For the second year in a row, industry super fund GESB picked up a gong for its member campaigns at the 2009 Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) Communications Awards handed out yesterday in Sydney.

GESB won the integrated campaign of the year award for its online and offline 'Some worry about the economy, others get good advice' campaign. Awards host Tracey Spicer congratulated GESB for making superannuation easy to understand in a difficult time.

Last year, GESB won the excellence award in the Member Marketing or Education Communication category for its 'Feed Your Super' business-to-business campaign.

This year there were 54 entries in eight categories

The overall Excellence in Member Communication award was the most hotly contested and was jointly won by three funds: Russell Investments for its Russell SuperSolution annual member statement, QSuper for its 'Age 50' lifestyle trigger campaign and the Auscoal Superannuation Fund for 'Your insurance is changing for the better' campaign.

All winners highlighted a focus on segmentation being as being a priority in the campaigns.

IOOF came up trumps in the product disclosure statement (PDS) of the year category for its PDS suite which has reduced the often overly-long documents from 80 down to 30 pages.

ASFA chief executive Pauline Vamos said that super funds needed to focus on making their brands resilient and promote an emotional connection with members.

"It's all about simplicity getting the right message across but not dumbing it down," Vamos said.