The Investing and Saving Alliance (TISA), the UK’s cross-industry financial services membership body, has announced the winners of its Savings Culture Marketing Competition for university students, a pilot initiative aimed at strengthening the UK’s savings culture through technology-driven solutions.
The winning team from King’s College London, “The Saviours”, proposed a new mobile application which gamifies saving by presenting the player with rewards for good financial habits, emphasising the benefits of saving for the future. The application idea builds on the existing success of gamification in improving savings culture, allowing users to construct a virtual house from real time savings, and purchase virtual objects such as a new sofa or television.
This will encourage users to save more consistently, with a clearly visualised incentive. The judges felt that their proposal had real potential to change the nature of the conversation and bring fun and energy to the subject of making money work for people.
The competition was judged by TISA and its participating members: Aviva, Aberdeen Standard, Janus Henderson, KMPG, Santander Asset Management, St. James’s Place Wealth Management, Columbia Threadneedle, Orbis Investments, Quilter, Sanlam, and Smarterly.
UK savings culture
The goal of the Savings Culture Marketing Competition is to help improve the UK’s savings culture, especially amongst younger generations. TISA and the members participating in this initiative are concerned about Britain’s low levels of savings and the impact this will have on the future wellbeing of individuals, families, our society and our economy. Statistics show that, shockingly, 30% of UK households have no savings at all, and 20% of the population is spending more than they earn.
The competition
The competition comprised of three stages. The first stage - The Ideas Rave Event - took place on 17th February 2020 at Aviva’s Digital Garage. Shortlisted teams then had a month to prepare their proposal before final judging of the submissions. Winners of the competition were announced on 21 April and both they and the second placed team will be offered work experience at the member firms supporting the competition.
Stephen Gay, Policy Team Manager, TISA, said: “'The reducing savings ratio is a significant concern for the wellbeing of our society, increasing the vulnerability of households to adversity. We believe that working with young people who have time on their side to address their long term savings challenges, and a instinctive understanding of effective communications in the digital age, will open up opportunities to improve the UK savings culture.
“We were thrilled with the response we received from the students, who came up with creative ways to encourage younger generations to save. This event surpassed all of our expectations and we are already looking forward to next year’s competition.”
Julie Green, Future Innovation and Digital Director, Aviva, said: “Aviva feels proud to have been at the forefront of such an important initiative, focused on improving the savings culture for younger people, which is a key societal issue. It was a pleasure to support the initiative, and also to be able to give the university teams an opportunity to experience a workplace environment by hosting the first round of the competition at the Aviva Digital Garage. The students used their advantage of insight into young minds to develop creative and innovative ideas, with a fresh perspective and in a way that will engage other young people. Congratulations to the winning team, the Saviours! We look forward to hosting you again during your work experience.”
Justus Klose, competition winner, King’s College London, said: “Our team is super grateful to have been given the amazing opportunity to try and find a possible solution to a such an omnipresent financial concern for our facing generation. Had it not been for your initiative to challenge us to think laterally, our creative take on the savings’ crisis would not have developed in such a refined way. This competition gave us the unique opportunity to meet inspiring individuals, improve our critical thinking skills and focus on solving a major generational issue. Finally, we are sure that it will be incredibly rewarding to further develop and refine our idea with the guidance of Marketing Directors we will meet!”
TISA invited students from five universities to participate in the competition to propose a solution to the UK’s savings crisis. The participating universities were Birmingham University, Roehampton University, St Mary’s University, King’s College London, and Southampton University.