CareSuper’s television advertising campaign has had a greater impact in educating existing members than in recruiting people to join, says its chief executive Julie Lander.
The most recent advert, featuring Olympic swimmer Giaan Rooney, has led to a significant rise in member awareness of its choice options, she says. Previous CareSuper adverts had focused on raising brand awareness among the general public.
“We have done some brand tracking and it has been more beneficial with existing members than potential members. Existing members have really noticed them. At first the campaign was about brand awareness, but we have moved it into product awareness,” Lander explains. “The last advert was about taking more control over the way your super is invested and saying you have got a direct investment option.”
She said the TV adverts complemented the direct mail sent to members, not least as it had a broad membership base that were not always easy to communicate with.
“You can send them letters in the mail and emails until you are blue in the face. But these adverts really attract their attention. So now they are more aware of the direct investment option, the insurance benefits within the fund and the fact that they can tailor those. They are also aware that we have a pension product, because you do research and people say I thought I had to take my money out when people retired.”
The television campaign had earned CareSuper greater credibility among members – “that is my fund they are advertising on TV” – and so it also served as a retention strategy.
The campaign chimed with the learnings of the marketing seminars held by the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees in Sydney.
Tom Garcia, chief executive of AIST, said: “There is a presumption that everyone knows what we are on about and they don’t. We have got to get better at communicating. The main theme that was coming [from our seminars] was about the need for an emotional connection. How do we get the general public to have an emotional connection to super? It is almost bizarre that we have been able to remove a connection between people and their money.”
