Pension Power-up
Times Money Mentor
With a pension savings crisis in the UK, the aim was to help people supercharge their retirement savings and reach those not engaged at all with their pensions. Currently, 74% of us are not saving enough to maintain our current lifestyle in later life.
But there are clear actions almost anyone can take to significantly improve their retirement, showing that current educational methods and press campaigns are not reaching and engaging people.
PPU set out to change that, launching across social media, digital, print and radio.
The question was how to change the narrative around pensions: it often focuses on the huge sums needed to retire comfortably, leaving people feeling intimidated and disempowered - 58% of us report low confidence in our knowledge of pensions. Well-meaning pension campaigns often trot out the same savings principles and don't factor in that life is complicated and messy.
PPU's key message was: this is what you can do now to boost your later life savings - no matter your age or what finances you currently have available - and this is how to check you’re on the right track.
We created a battery character in a Super-Mario-style world aimed to draw people in and show them it's a process where simple actions can lead you through to success.
Every week, a specially-crafted newsletter guided 100k subscribers through key topics such as how to save more without feeling the pinch, picking smarter investing choices, cutting fees, finding lost pots and boosting your state pension.
This was combined with social proof, showing real people aged 31 to 65 doing the course and the impact on their pensions. Influencers Katie and Harriet followed the course to tackle the impact of self-employment and motherhood on their pension savings, and posted a video diary to their 200k followers. James was starting saving in his 40s, Steve had fallen into the 60% pension tax trap and Gillian at age 65 did not have a pension.
A print supplement in the Saturday Times told all their stories, showing that, collectively, they were able to boost their pension savings by a potential £1.5m. PPU increased subscribers by 9% over 7 weeks, drove tens of thousands of extra site views, achieved a total social media reach of 300,000, appeared on national radio and gained a partnership deal with a financial provider, feeding into a wider Times campaign that reached 1m in print and 270k social video views.
A landing hub was created to showcase all elements of PPU - case studies’ stories, the video diaries and all four newsletters - so that new readers late to the campaign could catch up in their own time. www.thetimes.com/money-mentor/pension-power-up/