Eddy Award winning entries have home-grown flavor

Participants' testimonials plus man-made and natural features of defined contribution plans' home bases played a prominent role in the 21st annual Eddy Awards, sponsored by Pensions & Investments.

Thirty-nine education campaigns were honored March 2 at P&I"s Defined Contribution East Coast Conference in Miami.

A complete list of winners, along with judges' comments and other materials about the awards, can be found at www.pionline.com/2015-Eddy.

The City & County of San Francisco Deferred Compensation Plan managed to incorporate many of those elements in its entry that won first place in the conversions category for public plans.

Using the theme “Gateway to your future,” the education campaign announcing a move to Prudential Retirement Services as record keeper used print materials featuring photos of the city skyline at night, Victorian houses, some San Francisco Bay coastline and, of course, the Golden Gate Bridge.

The most poignant presentation, said Julia Durand, former deferred compensation director of the San Francisco Employees Retirement System, was a pair of videos telling stories about employees who were retiring. These videos, prepared by Prudential, “reached out to people and were very inspirational to all of us,” she said in an interview. Ms. Durand was director of the plan during the conversion campaign.

Ms. Durand said the plan's communication strategy was to deliver the information “in bite-size pieces” because this approach is easier for employees to understand.

“We wanted to change the conversation” about the plan and its features, said Ms. Durand. Previously, the approach was “very technical and clinical.”

To help explain its move to a new record keeper, Chicago-based Wirtz Corp. used a video that included interviews with employees of several of its holdings, including the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League, a real estate company and wholesale beverage distribution business.

“We are diverse, and we wanted to show people who were representative of the organization,” said William Davis, vice president and general manager of Wirtz Insurance Co. The Wirtz Corp. and Affiliated Companies Retirement Program represent eight plans.

The campaign's video also included a purple cartoon 401(k) beast to encourage people to talk about the Wirtz retirement plan and the new record keeper, Mass Mutual Retirement Services.

“We put the character in to give them something to remember,” said Mr. Davis, adding that Wirtz plan officials used the video at the beginning of conducting employee meetings throughout the country to explain the changes.

In its printed materials, Wirtz used images from its various businesses — there's a Chicago Blackhawk player hoisting the 2013 Stanley Cup — “so employees would get a feeling for our corporate identity,” he said. Wirtz Corp. won first place in the conversions category for corporate plans with 1,000 to 5,000 employees.

The County of San Diego Deferred Compensation Program highlighted natural and man-made attractions in an unusual way, winning a first-place award in the special projects category for public plans.

It used coasters with pictures of various sites ranging from flower fields in Carlsbad to the desert at Borrego Springs to the coastline at La Jolla, as well as daytime and nighttime photos of the San Diego city skyline.

“San Diego County has so many scenic views,” Mr. McAllister. “We wanted to show the diversity of the county.”

The campaign goal was to encourage older workers and retirees to keep their money in the plan, said Dan McAllister, the San Diego County treasurer-tax collector. Retaining funds in the plan gives the plan more clout in negotiating better fees and services, while also helping participants reduce costs of their retirement accounts, he said.

One Eddy judge said the approach was a simple yet effective way to reinforce the county's goal.

On the back of some coasters are brief descriptive sales pitches for the plan - “No commissions. Lower Fees.” or “One Plan. Many Benefits.”

On the back of one coaster is contact information for the plan's service provider, Nationwide Retirement Solutions, the co-winner of the Eddy Award. And on the back of another — the desert scene — is a recipe for a smoothie. “We try to do things in a different way,” said Mr. McAllister.

Long Beach, Calif., used a natural attraction — you can't miss the beach - in its deferred compensation plan's strategy for educating participants.

The beach was depicted in a video that used sand as a background, augmented by animated stop-motion in which three plastic boats represented three investment strategies, with handwritten messages in the sand identifying plan features.

“We wanted the message to be fun,” said Debbie Mills, the city's director of human resources. “We thought celebrating the beach was a good idea.” Over the years, she added, the city's education campaigns have become less conservative.

In the latest campaign, the promotional and educational materials included comments such as “Set sail to a bright financial future,” “Don't miss the boat,” and “Get on board: Enroll now.”

Ms. Mills said the video idea was proposed by service provider ICMA-RC and enthusiastically supported by a committee of employee representatives. The ongoing education effort featured brochures identifying three different investment styles, and an internal website asking employees “What type of investor are you?” and allowing participants to examine their preferences.

The Long Beach plan and ICMA-RC won second place for ongoing education among public plans. Eddy judges said the materials were “relevant without being hokey.”

The first-place winner in the public plan ongoing education category was the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board's Thrift Savings Plan with its appeal to “Take Five for Your Future.”

The number five had multiple meanings: the plan's five lifecycle funds; the plan's five core funds; the five minutes plan officials said was needed for participants to increase contributions; and the 5% of pay the plan will contribute to a participant's account if the participant contributes 5%.

The target audience was participants younger than 45, to encourage them to raise their contributions.

The Washington-based Thrift Savings Plan wanted to approach participants in as many ways as possible, and used print, video, a microsite, a blog and Twitter, explained Beth Perry, supervisory communication specialist. “We used all of the communications vehicles that we had,” she said. As a result, there was an 18.4% increase in the number of people contributing to their accounts among the target audience.

The first-place winner in the ongoing education category for union plans was the California Teachers Association, Burlingame, for its 403(b) and 457 plans.

Defined benefit plans “are not designed to fully fund our financial needs in retirement,” said Carole Anne Luckenbach, the union's manager of risk management, business initiatives and development.

