Savvy the squirrel

Investing is not squirrelling. Squirrelling is the psychological opposite of investing. To squirrel away means exactly what it sounds like. You find something valuable. You hide it somewhere safe. You retrieve it later, intact. The squirrel does not speculate. It does not accept volatility in exchange for growth. It does not log into its portfolio on a bad Monday morning and find the acorn stash down 20%. The squirrel hoards. That is the entire point of the squirrel. So Savvy the Squirrel is a good idea, imperfectly named, and in urgent need of a risk disclosure

The messaging feels completely wrong. The website itself even uses the phrase ‘savings squirrelled away’ to describe safe, accessible money — yet the campaign fronted by ‘Savvy the Squirrel’ is encouraging people to invest, which involves risk and volatility. Even the imagery reinforces the wrong message, as squirrels store for short-term survival, not long-term growth. If a financial adviser used similar language or imagery to promote investing, I’d expect they’d be pulled up sharply by the FCA for potentially misleading clients. It’s surprising — and slightly disappointing — that a campaign backed by such experienced organisations has ended up with messaging that feels so off the mark.

It is great to see the government joining forces with 20 major financial firms to launch a multi-million pound campaign to encourage UK savers who have an estimated £610 billion sitting in cash, often not receiving an appropriate return.

The Savvy the Squirrel campaign is a clever play on "squirrelling away" money, with the naming of Savvy. There will be some people who are less keen on the campaign name, but prompting awareness, discussion and debate is at the heart of a good marketing campaign.

I for one am very supportive of encouraging savers to consider their options and this campaign is a step in the right direction. The key is building on this with consumer education and consumer focused activity by financial services firms.

I am all for the government encouraging people to invest and build themselves a better future but this is childish nonsense. If the government wants people to invest, it needs to reverse the fear of risk culture that has pervaded over many years. Simply encouraging people to hide a few acorns away and forget about them is way off the mark.