Consumers weigh up superannuation payout in bid to make them think about investments
Cummins & Partners brought the idea of out of sight being out of mind believe to life in a bid to make Australians think more about their superannuation investment decisions years before retirement.
So working with VicSuper the agency sought to make the intangible tangible putting the cash in the hands of punters, installing bullet proof kiosks around the country where shoppers could see just what holding the full value of their super payouts felt like.
The activations have been supported by the launch of a website where people can see the future impact on their savings of superannuation investment decisions made today.
Always great to see that sort of thinking brought to a communications brief. Notably anything around behavioural science (in this instance, hyperbolic discounting).
But in saying that, by giving people access to how much money they currently have in their Super, does it run the risk of having the reverse effect? In fairness to the C&P team, I’m not sure what is dictated in the brief by ‘engaging with their super provider’ but I’m making an assumption that voluntary contributions are a substantial part of this.
For instance, if I held $100,000 in my hands right now, I would think – wow, that’s a lot of money (because you never handle that much money), and by doing so, you may actually by allowing me to think I’ll be fine in the future with all that money (and the rest that will come over the years of full time work), leading to me making no further contributions at all?
It would be worth (if you haven’t already, and apologies if you have), including a step in this process where you call them out on that – “now Oli, this may seem like a lot of money now, but did you know that when you retire, you need etc etc etc’…
Either way, nice to see elements of behavioural science being brought front and centre.
I wonder if it would be more motivating to hold the cash that you will be living on weekly when you’re 75… say… ‘here’s the $72 you’re going to be living on when you’re 75’…
@Oli – very good point.
It could show how with VicSuper you’d have $900 per month vs Maritime Super you’d have $500 per month or something
Had the same thought as Oli. A fix could be letting people hold not just what they would get based on their current rate of contributions, but also hold what they would get if they increased it (which I is probably what VicSuper would like to see happen anyway). This way they could literally feel the difference.
The campaign needed to get the average person engaged with their super even before they started talking about additional conts – so getting people interested and connected as a starting point was really important. The super category typically markets to people who are ready to get engaged which is only a small part of the population – and consumers often can’t see the difference between funds given the highly regulated category.
It’s not all about the lump sum……The vault experienceallows people to physically connect with their super balance and then projects it into the future as a lump sum and an income for life using a digital tool that gives a really cool virtual experience at getsuperactive.com.au
meh..
nice stunt, but looks like it comes straight from a PR shop.. not high level thinkers like Adam Ferrier
like most PR stunts, gets publicity for a day or two
but as to how much VicSuper will actually see their clients increase their super by (so they earn more revenue), or change investment allocations (so they earn more revenue), I bet the change to their revenue line is very little
Anything that can engage people when it comes to super is a win. It’s not about additional contributions or anything else, it’s simply making people think about super in a tangible way. Congrats to the creative team and Vision Super for doing something quirky in an otherwise dry industry (disclaimer: I work in super marketing).