How can we rebrand pensions?
Felicity Morgan
Freelance plain English pension copywriter and editor, on a mission to make pensions and benefits more fun. And craft beer fan.
Pensions can make a massive difference to your quality of life, but they have an image problem. People think they're boring and confusing, and don't want to engage with them. What could we do to make people sit up and take notice of their pensions?
Celebrity pensions?
People love celebrities. Brands cash in on this by paying celebrities to advertise their products.
What if there was a Celebrity Pensions magazine with its own social media channels? Spotlight on Rita Ora's investment strategy! Joe Wicks tells us why he's upping his pension contributions! Claudia Winkelman reveals her expression of wish form! Idris Elba gets a State pension forecast!
You can bet the number of people taking an interest in their pension would skyrocket. Is this just a silly dream?
Meerkat power
Insurance isn't any more interesting than pensions, but comparison site Compare the Market has something pensions don't have – Aleksandr Orlov and his friends.
The agency that created 'Compare the Meerkat' pulled off the advertising coup of the decade, based on a terrible pun and an advert that looked like a children's TV programme. Compare the Market's share of the insurance market ballooned as a result, and the meerkats have taken on a life of their own with merchandise and film deals.
Pensions need their own meerkats. How about it, ad agencies?
Goody goody yum yum
Mobile phone contracts aren’t interesting either. So Giffgaff call their phone contracts 'goodybags', with all the exciting and slightly naughty connotations of sweets and other lovely things. (I am not affiliated with Giffgaff. I just think whoever thought of calling phone contracts ‘goodybags’ is a genius.)
What if we called pensions something a bit more delicious? Scrumptious savings? Future happiness fund?
Lessons from the social media garden
Remember when gardening was boring and something old people did? Not any more. There's an explosion of young influencers sharing their gardening activities on social media. It's the same with sewing - young 'sewists' are all over social media, showing off their creations and sharing their patterns and techniques. We even have a TV programme called 'The Great British Sewing Bee'.
Yes, there's a broader social trend here: young people rejecting 'throwaway' culture, including junk food and fast fashion, and embracing a more sustainable 'slow' culture with its 'grow your own' and 'make do and mend' ethos. But it also shows the power of social media to influence perceptions.
It’s a bit harder to share pictures of your pension on Instagram, but what about pictures of the kind of things we want to do when we retire? Travelling? Windsurfing? Extreme ironing? With hashtags like #futurefun or #extremeretirement?
Thinking outside the bucket
Here's another thing people share on social media: their 'bucket list' of things to and places to visit before they die. How about positioning pensions as a way to fund your bucket list in future? Building a better bucket? Or even a whole sandcastle? #bucketlistbank
Love your pension
The Pensions Advisory Service have got this right. Their website says 'We love pensions and the difference they make to people's lives'.
Let's give pensions some love! The more attention we pay to them now, the more they'll pay us back for it in the future.
I'm planning to practise what I preach. As lockdown continues I'll be going on my own pension adventure which you can follow on my blog at https://www.felicitymorganwriter.com/ #pensionadventure #loveyourpension
Head Of Communications at Lane Clark & Peacock
4 年I absolutely agree, Felicity. There's no such thing as a dry subject - only dry content. I'm looking forward to reading more of your pension adventures.
I help people understand complicated finance stuff.
4 年Great point Felicity, completely agree! I set up a blog/Insta to talk about this because I was shocked by how many of my friends had opted out of their pension. All they knew was that paying into their pension meant loosing some of their monthly income, which, when you’ve just moved to London on a grad salary isn’t appealing! People need to do a better job of explaining what you’re getting in return for those contributions (i.e. free money from the government and your employer). And providers need to do a better job of making pensions accessible - having to recite Shakespeare to access my online pension portal is a chore compared to opening an app by just looking at my phone! Investing is cool, whilst pensions remain boring - yet pensions are the best form of investment you can make! It just needs to be reframed.
Motion Designer, Creative Licence
4 年Excellent observations Felicity, very inspiring! I’ll be following the blog
Optimising occupational pensions for sponsors, schemes and members
4 年Thanks for sharing, Felicity. I would love to see more engagement with pensions - I am forever posting about it. What I do find is that, more often than not, when people do engage with their pension, the product itself can be a letdown. So perhaps we need a two-pronged approach - the products themselves and engagement? What do you think? (Also, I would be very interested in seeing what Rita Ora's investment strategy is, if she has one!)