Taking the Plunge
Client: Financial Markets Authority
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) asked us to develop a campaign to support World Investor Week, promoting key investor education concepts that drive people to invest for the first time.
We achieved this with an eye-catching animation, built on a learning to swim metaphor, and clever executions that supported a multi-channel and multi-message strategy. The outcome, an engagement rate nearly double the targets.
The Brief
The FMA had very clear campaign objectives to: (1) Encourage audiences to learn the investment basics and to give investing a go; (2) Support the re-launch of the Wise Up, Invest Well sub-brand; and to (3) Reinforce FMA’s role in helping investors throughout the investment process.
We agreed fixed targets for the number of people we wanted to get more investment information from the FMA as a result of our campaign.
The Solution
Our first decision was to be clear on who we were targeting and why. Working closely with our media partner, our tight audience definition allowed a focus on investment outcomes these audiences would desire. It also allowed us to be very direct in addressing the specific barriers that stopped them from giving investing a go.
We proposed an animation that showcased the potential positive outcomes of investing but also address common questions, misconceptions and concerns in simple, easy to understand, terms. A cartoon animation style helped deliver a sense of easy and accessibility not usually associated with investing. A swimming metaphor was adopted, expressing the idea that we all feared taking that first plunge but once we took it, swimming became a rewarding and enjoyable experience for life. We were able to extend the metaphor to capture the supportive role of the FMA (life-guard) and to explain key investment concepts like risk-reward (using swimming lanes) and getting good advice (swim coach).
The animation was placed on the FMA website and FMA’s rebranded social channels Wise Up, Invest Well. Social media marketing and online advertising were used to attract and engage our target audience. We ran the campaign for three weeks, cutting up elements of the animation in different ways to keep the story new and fresh each week. This kept the campaign top of mind and also allowed advertising executions to be fully integrated into the FMA’s own social and PR activities. One week we used a cut of the animation to tell a different individual’s investment story every day. On another week the animation was adapted to explain a core investment principle.
By repeating the key messages in different ways and through different channels we built strong awareness, cut-through and engagement.
The Results
We felt confident the animation would have strong cut-through, so we set ourselves stretch engagement goals. And the campaign didn’t disappoint, driving almost twice as many people as we had forecast to the FMA website to watch the full animation. Better still, as a result of watching it, we saw thousands of potential investors click through for additional information and investment tools on the FMA website. There’s no way of knowing for certain how many people the animation encouraged to ‘take the plunge’ but the FMA believe the numbers are significant. Another example of good design and clever thinking leading to better business.
