Brad Fox

Your Best Interests (YBI), a joint initiative of the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and evolution media group (emg), has received outstanding support from the Australian public and the financial advice community for its upcoming reality TV series of the same name.

“Life-defining moments like starting a family, managing a redundancy, preparing for retirement, putting parents into aged care and so on, make us re-evaluate where we are at and what’s important to us,” said emg Managing Director, Marcus Field.  “The YBI series will pair Australians currently facing a life-defining moment with financial advisers who can help them make the most of milestone events.”

YBI and foundation partners will go into pre-production next month under the direction of emg’s award winning production arm, evoTV. The TV series is scheduled to air early in 2014 and will be underpinned by a rich media website and a Find an Adviser service.

YBI has already attracted more than 90 applications from people wanting to be in the series and the level of engagement across Facebook in particular has shown that the series concept – Making the most of life’s biggest moments – is striking a chord with the Australian public. “We have also had a great response from the advice industry, with over 40 advisers being cast at the recent AFA conference,” Mr Field said.

The life moments shared by the public to date have been extremely diverse. “The breadth and depth of the stories being told to us is really encouraging and the raw emotion that is coming out as we talk to people is going to make for great TV,” Mr Field said. “We are very proud to have partnered with the AFA for this initiative. It represents the first collaborative effort to help consumers understand the positive impact financial advice can have on their lives.”

AFA CEO, Brad Fox, said the AFA’s aim to help its members deliver great advice to more Australians has moved an enormous step closer as a result of the initial response to the YBI launch. “We are extremely pleased to receive such great interest from the public and the advice market,” he said. “YBI is a fresh, innovative game-changer that will help communicate the story of the value of advice to a much bigger audience.”

The financial services market place has also been quick to support the initiative. “A number of our corporate partners including AIA, Asteron (Suncorp), BT, Netwealth and Zurich have already committed support for the initiative, as they share our vision to make a significant difference and grow the market for advice while helping Australians through their life-defining moments,” Mr Fox said. “A number of other partners are also close to committing to the venture.”

The post Your Best Interests: Advice reality TV series piques consumer interest appeared first on AdviserVoice.

AFA to use tv and social media campaign to raise awareness.

A new initiative aimed at increasing consumer access to quality financial advice will change the way the financial advice profession communicates its value proposition, following the launch this week of Your Best Interests by the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and evolution media group (emg) at the annual AFA Conference on the Gold Coast.

“This is a game changer for financial advisers – we are going to fundamentally change the conversation around what advice is and what it can do for consumers,” said AFA CEO, Brad Fox. “Consumers will finally have the opportunity to tell their own stories in their own way via a national reality television series and online community and financial advisers will have the opportunity to demonstrate how financial advice can help them.”

Mr Fox said experts from across the financial services industry will come together on Your Best Interests to help lift the understanding of what financial advice is all about.

“Your Best Interests will help Australians connect with good advice and make the right choices when dealing with life’s defining moments,” he said. “The initiative has already secured strong support from foundation partners across the industry.”

To generate awareness and grow the Your Best Interests community, the AFA and emg have launched an extensive TV, radio and social media campaign, asking consumers to share their big moment and have the opportunity to win $5,000.

Radio morning shows Jonesy and Amanda (WSFM 101.7) and Sami Lukis and Yumi Stynes (Mix 106.5) are promoting the series and casting call and TV promotions will run on 7 Digital over four weeks. The full reality TV and web series will launch early in 2014, featuring competition winners and selected adviser and industry experts.

“Life is full of defining moments,” said emg Managing Director, Marcus Field. “These are the experiences that connect us all as people. From having kids, to kids leaving the nest, we’re going to bring to life the stories of real Australians and how advice can help make the most of those moments.

The TV, content marketing and social media campaigns will drive consumers to the Your Best Interests web platform, which will contain tips, tools and content designed to help them with their big moments from Your Best Interests partners.

“It’s time we reframed the conversation between consumers and financial advisers and showed Australia how great advice can transform lives,” Mr Field said.

The post Life changing Reality TV – brought you to by financial advisers appeared first on AdviserVoice.