Colonial ads turn advisers off

A new television advertising campaign by Colonial First State that pokes fun at industry fees and service levels has left some financial advisers less than amused.

The advisers have accused Colonial of taking cheap shots at the financial services industry with its brand campaign, entitled ‘We want what you want!’, which first went to air last month.

They say the campaign’s emphasis on industry fees is irresponsible in light of the recent spate of criticism levelled at the industry over fees and charges.

In one television ad, a customer tries to charge fees to her advisers for her time spent filling out forms, as well as postage for mailing them — despite being inside a Colonial office.

In another ad, a Colonial employee tries to get hold of a customer at home only to be confronted by an endless automated phone system.

Each ad depicts some aspect of investment company performance believed to frustrate consumers, but in reverse, so a client subjects a Colonial First State staff member to it.

Colonial has dismissed the criticism, claiming the campaign’s humour is directed solely at highlighting the market strengths of its FirstChoice product range.

General manager product Brian Bissaker says extensive focus groups and qualitative research were conducted among both advisers and consumers before the campaign was flighted.

“It revealed investors and advisers consider fees, performance and service as our competitive advantages, and we wrapped the campaign around these.

“We would never have gone to air with anything that wasn’t already firmly in the minds of investors and advisers — so you could say we are not leading the debate but only responding to it.”

But Associated Planners managing director Ray Miles says he has seen two of the ads, one of which he found “laughable” and the other “annoying”.

Miles says it was “getting a bit close to the bone to dig shots at the industry over fees, especially when others have a more transparent fee structure than Colonial”.

“Wrapping everything up in one fee is a good strategy, because it’s actually quite simple, but not doing so makes for more transparent fee structure in my view,” he says.

Matrix Financial Planning director Rob Pedersen was also unimpressed, particularly with the potential for the ads to further damages the industry’s reputation.

The campaign “doesn’t do the industry any good,” he says.

“It’s a classic example of somebody from marketing making decisions without any idea what advisers actually do for clients.”