UK workplace pension scheme Nest is aiming to drive awareness and motivate people to take an active interest in their future through a new Aardman campaign, designed to highlight that while people go about their normal working day, their Nest pensions are steadily growing.
Launching on YouTube this week, the campaign introduces viewers to a series of humorous animated birds representing Nest members in everyday human work scenarios. Nest also worked with creative agency Atomic London, which developed a long-term brand strategy that brings Nest members front and centre.
It comprises two films, narrated by comedian, musician, author and keen twitcher Bill Bailey and set in a giant Nest tree, inhabited by a range of bird species living and working together.
Both spots focus on a little moment of day-to-day working life and are representative of the diverse jobs that real life Nest members have, designed to illustrate that pensions are part of everyone’s working lives.
The characters include a parakeet hair stylist with a nervous client, a dove waiter attending to a particularly messy woodpecker customer, a bullfinch encountering scanning issues at the supermarket check-out, and a bluetit working from home and navigating the usual tech hiccups of remote video calls. They are all focused on their work while their Nest pensions, represented by their orange eggs, are with them in the background.
The ads finish with the strapline “together, we’ll build you a bigger pension”.
The creative aims to prompt people to think about their pensions and, by making pensions more relatable and less intimidating, Nest wants to encourage more people to take an active interest in their retirement savings.
Nest director of brand Pippa Strutt said: “We’re excited to see our new campaign take flight. One in three UK workers now save with Nest – that’s more than 13 million people. With this campaign, we want to illustrate that pensions are an important part of our working lives, building quietly in the background.
“Pensions don’t have to be intimidating, and we want people to engage with them sooner, rather than later. Partnering with Aardman, which like us is a purpose-driven organisation, allows us to bring this important message to life in a warm and accessible way.”
Aardman creative director of short form and commercials Steve Harding-Hill added: “We’re thrilled to bring Aardman’s trademark storytelling, warmth and wit to this new campaign for Nest. As a studio that’s long entertained the nation, it’s a privilege to help speak to that same audience about something as important as their future.”
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