerstones of investors' portfolios.  

"Since Manulife's acquisition of John Hancock in 2004, substantial effort has been put into expanding and improving the depth, breadth and performance of our offerings through fund adoptions, acquisitions, new product development of both our affiliated John Hancock Asset Management team and our unaffiliated strategic partners," said Keith F. Hartstein, President & CEO of John Hancock Funds.  "Our four- and five-star funds are a testament to the fact that we are delivering better performance results to shareholders, across a wider spectrum of offerings, than ever before.  Financial advisors and investors are taking notice of the improvements, as evidenced by last year's record sales year in both gross and net sales."

The 'look and feel' of the new advertisements is similar to John Hancock's award-winning "Cursor" ad campaign, which reflects how prevalent it is today for conversations to take place via Instant Messaging on a personal computer or mobile device.

In one print spot, the first message reads:  "Mutual Funds from John Hancock? Who knew?' and the typed comment is:  "Well, Morningstar® knew." A second ad begins:  "You probably don't think of mutual funds when you think of John Hancock," followed by:  "See why you should." And the third ad begins:  "You trust your experience, your instincts, and the numbers," followed by:  "And let's not forget Morningstar®." The print and online ads show the messages in colored dialog boxes, while the television depiction of "Who Knew," like the "Cursor" ads, is hushed, with the only sound a tapping on a keypad.

"'Who Knew' carries a brief and straightforward message – let the performance, and stars, speak for the quality of our fund family," said Carey Foran Hoch, Senior Vice President and head of marketing for John Hancock Funds. "We want advisors and investors to become intrigued enough to visit our web site for more detailed information about our funds, along with investment commentary, calculators and other financial planning tools."

Boston-based Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos created the campaign for John Hancock Funds. The campaign began in the current issue of Barron's, and will continue in print through mid-June in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Planning, Registered Rep, Investment Advisor, and PlanSponsor.  Television ads are scheduled from February 14 through June 25 on Bloomberg, CNBC and Fox Business.  Online ads will appear during the same period on Bloomberg.com, LinkedIn.com, Morningstar.com, Nasdaq.com, NYTimes.com, and TheStreet.com. A second phase of the ad campaign is slated to launch in April, and is expected to include a special Webinar event hosted by Morningstar and featuring John Hancock Funds management. Additional online aspects are planned, including customized online investing sections in sites such as NYTimes.com.

About John Hancock Funds

The Boston-based mutual fund business unit of John Hancock Financial, John Hancock Funds manages more than $65.9 billion in open-end funds, closed-end funds, private accounts, retirement plans and related party assets for individual and institutional investors as at December 31, 2010.    

About John Hancock Financial and Manulife Financial Corporation

John Hancock Financial is a unit of Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading Canadian-based financial services group serving millions of customers in 22 countries and territories worldwide. Operating as Manulife Financial in Canada and in most of Asia, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, Manulife Financial Corporation offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. For more than 120 years, clients have looked to Manulife for strong, reliable, trustworthy and forward-thinking solutions for their most significant financial decisions. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were Cdn$475 billion (US$478 billion) as at December 31, 2010.  

Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial may be found on the Internet at www.manulife.com.

The John Hancock unit, through its insurance companies, comprises one of the largest life insurers in the United States. John Hancock offers a broad range of financial products and services, including life insurance, fixed and variable annuities, fixed products, mutual funds, 401(k) plans, long-term care insurance, college savings, and other forms of business insurance. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at www.johnhancock.com.

For each fund with at least a 3-year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar rating based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return that accounts for variation in a fund's monthly performance (including effects of sales charges, loads, and redemption fees), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of funds in each category, the next 22.5%, 35%, 22.5% and bottom 10% receive 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1 star(s), respectively. (Each share class is counted as a fraction of 1 fund within this scale and rated separately, which may cause slight variations in the distribution percentages.) The Overall Morningstar rating for a fund is derived from a weighted average of the performance associated with its 3-, 5-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar rating metrics. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. © 2011 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved.

SOURCE John Hancock Funds