When some new kids on the block – not a Windsor knot to be seen – enter the superannuation sector with some brazen new marketing, all on social media, it’s pretty arresting.
New entrants shaking super industry by the suit lapels
By FSC CEO Sally Loane
The financial services industry can often be characterised as a little buttoned-up and conservative. A crisp white shirt or blouse and a dark suit is the uniform that comes to mind when you ask most people to picture a financial services executive.
Marketing strategies too, tend not to deviate far from established industry imagery – smiling, silver haired couples in pastel shirts and linen trousers (and usually in impossibly good shape) frolicking on a beach or zooming off into the sunset in a shiny red convertible. The campaigns tend to focus on cementing the brand name in the collective consumer consciousness rather than explaining what financial services actually do.
Fresh competition
So when some new kids on the block – not a Windsor knot to be seen – enter the superannuation sector with some brazen new marketing, all on social media, it’s pretty arresting.
“What if your superannuation fund was more like a dating app where you choose your interests and you decide who you get on top of?” asks GROW Super, one of a handful of superannuation start-ups pitching to millennial investors, in its latest ad. The ad, airing in the Betoota Advocate – a satirical digital news site popular with under 30s – brims with decorative language, urging viewers to “grab their super by the balls” and choose where they put it, including into “greenie bull….”.
There are others, pitching variously into markets as niche as “Cruelty Free Super for Vegans”; Spaceship (for techheads) and Zuper, millennial-speak for “extremely super” super. They’re all on the same message – the old order is over.
As you all know, the FSC has long advocated for Super 2.0 – a new system which is fit for purpose, flexible and which opens up the protected default system to true competition and choice. We argue that if you offer young people choice in a proper competitive market, they will actively engage with super and save more for their future. The new breed of fund, while still tiny, embodies the competitive forces the FSC is striving to promote.
Smashed avo
In more millennial news, fund managers Brett Jollie, Aisling Freiheit and Dan Campbell fronted the media last week to launch the FSC’s new consumer guide “How Fund Managers Help To Grow Your Wealth”, a funds management “101” booklet which explains in simple terms, what fund managers do and how they create value.
We spread the word on social media – #smashedavo – with a cheeky infographic which basically said why bother saving for a house when you can invest in a managed fund?
We said that your managed fund offers access to a diversified range of different assets; access to the fund manager’s professional risk management; and you can access many managed funds with an investment as low as $500. If your circumstances change and you suddenly need the money, it can take weeks to sell a house. Most managed fund investments can be redeemed in less than 24 hours.
Once you understand how a managed fund works, we argued, you can see it’s easier than buying a house – you don’t have to get your managed fund insured against fire or weather damage. You don’t have to pay stamp duty. You don’t have to provide complex documentation or borrow hundreds of thousands from the bank.
And for those of us yearning to hear from a wise baby-boomer, we’ve secured Future Fund Chairman and former Liberal Treasurer Peter Costello as keynote speaker for our Leaders Summit on July 25-26 in Sydney. Sign up yourself and your teams.