Videos Power Urban and Rural Financial Education Solutions

Retirement plan provider ICMA-RC is continuing to add to its long history of accolades for financial education initiatives, securing over twenty awards in 2013 alone on the heels of the success of its video campaign that highlights the importance of saving throughout the life course.  The video campaign received top honors in the 2013 Aurora Awards, which is an international video competition in which ICMA-RC received the Gold Award for three videos: “Save and Invest Smart,” “Why Your 457 Plan Matters,” and “Guided Pathways.”

The achievements of ICMA-RC in financial literacy through videos represent just the latest in a fast-growing movement to develop and distribute financial education content through multimedia channels in an effort to reach the broadest and most diversified populations. As we are in the video age, and as increasing numbers of individuals in both developed and developing nations are accessing content through digital communications channels, financial education videos are becoming a widely available and extensively accessed educational tool.

YouTube and other video platforms are a primary source of videos available for those seeking financial education.  At the same time, however, individual organizations and corporations also are taking the lead in hosting and disseminating video content aimed at enhancing financial literacy.  ICMA-RC’s success in this area is driven in part by its use of innovative content, graphics and messaging – and industry professionals are taking notice.

One of the most widely discussed benefits of video content is its ease of use on mobile devices among both city and rural populations.  This has helped narrow the gap in the availability of financial literacy tools between urban and rural areas as historically there has been greater availability of information, tools and resources for city populations, where access to the Internet and use of mobile devices was more widespread.  However, as more rural populations are gaining access to web resources and mobile devices, and as video remains a fast-growing medium in such channels, financial literacy professionals anticipate that videos will be a major force in financial education in the months and years to come.