The ‘Tell Sid’ campaign should learn from the gambling industry
There are two common explanations for why Brits invest so much less in stocks than our US counterparts. The first is we have a risk-averse culture, so cash is king. The second is we are a poor nation, and many lack the money.
But here’s a counterpoint: gambling. By some measures, the UK has the biggest gambling industry in the world. There are 6,000 high street betting shops and 184,000 betting machines in the UK, according to figures from the Gambling Commission. The industry makes more than £15bn per year, or over £1,000 per person based on the estimated 14m active gamblers in the UK.
Gambling is expensive, high-risk and enormously popular. So why aren’t stocks? Shares go down as well as up, but they seldom drop to zero within hours, unlike betting on a horse.
Maybe it’s a corollary of the outsized importance of our sporting events: The Premier League, The Ashes, The Grand National, Wimbledon. If sport makes the biggest pub chit chat, sports betting comes a close second. Head to a bar in the US, by contrast, and portfolio pontification is all the rage.
Maybe it’s the big marketing budgets of betting firms, whose ads appear everywhere from TVs to tube trains to stadiums. Or maybe those firms are just very good at making gambling fun. Whatever it is, it can’t be explained by risk aversion or lack of money.
The government wants to get Brits back into stocks, and will revive a Thatcher-era “Tell Sid” marketing campaign, hiring WPP to work out the delivery. If it is to have any success, understanding our gambling culture must surely form part of the strategy: Brits must be convinced to pick the FTSE over the footy.
Treasury ministers point out that over a decade, a stocks and shares ISA will generate much better returns than holding cash, so it’s the sensible option.
They are right. The trouble is, we are not a sensible nation. We are a nation of bingo halls, Morris dancing and cheese rolling.
For the campaign to work, it’ll have to have cultural force. It’ll have to spark a national conversation – to make stocks talking points between pints. That is no mean feat.