Good things come to those who don’t wait to invest

When looking at the investment category, Coronation found two interesting things; one, there is little differentiation within the category and two, the category has been preaching patience and time for decades.

The absence of a strong call to action and urgency to invest was immediately stark.

In promoting patience and time, the category inadvertently created a languid and passive audience. This oversight explains why investing is something most people seem to leave for “later in life”.

What is the undeniable human truth that resides in the potential customer?

Well, no one starts off in life thinking that they will work their entire lives. And every single one of us aspires to a life of financial freedom where we can do what we want, go where we want when we want to. We all want to live our best lives while we’re still young enough to enjoy it – not in our 60s and 70s when we’re limited by time and ability.

This led directly to the big idea “The sooner you invest the sooner you can live the life you dream of”. Who can argue with that?

But how did Coronation activate that thought in a way that would create the desired action? They created a sense of urgency. Their campaign depicted life as it would turn out to be if one waited too long to invest.

With the target market being in their 40s, Coronation looked at an era of advertising from the 80s and 90s that portrayed people living their best lives.

We all remember the ads back in the day that showed a fun-filled, action-packed, and free life… in essence the lives we all wish to live. But instead of playing back what the audience is familiar with, Coronation turned advertising on its head by demonstrating the life you could live if you waited too long to invest. Instead of showing younger people doing amazing things like a lot of ads tend to do, Coronation showed much older people participating in those activities.

The campaign demonstrates how limiting financial freedom is if you wait too long to invest, thus creating the urgency to invest now. Because good things come to those who don’t wait to invest.

Main Image Courtesy: CoronationSA