CFP's spring advertising campaign focuses on retirement planning

If you watch TV between now and Memorial Day, you may see an advertisement featuring a senior couple turning to a certified financial planner for help with managing their retirement finances.

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. launched another round of advertising on Monday in a multi-million-dollar public awareness campaign that has been ongoing for a decade.

The organization, which grants the CFP credential, will run TV ads on ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, the Golf Channel, ESPN and the Food Network, among other outlets, through May 30.

“For 2021, as in most years, our primary advertising and communications efforts focus on the spring tax season, when finances are top of mind among most consumers,” the CFP Board said in a statement.

The CFP Board has spent $10 million each year on the campaign since its launch in 2011. The campaign is funded by an additional $12 per month that is added to the annual CFP certification fee.  

In this spring’s campaign, the ads will revolve around the characters “Cal & Val,” who are meeting with a financial planner. They are one of five characters who have appeared in the ads since 2018, including “Jen & Maya,” a lesbian couple.

The CFP Board said retirement planning is featured in this spring’s ads because the theme resonates with its target audience of people between the ages of 35 to 64 with investable assets between $100,000 and $1 million and a household income of at least $100,000 who are the primary financial decision-makers in their families.

In addition to the television ads, the campaign includes streaming video on Hulu, Roku and Apple TV, among other platforms, and radio ads that will air on National Public Radio between April 19 and May 28. Online and social media ads will continue throughout the year.

The ads are designed to encourage viewers to visit the CFP Board’s consumer website, LetsMakeAPlan.org, where they can search for a CFP professional. The site was redesigned last December to focus on how clients pay for a financial planner. A year ago, the organization removed compensation descriptions from the site.

The CFP Board sets and enforces the competency and ethical standards associated with the mark, which is held by approximately 88,000 financial professionals in the United States.

Editor's note: This story was clarified regarding the funding mechanism for the CFP Board's awareness campaign.