Eddy Award winners use creatures, humor to go with what they know

A menagerie of animal imagery, a string of sports themes and a warehouse full of brand-name products played significant roles among winning entries in the 20th annual Eddy Awards, sponsored by Pensions & Investments.

An owl, a bluebird, horses, an ant and a pig with attitude each con-trib-uted to defined contribution plans' investment education cam- paigns. The awards — which recognize DC plan sponsors and service providers for best practices in investment education to plan participants — were presented March 3 at P&I's annual Defined Contribution East Coast Conference.

Horse-racing, skateboarding and football provided the sports venues. Among the brand names, the makers of linen products and auto and truck parts used their products to drive home — yes, there were multiple transportation analogies — encouragement on saving for retirement.

This year's class of Eddy Award winners were 26 plan sponsors and 19 service providers, with some providers winning multiple awards. A complete list of winners can be found at www.pionline.com/eddywinners14.

Churchill Downs Inc., Louisville, Ky., not surprisingly chose a theme filled with horse racing photos and terminology.

“You can't reach the finish line without getting out of the starting gate,” says its mailer encouraging people to enroll in the 401(k) plan, which included a postage-paid enrollment card.

“The race is on for retirement” and the 401(k) plan “can have you off and running” are examples of other efforts to link horse-race lingo to retirement education materials. Churchill Downs tied for first place in the corporate special projects category.

“We have a lot of seasonal employees, and it's tough to get in front of those employees and convince them to enroll,” said Kristen Britt, senior director, human resources.

The latest campaign is “far more colorful and eye-catching” than previous efforts, and for the first time includes brand identity, she said.

As a result, participation rose to 30.7% from 27.7% in the year ended March 31, “a huge jump for a plan in our industry,” company officials said in their entry form.

MassMutual Retirement Services, the Churchill Downs service provider, also tied for first place in the corporate special projects category for service providers.

An owl, as a symbol of sagacity, and the eastern bluebird, the New York state bird, acted as cartoon mascots for “Tell A Friend,” the Albany-based New York State Deferred Compensation Plan's winning entry in the ongoing investment education category for public plans.

Word of mouth had been an effective enrollment tool in the past, explained Edward Lilly, executive director. A 2011 survey of participants showed 83% had encouraged others to enroll and 72% said they were willing to share with others how the plan helped them save for retirement.

The survey prompted the plan to create a formal education campaign. “We had received a lot of positive feedback — "my supervisor told me or my co-worker told me,'” Mr. Lilly said.

The owl, bluebird and “Tell A Friend” logo became ubiquitous in education materials, including newsletters, calendars, notepads and lapel pins. “We tell people: Do you like what you hear? Tell a friend,” Mr. Lilly said. The provider was Nationwide Retirement Solutions, Columbus, Ohio.

Placing second in ongoing education for public plans was the Ohio Public Employees Deferred Compensation Program, Columbus, and its pig, symbol of the “retirement income adequacy” campaign.

Although piggy banks are a common symbol in retirement plan education materials, Eddy judges were impressed, as one noted, by Ohio's “pig with attitude,” dispensing advice from multiple locales in print and web-based advertising.

Standing on a scale, the pig asks: “Do these retirement savings make me look fat? Good.”

One gauge of the pig's promotional skills was the 22% increase in auto-increase enrollments during the first quarter of 2013 vs. the first quarter of 2012.

“When we began the process, we thought humor would work,” said Keith Overly, the plan's executive director. “It definitely was a different approach than we had taken in the past. We thought it would be an attention-grabber.” Nationwide Retirement Solutions was the service provider.

An ant was the mascot for the County of Los Angeles' entry encouraging greater contributions to its defined contribution plans. The county won second among public plans for special projects. Great-West Retirement Services, Greenwood Village, Colo., was the provider.

L.A. County chose the barbell-lifting ant named Rex — in web-based video and print materials — to illustrate the power even an extra 1% a year can have on long-term savings, said Susan Moomjean, principal analyst in the chief executive office of the county.

“Ants are notoriously strong for their size,” said Ms. Moomjean. One postcard features Rex not even breaking a sweat as he lifts the barbell and says, “I can carry 10X my weight.”

Rex has appeared on employee pay stubs, issued twice per month. “There's an uptick (in contributions) every pay period,” said Ms. Moomjean.

Ms. Moomjean said the county is considering adding a new education campaign about asset allocation and introducing participants to Rex's girlfriend, Rita.

First place among public funds in the special projects category went to the Employee Retirement System of Texas, which used a humor-laden request for greater savings that was enhanced by using real participants' comments — or, in this case, excuses — related to planning for retirement.

Great-West Retirement Services was the service provider.

“What's Your Excu$e?” was the title of the Texa$aver 401(k)/457 plan campaign, which headlined an excuse — and a riposte by the plan.

“I'll save when I'm older” was one excuse, followed by the comment, “Older than what?”

“I have too many expenses” was another excuse, to which came the reply: “You'll still have expenses in retirement ... and potentially less income.”

Every year, Texa$aver conducts a participant survey, and “we got the excuses from the surveys,” said Nora Alvarado, deferred compensation team leader.

Also every year, Texa$aver prepares a strategic plan, and executives decided in October 2012 to aim education efforts at participants contributing only 1% of their annual pay, the automatic enrollment deferral percentage in effect since 2008.

