So the strategy of financial planning group Yellow Brick Road has at last become clear. The company will use a platform created by a recent episode of the television show Celebrity Apprentice to launch a full-scale assault on one of the toughest demographics for financial planners to crack: 30- to 40-year olds.
Professional Planner readers may recall an article in February after contestants in the television program performed a live promotion for YBR at the Sydney Football Stadium during half-time in an A-League football match between Sydney FC and Adelaide United.
At the time I described the performances as cringeworthy – I was at the match – and questioned the value of the exercise for both the YBR brand and for the cause of better retirement planning.
However, the live performances were recorded for an episode of Celebrity Apprentice, which went to air on May 21 and which forms the first step in a broader campaign that also includes the launch of a new, simple retirement savings product.
Million dollar plan
YBR chief executive Matt Lawler (right) says the campaign, dubbed “RetireRight”, will be based on two simple messages, and supported by the launch of a new simple retirement savings product.
The messages are that in order to “retire right”, an individual needs to accumulate abut $1 million in retirement savings; and that they need to start saving now.
The product, issued by the Brisbane-based MAP Funds Management, offers three investment options: cash; balanced (50/50 growth/defensive); and growth.
Lawler says the $1 million figure was chosen for two reasons. First, it is likely to produce a retirement income slightly higher than the level nominated by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) as requited for a “comfortable” retirement; and second, the number is a real wake-up call for the need to save adequately for retirement.
“It’s a topic we want to make people aware of,” Lawler says.
“People’s understanding of where they think they are going to end up, and where they actually end up, there’s a wide gap.
“We’re living longer, and the gap is widening. The thing we want to get across is you need a wake-up call – Australia needs a wake-up call.”
In-your-face advertising
The 30- to 40-year-old age group is a notoriously difficult one to crack. The popular view of this cohort is that it has other financial commitments – a mortgage, possibly school fees, the costs of raising kids – and in any case, retirement still seems a long way away, so it’s something that can be put off until “later”.
“That’s the challenge we have taken up,” Lawler says. “A lot of planning is done when people have already got money: ‘I am retiring; what do I do?’. But who is talking to the 30-to-40-year-olds to say, if you start now, doing a little bit today can make a big difference at the end? Whereas if you wake up at 60 and say, ‘Now I need to focus on my super’, guess what? It’s too late.”
The Celebrity Apprentice episode was followed by a segment on A Current Affair, which was effectively the launch of the RetireRight product, and focused on the product’s low fees and simple investment options.
Lawler says a television advertising campaign will start this Sunday, and YBR chairman (and focal point of Celebrity Apprentice) Mark Bouris will continue to canvass retirement issues in his newspaper columns.
Lawler stresses that the message YBR is attempting to communicate is a general one and will raise the issue of retirement adequacy more widely.
“We’re trying to speak to a market that everyone is having trouble with,” Lawler says.
“You can do it in the traditional way, but Yellow Brick Road’s style is to get into people’s faces on this stuff. With 20 per cent of people getting advice, you cannot say the traditional ways are penetrating.
“I don’t think anyone would disagree that it’s important to get to this market.”
