September 18 will mark the first phase of the Financial Planning Association of Australia’s long-awaited advertising campaign – and a beginning to the end of what the FPA describes as the “free ride” enjoyed by non-FPA members.
The five-week television, ratio and print advertising campaign aims to highlight the differences between FPA members and non-members, and the potential benefits to consumers of seeking advice from FPA members.
The campaign will focus on the code of ethics, code of professional practice and ongoing professional development commitments that FPA members sign up to when they join.
The FPA is initially targeting consumers aged 35 to 64 who have at least $150,000 of investable assets (that is, assets outside the family home and superannuation) in a campaign costing about $2 million – including a six-month search engine optimisation (SEO) program to make it easier for consumers to find the FPA website when they search for financial planning services.
The FPA will spend $1.3 million on TV advertising nationally; $400,000 on print (national, metro and regional newspapers, and selected magazines); and $100,000 online. (See below for more details.)
The chairman of the FPA, Matthew Rowe, says the FPA hopes the campaign will help end the free ride enjoyed to date by non-FPA members.
The free riders are those financial planners who are not members of the FPA – and who therefore are not signatories to the association’s codes of practice and ethics – but who have nevertheless reaped the benefits of the work done to date by the FPA to promote the interests of financial planning.
Rowe says any professional is “a debtor to their profession”, and it’s unacceptable for a financial planner to gain from moves to professionalise the industry, without them committing to becoming a professional.
Rowe estimates there may be as many as 6000 individuals identifying themselves as financial planners, but who are not members of the FPA. The FPA itself has about 8000 members, about 5800 of whom are Certified Financial Planners (CFPs).
Meanwhile, the number of financial planning practices that have achieved the association’s Professional Practice designation is nearing 30, with another 80 applications in the process of being vetted. The FPA had 475 registrations of interest in achieving the Professional Practice designation, which allows a firm to use the FPA logo in its advertising and other material, provided it meets defined criteria, including a certain proportion of its practitioners being members of the FPA.
For more information on the FPA’s Best Practice campaign, including the television commercial, click HERE.
| FPA advertising schedule | |
| Pay TV | Sky News Business |
| Channel 7 – Peak | Seven News (weeknights and weekends) Packed To The Rafters Dancing With The Stars AFL (state-specific) |
| Channel 7 – Off-peak | Great South East Guide to the Good Life Mercurio’s Menu Sydney/QLD Weekender Sunrise Weekend Sunrise |
| Channel 9 – Peak | Nine News (weeknights and weekends) A Current Affair 60 Minutes Underbelly Getaway Top Gear NRL (state specific) |
| Channel 9 – Off-peak | Antiques Roadshow |
| SBS – Peak | Insight Man Vs Wild |
| SBS – Off-peak | Who Do You Think You Are? Cutting Edge Gourmet Farmer Dateline |
| Print – National | AFR (National) The Australian (National) SMH (NSW) The Age (Vic) West Australian (WA) Courier Mail (QLD) Adelaide Advertiser (SA) Hobart Mercury (TAS) Canberra Times (CAN)Supported by inserted magazines: Good Weekend (NSW/Vic) AFR Magazine (National) AFR Smart Investor (National) |
| Print – Regional | In areas with high density of FPA members: Illawarra Mercury Newcastle Herald Gold Coast Bulletin Townsville Bulletin Geelong Advertiser |
| Print – Not covered by state or metro press | Toowoomba Chronicle Rockhampton Morning Bulletin Fraser Coast Chronicle Northern Territory News |
| Online | The Eureka Report AFR – Personal Finance SMH/Age – Money |
Source: Financial Planning Association of Australia
Mr Rowe,you don’t speak for the proffession you speak for your members most of which are affiliated with the “big” end of town ie: banks and dealer groups owned by banks who flog product and take a percentage based commission and mostly couldn’t advise their way out of a paper bag. Great waste of money.I was a member for years but saw the “light.