“We needed to be in their face — and bold,” Ms. Alvarado said of the education effort that included direct mailing, webcasts, newsletters, the plan's website and QR codes.

“The response was higher than we expected,” she said. “More than 2,700 took action and raised their deferrals.”

Action and humor were used by Red Bull North America Inc., Santa Monica, Calif., to encourage greater savings among its primarily young workforce. Transamerica Retirement Solutions produced a web-based video, “Chad Saverson Scores a Perfect 10” that takes the viewer through a cartoon-skateboard competition, complete with sports-announcer patter, in which Chad makes several retirement plan decisions. As Chad races through the skateboard course, graphics appear highlighting such messages as maximizing the company match and saving at least 10% of pay annually.

Red Bull is known for sponsoring sports events, and it has a skateboard ramp at its corporate headquarters. “The intent is to speak to the employees in their vernacular,” said David Allen, director of compensation and benefits. Red Bull tied for first, with Churchill Downs, in the corporate special projects category.

Another sports theme was football, specifically Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Mass., home of the New England Patriots.

The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 4, based in Medway, Mass., used the stadium as the location for the savings plan's annual meeting, and to encourage members to contribute more to the plan. The campaign won first place for union plans in the special projects category. MassMutual Retirement Services, Springfield, Mass., was the provider.

“We helped build the stadium,” said Gina Alongi, administrator of the Local 4 Annuity and Savings Plan, whose members include heavy-equipment operators, mechanics and surveyors. “We figured it would be a big draw to bring them back.

Ms. Alongi promoted the stadium visit with football-themed print materials. “Get the play by play on savings for retirement,” said one postcard. “With a good game plan, you could go all the way,” said a poster with assorted X's and O's resembling a football play.

When union members entered the stadium, they were greeted by the words “We Thank You Local 4” on a big scoreboard screen.

The turnout was above expectations and 50% higher than previous meetings held at hotels, she said. The meeting led to 25% of members reallocating money to a target-date fund or diversifying investments.

“They said it was the best venue,” Ms. Alongi added. “They said they learned more. They were really enthusiastic about attending.”

Among the DC plan sponsors winning Eddy awards linked to their products, PACCAR Inc., a Bellevue, Wash., maker of trucks and truck parts, sent materials to participants taking them along Route 401(k), with a collection of investment and savings reminders.

“Is your 401(k) stuck in low gear?” was a question in a pamphlet introducing a kit to help employees maximize their corporate match. A yield sign showed how much money a participant might earn over 30 years making a certain percentage contribution annually.

“Our employees are proud of our trucks, so this (theme) seemed like a good fit,” said Sue Elde, retirement benefits manager. Previous communications had offered “more standard comments” about retirement savings, she said.

“We received more attention this time (from participants) than for the other campaigns,” she added. “Employees were really engaged.”

Aggregate deferrals rose to 6% from 5.6%, and total participation rates rose to 73.2% from 63.6%. Gains were strongest in four locations where the company held one-day enrollment fairs.

PACCAR took first place in the corporate ongoing investment education category for plans with 1,000 or more employees. Fidelity Investments, Boston, was the service provider.

Mission Linen Supply Co., Santa Barbara, Calif., provides linens, uniforms and other products to several industries — and it used a few products to illustrate how participants can stand out from the crowd in retirement if they raise their savings rates and take advantage of the company match.

“Hang up the usual. And try on retirement,” reads the caption for a picture of a long row of white coats — and one Hawaiian shirt. “Drop the typical. And grab retirement,” says another mailing that features a series of identical work gloves — and one baseball glove.

Steve Kulchin, vice president of human resources, said the economic crash of 2008 hit the company hard, forcing it to suspend the corporate match. Participation and deferral rates declined.

The match has seen been restored, and company officials wanted to establish a greater brand identity for its retirement program among workers spread over five states.

“We wanted something that felt like Mission,” and service provider Putnam Investments, Boston, hired in early 2012, “came up with some great ideas,” he said. The branding campaign contributed to an 80% participation rate, up 13 percentage points in one year.

Mission Linen won first place in the ongoing investment education category for corporate sponsors with fewer than 1,000 employees. Putnam won the same award in the service provider contest.

Putnam was a dual winner with another client, DENSO International America Inc., a supplier of auto technology and components, that has headquarters in Southfield, Mich.

Using an automotive products theme, Putnam won first place for providers in the corporate conversions category for plans with more than 5,000 employees, while DENSO won the sponsors' corporate conversions category.

Although DENSO had done some automotive-themed education campaigns in the past, “we wanted something that caught their eye,” said Tammy Jurinsky, senior manager, North America, benefits and retirement.

The conversion campaign used a car deodorizer hanging from the mirror with the words, “the fresh, clean scent of a comfortable retirement.” And there was a bumper sticker that said “I (heart sign) my plan,” followed by the caption: “If you can read this, you're closer to retirement than you think.”

Harsco Corp., Camp Hill, Pa., won third in corporate conversions. It used photos of employees and Harsco sites in a program with the theme, “Empower Yourself,” said Ashley Griffie, senior benefits analyst.

“In the past, there was a lack of communication and education,” said Ms. Griffie, adding the switch to Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust as record keeper in July 2013 gave greater life to its retirement education efforts.

“Employees needed very much to be involved in the process,” she said. “We wanted to engage employees to make it feel that this was tailored to them.”