Eddy Awards recognize best investment education practices

MIAMI — Nineteen of the best and the brightest among defined contribution investment education campaigns received Eddy Awards on Feb. 25.

The awards, co-sponsored by Pensions & Investments and Workforce Management, were presented at the conclusion of the P&I/IBF Defined Contribution/401(k) Conference in Miami.

The awards recognize the best practices among corporate and public employers in delivering powerful investment education messages to plan participants. To win, plan sponsors must give employees, in a creative way, a thorough education in investing. One important criterion: The campaigns must show strong branding with the plan sponsor, and not be generic materials from the service provider.

A total of 21 awards were given. Two companies won twice. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., White Plains, N.Y., won two first-place trophies; Smithfield Foods Inc., Smithfield, Va., won two third-place awards.

First-place honors went to:

• Brookshire Grocery Co., Tyler, Texas, for corporate plans, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System, Harrisburg, for public plans in the initial education campaign category.

• Phillips-Van Heusen Corp., Bridgewater, N.J., for companies with fewer than 5,000 employees, and DaimlerChrysler Corp., Auburn Hills, Mich., for companies with more than 5,000 employees, in special projects.

• M.A. Mortenson Co., Minneapolis, and R.C. Willey Home Furnishings, Salt Lake City, tied for first place for companies with fewer than 5,000 employees in the ongoing education category. Starwood won first place for companies with more than 5,000 employees. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, Washington, won first place in this category for public plans.

• Travel Centers of America, Westlake, Ohio, won first place in the video category.

• Chiquita Brands International Inc., Cincinnati, took the honors in the new media category.

The judges also presented a new "training" award because there were several excellent entries devoted to training the trainers instead of educating participants. Starwood also won first place in that category.

Brookshire's campaign — prepared with help from MFS Retirement Services — used a movie theme with the slogan "We're planning a blockbuster … and you're the star." The judges particularly liked the movie spoof mailings — "Mission Possible" for new employees; "Night of the Living Defaulted — doomed to a future they didn't choose," and "The Maximator" with the slogan, "He's back … to help you save for your future."

"It's entertaining and it's not intimidating," said one judge.

The Pennsylvania state employees' plan took first place for public plans in the initial education category with its "Keystone of a More Secure Retirement" theme, based on the state's nickname. The plan also used the "Helping You Secure Your Future Today" theme in its brochures, which were clear and easy to understand.

Judges liked the branding, which was consistent throughout the materials. Prepared with help from Great-West Retirement Services, judges also liked the use of graphics and color throughout the materials.

Anthony Hines, assistant director-office of financial management at the fund, gave a lot of credit to its service provider. "After we hired Great-West, they suggested that we do some booklets and they thought up the keystone theme," said Mr. Hines. Great-West was also responsible for the graphic design, he said.

Phillips-Van Heusen hit a home run with judges for "The World Series of Retirement," a special project to celebrate 401(k) Day. Its service provider was Strong Retirement Plan Services, now merged into Wells Fargo Retirement Plan Services. The baseball theme was carried throughout the campaign and included an invitation/raffle ticket for "Section 401, Row K" and baseball cards featuring Johnny Benchmark, Barry Stocks and Bonds and Sammy So-So Saver. Company officials turned the headquarters atrium into a baseball diamond, where free Baby Ruth candy bars, Dubble Bubble gum and popcorn were served.

Tammie Palchanes, corporate manager of retirement plans at Phillips-Van Heusen, said the basic idea came from Strong. "They let us know what direction they were heading in for 401(k) Day and my team and I brainstormed how we were going to do it," said Ms. Palchanes. "When your record keeper goes to the trouble of providing a great idea, it's up to the plan sponsor to take the idea and run with it."

DaimlerChrysler took first place in the special projects category for companies with more than 5,000 employees, with its creative poster campaign. Put together with help from Merrill Lynch Retirement Group, the car maker displayed a different poster every week for 10 weeks. Posters were targeted to different age groups and featured funny people photos with stereotypical excuses to emphasize the need to save.

"They reached so many different groups in so many different ways," said one judge.

"Our objective was to do something different than anything that had been done before," said Carol Cislo, employee benefits specialist at DaimlerChrysler. "We looked around our offices and saw that there were a lot of posters — then we asked, ‘How do you get people to look at them?' "

The posters were followed by a pamphlet featuring photos of the posters, used as "a call to action," to get employees to join the plan, Ms. Cislo said.

