Aviva Reinvents Monopoly to Get Britain Talking About Menopause
Aviva has turned Monopoly into a menopause conversation starter: its first campaign with Saatchi & Saatchi reworks the classic board with stops like Self-Care and Financial Worries, backed by a Channel 4 'Games Night' special running to the end of 2026.
Insurance brands do not usually make headlines for board games. But Aviva's latest work does exactly that, reimagining Monopoly — the game most of us associate with family arguments and hotels on Mayfair — as a tool for talking about menopause. It is a surprising idea, and a useful case study in how a financial brand can earn attention without shouting about products.
What Aviva actually made
Working with Hasbro, Saatchi & Saatchi created a bespoke 'Menopause Monopoly' board that will never be sold in shops. The familiar squares are replaced with life stages and realities such as Self-Care and Financial Worries, while reworked Chance cards and new tokens — a fan, an eye mask, an open purse — nod to the lived experience of menopause. It is the first creative campaign from Aviva since it appointed Saatchi & Saatchi following a competitive pitch.
The board is not the whole campaign. Media agency OMD UK brokered a partnership with Channel 4, whose branded entertainment team commissioned 'Games Night', a long-form episode featuring Anna Richardson, Kerry Godliman and Fats Timbo. It runs across Channel 4's linear TV, streaming, YouTube and social channels through to the end of the year, extending a physical idea into mainstream broadcast.
Why it matters for marketers
Menopause is finally being treated as a mainstream marketing subject rather than a taboo. The Fawcett Society has found that around one in ten women who worked through the menopause have left a job because of their symptoms — a statistic that makes this squarely relevant to an insurer selling financial resilience and workplace cover.
What makes the work effective is that the creative device does a job. A game about negotiating, planning and managing setbacks is a neat metaphor for financial planning around a life stage. The brand is not borrowing a cause for a logo on a poster; it is linking the subject to something it genuinely sells, via its Landor-built 'Talk menopause with Aviva' hub.
It also lands at a moment when brand-building is back in fashion. UK marketing budgets recently hit their highest level in over two years, according to the IPA Bellwether, and advertisers are once again willing to fund emotional, long-form work. Aviva's bet is that being remembered for a brave, useful idea beats another round of rational product messaging.
The lesson for smaller brands
You do not need a Channel 4 budget to copy the thinking. The transferable principle is simple: find a cultural object your audience already understands, then bend it to carry your message. A local accountant could build a quick 'what-if' planning tool; a clinic could turn a familiar quiz format into something educational. The format does the explaining, so you don't have to.
The risk with purpose-led work is that it reads as box-ticking. Aviva largely avoids that trap by making something people can actually play with, and by placing it inside entertainment people choose to watch rather than interrupting them with a worthy 30-second spot. That is the difference between a campaign about a cause and a campaign that is genuinely useful.
Quick FAQ
Can you buy Aviva's Menopause Monopoly board?
No. The board was created purely for the campaign with Hasbro and is not being sold in shops — it exists to spark conversation and content, not as a retail product.
Which agencies worked on the Aviva menopause campaign?
Saatchi & Saatchi led strategy, creative and the board design, OMD UK handled media and the Channel 4 partnership, and Landor built Aviva's wider 'Talk menopause with Aviva' hub.
Why is an insurer talking about menopause?
Menopause affects careers, earnings and long-term financial planning, so it sits naturally alongside what Aviva sells — making this purpose work that connects to the business rather than sitting beside it.
The clever bit here isn't the menopause angle — it's that Aviva took a game everyone already knows and used it to make a hard conversation feel playable. That's the move I'd steal for a small business: take something familiar, give it a twist, and let the format carry the message for you. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
Purpose-led marketing works when the brand is genuinely useful, not just well-meaning — tie your cause to something you actually do.
What everyday object or game could your brand reinvent to explain what you do?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Creative Salon, Campaign and Marketing Week reporting; Fawcett Society research on menopause and work.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
