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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has won Campaign of the Month with their Workplace Pension campaign and partnership with Gogglebox. The Workplace Pension campaign supports the Government’s policy to automatically enrol employees into a workplace pension to tackle a culture of under-saving for retirement in the UK.

In 2012 the Government introduced a statutory requirement for employers to automatically enrol their eligible employees into a workplace pension to tackle a culture of under-saving for retirement in the UK.

To support the second increase in contribution levels and the Year of Marketing, DWP aimed to start a national conversation amongst influencers their audience could relate to.

A media partnership was selected with Gogglebox, Channel 4’s reality TV programme featuring a number of British families and groups of friends who react to television programmes from their own homes. Results showed that people who watched the launch ad were more likely to think about their own situation regarding pensions (27% vs 21%) and want to speak to friends and family about pensions (10% vs 4%).

Objectives:

Reduce the risk of an increase in opt-out rates by continuing to promote the benefits of workplace pension savings and through personal and social norming.

Audience:

Eligible workers in the UK ages 22 – 65.

DWP know from research that their campaign activity has established a strong level of awareness of the benefits of the workplace pension saving. To build on this they needed to increase understanding that saving into a workplace pension was the normal thing to do.

Strategy:

Start a national conversation through trusted influencers who the audience can relate to. This ‘people like me’ approach has proven powerful, especially against the backdrop of declining trust in institutions.

Having considered several options, DWP entered into a media partnership with Channel 4 and Gogglebox. Gogglebox is a hugely popular reality TV programme, with over 5 million viewers and features British families and groups of friends who react when watching television programmes from their own homes. This allowed us to deliver relevant messages to a mass audience from some of the most famous sofas in Britain.

Implementation:

DWP selected four Gogglebox families with various backgrounds, who have a broad national appeal and a strong social media presence, to convey their messages. DWP only provided background briefing and context, to ensure they captured normal and unscripted conversation.

DWP had one chance to shoot the footage with the families, as cameras are in fixed locations in their living rooms. They were delighted with the outcome and as a result produced 11 ads:

• A two-minute version, shown in our launch spot during Gogglebox on 22 March, ahead of the second increase in contributions:

• two thirty second ads shown on Channel 4 during April and May;
• Eight 15-25 second snippets of additional content for use on social media.

DWP secured support from targeted stakeholders to extend the reach of our partnership, helping to generate maximum coverage and conversation. This included working closely with other government departments, Ministers, pensions stakeholders and celebrity ambassadors.

Scoring:

Research showed that people who watched our launch ad were more likely to:

• think about their own situation regarding pensions (31% vs 23%);
• think that most people had a workplace pension (23% vs 18%);
• say it stood out from other government advertising (30% vs 23%);
• want to speak to friends and family about pensions (16% vs 4%).

Paid social media:

• Instagram: 745k views;
• Twitter: 2m views;
• Owned social media;
• Facebook: 46k views;
• Twitter: 79k views.

Earned social media:

Retweets and shares by influencers and industry stakeholder engagement has given us an additional potential online reach of over 1 million people

The team behind the campaign:

• Caroline Woodbridge – Head of Pensions Campaigns, DWP
• Mary Hennessy – Head of Automatic Enrolment marketing, DWP
• Peter Riordan – Senior Campaign Manager, DWP
• Madeleine Scarlett-Smith – Senior Campaign Manager, DWP
• Richard Kasali – Campaign Manager, DWP
• Pete Bowles – Campaign Manager, DWP
• Sarah East – Campaign Manager, DWP