Your attention please!

One year we’re creating a rap about pensions with Big Zuu, the next we’re bringing back Mallett’s Mallet! It’s never quiet for long at TS towers and last month saw us come back for year two of the industry-led Pension Attention campaign alongside the ABI and PLSA. After months of planning and tireless work across our integrated team, it was brilliant to see our work with Timmy Mallett, an iconic and much-loved 80s and 90s TV presenter, all come together and land with a splash across press, digital, social and out-of-home as we called on the UK to take an Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny look at their pension with ‘The Pensions Playback’.

Working with Timmy Mallett was a joy and while I’m a tad young to have watched his primetime shows in my childhood, I certainly understand how our target audience for this campaign are so taken by him.

On our shoot day he enlisted Mallett’s Mallet and Pinky Punky to take contestants back to the 80s and 90s so they didn’t feel so “Bleugh” about their pensions. With this nostalgic take, we were able to encourage people to look back to yesterday and uncover their ‘lost’ pensions to maximise their future. It sounds simple, and it really is, but so many people just aren’t claiming them. In fact, the DWP estimates there will be 50 million dormant and lost pension pots by 2050. And with the average person having 11 jobs in their lifetime, it’s never too soon to get on top of it.

In the run up to launch, the team worked to build the assets for launch day. This included the Pension Attention landing page, the out-of-home advertising, the social clips and all the assets for PR. This meant when it came to launch day we had a wealth of content to amplify the PR as we hit go on our media day with Timmy to get the nation talking and taking action. We had pitched away in the week running up to launch and landed a packed-out schedule with Timmy conducting interviews across many major national publications and radio stations (we also quickly learnt we have a lot of Timmy fan boys and girls in the media!).

These articles have all since been landing and we’ve already reached over 52 million people with the coverage. Hits have been secured in core nationals such as the Mail Online, The Express, The Sun, Evening Standard and This is Money and we still having a bunch of articles in the pipeline! We’ve also heard Timmy across the airwaves and TV and been so heartened to hear him bring his own personal experience to the campaign, talking about all the jobs he’s had and the importance of tracking down those pensions. He was a real pro and so seamlessly mixed our messaging with titbits of local knowledge for radio stations, 80s trivia and chats about his own passions including biking and painting.

While the pitching certainly doesn’t stop here, it’s been a great start to year two of Pension Attention and we look forward to continuing to bang the drum over the coming weeks and months.