John Renz

About John Renz

I’m a creative leader with an extensive background in copywriting, branding, advertising, and marketing communications. Honored to have worked on some of the best brands anywhere, including Prudential, MetLife, Dow Jones, New York Life, Johnson & Johnson, Lionel Leisure, and many, many more.Agency born, but more proud to have built and led high-performing full-service in-house creative departments for three major international corporations: Dow Jones, MetLife, and Prudential.My speciality is creative work that really works, including:• A B2C direct mailer targeting retirement plan participant customer base that generated $185 million in new contributions (goal:$30 million).• Developing an executive social media influencer network for Prudential Group Insurance. • The first ever repeatable, customizable, end-to-end B2B and B2C selling system for Prudential Retirement plan participants that reduced campaign delivery time from weeks to hours. • Played key role in the branding, launch and advertising of multiple digital properties for Dow Jones, including: The Wall Street Journal Online, SmartMoney Interactive, Barron\'s Online, and Dow Jones Interactive.• The full creative effort on $20 million national broadcast advertising campaign for a national toy retailer. Efforts on Lay-Away portion of campaign alone resulted in a fourth quarter increase of nearly 700%. And along the way I’ve managed to win some awards, including DMA, Telly, FCS, IMMY’s, NAGDA, PSCA, LACP, APEX, PIMA, The AdClub, and numerous others for outstanding advertising and communications.

Experience

1. VP, Head of Creative, Us Businesses

   Prudential Financial

   Mar 2024 — Present · Newark, NJ, US

   I lead the in-house agency supporting the go-to-market strategies for Prudential’s US Businesses: Retirement Strategies, Group Insurance, Individual Life Insurance, and Prudential Advisors.

Education

• University of Rhode Island

  BA, Journalism/PR

  1985 — 1989

• Questrom School of Business, Boston University

  Strategic Social Media Masterclass

Skills

• Marketing Communications
• Corporate Communications
• Copywriting
• Advertising
• Manage Client Relationships
• Creative Direction