Phoenix Group hands Standard Life brief to Medialab

Phoenix Group, one of the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement businesses, has strengthened its relationship with Medialab by appointing the independent agency to handle Standard Life’s UK media business.

The agency, which first started working with company in 2019 when it scooped the SunLife account, has been briefed to deliver integrated multi-channel activity across TV, radio, out-of-home and partnerships to support the brand.

This will be implemented alongside digital and print media, aiming to position Standard Life as the number one retirement brand in the UK under the new brand platform, “Everyone deserves a life more certain”; it was founded in 1825.

Medialab will look to replicate the success it has had with the SunLife brand, which has seen it deliver sizable media buying efficiencies, strong business growth in 2020 – despite the impact of Covid – and launch several new SunLife products.

All media activity will be planned, modelled and reported through Medialab’s proprietary marketing intelligence platform, Apollo.

Standard Life chief marketing officer Sangita Chawla said: “The economic challenges everyone has been facing over the last two years means that many people are feeling far from secure about their financial futures and are craving a degree of certainty in life.

“Our new Retirement Voice survey found 9 out of 10 people feel income certainty in retirement is important to them, and we are well placed to support this through an emphasis on financial education and wellness throughout people’s lives, as well as supporting them in those crucial years immediately before and at the point of retirement.

“We’ve been impressed by Medialab’s engagement with these vital issues, and recognise their considerable strengths in TV, digital planning and buying and partnership development.

“We’re passionate about using media as part of our brand distinctiveness as we continue to grow and help more customers on their journey to and through retirement, and this will be complemented by the Medialab team. We are confident that they have the skill and the will to help us boost the UK’s retirement confidence.”

Medialab chief executive Marcus Orme added: “We are delighted to be working alongside Standard Life, a trusted and renowned brand dedicated to helping people prosper financially. This partnership builds on Medialab’s existing work with our high-value partner SunLife, also part of the Phoenix Group.

“It marks another significant milestone in our growth journey and underscores our stronghold in the financial services sector for the agency.”

Earlier this year, Standard Life appointed Merkle to support the end-to-end customer engagement transformation of its pensions and savings business.