Themed programs stand out in Eddys

Increasing employee contributions and deferral rates and introducing target-date funds were central goals of many of the winning campaigns in the Eddy Awards.

The awards, sponsored by Pensions & Investments, were presented Feb. 9 at the 17th Annual P&I Defined Contribution Conference in Miami Beach, Fla. They recognize the highest caliber investment education programs of defined contribution plan sponsors — corporate, union and not-for-profit — and service providers.

(To see the complete list of winners and their winning entries, click here.)

In an unusual move, the judges awarded “Best in Show” to a standout submission from New York Life Retirement Plan Services.

Among plan sponsors, Dean Foods, Dallas, won first place in initial education for corporate plans for its game-themed campaign. The game, akin to the Game of Life board game, asked participants to evaluate their own game plan for life and presented simple information and facts with every move.

“We worked with Dean to develop the game theme that would resound with employees” so it would attract employee interest, said William Shaw, director of marketing and communications at The Hartford, Boston, Dean’s service provider. Dean has a $865 million 401(k) plan.

“Once past the attention grabber/emotional wrap of the program, we combined the rational core (the need to enroll) or the facts and meat of what we’re trying to do. The rational core is key, as it is based on an adult model of learning based on two questions: ‘What do I need to do?’ and ‘How do I do it?’”

For public plans, Los Angeles won first place with a stylish movie premiere campaign featuring the “Attack of the Investment Anxiety Robot.” The materials used lush, rich colors and movie theater imagery.

“Steven Montagne (plan administrator of the City of Los Angeles Deferred Compensation Plan) has a real passion for promoting his plan and he came up with the idea of renaming, or branding, the city’s deferred compensation plan as the PREMIERE plan to generate excitement and awareness among city employees,” said Chris Cumming, senior vice president-marketing at Great-West Retirement Services who worked with the $2.8 billion 457 plan. “The concept was renamed to include PREMIERE, thus encouraging participants to look at retirement as a premiere — a big event — one that marks the culmination of years of planning, hard work and imagination.”

In the conversion category for plan sponsors, Kwik Trip Inc., La Crosse, Wis., took first place for companies with fewer than 5,000 employees. Judges said the use of primary colors and extensive branding made this a winner.

“Our mission statement at Kwik Trip is “to serve our customers and community more effectively than anyone else by treating (them) as we, personally, would like to be treated and to make a difference in someone’s life,” explained Dena Zezulka, human resources-benefits manager at Kwik Trip. “We are focused and driven in all that we do by this mission statement. Because our co-workers know our mission statement and are asked to live by it every day, our profit-sharing committee felt it was important to include it in our campaign.“

Five awards were given to plan sponsors for ongoing education strategies, a key topic of conversation at the recent Pensions & Investments Defined Contribution East Conference.

For corporate plans, Bemis Co. Inc. Neenah, Wis., took first place in ongoing education. Judges liked the $56 million plan’s tennis theme — featuring the tag line “Game, Set, Match”; an attention-getting tennis ball textured postcard; and other tennis-themed materials — encouraging employees to serve up more cash for their 401(k) contribution. JPMorgan Retirement Plan Services, Kansas City, Mo., is Bemis’ service provider.

“As a result, 5% of participants increased deferral rates, with 70% of those individuals increasing all the way to 8% to receive full benefit of the match,” said Diane Gallagher, vice president at JPMorgan.

El Paso Corp., Houston, took second place for its election-year theme “Decision 401(k)” materials, featuring bold campaign-like personalized posters, encouraging the message of “Vote Yes” for investing and a donkey-shaped piggy bank for savings.

“Increasingly, issues regarding employee savings programs and pension and retirement benefits are uppermost in the minds of many, especially as the baby-boom generation focuses on retirement planning and, now, during very turbulent market conditions,” said Kristin Pylant, manager, retirement plans, in El Paso Corp.’s corporate benefits department.

