Russell Investments super campaign

The work

Russell Investments provides corporate superannuation services to over 70,000 Australians across 14 employers.

As with other corporate superannuation providers, Russell Investments’ members don’t actively choose them to manage their super fund. Instead, Russells’ members begin using their super products when they begin working at one of Russell’s employer clients.

As a result, Russell faced a challenge to build lasting loyalty with its members, especially when members’ are heading towards the end of their working life.

Helping Russell’s members transition to retirement

Retiring can be confusing, and Russell had found that as many of their members approached retirement, they were unsure about the best path to take.

Russell knew that it has a great product in iQ Retirement, which helps its members transition to retirement, but a large proportion of members were unaware of its existence and the benefits it could deliver to them.

Our challenge was to build awareness of iQ Retirement amongst Russell’s members who were approaching the end of their working lives and encourage them to select it to help them transition to retirement.

The solution

Recognising that ‘retirement’ is a word and a concept that doesn’t resonate positively with many people, we moved the positioning of the campaign to show how Russell helps its members have a great ‘life after work’.

We delivered a truly connected campaign with innovative creative to raise awareness, backed up by real-world benefits to deliver demand.

Postcards from a future you

The campaign began for members with the receipt of a beautifully-designed postcard. In the time of emails and instant messages, the ‘novelty’ of receiving a postcard means that they are almost certain to be read.

The twist came from who ‘sent’ the postcard’s – the member’s future self.

The postcard were personalised, with the member’s future self advising the member to take action so that they could both get the benefit of a better life after work. It was validation from the person they trust the most – themselves – advising them to find out more about how Russell Investments could help them in this next stage of their lives.

Design details including a hand-written font, biro-esque blue ink and faux coffee rings kept the postcards looking genuine, rather than just another DM.

A guide to a great life after work

The next touchpoint in the connected campaign was a guide to ‘life after work’, downloadable from a campaign landing page on a dedicated URL. The guide profiled three Russell Members who had successfully transitioned to retirement using Russell’s iQ Retirement product.

Telling their stories allowed us to make the benefits of iQ Retirement relatable, with easy-to-understand language avoiding the technical and product-focused information that this space is often reduced to.

Continuing the story

Rather than relying on one postcard DM to deliver the campaign results, we told a continuing story over three postcards and two EDMs. Each touchpoint focused on a different message, delivering both rational and emotional benefits of choosing Russell’s iQ Super to transition to a great life after work.