Pensions
Big and short lessons in engagement
Gareth Stears, pensions technical consultant at Aries Insight , presents a way to explain complex pension concepts simply
O ne of the pensions industry’s major challenges is making people think more about their retirement provision. Part of the problem is its complex, technical rules and features. I recently re-watched the 2015 film The Big Short (TBS) for the Transparency Task Force’s Film Club. The movie is a lesson in explaining difficult concepts in an engaging way. The film tells the true story of a small group of investors who bet against the US mortgage market using credit default swaps. Spoiler alert: that market does indeed tank, triggering the 2008 global financial crisis. The viewer needs to understand myriad financial terms and ideas to have any hope of keeping up with the plot. So, the filmmakers use every trick in the book to get your undivided attention and explain them to you. ● Sex – The playbook’s oldest trick and the most famous scene from the film. The narrator says: “Here’s Margot Robbie in a bubble bath to explain”. She proceeds to explain subprime mortgages and, even if for the wrong reasons, the audience are probably paying attention. ● Glamour – Even for those who aren’t attracted to Ms. Robbie, the scene is glamorous. She’s drinking champagne from a tall glass in a swanky bathroom overlooking a beach. It’s an alluring image. Robbie isn’t TBS’s only celebrity either; it boasts Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell, and Christian Bale. Film stars exist because we’re instinctively fascinated by the rich and powerful. We’re drawn to images populated by celebrities, even ones in wigs. ‘Sex’ and ‘glamour’ aren’t typically in the pension communicator’s toolbox, but we can tap into other primitive drives to grab attention. This could be the use of certain colours and tones, or utilising the element of surprise…
in TBS. If you keep people laughing, the subject matter hardly matters at all. No one wants the hilarity to end. This isn’t easy; and attempts at humour that fall flat are damaging. But if the subject of credit default swaps can be funny, so can pensions. ● Represent concepts visually – TBS explains mortgage bonds with the help of a Jenga tower. You probably know the adage: “A picture is worth a thousand words”. In the film industry, this is shortened to “Show, don’t tell.” Imagine your reader will look at your letter for two minutes max. If you can put information in a chart, or a graph, or say it with a picture, there’ll be more time left for the information you can’t. ● Asking stupid questions – Steve Carell’s character spends the film investigating the mortgage market, quizzing its loathsome merchants. His character is based on a real-life equity analyst. Carell asks questions his real-life equivalent wouldn’t; being an expert, he’d already know the answers. The Q&A format, in film and in print, is great at asking basic questions on the layman audience’s behalf. ● Story – I probably learned more about the global financial crisis from TBS than from any article, or podcast, or bitesize briefing. It’s because I like stories. Stories are about characters with goals who face obstacles and get into conflicts. It’s hard to put a story down before you find out whether the protagonist achieved their goal. If you can reshape your droning pensions missive into a conflict between two opposing characters, you’ll have more readers. Who doesn’t enjoy watching an argument from a safe distance? ● Don’t overstay your welcome – Good films arrive to the story late and leave it early. The End. n
● The Unexpected – Actors don’t normally appear in fiction films as themselves in the bath, so the cut to Margot Robbie is jarring. Surprises demand attention because they could spell danger.
...every trick in the book to get your undivided attention and explain them...
Want your members to read the chair’s statement? Send it to them carved into a stone tablet and they’ll surely give it at least a cursory glance. Budget permitting. ● Simply demand attention – Several characters talk directly down the camera at the audience. Filmmakers usually avoid this, but it’s effective for narration. It feels like direct eye contact, making it hard to turn away. Similarly, at one point Ryan Gosling’s narrator literally says “This is very important”. My ears pricked; this sounded important. The equivalent in writing is using the imperative form. These are sentences that give some sort of command e.g. ‘Pass the salt’, ‘Go away’, or ‘Attention!’. This is why some letters have sentences in bold red font saying ‘Do not throw away this letter’. You must admit, it takes willpower to throw it away. ● Be pithy – These tricks only buy the filmmakers a moment’s attention. Their explanations need to be concise, or the audience will soon switch off again. Margot Robbie neatly summarises her subprime definition with “Anytime you hear subprime, think sh*t”. For the rest of the film, that worked for me. ● Humour – This isn’t the only funny line
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 68 | March 2021
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