The worlds of grime music and pensions collided last year in a major departure from traditional attempts to engage people with planning for their retirement.
Most people don’t take pensions seriously, which is why the majority struggle to find their pension information and only one in five are confident that they are saving enough for their retirement. Recognising that a step change is needed to raise the levels of engagement around pensions, industry bodies ABI and PLSA worked with Teamspirit to come up with a bold new approach.
A campaign was devised that deliberately ignored the traditional ‘expert’ spokesperson and instead went for larger-than-life rapper and TV chef Big Zuu to front the campaign.
Launched last September, the campaign focused on creating content to catch attention – with Big Zuu writing, producing and recording a song about pensions engagement. The decision to think outside the box and use a BAFTA-winning TV chef and grime artist to urge the public to, in the words of his song, Pay Your Pension Some Attention, paid off.
The unlikely choice of campaign spokesperson helped generate 150 pieces of media coverage, including having the Big Zuu music video feature on ITV News, a full-page feature in The i, features in consumer magazines, as well as coverage in trade and regional titles. The publicity helped drive social engagement, with more than 2.3 million views of the video. And, despite a modest paid-for media budget of £180,000, the campaign managed to achieve a 19 per cent recall and reach 12.7 million people.
Some 2.65 million UK employees engaged with their pension as a result of the campaign.
Judge’s comment
“Bringing grime to the pensions party was a great way of underlining the importance of long-term saving. And what a bang it made…”
Highly commended
‘Securing the right to rent with pets: Making one health housing a reality’, by PLMR with the National Office of Animal Health (NOAH)
Engagement with key politicians and officials, including providing data to inform policy, resulted in the Government announcing, last summer, plans to give tenants a statutory right to request a pet in their home. Under the plans, part of wider reforms of the Tenant Fees Act 2019, landlords will be allowed to charge tenants for pet damage insurance. This will make it easier for them to accept tenants with pets.
Shortlisted
‘PR and influencing campaign’ by LTE Group
‘Russian war crimes house’ by FINN with Victor Pinchuk Foundation
