June marked a welcome new engagement benchmark for the Financial Planning Association’s (FPA) consumer outreach, as record numbers of Australians read, heard or clicked through to the FPA’s message of renewed trust in financial planning.
The campaign is built upon the bedrock message of encouraging Australians to seek quality financial advice from a qualified, professional member of the FPA.
It builds on a successful six-week advertising campaign run in 2011. The 2012 campaign will run for 12 months, airing on national and pay television, in print and online. Print will incorporate a range of magazine as well as national, metropolitan and regional newspaper display advertising.
“We are delivering on a promise to boost awareness among all Australians of the importance of having a qualified professional manage your finances,” said FPA CEO Mark Rantall.
“It positions the FPA brand as a mark of trust and explains the facts about our financial planner members adhering to the highest professional standards in the land.”
Research consistently proves that consumers benefit significantly by seeking trusted, professional advice.
“We are engaging directly with the Australian public on behalf of our members, to promote awareness of the benefits, and to help rebuild community faith in all that is good about financial planning and its professional practitioners.”
In just the first month since the campaign re-commenced, the results are very positive:
Highlights from June
Newspaper advertising
- Prime positions in The Australian and The Australian Financial Review
Pay TV
- FPA adverting is now seen in sponsorships of key programs such as Switzer, Your Money Your Call , First Edition News Headlines, and At The Close
- Activity includes 30 second TV commercial spots within these programs as well as sponsorship billboards integrated within the programs itself to boost our presence.Finance websites
- Over 1,600 clicks with average “click through rate or CTR” at 0.07% (exceeding industry benchmark of 0.05%)
- The Business Day ‘Takeover’ placement delivered 961 clicks at a strong CTR of 0.25%
- Fairfax Digital is also recording positive results with a CTR of 0.22% returning 140 clicks
- AFR and BRW combined have recorded 62 clicks at a CTR of 0.16%
Paid search on Google
- From 1 June to 20 June, our paid search activity has been viewed more than 19 million times
- Over 7,000 clicks on FPA search results
- Paid Search activity accounts for a high volume of ‘Find a Planner’ page views, driving 19% of total views on that page to date.
The click-through rate from the advertising campaign can be seen reflected in the boost in the FPA’s website traffic since late May/June.
This year’s campaign builds on the successful advertising campaign which ran last year in September over a six week period, returning a 14% increase in consumer awareness of FPA member’s higher professional standards, over 20,000 click-throughs to the FPA website and more than 1,500 completed ‘Find-a-Planner’ searches from consumers on the FPA website.
New advertisements to build on the existing campaign creative will be introduced in line with the FPA’s Financial Planning Week which will be held from 20th August 2012. Running for its 12th consecutive year, Financial Planning Week is the FPA’s key consumer initiative to bring together Australia’s professional financial planning community to encourage, educate and empower Australians to discover the positive difference that professional financial advice can make to their financial wellbeing.
17 July 2012