Because we’re in the position to keep tabs on what the competition is up to and comment on what we see and like, one topic that always seems to come up with financial marketers is online multimedia. So, we though we’d share a few thoughts… 

We’d always like to see more, not only because it makes our job a little more fun, but also because there aren’t a whole lot of prime examples out there, leaving plenty of room at the top. For a quick primer on multimedia marketing, we’ll share a few standouts that easily come to mind among the annuity firms we cover.

Probably what best exemplifies the potential of the Internet are interactive tools that combine educational content, personalized assessments and product promotion. Boring old calculators for concepts such as tax deferral or savings goals are pretty standard. Instead, for a snazzy, cutting-edge multimedia tool, take a look at Nationwide’s RetirAbility Check (honorable mention goes to ING’s conceptually-similar Your Number calculator).

Nationwide provides a nice, personal touch, with an enthusiastic, friendly guide selected to match the user’s general age. He or she introduces the tool, leads the way through the questionnaire with incremental assessments and statistics, and keeps the tone casual and positive with occasional side banter. By the end - some eight or so minutes later - your new friend gives you an R-Score estimating how prepared you are to maintain your standard of living in retirement. The tool is one of several we’ve seen that engages prospects, pushes educational messages and promotes products, services and professional advice, all throught the user’s own volition.

Of course, when you think of multimedia advertising, what may first come to mind are videos and films. Interestingly, most examples out there don’t particularly resemble television commercials (which are often available online themselves). These multimedia presentations are typically lenghtier and, frankly, much less exciting than the firms’ 30-second TV spots. In fact, many run longer than the time it takes to complete an interactive calculation.

While the films’ length can mean that there’s a lot of valuable content - warnings of impending retirement crises, product details and usually an obligatory word from the lawyers - it’s unclear how amenable prospects will be to sitting and watching start-to-finish without any interactive aspect. Solid user controls and a topic menu, such as seen in John Hancock’s Investing in Retirement tutorial, are an important concession to online consumers’ short attention spans. Check out these other examples from Fidelity (video accessible from right margin), Hartford and Jackson National for approaches to selling specific products.

One more distinct online technique comes from AXA Equitable, which litters their public website with Flash-based animation of the 800 lb. gorilla mascot. The large but soft-spoken mascot delivers brief promotional audio messages - “Start saving for retirement!” “Did you know…?” etc. It’s a definite attention-grabber, and having a campaign that spans television, online and print media also helps brand recognition. No other firms aside from AXA pursue that strategy, however.

A final note… Especially in heavily regulated retirement markets, many firms understandably rely on advisors to drive sales. We’ve seen more activity on the multimedia marketing front in firms’ communications with advisors - educating on new offerings, promotions or online resources. However, PowerPoint presentations and complementary literature remain the standard materials provided to help advisors deliver their pitches to prospects. But whether firms put new, exciting multimedia resources in the hands of advisors or out there for customers to find for themselves, there’s a lot of room among financial services firms on the cutting edge of multimedia marketing.