LV= drawdown done differently

The Challenge

When reaching retirement there are two broad ways people can access their pension:

1) An annuity (which pays a set income for life)

2) Drawdown (which allows the retiree to flexibly draw money down from their pension).

Over the last decade drawdown had dominated as the preferred option. However, significant increases in rates to a 14-year high; poor investment performance across major indices; and a cost-of-living crisis have all provided a growing compliance risk for advisers continuing to recommend drawdown.

LV= adapted to these changing marketing conditions by launching a smarter ‘hybrid’ solution; The LV= Guaranteed Income Drawdown. A unique packaged solution that provided more flexibility and growth potential than a hybrid lifetime annuity and drawdown package, and more security and certainty than flexi-drawdown.

But how could we cut through the complexity to make it motivating for advisers and explainable to their clients?

The Approach

Industry research indicated that, despite the compliance risks, many advisers would be very reticent to move client recommendations from drawdown to annuities – due to the lack of flexibility (and reduced fee-earning capability).

So the strategy became to position LV=’s hybrid as a unique DRAWDOWN ONLY solution that could also reduce client risk.

The lead campaign line we developed was “Drawdown done differently”, with the supporting line: ‘De-risk the drawdown journey’ – giving clarity on how LV= could provide a solution they could recommend to clients worried about the longer term risks of drawdown – without having to turn to a Lifetime Annuity.

And rather than getting bogged down in the product complexities in the campaign messaging we focussed on the key benefits for advisers to recommend such as less risk, increased compliance, ease of management and retains their ability to add value (and fee earning potential). And end-consumer benefits such as secure but flexible income, smoothed growth potential, reduced longevity risk, tax-efficiencies and inheritance savvy.

The new strategy was rolled out across a multi-channel campaign that targeted financial advisers while keeping the end consumer in mind.

We developed a visually creative concept that used “pathway” imagery to represent the idea of a smooth, guided journey through retirement. This visual language was consistently applied across all campaign materials, including:

• Awareness & engagement comms focussed on delivering hits to the landing page and webinar sign ups. These included a series of x5 emails, paid and organic social media posts, and digital trade media across trade titles including a Money Marketing Retirement page takeover.
• Interest and consideration comms included X2 webinars to educate on the market need and explain our unique solution.
• Action comms including a pitch deck and product guide to download which clearly articulated the market opportunity, explained the product’s unique features, and provided compelling case studies. We ensured the content was jargon-free and focused on how the product addressed both adviser and client pain points.

The Results

The campaign delivered strong commercial results which are commercially sensitive. However, these are some of the following marketing uplifts we’re able to share:

• Email opens – a 35% open rate achieved vs. 30% target – with over 7,000 opens for each email send
• Email click-through rate – a 4.35% vs. of 5.95% target – but total opens were higher than targeted
• Landing page  – 992 unique page views achieved vs. 800 targeted
• Landing page dwell time – 3:02 average session duration achieved vs. target of 2 mins
• Product guide downloads – 108 downloads achieved vs. target of 90
• Webinar registrations: Webinar 1: 763 vs. 500 target. Webinar 2: 421 vs. 300 target
• Webinar attendees: Webinar 1: 401 vs. 250 target. Webinar 2: 190 vs. 100 target

The client was delighted with the results, and had this to say about the campaign;

“Should I choose a pension annuity or drawdown? Through this campaign we were able to tap into this age-old client debate and present a fresh  alternative. This campaign presented an opportunity to really connect market dynamics and regulation to our Guaranteed Income Drawdown solution – meeting advisers’ needs to provide today’s retirees with a balance of income flexibility and security. Together with Moreish, we had fun presenting a complex solution simply, showcasing our Guaranteed Income Drawdown product as a workable packaged solution providing a combination of upside participation and downside protection.

Our punchy and attention grabbing ‘Drawdown done differently’ campaign brought this to life creatively, providing market stand out and intrigue and through the multi-channel campaign activation we balanced the rational with the emotional, leveraging the human need and benefit for emotional assurance in uncertain times with the rational substantiation of the product features and feature optionality. The campaign succeeded in firmly putting LV’s blended solution back on the map and has provided a platform for continued growth in our fixed-term annuity business through 2023 and into 2024.”

Jen Bowden

LV= Head of Savings & Retirement Proposition Marketing

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