CHARLES SCHWAB
who i want to be
Overview
Role: Creative Strategist
Charles Schwab provides a modern approach to investing and they want to reach the next generation of investment advisors. In a project supervised by Charles Schwab's agency of record, The Richards Group, we were tasked with finding who the next group of advisors were and how to communicate with them. The team outlined what Charles Schwab could do to reach these prospective RIAs.
The Ask
Create an awareness campaign for the career field of Independent Registered Investment Advisors
Problems to Address
1. Students have a negative perception of the finance industry
2. Students don’t know what an Independent RIA is or does
Campaign Opportunities
Bring awareness and education about the RIA field
Average students didn't recognize what an Registered Investment Advisor does or even was. Students compared it to an accountant but we find out through interviews with Personal Financial Planning majors that this wasn't the case and that the general student needed to be educated on what an RIA is before they are recruited.
Separate the RIA industry from other finance jobs
Students did know one thing about the RIA field and that was that it was in the financial industry... they don't like that. They associate the industry with math, wealth, greediness and a lack of compassion, one student even referred to "Wolf of Wall Street". A career as an RIA needs to stand away from the financial industry if it wants to flourish.
Primary Research
2702
Survey Respondents
15
One on One interviews
5 Focus Groups
25 Participants
The detour
Initially, the client was dead set on targeting high school seniors and their parents for this campaign but through multiple forms of research, we had to make a change in the plans.
Our national survey was the first red flag when more than half of the 1,102 seniors we surveyed said they were not confident they knew what they wanted to do for a career and that they knew little to nothing about financial careers.
Then after interviewing high school counselors we became even more concerned about a campaign for high school seniors after hearing that students normally tell their counselors that they plan to, "pick to go to a particular college and then find their major there". - Rita Pritchett, Lubbock Christian School Counselor
Lastly, we wanted to ask high schoolers face to face before we brought this information to the client's attention. The high schooler seniors we interviewed in a focus group setting either hadn't decided on a major or decided but weren't set on keeping that major. One student said, "I thought I had decided on psychology and then realized I did not want to do that, and I have an interest in marketing now, so I want to combine those into one."
Defining the audience
After presenting the research above to the client and giving them insights on the audience we want to target they agreed to redirect our efforts. Instead of targeting high school seniors, we decided to focus more on college students looking for an initial or new major that possess a certain type of mindset. So who is the type of person we were looking to join a Personal Financial Planning program:
“...an exceptional [PFP] student is one that connects to the profession at a higher level, is one that says you know what it’s great to do these things but I don’t want to just do these things, I want to be these things.”
-Dr. Browning, Texas Tech PFP Professor
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Creative Strategy
Creative Insight
Creative Concept
"I don’t want to just do these things, I want to be these things.”
This is a career built for individuals with a certain amount of emotional intelligence, make a campaign with the same amount of emotional intelligence while also providing information on what the job is.
Tagline: Who I Want To Be #WhyIAdvise
The tagline, “Who I Want To Be,” is call out to all students searching for a major with a higher meaning. We are asking for all the students who want to be Empathetic Problem Solvers, Collaborative Entrepenuaers, or a Trustworthy, Compassionate Guide.
Lubbock ADDYs:
District ADDYs:
Print Campaign - Gold
Out of Home Campaign - Gold
Print Campaign - Silver
