By contrast the ‘Workie’ campaign, designed to spread the message about auto-enrolment, cost an initial £8.5m.
The government has announced plans to crack down on pension scamming with a ban on cold calling, texting and emailing enforced by the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Earlier this week, the government published a consultation response outlining the channels for communicating the ban including pension providers, the Money Advice Service and Pension Wise, the FCA’s smart scam campaign, consumer group Which? and website Moneysavingexpert.
Yet many respondents said the above channels were unlikely to reach people who are not already engaged with their finances. It noted “widespread support for a mass media campaign, using newspapers, radio and television advertising”.
Financial advertising expert Lucian Camp says a targeted campaign including television advertising is no longer prohibitively expensive with little need to spend huge amounts of money on prime-time TV slots.
“A campaign could be very effective, but even though you could cut the cost by using media fairly closely targeted on people in the pre- and at-retirement years or, in simpler terms, at and in the run-up to the crucial age of 55, I personally think you would need the impact and visibility of TV to make sure of breaking through,” he says.
“However, in today’s more fragmented landscape, it’s no longer necessary to buy one or two hugely expensive mass market channels. With a strong integrated programme of digital and PR, you could reach what is after all a pretty large audience using a combination of more niche channels for, say, a couple of million a year – a figure which could save many times that amount in keeping people away from scammers.”
However some industry figures are less certain about the efficacy of such a campaign.
Aviva’s head of savings and retirement Alistair McQueen says: “A shiny new public awareness campaign may make providers and politicians feel better, but would it help? Could it make a difference in the already very noisy world of advertising and social media?
“To highlight the challenge, it is estimated that 500 million tweets are posted each day. The Department for Work and Pensions has an impressive 50,000 twitter followers. Katie Perry has 100 million. Donald Trump has 36 million. Pop and presidents pound pensions.
“Raising awareness will only take us so for. For years, we’ve all been aware that plastic bags are bad for the environment. But it took the direct intervention of a 5p charge for us to slash their use, by more than 80% in less than two years. For years, we’ve all been aware of the need to save for our retirement. But it took the direct intervention of automatic enrolment to take pension participation to today’s record levels.”
