Pension provider Nest has partnered with award-winning animation studio Aardman to launch a new advertising campaign designed to make pensions more engaging and relatable for employees.
The campaign, which went live on YouTube at the end of September, features a series of short animated films voiced by comedian and musician Bill Bailey.
Set in a giant “Nest tree”, the films use bird characters to depict everyday workplace scenarios, including a parakeet hair stylist with a nervous client, a dove waiter serving a messy woodpecker, a bullfinch struggling at a supermarket checkout, and a bluetit grappling with video call glitches while working from home.
Each film ends with the strapline: “Together, we’ll build you a bigger pension.”
Make pensions less intimidating
Nest hopes the use of Aardman’s signature humour, familiar from Wallace & Gromit and other productions, will help break down barriers to pension engagement. By showing relatable work-based challenges, the films aim to remind employees that their retirement savings continue to grow quietly in the background.
Pippa Strut, Nest’s director of brand, said: “We’re excited to see our new campaign take flight. One in three UK workers now save with Nest – that’s more than 13m 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 allows us to bring this important message to life in a warm and accessible way.”
Storytelling
The campaign offers another tool to encourage employees to engage with workplace pensions and retirement planning. By using characters and humour, Nest is aiming to reach workers who may otherwise see pensions as too complex or distant.
Steve Harding-Hill, creative director of short form & commercials at Aardman, said: “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.”
The campaign was developed with the creative agency Atomic London, and forms part of Nest’s wider effort to normalise pension conversations in the workplace and help employees see retirement saving as an integral part of working life.