The union's print information and videos describe CTA model portfolios in an effort to encourage participants to simplify their asset allocations and to consider investments other than annuities. Eddy judges praised the model portfolios' workbook as practical, offering worksheets and a glossary.

The union doesn't hide its concern about annuities. In one brochure, for example, it noted “annuities often charge hefty fees, including surrender fees that penalize you if you want to cancel the contract within a certain period of time. The fees are not transparent — it can take a good deal of digging to discover what they are.”

The message about comparing annuities against other investments and the model portfolio is emphasized in the videos, too.

“We want to demystify the process of investing,” Ms. Luckenbach said. “We want our members to make an informed and deliberate choice.”

Another winning entry for ongoing education was that of AllianceBernstein LP, New York, which took the first place among corporate plans with 1,000 to 5,000 employees.

AllianceBernstein officials were faced with the task of communicating to their 401(k) plan participants a new lifetime income strategy — embedding a lifetime income option within a target-date fund setting.

“We used a variety of formats,” said Jennifer DeLong, managing director for multiasset solutions. These ranged from detailed brochures and brief answers to frequently asked questions, to webcasts and meetings with employees around the country.

“It depends on what type of learner you are,” she said.

To underscore the importance of the new option, the plan used video interviews with Chairman and CEO Peter S. Kraus.

In addition, the plan offered an interactive website in which participants could insert certain information — including, age, salary at retirement, outside savings — to assess the impact of the lifetime income strategy. Eddy judges said plan officials offered a clear and comprehensive description of a new option.

Special projects award winners were diverse in style and substance. No Eddy Award contest would be complete without a piggy-bank-theme entry, but Federated Mutual Insurance Co., Owatonna, Minn., proved you could add new life to a familiar theme.

“What's the Pig Idea?” was placed on mirror clings, posters, post cards and a website to get employees to review their retirement savings progress. Needless to say, the color of the promotional materials was predominantly pink, part of an approach whose images, Eddy Award judges said, were eye-catching and appealing.

Federated had conducted conservative education campaigns in the past, said Cindy Bucher, benefits and compensation manager. “We wanted to do something different,” she said. “We wanted to capture their (participants') attention.”

The latest campaign focused on the role of Federated's 401(k) plan as a crucial part of participants' overall retirement security. Although Federated has an open defined benefit plan, the latest project — developed with service provider Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust — was aimed at all active employees, especially newer workers whose DB plan benefits are less generous, she said.

The goal was to encourage participants to check the Wells Fargo website “to see if they are prepared for retirement,” by comparing their retirement savings goal to their projected savings based on current information and their contribution rates, she said.

Federated and Wells Fargo won first place in the special projects category for corporate plans with 1,000 to 5,000 employees.

A special projects first-place award in the not for profit/other category went to BJC HealthCare, St. Louis and its service provider, Vanguard Group, via a new website feature Eddy Awards judges said was an impressive combination of ease and speed.

Vanguard's new EZ Enroll feature enables participants to enroll in two minutes and two clicks via a participant's computer or smartphone, says the plan's instructions.

In the past, BJC plan officials were concerned that employees “would start to enroll, but (then)they got confused” by the plan's online enrollment process, said Eric Tepen, manager of retirement benefits. The old system was “cumbersome,” Mr. Tepen said.

The campaign to promote EZ Enroll led to an increase of 18 percentage points in online enrollment completions — to 69%.

The first-place winner for special projects among union plans went to the NFL Players Association, Washington, and its service provider, Financial Finesse Inc. Some of the union's earlier campaigns didn't resonate with the players and retirees, so in recent years, the union has employed “humor that's a bit edgy,” said Dana Hammonds, director of player affairs and development.

This year, one print promotion titled “Mo' Money, Mo' Problems” features a picture of Benjamin Franklin with a phone number for members to get “completely unbiased financial guidance.” Another print promotion shows an attractive woman with a come-hither look saying “Call Me” — and providing a phone number for a financial helpline.

“Young guys respond more to a visual presentation than a lot of text,” said Ms. Hammonds. “We try to come up with new ones every year.”

Among corporate plans with more than 5,000 employees, TeleTech Holdings Inc. of Englewood, Colo., tied for second place in the special projects category with a creative use of magnets and other resources such as a raffle to explain the corporate match in its 401(k) plan. (TeleTech tied with Sky West Inc., St. George, Utah, and its service provider, Wells Fargo.)

“We had a lot of participants who misunderstood the match,” said Heather Superchi, senior analyst, global benefits-human capital.

“Don't leave money on the table” was the theme used by TeleTech and service provider Bank of America Merrill Lynch via magnets, posters and postcards to raise employee participation rates.

In another large corporate plan category, conversions, Hanesbrands Inc., Winston-Salem, N.C. tied for a first place award emphasizing a theme that “change is good” as the 401(k) plan switched record keepers, re-enrolled employees and moved to a white-label investment option format.

(Hanesbrands tied with E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Wilmington, Del., and its service provider Bank of America Merrill Lynch).?

“People perceive change as disruptive or negative,” said Teressa Blanchard, director of global employee benefits at Hanesbrands. “We wanted to show that change is good. It allows us to grow and improve.”

Eddy award judges were impressed with how well-organized and easy-to-follow the conversion documents were.

Hanesbrands and Fidelity Investments developed a campaign that Ms. Blanchard termed “a Zen approach,” with brochures featuring tranquil photographs, such as flowers and lily pads.

Hanesbrands provided information for multiple audiences — from the ones who wanted a detailed explanation to those who preferred their explanation in brief, bulleted fashion. The theme for all communication was the same, said Ms. Blanchard: “How does this affect me? What do I do next?”