While winning any award is great, winning for marketing effectiveness has got to be what matters most to marketeers. After all, exceeding KPIs, historic outcomes and delivering strong ROI have got to be the ultimate arbiters of campaign success.

Better still if your marketing effectiveness win is against the biggest names and most innovative brands in financial services.

We were delighted this week, therefore, to win no less than five at the 2024 Financial Services Forum Marketing Effectiveness awards. 

- We won Gold in the Global category for our ‘Invest in the heart of everything’ Biodiversity campaign for Fidelity International. And were also Highly Commended for this in the Most Effective ESG category.
- In the Earned Media category we struck Gold for our ‘Hidden Gems’ campaign for specialist mortgage provider Together, which gained nationwide coverage by mapping and shining a light on the UK’s empty properties and the opportunities they represent.
- We were awarded a Special Judges Award for Most Effective Use of Data and Analytics for The Mortgage Lender, helping them generate coverage and leads in a crowded market.
- And were Highly Commended as Agency of the Year.

### Integration

With effectiveness invariably achieved through the scientific integration of earned, owned and paid-for media, we were also delighted to win six further awards for clients in the international MarComs awards; for Integrated Marketing (for both BUPA and Fidelity), for Advertising (Fidelity), for Media Relations (BUPA) and in both the Social and YouTube video categories. All of the work created and produced by our in-house teams.

### Competing against UK and overseas agencies

To our delight, we also struck Gold again twice last week in the New York based Gramercy Institute Asset Management awards; one in the Public Relations category for our ‘Reaching the Undeserved’ campaign for Charles Stanley, the second for Fidelity international in the Branding category for our innovative ‘Suitably Individual’ strategy, impacting on both investors and their advisers.

With budgets across the board needing to do more, it’s been a great month for being recognised independently for having delivered on the effectiveness clients most crave.

Some awards simply matter more than others

Jaguar has caused quite the fuss with its recent rebrand. It also appears to be treading a very thin line between a marketing disaster and marketing genius.

It would be fair to say the rebrand has caused a lot of outrage. But here’s the thing - a lot of the outrage has come from the exact demographic that Jaguar can no longer afford to focus its brand on. I’ve seen it covered across major national news outlets, furiously debated on every social platform I use, and Elon Musk is asking them questions on X, formerly Twitter. Someone has even gone as far as setting up a petition to get Jaguar to revert to its original branding (yes, really). At the time of writing this, the video Jaguar posted has over 23 million views on X alone, which is quite incredible in little over 24 hours. But it does beg the question - is it good marketing?

A lot of people on social media will very aggressively tell you that it isn’t, but I disagree. I’ve always disliked phrases such as “all publicity is good publicity” and “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” Anyone that’s ever worked on some form of crisis will very swiftly tell you those phrases are untrue. However, in some cases such as this one, a not-too-dissimilar approach can be effective. I say this because everyone is talking about the brand before they’ve even seen a glimpse of the product. If you are selling a product, then of course you don’t want to alienate or thoroughly wind up your audience. But as of now, we are yet to see an actual car - so this advert is about brand positioning as opposed to selling, and has massively increased anticipation for when it’s launched.

Millions of people are going to be paying attention to the new product. 

Personally, I don’t love the video; it’s full of buzzwords, uncharacteristic visuals and new branding that isn’t ‘very Jag.’ But it’s not meant to be, that’s the point. Jaguar has tried to reinvent itself before, and has always played on its heritage, whilst trying to be the British answer to the BMW. 

Sales figures will tell you this just hasn’t worked with only 67,000 vehicles sold last year and sales of new cars now coming to a halt. This begs the question of why would you continue down the same, unsuccessful path? After all, stupidity can be defined by doing the same things over and over again but expecting different results. 

Jaguar has found itself in need to make a bold move and if you are going to reinvent your brand, why not go all out? Especially when you have the financial backing of a group such as Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) behind you. 

I don’t like marketing strategies or campaigns that cause controversy solely for the sake of controversy, or purely to gain cheap engagement. But I don’t believe this is what Jaguar has done. It has done something completely new for the brand, attracted a lot of attention, and ensured many more pairs of eyes will be on its new products when they are revealed.  

It’s brave, it’s ambitious and it’s a little bit insane. To be clear - it could also be a catastrophic failure. But I have full admiration for utilising this strategy and getting so many people talking about it. 

It’s been really interesting to see the differing views of others in the marketing and PR industry. It’s easy to get caught up in marketing tropes and cliches, and it's always going to irk people when, after being told to “push the boundaries,” you actually do. But to kick up such a stir before a product has even been revealed, it’s safe to say that if I was behind it I’d be heading to the pub to celebrate a job well done.

Jaguar’s recent rebrand has caused quite the stir in the office this week. The PR team’s Joe Hirst shares his take on the heritage brand making bold moves

Jaguar - marketing disaster, or stroke of genius?

For those of us London commuters the phrase ‘Mind the Gap’ is ubiquitous in our lives, a reminder to observe the gap between train and platform. Nobody can argue that this isn’t good advice. But does this advice still apply to other areas of our working lives? 

The Fawcett Society has been tracking the gender pay gap since 2013, and Equal Pay Day marks the day each year where women will effectively stop being paid for the work they do compared to men. This year’s Equal Pay day is two days earlier - 20th November -  than in 2023, and is disappointingly the first time that the pay gap has widened since the Fawcett Society began tracking. This calls into question the impact that efforts to reduce the gap are having in reality. 

