Verity Financial Marketing and newfocus Research have launched a breakthrough study that will attempt to measure effectiveness of super fund marketing campaigns.

The research has been designed by Bruce Stafford, former marketing manager at QIC and Hesta Super, but now principal of Verity who will partner with newfocus through a joint venture.

"In 10 years of financial services marketing, two things always frustrated me about the market research I received', said Stafford, director of Verity Financial Marketing.

Stafford said the study will try to address the major problem confronted by super fund marketing leaders: that there is only minimal information about peer funds thus making comparisons and campaign benchmarking extremely difficult.

"I only ever received meaningful information on my fund and not my peer or competitor funds. This meant I had to make strategic marketing decisions without knowing exactly where I stood compared to other funds. Effectively, I had to try to solve the puzzle using only half the pieces.

"Secondly, I was relying on one or two key marketing metrics, like Net Promoter Score and member satisfaction, each taken at different points in time, to guide my decision-making," he said.

Verity and newfocus claim the study, to be called Ultimate Super Marketing Metrics, is one of the largest ever studies of super fund marketing and will enable funds to track their position and progress against other funds. It will cover industry, retail, government and corporate super funds.

Newfocus Research will manage the delivery of the program from survey design and interviews through to statistical analysis and report generation. Verity Financial Marketing will provide the strategic marketing and branding services to the financial services sector using the study's results.