MenuThe Financial Planning Association (FPA) is pleased to announce the results of its continuing consumer advertising campaign. The advertising, which started in September last year and accelerated in the past four months, has exceeded its target of increasing consumer awareness of FPA members by 20 per cent, achieving a 24 per cent increase in tracking research. This result is up from the 14 per cent increase measured in November last year.
The research, conducted by Australia Online Research and canvassing 505 consumers aged 35 – 64 during September, confirms the campaign’s aim to promote the benefits of receiving trusted financial advice to Australians is achieving cut-through.
This year’s campaign featured the additional promotion of CFP® professionals, and results showed that consumer awareness of CFP® professionals also increased by up to 24 per cent and the perception of CFP® professionals as the highest qualified financial planners increased by up to 17 per cent.
Other highlights of the campaign include:
- FPA TV advertising has reached over 860,000 people and print advertising has reached nearly 450,000 over 3 times each.
- Online advertising on 15 finance websites reached nearly six million people who saw ads around 4 times each.
- The click-through rate of FPA online ads is three times higher than the industry average.
- 2012 online advertising has driven more than 50,000 click-throughs to the FPA website and over 20,000 Find-a-Planner searches.
- Core messages from the advertising were accurately recalled by up to 85% of our audience (“FPA members work to higher standards” and “Not all financial planners are the same”).
- The more often the ads were seen, the more FPA members were perceived as qualified, professional, trustworthy, educated, ethical and responsible.
- Positive impressions of the financial planning profession increased by 31%, creating a halo effect for the broader industry.
View the full results achieved by the campaign. (pdf 47MB)
According to the FPA’s Chief Marketing Officer, Lindy Jones, these results are positive affirmation of the campaign’s success.
“The FPA’s mission to raise the community standing of its members is an ambitious and mission-critical one. The new advertising for both FPA members and CFP® professionals was developed by 3C Creative Agency and performed extremely well in pre-campaign testing with consumers and was also well-supported by our member Committees. So we were confident that the campaign message would get some traction. The fact that up to 85 per cent of consumers who saw the advertising recall that FPA members work to higher professional standards is proof,” said Ms Jones.
Building on last year’s successful start, this extended campaign runs over 12 months on national pay television, online finance websites, in selected magazines as well as more than 25 national, metropolitan and regional newspapers. It also includes continuing Google paid search and Adwords activity which has driven more than 50,000 click throughs to the FPA website in the past three months and over 20,000 searches on the FPA’s industry-leading Find-a-Planner online directory.
Ms Jones concluded, “This campaign is funded by our members for members. So it is critical that members perceive value in the consumer advocacy we undertake on their behalf. While the advertising campaign is one component in achieving this goal, our consumer website and literature, as well as our “Ask an Expert” online consumer forum are all ongoing. As is our effort to restrict the use of the term “Financial Planner” in law. We’ve been consistently lobbying Government and other stakeholders to ensure this important milestone for all Australians is achieved.”
