People's Pension Casts Joe Wilkinson as Its 'Fairy Godmother' in First-Ever TV Campaign
Updated: 6 days ago
People's Pension has launched its first-ever national TV campaign, 'Famously Fair', casting comedian Joe Wilkinson as a 'Fairy Godmother' in a rigged 'unfairground' to argue that pensions should feel fair for everyone. The work was created with agency Bountiful Cow.
People's Pension, the workplace pension scheme that looks after the retirement savings of more than seven million people across the UK, has taken to the small screen for the first time. Its debut national TV campaign, 'Famously Fair', stars comedian Joe Wilkinson as a 'Fairy Godmother' and introduces a new brand proposition built entirely around the idea of fairness.
The campaign
The minute-long advert drops Wilkinson — complete with fairy wings and wand — into an 'unfairground', a world of rigged fairground games where the odds are stacked against ordinary players. As the Fairy Godmother, he is there to set things right. Created with agency Bountiful Cow and directed by Sye Allen, the ad even features People's Pension staff as extras, and runs across linear TV, VOD, YouTube, radio, social and out-of-home.
Pensions don't always feel like they are for everyone. We think that's wrong, and we wanted to bring that unfairness to life through our first national TV campaign. People's Pension already looks after the retirement savings of millions of hard-working people across the UK, but we want many more people to know who we are, what we stand for and why we do things differently. Television gives us the opportunity to take that message to a much bigger audience – building greater awareness of People's Pension and what makes our approach different. The unfairground felt like the perfect world for that. Everyone knows the feeling of playing a game where the odds seem stacked against you, and Joe is exactly the sort of Fairy Godmother you'd want turning up to sort it out. David Meliveo, Chief Commercial Officer, People's Pension
A different kind of pension ad
'Famously Fair' is more than a one-off ad: it is a long-term brand platform that will run across consumer advertising, employer and adviser communications and organic social. The fairness message is rooted in how the business works — parent company People's Partnership has no shareholders, reinvesting its surplus so that its Savings Reward returns more than £4 million to eligible savers every month. The October launch is expected to reach around 31 million working adults, roughly 85% of the UK's working-age population.
It's about time I was a fairy godmother. I always knew I had what it takes. There are plenty of unfair things in this life, so having a magic wand and being allowed to sort a few of them out seemed like a bit of fun. Joe Wilkinson
The campaign is also a milestone for Bountiful Cow, marking its first work since its remit for People's Pension expanded at the end of last year to include creative, media and organic social.
Financial services advertising can look a bit like wallpaper to most people - an entirely forgettable blizzard of numbers and people with grey hair smiling at laptops, with media bought in the same old places. Since we've been working with People's Pension, we've taken a very different approach in both creative and media, which has come together in 'Famously Fair'. Joe Wilkinson in the 'unfairground' is about as far from traditional pension advertising as you can get - and that's always been the ambition. Adam Foley, CEO, Bountiful Cow
Marketing Minute's read
Financial services advertising has a sameness problem, and pensions are the worst offender — earnest, forgettable and indistinguishable brand to brand. People's Pension's answer is smart: take an abstract virtue (fairness), build a vivid, ownable world around it (the 'unfairground'), and hand it to a comedian whose job is to make the point land. Pairing a long-term platform with that kind of distinctiveness — and a genuinely different business model to back the claim — is how a challenger in a low-interest category earns attention it can compound over years.
Quick FAQ
What is People's Pension's new campaign?
'Famously Fair', its first-ever national TV campaign, starring Joe Wilkinson as a 'Fairy Godmother' in a rigged 'unfairground'.
Who made the campaign?
It was created with agency Bountiful Cow and directed by Sye Allen, with People's Pension staff appearing as extras.
How many people will it reach?
The October campaign is expected to reach around 31 million working adults — roughly 85% of the UK's working-age population — across TV, VOD, YouTube, radio, social and out-of-home.
Pensions are a hard sell precisely because they feel like everyone else's problem to explain. Turning fairness into a world you can see — and casting someone funny to guide you through it — is how you make a low-interest category impossible to scroll past.
In a low-interest category, a distinctive, ownable world beats another earnest message — and a long-term platform compounds that advantage.
If your category is full of forgettable advertising, what is the ownable world only your brand could build?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Campaign UK, The Drum.
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