“Because these areas are so important to all levels of the modern work force, El Paso Corp. teamed with our communications team at JPMorgan, to conceive and produce a timely multimedia campaign … in theme with the presidential election. We used personal letters, e-mails, posters, the intranet, meetings, webcasts and other tailored communications to reach and educate employees and their families about effective ways to save and invest in this business environment.“

In the special projects category, Pasadena, Calif.-based Parsons Corp. took the top prize for its unique tchotchkes, such as Scrabble tiles that spell out I-N-V-E-S-T, which had a tactile feel and engaged employees to look and play with the package. The company saw an increase in average employee deferral rate to 9% from 5% and a modest 2% increase in target-date fund usage, which was very low.

“The linkage or parallel to Scrabble was the fact you (employees) start out with all these investment pieces and need to make a coherent final investment decision, like the word in the game,” said Jim Granata, director of employee benefits for the $400 million DC plan. “We are still seeing increases in both deferral rates and target-date usage now, with target-date rates still increasing above 2%.”

M.A. Mortenson, Minneapolis, won both second and third prizes in the special projects group. The second-place award was for the $90 million plan’s unique wallet campaign with fake checks showing how much Mortenson contributed to the profit-sharing plan. The third-place entry focused on increasing employee contribution rates by using an extreme close-up picture of a cow asking simply, “Can you give an extra 2%?”

“The wallet was for the profit-sharing contribution, and the company doesn’t want a year to go by and not have people pay attention to it,” said Annette Grabow, manager of retirement benefits at M.A. Mortenson. “The wallet idea came to me in the middle of the night, and I kept messing around with the concept until I mocked up the idea and sent it to design. I’ve seen the wallets around the office.”

Ms. Grabow credited service provider Wells Fargo Retirement Plan Solutions, Menomonee Falls, Wis., with creating the light-hearted and clever concept and tag line.

“I loved the idea more than my own,” Ms. Grabow said.

For public plans, the $6 billion Ohio Public Deferred Compensation Plan, Columbus, scored the top prize with its clever SMarTSpace effort, mimicking the MySpace concept. The program featured bold colors and a web-based approach to details, such as time stamps for blogs and web entries to resonate with its employees. R. Keith Overly, executive director of the plan, said the campaign met and exceeded its goal by 180% in employees using auto increase.

“The program has a history of introducing new features to overcome participant inertia and enhance participant retirement saving through automation and simplification,” said Mr. Overly.

“A year-long targeted communication strategy was created and successfully launched with the assistance of Nationwide Retirement Solutions to encourage participants to enroll in the SMarT plan. The established goal was to enroll 2,400 or 2% of the active participants in the SMarT plan. In less than one year the program exceeded its goal by enrolling over 3,600 participants in SMarT, which should help those participants to achieve substantially greater savings over their careers.”

Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. and Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. were tied for first in the other media category. JPMorgan’s Ms. Gallagher said the Coca-Cola entry was shot on location at a company site. She said it was produced a bit irreverently to emphasize that the people in the video were “real people” and not talking heads. Coca-Cola, Atlanta, has a $1.4 billion plan.

In a rare occurrence, the judges awarded New York Life Retirement Plan Services the coveted Best in Show award for its highly stylized training and advocacy package for Resorts International, Las Vegas. “This kit is designed for one purpose: to help you promote the 401(k) plan to employees. So put it to work — and have some fun with it,” NYL Retirement wrote to Resorts’ human resources officials. Judges were awestruck at the tremendous kit.

Trudy Kaehler, director of participant strategy at New York Life, Westwood, Mass., said the kit was designed specifically for Resorts and featured tremendous brand identification and employee targeting.

As a result of the efforts to “train the trainers,” Ms. Kaehler noted that 1,800 employees “made some kind of adjustment to their retirement deferral rate.”

“Of those 1,800, 20% increased their contributions up to the company match level, and website traffic increased 40% as well, with people reactivating their online accounts or making some kind of online transaction.”

Human resource professionals at each retirement presentation were not just mailed the kit but supported through conference calls to provide guidance and ideas on how best to use the myriad items, such as the retirement card shoe, posters and chocolate coins in a slot-machine box.