Mandatory gender pay gap reporting has been in effect for large companies since 2017. Each company is required to make public their gender pay gap and while many companies have been transparent, there are large gaps to overcome. It's clear and understandable that efforts to close the gap, like growing and developing senior women, require time to bear fruit, but there is simply no excuse for the gap to be widening in 2024.

With the knock-on-impact that the gender pay gap has on women’s ability to save, invest and put money away into their pensions (Scottish Widows found that women retire with £100K less than men), this is an issue that we should all care about, no matter our gender. 

At Teamspirit, we’re lucky to work at a business that not only chooses to report on its gender pay gap, but also one that doesn’t have a gender pay gap at all. 

With a new female Chancellor in position, and the last general election seeing the most women elected as MPs ever, there are encouraging signs that progress is being made. As we head into the new Year, we do so with a fresh challenge to reduce the gender pay gap once again. So back to my Mind the Gap metaphor; is it enough to simply ask companies to track their gender pay gap? Should we still be standing back and just minding the gap, or does more action need to be taken?

## Sources:

[https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/news/equal-pay-day-2024-will-be-20th-november](https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/news/equal-pay-day-2024-will-be-20th-november)
[https://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/about-us/media-centre/reports/women-retirement-report.html](https://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/about-us/media-centre/reports/women-retirement-report.html)


The Gender Pay Gap has widened for the first time in since 2013 calling into question whether efforts to reach pay parity are working. With knock-on-effects to women’s ability to save, invest and prepare for retirement, does more action need to be taken?

Let’s not JUST Mind the Gap anymore 

For those of us that work in the financial services world, government budgets are arguably the biggest annual event in the calendar and yesterday was certainly no different. The first budget delivered by a Labour Chancellor after 14-years of Conservative-rule was always going to garner a huge amount of media speculation, and the decision by the government to delay the first fiscal statement for nearly four months left ample time for rumours to run wild. 

This decision, coupled with Reeves’ announcement ahead of time that there was a £22bn sized hole in the nation’s pockets only added to the media speculation, with articles galore on what taxes were set to be increased and who was set to bear the brunt of the hole plugging. 

All of this meant lots of work for us, journalists were especially hungry for stories, analysis and opinions ahead of this year's budget and considerable work was done by the team in the lead up, ensuring our clients were featured prominently in these discussions and those covering the budget were lined up to receive commentary on the day. 

Our morning started like any other, with the whole PR team huddled around the high table absorbing the last of the headlines. Come 12:30, Reeves was standing at the dispatch box and poised to put months of speculation to bed. She spoke for just over an hour, and in doing so became the first female Chancellor to ever deliver a budget statement. A historic moment that should be celebrated by all regardless of broader political persuasions.  

In the end, we got pretty much what was anticipated, a variety of tax rises worth a whopping £40bn, aimed primarily at the nation's businesses, alongside greater levels of investment into public services with the NHS coming out as a main beneficiary.

Consumers were largely spared of the ‘scarier’ rumours being toted such as changes to the tax-free pensions lump sum or the annual ISA allowance. 

Whilst the frenzied activity of PRs and journalists during the statement itself is over, so begins the post-budget era where the media begins to dissect the budget in a surgical fashion, working out what it all means for their readers with insightful views, and number crunching, from across the financial services industry. 

And how did the PR team stack up?  

- In total the PR team __distributed 43 comments__ from our clients during the budget, generating over a thousand pieces of coverage across national, consumer, regional and trade publications.

- For those of you who read our [pre-budget blog](https://www.teamspirit.co.uk/news-insights/marking-the-autumn-budget-bingo-card), I am also pleased to report our own Ellie, went 3 / 5 on budget day bingo. Had the Chancellor spoken for 21 minutes less and opted for a cup of tea over water then the full house would have been secured! An admirable effort, better luck next time, Ellie.

Catch you all for the craziness next time.


- Pieces of coverage: 1,000+
- Number of comments distributed from clients: 43
- Cups of tea: Infinite

Big shout out to our fabulous PR team for working tirelessly on another BUMPER Autumn Budget. Click here to read our reflections from the day

Reflections on a Bumper Autumn Budget

Critical illness is not traditionally the easiest category to gain positive awareness for in consumer media.

But our work for AIG Life was recently recognized for doing just this, winning gold in the PR and Brand Storytelling category at the Marketing Week Masters awards.

Beating shortlisted entries from Lego, Vodafone, Greenpeace and the Roald Dahl Foundation, our winning campaign told the story of Max, a toddler who was
diagnosed at birth as being profoundly deaf. Protected by AIG Life, Max’s parents received a no quibble pay out for their claim, allowing them to give Max the care and quality of life he – and his family - needed.

An innovative content and PR strategy led to interviews on ITV’s Lorraine, BBC and ITV news, sending the story viral.  Well over 200,000 views were achieved across YouTube, national media, Facebook and Twitter. Cover magazine described the activity as ‘a communications vision for the industry’.

Critical illness is not traditionally the easiest category to gain positive awareness for in consumer media. But our work for AIG Life was recently recognized for doing just this...

‘Max’s Story’ wins Marketing Week Masters

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Wed 27 Nov 2024

Some awards simply matter more than others

Thu 21 Nov 2024

Jaguar - marketing disaster, or stroke of genius?

Wed 20 Nov 2024

Let’s not JUST Mind the Gap anymore

Thu 31 Oct 2024

Reflections on a Bumper Autumn Budget