Critique of Digital Ad & LP
Edelman Financial Services
Note: The ad and LP are no longer available. But the purpose for sharing this is to demonstrate how imperative it is to use ALL of the proper ingredients, in order to create a delicious recipe.
The campaign for this live seminar was already running when I joined the firm.
My supervisor, VP brand & creative services, asked me to take a look at a few elements and give him my thoughts.
This is my critique of an ad and LP for the live seminar, The Road Trip, with my thoughts on how the visual feels like it doesn't properly align with the copy and is, therefore, creating a disconnect.
The name of the seminar is 'Road Trip! Successfully Navigating Your Journey to Retirement.'
The message is that preparing for retirement is like a journey, implying a long distance. However, the images of an older man and woman in the car indicate more of a 'sprint,' instead of a journey.
It felt to me that a younger, happy couple should be used, implying they're starting their long journey toward retirement, with proper planning, saving, and investing while they're much younger... so they'll be able to retire in comfort & style in 20 years or so.
Take Away: Get crystal clear on the persona for the target audience. Then devise a strategy that will speak to them, specifically. Next, ENSURE the images/graphics support the messaging, rather than fight with it, and causing a disconnect.
Rather than making the necessary changes, the seminar was quickly replaced with the 'free retirement review' campaign,' which generated $67M AUM for the firm, during a 6-month campaign.