Communication Samples - conversion campaign

Coca-Cola Enterprises Conversion Campaign

We completed a groundbreaking conversion communications campaign for Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE). CCE has more than 34,000 employees distributed across the United States. They have more than 54,000 vehicles and 2.4 million vending machines, beverage dispensers and coolers. Their workforce is largely young, male and blue collar, working in bottling plants, driving delivery trucks or out in stores and client locations as merchandisers. There is a significant union population.

One of the company’s key considerations in the conversion process was finding a way to more effectively provide investment education to its workforce — most of whom are truck drivers, merchandisers and bottling shift workers at production and distribution locations nationwide. With overall plan participation at about 50% and heavy concentrations of assets in non-diversified company stock funds, CCE knew it had to do a better job of providing investment education to its plan participants. 

Goal of the Campaign

CCE was ready to try something different. They wanted to dramatically simplify communications and make it easier for participants to use the plan. They made the decision to reduce the investment menu from 38 funds to nine, including a suite of Target Maturity funds as one choice. They wanted to increase awareness, participation, appreciation of the plan and to restructure the menu into tiers organized by investor type. And, because there was such a different menu for participants to acquaint themselves with, CCE placed a premium on our ability to effect a successful re-enrollment.

Communication Strategy

To begin the process of developing the Investor Profile and the related education campaign, we developed key messages that defined how we wanted participants to think of the Investor Profile. The new Investor Profile process would be:

• Convenient — It takes just 10 minutes of your time.
• Easy — You just need to tell us about yourself.
• Personal — You’ll get guidance designed just for you.

We then developed messages to promote the Investor Profile and sell it to employees — what would they receive in return if they took the time to complete it?

• Guidance you can use when choosing your investments.
• A new way to think about saving, created just for you.
• Articles of interest.
• A chance to win one of 100 Apple iPod Shuffles if you return the Investor Profile by the deadline.

We knew understanding investing was a big obstacle for employees, so the overarching message was: “Good news: You don’t have to be a financial planner. Just fill out this Investor Profile and our new 401(k) service provider, JPMorgan, will help you make your investment decisions.”

The Investor Profile was created with the expertise of behavioral finance professionals and refined through testing in focus groups with employees in several locations, including bottling/distribution sites, sales centers and corporate headquarters.

To encourage them to complete the Investor Profile, we gave employees three easy action steps: read, reply, relax. We asked employees to review the basics of the conversion such as a calendar of events and fund mapping; reply using the Investor Profile; then relax and wait for the smooth conversion and results from the Investor Profile.

Solution Overview

To support the conversion and the Investor Profile, we implemented a comprehensive marketing campaign that included print materials, Web content and face-to-face 401(k) “Fiesta” events at 42 of CCE’s locations around the U.S. All the communications set the stage for the “live” date, at which time participants could access a new Web site and contact center, take advantage of the new investments and services and receive personalized guidance based on their Investor Profile responses. 

Design

First, we worked with CCE to create a new logo and design concept that would run throughout the campaign. In previous communications, CCE used a cartoon character named Mizz Fizz. We knew employees associated Mizz Fizz with their retirement benefits, so we wanted to continue to use her in our communications. However, we wanted to give Mizz Fizz an updated look to convey the new era of the plan. The result: we included Mizz Fizz in a logo that was used on every communication piece. Additionally, we developed the tagline, “Plan the life you want. Start now.” The tagline is action-oriented and reinforces the employee’s responsibility to plan for retirement. 

Throughout the campaign, JPMorgan used eye-catching photography that encouraged participants to visualize the life they want to have in retirement. All photos appeared from the individual’s point of view — looking at life from:

• the seat of a motorcycle
• the bow of a boat
• a chair on the beach
• a variety of other retirement vantage points CCE chose to use

We also used the design to showcase CCE’s pride in its product lines, with its products strategically featured as the beverage of choice in several of these settings.

Face-to-Face, One-on-One

Because most employees are truck drivers, merchandisers and bottling and distribution shift workers with little flexibility to attend scheduled information meetings, we hosted 401(k) “Fiestas” — a series of on-site open houses that employees could visit at their convenience, before or after their shifts. The Fiestas lasted several hours, allowing employees to stop by when they had time to ask questions, get some giveaways and fill out an Investor Profile and QuickEnroll on the spot. Local HR representatives were encouraged to “hype up” the Fiestas by providing food, music and attention-grabbing decorations. To encourage Investor Profile completion via word-of-mouth, each Fiesta attendee received a sticker proclaiming “I completed my Investor Profile,” and was asked to wear the sticker back to their work location. Fiesta attendees also received a vanilla-scented car/truck air freshener featuring the Mizz Fizz logo, participant Web site address and contact center number.

Prior to the conversion, we held culture training sessions with participant-facing groups, such as the financial education consultants who manned the Fiestas, and contact center representatives. As one of the most recognizable global brands, it was important to reinforce the importance CCE’s brand identity with all of the people who would be in contact with our plan participants. The culture training emphasized the company’s identity, featured only  brand-appropriate beverages during breaks and even provided some fun trivia about the company’s operations with our education consultants and contact center representatives (“Did you know it takes 45 minutes to turn over a bottling line after a soft drink run?”).

We also asked our participant services representatives to help promote the Investor Profile. We provided each representative with a “flashing hand” desk-clip that flashed when a piece of paper was inserted into the clip. The clip held a colorful note that reminded the representatives to encourage callers to fill out the Investor Profile.

Print materials

Prior to the kick-off of the 401(k) Fiestas, we began a postcard campaign designed to generate awareness of the upcoming conversion to JPMorgan and to generate excitement for the “new, easier way to invest” that we were unveiling with the new funds and services and the Investor Profile process.

At the time that the 401(k) Fiestas began, employees were receiving their conversion kits that described what would happen with the plan conversion, the new lineup of investment funds and services and the Investor Profile process. We wanted a format that would be easy-to-read, eye-catching, not intimidating and would lead readers directly to the Investor Profile. Each Investor Profile was personalized to the participant, so it was important the participant name would show through the window envelope to help ensure mailing accuracy. The result was a spiral-bound booklet with graduated pages to divide the information into easy sections, or chapters.

At the bottom of each spread was an arrow pointing readers to the back section that featured the Investor Profile and the QuickEnroll form for eligible non-participants. That section was also set off by a different color and a tab that extended from the booklet. We created five versions of the conversion information kit to accommodate different employee audiences: participants, no-participants, salaried employees and groups of bargaining employees.

Web

In addition to print communications, we carried the campaign design to the JPMorgan participant Web site. We created a custom URL that would be relevant to employees.