Super funds’ TV and sports advertising missing the mark
Superannuation funds' marketing budgets would be better spent on email and newspaper campaigns than on TV advertising, new data reveals.
Despite super fund members reporting that they had seen communications and marketing from funds through TV advertising in the last 12 months, it was among the least popular forms of communication channels, according to the CoreData 2014 Member Growth Report.
The research canvassed 858 super fund members and found that just one-in-10 super rated TV advertising or sports sponsorship as "preferred" communication and marketing channels, a finding that leaves question marks over the value of Industry Super Australia's long-running ‘Compare the pair' campaign, while almost 90 per cent of respondents said email was their favourite option for receiving communications from their fund, with just under 50 per cent reporting newspaper ads as the second most popular form of communication.
CoreData head of financial services, Kristen Turnbull, said the findings showed that super funds needed to look at alternative channels to get their message across to members.
"Splashing your brand on TV might be cutting through to members in terms of awareness but it is not an engaging communication tool for members who would prefer to hear from their fund via email," she said.
"Apart from tailoring their communication and marketing strategies to the channel preferences of their members, funds should consider putting a face to their name by providing economic and investment commentary on the news, just like banks and other financial institutions do.
"This is something that close to two in three respondents would like to see from super funds."
The report found that high returns and low fees were the major factors influencing consumer choice, scoring 9.4 and 8.4 out of 10 respectively, while awards counted for little among those surveyed, with less than one-in-10 reporting it as an important factor when choosing a new fund.
The research also found that self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) members were the least at risk of switching, while almost two-thirds of retail fund members were considering changing funds.
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