Helping Pro Athletes Navigate Workplace Benefits
Case Study

Helping Pro Athletes Navigate Workplace Benefits

We empowered football players to make confident decisions in a snap—through a benefits portal designed for clarity and action.

Challenge

How do you get a 20-year-old, newly affluent “gladiator” to think retirement planning and health benefits?

Professional athletes aren’t wired to think long-term—especially not about benefits. Retirement planning and health savings accounts felt like problems for “later.” And with benefits scattered across dozens of outdated websites, there was no clear path to action—and no compelling reason to start looking.

The organization needed to meet players where they were—with an experience that felt modern, relevant, and easy to act on.

Our Approach

Cloudberry used behavioral science and design thinking to create a one-stop benefits platform built around the lives and mindsets of professional football players.

Key components included:

  • Unified Benefits Portal: A secure, responsive destination where players could explore all their benefits in one place—confidentially and without hassle.
  • Plain-Language, Visual Storytelling: Complex topics like vesting, compounding, and plan types were explained through simple metaphors, relatable examples, and clear visuals that made key concepts stick.
  • Guided Tools & Interactions: Calculators and walkthroughs helped players actively engage with their options—removing guesswork and building confidence.
  • Behavioral Design at the Core: The experience used progressive disclosure, strong defaults, and clear calls to action to reduce friction and keep players moving forward.
  • Humor-Led Campaign Launch: A lighthearted campaign featuring football legends helped break the ice and drive traffic—positioning the platform as something worth paying attention to.
Behavioral Bias In Action
Choice Overload

Faced with many options and no clear starting point, most players did nothing. We used progressive disclosure, defaults, and visual decision aids to break decisions into simpler, more manageable steps.

Outcomes

  • 95% online enrollment among eligible rookies in the first year
  • Recognized with the 2020 PSCA Signature Award and Pensions & Investments Eddy Award
  • Delivered a consistent, branded experience across both digital and print touch points

Why Cloudberry

Most benefits platforms are built for compliance, not comprehension. Cloudberry built an experience grounded in how this unique audience actually think, learn, and decide.

By combining behavioral insight with human-centered design, we helped players understand what was available, why it mattered, and how to take action—right when those decisions mattered most.

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