One of the most targeted campaigns came from CCL Industries Inc., Rosemont, Ill., which won second place in special projects for large employers. CCL targeted employees at one location, who were spending $11,000 each month at the company's soft-drink vending machines. Posters displayed on the machines pointed out how the money spent on a soft drink could compound into retirement savings. The "Sign Up, Drink Up, Save Up," campaign, put together with Strong, gave a free can of soda to each person who came to the human resources department to find out about the retirement plan.

In the new training category, Starwood used a deck of oversized cards to help to train its district human resources managers at each hotel. There were two types of flash cards — the "education" cards that contained answers to questions frequently asked by participants and the "plan promotion" cards, suggesting ways to promote the 401(k) plan. Then there was the "wild card," which gave managers who came up with promotion ideas entry into a contest to win a Palm Pilot. Citistreet LLC was the service provider.

"They made an effort to get those people as excited as you need them to be about the plan," said one judge. "The colors were phenomenal, unusual and eye catching,"another judge said.

"We needed the directors of human resources to understand the plan for us and to champion it for us. And we wanted to make it fun for them," explained Frank Shanny, Starwood's benefits manager.

Mortenson tied for first place in the ongoing education category for companies with 5,000 or fewer employees for its clever continuation of its "Spice Up Your Retirement" campaign, a follow-up to its 2003 Eddy award-winning campaign in special projects. The company, assisted by Strong, used chili-shaped table cards and had a raffle for prizes, including leather jackets and Home Depot gift certificates, at a free "fiesta breakfast" for construction workers.

As with last year's campaign, all materials were in English and Spanish, to reach the company's diverse work force. Another creative idea was to give employees a raffle ticket for completing a risk tolerance and asset allocation quiz.

R.C. Willey tied for first place in the ongoing education category, with a campaign that used an item the company is readily identified with: hot dogs. The company gives out free hot dogs at least two Saturdays a month in its stores and wanted a program its associates could identify with, according to Pam Moser, executive administrative assistant.

Scudder Investments came up with the "Relish Your Retirement" campaign, including a "Can we be frank?" hot dog magnet, which the judges liked enormously.

Ms. Moser said an article in a Salt Lake City newspaper about the hot dog giveaway a couple of years ago started her thinking about how it could be used in an education program for the company's 401(k) plan.

Starwood Hotels won its second first-place prize in the ongoing education category for a campaign that the judges called "brilliant, fun and festive." Developed with CitiStreet, the centerpiece of the campaign was a clever wall calendar, giving participants something they could use all year to remember the plan.

The calendar, with its brilliant colors and quirky reminders such as April's "National Karaoke Week — stop singing those tax-time blues. Contribute to the plan and reduce your current taxes," was a great success. The calendar is in English in one direction, Spanish in the other, to meet the needs of the firm's diverse work force.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors' entry, which took first place for public funds in the ongoing education category, was "totally creative," said one judge. All the judges were impressed by the organization's "Three Little Pigs" campaign. The idea — to educate city workers through their children — also made sense, since studies show people learn best by teaching others.

"I liked the way they involved mayors and cities and targeted employees' kids," said one judge.

Developed with Nationwide Retirement Solutions, the financial fairy tale featured Smart Pig, Stingy Pig and Spending Pig and used a fun, easy-to-understand story to make noteworthy points about saving, spending and sharing. The story was read to groups of children (the readers included mayors, among others), who after the readings were given banks with three chambers — for savings, spending and sharing.

Travel Centers of America won first place in the video category. Devised with the help of its new provider, Mutual of Omaha, the video "had so much humor in it that you didn't want to leave it," said one judge. Judges also thought it was "neat" that the firm used its own employees in the film.

"We wanted something customized and tailored to our employees," said Lisa Crawford, human resources manager, She said the firm does a lot of employee training using CDs, so it seemed like a natural way to educate employees about the 401(k) plan.

Chiquita Brands International took first place in the new media category, with an adorable flash e-mail that featured dancing bananas. The flash "was very short, to the point and engaging," said one judge.

Said Terry McQuery, manager, human resources services: "At the beginning of the year, we set up a timeline and goals for the year for the 401(k) plan. We wanted to increase participation, and get those (employees) contributing a low amount to increase their deferrals." The "Enjoy the Fruits of Your Labor," theme was developed with help from Strong.

Ms. McQuery said a lot of Chiquita's employees have access to computers, so sending the e-mail flash worked well.