Hold on to your hats. Here we go…

Nineteen months after many of you gave your smart input in a packed room in San Antonio, we’re getting ready to launch an all-out educational blitz in the cities of Philadelphia, Denver and Seattle that’s designed to get consumers and the media to take a new look at the reverse mortgage. Why? Because less than 1 percent of eligible consumers are taking advantage of this great product and most people don’t understand it, or have significant misperceptions about it. We’re planning to change all that with our campaign, “A Smart Choice,” which is going to start airing in June in three pilot markets.

So how did we get here? It took dedication and countless hours from a committee of marketing executives, the generous financial support of the six largest lenders, and the expertise of an advertising agency, a media buying firm, a research organization, a fulfillment company and a PR firm. Now it’s time for all the hard work to finally pay off. Beginning the second week of June and continuing through Labor Day, hundreds of thousands of people within a 50-mile radius of these metropolitan areas will learn about the “new reverse mortgage.” They’ll discover how it may be a smart, safe way to fund retirement and learn how it may help them live the life they’ve earned.

The message will be delivered via a diverse set of tools:

Our television commercial, entitled “A Smart Choice,” will run for 13 weeks in each market. It’s not like any other reverse mortgage commercial you’ve seen. It doesn’t dwell on product details. Instead, it’s aspirational. In both 60- and 30-second versions, it follows the life journey of a male boomer and the smart choices he makes along the way—the right education, the right wife, the right home.

The commercial will be complemented by weekly half-page print ads in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Denver Post and Seattle Times, featuring our same boomer. “Retire Smart,” the headline tells you. “Discover why more people are using the new reverse mortgage to help reach their retirement goals.”

All of the ads will direct interested consumers to the brand-new website newreversemortgtage.org, where visitors will find an explanation of how the reverse mortgage is now an even better product than before, as well as specific examples of how borrowers are utilizing it in their retirement plans to extend the life of their assets and be confident they can afford the balance of life. Some of this is explained by satisfied borrowers in video testimonials.

While the media is up and running, we’ll have boots on the ground in all three towns, educating local residents, community thought leaders (such as financial planners, gerontologists and academicians) and the local press about the value of a reverse mortgage as a retirement planning tool, and all the available research from distinguished institutions that provides evidence of the potential results.

To evaluate our progress, we’ll be surveying 250 local residents in each city, both before our campaign begins and at its conclusion, to determine how awareness and understanding of the new reverse mortgage have changed during our three months of testing.

Based on these results, we’ll regroup in time for NRMLA’s Annual Meeting in November and make plans to expand this campaign into a nationwide educational effort to build volume in your market.

In the interim, if you live in Philadelphia, Denver or Seattle, you can help us by participating in sessions and webinars to help you prepare to deliver our message to your potential clients. Keep an eye on NRMLA’s Weekly Report for times and locations of these sessions. Even if you don’t live and work in these markets, familiarizing yourself with the information we are providing to the public will help you start spreading the message and laying the groundwork for our national effort.