Company: John Hancock Funds, LLC, Boston, MA
Company Description: When clients invest with John Hancock Funds, they are investing with one of the most recognized and respected names in the financial services industry. Our parent company has been helping individuals and institutions increase and protect wealth since 1862. We offer equity, income, international and sector investment solutions managed by leading institutional money managers.
Nomination Category: Creative Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Creative Team of the Year

Nomination Title: John Hancock Funds' Creative Services Team

Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since January 1 2008 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

The Creative Services team at John Hancock Funds, with it’s commitment to the
success of John Hancock Funds, had a remarkable year in 2008. Being in the
financial services industry, our company faced a very challenging year. A
stock market drop of almost 40% for the year pushed our level of
resourcefulness and innovation to a new high. Despite the difficult market,
our creative team helped our company forge ahead to once again post a new
sales record for the third consecutive year.

The Creative Services team provides creative, financial publishing, print
procurement, literature fulfillment, multi-media and document center services
for John Hancock Funds. We started the year by establishing a corporate goal
to have more video and interactive content on our Web site. To support this
goal, we expanded our capabilities within the newly formed Multimedia Services
in Creative Services. The venture has proven to be very worthwhile.

With extreme market conditions, John Hancock Funds created additional
marketing material geared to help educate investors about how to navigate in a
volatile market. Creative Services collaborated with Marcom to produce a
highly successful Volatility program. The program included a brochure, sales
sheets and educational fact sheets.

Creative Services continued to support our college savings business unit by
creating all of their marketing material including the 529 Public Seminar Kit
and product guides. With the back-to-school season seeing increased interest
in our 529 product, we developed a “Road to College” board game. This unique
marketing piece proved to be very popular.

Creative Services developed direct mail pieces, e-mail campaigns and
advertising. We also created an entire suite of materials to support our
investment only business. The creative team also designed and executed the
Colorado Sales Meeting, the Signature Board Top-Producers Meetings, the
National Sales Meeting and other major company events.

We created an interactive web-based tool called 12 Great New Client
Connections in 2008. This was the second year that we developed this unique
tool. Using a calendar format, 12 Great New Client Connections provides
financial professionals with monthly tips on how they can connect better with
their clients. In addition to the tool, we executed a campaign to promote the
launch.

Our financial publishing team accomplished many goals in 2008. Their
creativity and innovation helped develop new methods of updating marketing
material using advanced, automated methods. These efforts successfully reduced
our production time with critical material. Our Document Center provided
unparalleled document production services to over 500 John Hancock customers.

The Creative Services team had the great opportunity to support non-profit
organizations, such as Horizon’s for Homeless Children, Pan-Mass Challenge and
the Boston Neighborhood Housewarming Program.

Every member of the John Hancock Funds Creative Services team understands that
the work we do directly affects the success of the company. The combination of
creativity and efficiency gives us the advantage over our competition. John
Hancock Funds continues to prove how an internal creative group can support
the company’s vision and play a major role in its success.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

Link to a PDF of the 2008 Creative Services portfolio and some
video/multimedia projects:

http://jhfcreativeservices.com/portfolio

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:

The John Hancock Funds Creative Services team is led by Assistant Vice
President, Dan Rollins. Prior to joining John Hancock Funds in 1994, Dan
worked as an art director and general manager at Creative Publishing
Corporation. Dan began his career as a printing press operator and later
received his degree in Advertising & Graphic Design. Dan is a member of AIGA
and is on the advisory boards for the Boston Print Buyers and Print and Media
Buyer Magazine.