The "Welcome to Your Retirement" Television Campaign

Kirk MacGibbon

When the series of television mini-documentaries, produced as part of the Office of the Retirement Commissioner’s public education programme, finished on 1 October 1996 more than two million people had seen at least one of the three-minute “documentaries” and more than 130,000 copies of the booklet “Welcome to Your Retirement” had been distributed. For all those involved it was a success.

This paper begins by looking at a short history of income policies in New Zealand, including the recommendations of the “Todd Task Force” (which resulted in the establishment of the Office of Retirement Commissioner) and the Multi-Party Accord on Retirement Income Policies.

The paper then discusses the public education and information campaign, why it was developed, its objectives, its goals, and the evaluation measures used to gauge its success. It then considers the advantages and disadvantages in using such a campaign, and prospects for the future.

It concludes that the advantages of using television advertising to achieve government objectives far outweigh the disadvantages, and that various indicators show that the programme had a positive impact on retirement savings attitudes and behaviour, which was the original objective.