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Go beyond social media to get your younger DC plan members plugged in and engaged
When you think of the younger demographic, what do you think of first? The millennials or maybe gen Z, whose membership is currently public school age? What about gen X—or are those members too old now, since they’re in their 30s and 40s? In the world of marketing communications and advertising, it appears that these demographic lines are blurring, thanks to technology. Almost everyone uses a smartphone, downloads apps, gets updates on current affairs from social media and finds entertainment through on-demand sources. And all of this poses a big challenge for marketers and advertisers: how do you capture this population long enough so that your message gets through?
The financial services industry faces the same challenge, particularly in the field of retirement planning. How do you even start the conversation with young plan members when, in their minds, retirement is an abstract notion that they won’t need to address for another 30-plus years? The answer is simple: plug in.
Young DC plan members appreciate variety, and their engagement grows exponentially with the number of fun new tools available to them. And when members take an active role in planning their financial future, they are inclined to save more.
Engagement in Action
The Montreal office of Ubisoft, a video game developer and publisher, is a case in point. It wanted to find a creative way to engage its tech-savvy employee population (with an average age of 33) in a conversation about retirement planning—but without actually using the word retirement.
The first part of the project involved creating a closed Facebook group dedicated to the Ubisoft team. The objective was to post financial planning tips and ideas, and to create a real-time community in which employees could ask questions and get immediate replies. This was a logical solution for the video game developer, since social media was already an integral part of its corporate culture as a communication tool. However, the challenge was getting employees to participate in this new closed Facebook group.
To entice employees, Ubisoft’s provider, Desjardins, used a technology called augmented reality (AR). AR takes a slice of the real-world environment and enhances it with computer-generated sensory input such as sound, graphics, video, and GPS data or images, blurring the line between what’s real and what’s computer-generated. In short, it brings an image to life in a dynamic and engaging way. To use the Ubisoft AR app, the participant must first download it from the Apple app store. When the app is activated, he or she simply points a mobile device at a target image, as if taking a picture. Once the app is activated and pointed at the target image, it takes the user to a dynamic message that includes graphics, sounds, games, etc.
While it’s not a totally new concept— AR has been used in gaming and technical training for more than 20 years in various formats—it is becoming more mainstream. For example, the film industry uses AR to launch new film trailers (e.g., The Hunger Games: Catching Fire). AR is also flexible. Target images can be printed on almost anything— T-shirts, marketing give-away items, postcards and printed pages in newspapers, magazines or posters—to help promote the program.
The Ubisoft campaign launched with a life-size AR poster of the company’s education advisor, Martin Beaudry. Martin and the education team then kicked off the campaign at the Ubisoft offices, wearing T-shirts with the poster of Martin printed on the back. The team showed employees how simply pointing their iPads or iPhones at the posters would make “virtual” Martin come alive.
He’d say, “Hi, it’s me, Martin,” and then he would ask a question or say something to pique employees’ curiosity—such as, “What kind of investor are you?” or “Want to know how much to save for the future?” At the end of the short message, Martin would prompt employees to click on a Facebook icon, which would send them to the closed group.
As a result of the new AR application, the Facebook group grew. To keep the online conversation alive, the education team created both “soft” and “hard” posts—a combination of fun, general comments to spark a group conversation and posts addressing industry issues or employee questions. Employees knew they weren’t getting canned answers: Martin was the one responsible for answering their questions, which further strengthened the trust factor.
After 18 months, Desjardins saw a 41% increase in website usage, a 44% increase in online statement usage and a 67% increase in usage of the online retirement goal tracker. While the Facebook solution for Ubisoft was a perfect opportunity to see how well this medium would perform with the right demographic, the AR discovery was a timely added bonus. It proved to be a fun way to get members’ attention to deliver short, memorable messages.
The Future Is Now
A further development in the AR world is the talking AR statement (which, in February 2014, Desjardins made available to all group retirement savings plan members on its platform). Users can download the app to their mobile device and then point the device at the statement, either the online or the paper version. The statement then comes to life with a short “show and tell” video of how the plan has changed and an explanation of the member’s personal rate of return. Other AR educational videos are being developed for this app, including three that present the key aspects of financial education, and will be rolled out by the end of the year.
What’s the next step for AR in the context of retirement planning? Since it has the ability to create a vibrant dialogue between members and plan sponsors, the intelligence that AR conversations uncover could help develop updated solutions to meet participant needs, and it is likely to become a mainstream tool in the pension industry.
The days of flipping through a folder full of printed material that must be read, understood, signed and returned in quick succession could soon be over. In the future, new employees could receive all of their retirement savings material in an AR environment, and their orientation video might appear to them as a hologram launched from the AR app. This way, financial education is transformed into a constantly evolving tool that is customized to suit the participant on his or her terms—and on demand.
Jackie Patel is director, marketing and sales support, group retirement savings, with Desjardins Insurance.
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