Targeted videos to get KiwiSavers out of default mode
Giant KiwiSaver provider AMP has notched up a New Zealand first by using personalised videos to encourage ‘‘default’’ KiwiSavers to take an interest in how their money is invested.
Earlier this month, Rob Everett from the Financial Markets Authority revealed he’d sent the chief executives of all nine default KiwiSaver providers ‘‘please explain’’ letters for failing in their legal duty to educate savers.
KiwiSaver has grown to more than $40 billion, but a large proportion of the money remains in low-risk, low-return default funds, where KiwiSavers who don’t choose their own scheme are directed by Inland Revenue.
Starting this week, AMP will be emailing KiwiSavers in its default fund links to personalised videos encouraging them to consider transferring to higherrisk, higher-return funds.
AMP has worked with Israeli company Idomoo to prepare for the mass video mailout.
The videos will address each customer by name, tell them how much they have saved, and encourage them to click on a link to an online tool which helps them work out which kind of fund suits them best.
They can switch to that fund with the click of the mouse, or more likely a single touch of their mobile phone’s screen.
The backdrops of the videos are personalised so customers will see scenery from their local area. But because most people are likely to view the videos on the phone, possibly in public places, at no point does the voice-over mention how much they have saved.
Personalised video is being used by companies all over the world to engage with their customers.
Idomoo has done business in this part of the world before, having helped Australian supermarket chain Woolworths educate its employees on its share plan.
AMP hopes its video approach will appeal to those who have not responded to phone and letter prompts.
‘‘In the next couple of days, there will be 100,000 of these heading out of the door,’’ AMP’s managing director Blair Vernon said.
Personalised videos are not the only call to action AMP is issuing this week.
It’s also rebooting its Essentials insurance range, which it marketed exclusively to its existing KiwiSaver scheme members last year, recognising that many KiwiSavers had no cover.
For $11 a month, 18-30 year-olds get
$100,000 of life cover, $10,000 of trauma insurance, and $25,000 of temporary disability insurance. It costs $12 a month for
31-39 year-olds.
The prices are $12 and $17 a month respectively for those age groups for
$200,000 of life cover, $20,000 or trauma, and $35,000 of temporary disability cover.
‘‘It’s not replacement for a comprehensive insurance programme,’’ Vernon said.
‘‘It’s a replacement for Givealittle. It’s less than people are paying for their phone plan, or for Netflix.’’
Essentials was designed to be easy to sign up to online, and was available to AMP KiwiSavers able to confirm: ‘‘I have not received medical advice that I have an illness that could result in death within the 12 months of this application’’, and ‘‘I am not currently receiving, or have not received in the last 12 months, treatment or a medical procedure from a medical specialist.’’
The reboot requires applicants to make one more confirmation: ‘‘I have not previously suffered from heart disorders, cancer, stroke or diabetes’’.
That’s been added so the cover is available to people deciding to move to AMP’s scheme after Essentials is launched.
Without it, AMP would be at risk of ‘‘anti-selection’’, where people with a history of serious disease used it as a way of getting insurance. The television market is expected to take a fresh twist and turn today, with Vodafone promising to unveil a service that it says will show ‘‘the future of entertainment is here’’.
Vodafone is expected to launch a newgeneration set-top box that will let viewers watch Sky TV over ultrafast broadband or cable, instead of satellite.
Yet to be revealed is whether the boxes will let them stream films and shows sourced from other television partners, or new programming provided by Sky, in addition to Sky’s existing service.
That appears to be a possibility and could give Vodafone a big leg up in the telecommunications market, which technology director Tony Baird said in August was now all about distributing video.
Sky chief executive John Fellet confirmed in August that, as far he was aware then, Vodafone would offer its new set-top boxes just with its existing content.
At the heart of Vodafone and Sky’s next set-top boxes will be an internetdelivered EPG (electronic programme guide), similar to the kind offered by Netflix.
That should make it much easier for customers to browse and search for programmes to watch on-demand.
The EPG would mean Sky and Vodafone could include software to make recommendations to viewers on shows they might want to watch, in a similar to way to how music service Spotify recommends music to its subscribers.
Those changes, in turn, could open the door to the companies offering a wider range of internet-television programmes, perhaps through partnerships.
Sky and Vodafone have maintained their close partnership despite the country’s competition watchdog blocking their merger in February.
Fellet signalled in August that Vodafone would be first to market with a set-top box featuring an internetdelivered EPG.
Its head-start is thanks to the fact that its boxes – unlike Sky’s – do not need to support satellite reception.
Fellet said Sky could deliver the same feature to about 350,000 of its newer settop boxes through a software upgrade it was about to test.
But it would have to replace its other boxes, which it might not be able to start doing before late next year.