Broadcast news: Planners participate in radio campaign

(March 1, 2004) Breaking with tradition, the Financial Planners Standards Council (FPSC) decided to promote the CFP designation during the advertising-heavy RRSP season. More than 30 financial planners appeared on radio call-in shows in Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto over the past eight weekends. The air time was paid for by the FPSC.

The not-for-profit organization usually avoids advertising during RRSP season due to the tremendous influx of product pushes from large financial institutions and mutual funds, says Ann Bowman, the council’s vice-president of communications and corporate relations. “We want to make sure financial planning is viewed in a separate context from the purchasing of product and send out the message that it’s a yearlong endeavour,” she says.

However, Bowman says the FPSC changed its strategy this year. “We are extremely aware that this is a time when Canadians are listening to messages about their financial affairs,” she says.

The change of heart appears to have paid off. In January and February, the FPSC’s Web site recorded its largest number of new visitors, with the exception of last October and November, when the council released its practice standards. “We also recorded the highest number of searches for planners than ever before,” Bowman notes.

Planners contacted by Advisor.ca who took part in the radio campaign were universally positive about the experience.

“I have never had any media training and was a little nervous about being on the radio,” says Vancouver CFP Beatrice Grant. “Once I started into the program this all disappeared and I found myself really into it, explaining the benefits of the CFP came naturally to me.”

Due to technical problems, Grant was unable to take questions on air. But she did give out her phone number and had several calls the following week. “To date I have seen three new clients and I am in the process of doing a financial plan for each. I also have had a few calls from my existing clients, they all enjoyed the program and each one expressed how much they learned from it.”

Ottawa CFP Marc Lamontagne says he’d also never appeared on the radio before and found the experience a bit overwhelming, at least at first. “But after you get the hang of it, it’s really a lot of fun.

“I thought it was a great experience,” Lamontagne adds. “The biggest thing is to have the opportunity to get out in the public and dispel some of the myths about financial planning.”

“I loved it. It was great,” says Bradley Roulston, a CFP based in Mississauga, Ontario. “The first 20 minutes people didn’t call, but the last 40 minutes were packed both times I was on.”

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The FPSC raised a few eyebrows with its decision to buy airtime in Toronto on Mojo radio, a station that promotes itself as talk radio for men, with a strong emphasis on sports.

But Bowman maintains Mojo attracts the FPSC’s target audience: “the emerging investor who is stopping and thinking about financial planning.” Despite its male-dominant themes, Bowman notes a substantial portion of the station’s audience is female.

Toronto-based CFP Sucheta Rajagopal — who specializes in socially responsible investing (SRI) — had no complaints about her two appearances on Mojo, praising the show’s host Ross MacLeod. “He made it a forum where no question is too dumb, and I liked that because often people are intimidated by financial talk, and financial ‘experts,'” Rajagopal says.

“And I think a whole lot of people were introduced to the concept of SRI who might never have heard of it otherwise, and that’s worthwhile.”

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What do you think about the FPSC’s educational initiative? Is the council doing enough to spread the word about the CFP and financial planning in general? Share your thoughts and opinions about this issue with your fellow advisors in the Talvest Town Hall on Advisor.ca.

Filed by Doug Watt, Advisor.ca, doug.watt@advisor.rogers.com

(03/01/04)

Doug Watt