PLANADVISER - January/February 2019 - 10

practice development
Your
Message,
Set in Film
H
ow well you convey the retirement
saving message to your clients'
employees can help decide their
future. This year, Practice Development
explores various means to communicate
with
participants-present
and
tial-and do it more effectively.
Videos, creatively filmed, can be
a powerful tool. Jennifer Benz, senior
vice president with Benz Segal, in San
Francisco, says video at its best " gets
people excited about a topic " through
an emotional story. " It also shines when
" explain[ing] concepts difficult to understand
on paper " she says.
Oswald Financial in Cleveland
uses the medium this way, employing
white screen animation to jazz up its
self-produced short, generic films on
complicated topics such as Roth vs.
traditional plans or the company match,
says firm Director David Kulchar.
Visuals and other effects can help
keep viewers engaged-key because
people decide within the first few
seconds whether to keep watching,
Benz says. " Many videos are viewed for
only 30 to 45 seconds, if that, " she says.
Custom videos can be short-either
stand-alone or in a series-or longer,
as with enrollment presentations. The
latter, often made for clients with
multiple work sites or shifts, provide
an overview of the plan and how to
save, Kulchar says. His firm heightens
the customization by addressing a
topic the plan sponsor has told him
will especially interest the employees.
Oswald films the live presentation,
which the sponsor then makes accessible,
through email or its intranet site.
These videos not only serve the client,
Kulchar says, " they help us get more
places and are more cost-effective. "
He also saw economy in bringing
production in-house. He determined
that outsourcing, long term, would
potencost
more than hiring a marketing
specialist, whom he could use in additional
ways. Now with an on-staff
expert, he has " total flexibility, " he
says-he can change his message
easily, at limited expense-and has
consistent branding across the firm.
Horizon Financial Group, in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, also does its own
production, starting with writing its
scripts (all compliance-approved). It
posts its
and think about the sequence [for
presenting them] in this short time
frame, and how we can use visuals
and music to explain them in a way
that's emotionally powerful, " Yost says.
If employees should take action at the
end, the video needs to set that up.
As to cost, " You could spend a
generic, educational short
pieces on YouTube. That platform is free,
notes Bill Bush, firm media manager.
As to custom, says Horizon Partner
Andy Bush, video can explain a move
the client plans to make, as with
a video they produced to " take the
mystery out of a recordkeeper change. "
For an adviser who would rather
outsource, hiring a firm such as Benz'
will buy wisdom, expertise and a
professionally finished product. Benz,
or maybe Megan Yost, an engagement
strategist, start by helping identify " key
messages " and three top takeaways.
" We then develop the messages
couple of hundred dollars and you
could spend tens of thousands of
dollars, " based on approach, Benz says.
Advisers serious about incorporating
video, she says, should weigh their
resources against their goals, then
" figure out how to insure there's a direct
return on investment; tie it to actual
participant behaviors and things you
want to accomplish that are important
to your plan sponsors. "
Advisers game for shouldering the
technical work can purchase a decent
set-up-camera,
computer,
software,
wireless mike, lights and green screen-
for $5,000 to $6,000, says Bill Bush. Even
smart phones produce " HD-quality
good enough for folks to view, " he says.
-Karen Wittwer
8 | planadviser.com January-February 2019
Art by Jackson Epstein
http://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/january_february_2019/TrackLink.action?pageName=8&exitLink=http%3A%2F%2Fplanadviser.com
PLANADVISER - January/February 2019

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