While many companies have decided to reduce marketing spend and postpone new launches as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic, others are moving ahead. Jasper Martens, CMO at the leading UK fintech scale up PensionBee, explains why they continued with the launch of their new brand campaign despite the crisis.
We never thought about cancelling the campaign. We knew that if we continued to offer trust and stability to our customers in these uncertain times, we would come out of this with our customers stronger than ever. Building these important values into your Brand is key, Covid-19 or no Covid-19 pandemic.
What is the focus of the new PensionBee brand campaign?
PensionBee has been combining pensions from previous jobs into a new online plan since 2015. In those 5 years, we’ve learned about our customers, why they sign up to us, how they use our product but also, how it makes them feel.
Being in control of your financial future means that you’re lifting all that weight of your shoulders. What a great feeling it is if you’re pension confident and on top of your pension! And what better way to ask our own customers to tell how they felt when they joined PensionBee, taking control of their pension. Since we started PensionBee, our customers have always been at the center of our product development and advertising, and this campaign is no different.
Why have you decided to continue with the launch of the campaign despite the pandemic? Why branding?
We were in the middle of planning the campaign when Covid-19 hit. In fact, days before lockdown, we were finalising our photoshoot with 4 customers in Manchester and Liverpool. I was in my hotel room in Liverpool when I saw Boris’s announcement starting the lockdown. Fortunately, we were able to finish the production so we’ve been able to finalise our brand assets during the lockdown.
We never thought about cancelling the campaign. We knew that if we continued to offer trust and stability to our customers in these uncertain times, we would come out of this with our customers stronger than ever. Building these important values into your Brand is key, Covid-19 or no Covid-19 pandemic.
Have you made any changes to the initial launch plan?
Lockdown did change the marketing channel mix of the campaign. For example, our outdoor campaign in April was cancelled and moved to September and instead, we maintained and have increased our investment in TV and radio promotion. People are not as much on the commute but at home. TV, digital and radio offered a great opportunity.
We’re gradually rolling out our new brand campaign to our website, our TV and radio ads and from September to our outdoor campaigns.
Have you used any other tactics to navigate through the crisis?
The biggest change has been the shift from out-of-home media to media channels used in the comfort of your home. There are notable upticks in people searching for their pensions confidence and our strong SEO position is definitely in our favour. Consolidating your pensions is a good task to do when at home, so ticking that off your to-do list was one of the main themes we used in our marketing mix during lockdown.
With many travel companies and physical stores abandoning TV and radio advertising, we’ve been able to buy that advertising capacity that would otherwise not be available. So when confronted with such an unusual situation, adapting as a brand with your team is super important. I feel after the initial shock in the first days, the team was right back on it, seeking new opportunities to reach our future customers.
In my career, I have never worked with such a great team and the pandemic only confirmed how bright and agile they were to change tactics and ride the Covid-19 storm!
What’s next for PensionBee?
We continue to make more UK savers pension confident by providing them the best possible consolidation experience, often the first point when they come across PensionBee. Lockdown has given us the opportunity to fast track new products to help our growing over 50s customers to manage and spend their pension better. In the next few months, you’ll hear a lot more about this new exciting product, a pension first!
We’re also launching a self-employed pension plan that you can open without combining your old pots later this month with one of our existing partners.
Last, but not least, we’re launching the UK's first Fossil Fuel Free pension plan with our partner Legal and General. We’re almost there and you can sign up to the waiting list here.
This all should get us to be UK’s leading online pension provider, doubling our customers in the next 12 months.
About Jasper Martens: In the dusty old pension world, Jasper brings pensions back in people's mind with PensionBee, UK's first online pension manager. Leading up product and marketing, he brings 15 years of experience to the fintech startup, recognised as one of the Fintech50, and as Schroders Leading Digital Platform of the Year.
PensionBee is the first and only pension company to bring their customers’ pension balances into the open banking revolution.
Before joining PensionBee, Jasper was Head of Marketing and Communications at small business insurance provider Simply Business.
You can connect with Jasper via social media below:
Twitter: @jaspermartens / @pensionbee LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jaspermartens Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PensionBee/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pensionbee/
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