2017 Silver Best launch campaign

Mother

Client: SunLife

Welcome To Life After 50

Campaign overview

The over 50 market had had enough of being patronised in advertising.

SunLife wanted to give them an authentic voice and show how these years could in fact, be the best of your life.

Strategy

Sunlife and Mother knew there was an opportunity for a challenger brand to show everyone over 50 there's an alternative to the norm.

They also knew that this growing audience - by 2030, 40% of the UK population will be over 50 - is still largely ignored by advertisers.

So they undertook two tranches of research.

The first, ethnographic - going round the country meeting people in their 50s, 60s and 70s. They discovered people were busier than ever - but doing things they wanted to do: starting their own business, re-taking up old hobbies and meeting new people.

They followed that up with 'The Big Fifty' - the biggest quantitative research study into life after 50 ever undertaken in the UK, interviewing 50,000 people.

These insights gave the team the basis for competitive advantage through direct marketing: show people over 50 SunLife knew the stereotypes of them were patronising.

Creativity

With a provocative campaign that tackled ageism in advertising head on, the message was simple -people don't need to worry about life after 50, they can look forward to it, welcome it, embrace it.

First SunLife sponsored ITV Encore, with idents featuring real people in their 50s and sixties engaged in their passion.

This teaser was followed by the launch of the main campaign, led by a TV ad, which introduced the 'Welcome to life after 50' idea in a memorable, humorous way, plus 30 TV and radio spots. This was supported by positive content on their social channels.

Mother also commissioned a series of inspirational content videos, featuring lots of different people over 50 enjoying the best years of their life.

Finally, the team created reams of PR stories using The Big 50 research findings, to catapult the ad campaign into the public eye.

Results

On social media, thousands of people got involved, sharing and commenting and talking about ageism and the campaign.

SunLife also started getting emails from people who saw the ad, expressing how refreshing it was to see positive portrayals of life after 50 in advertising for once.

During the campaign, SunLife was the most talked about financial services brand in the UK according to Brand Index (YouGov's brand tracking).

They also saw the highest brand health metrics ever, achieving over 100,000,000 impacts on TV and over two million views online. Over 4,000 likes, shares and comments. And £800,000 worth of free PR as well as a sales uplift across all products and channels.

Team

Ian Atkinson (Marketing Director) SunLife Nikki Ingram (MarComms Manager) SunLife Amy Hancock (Mother Mother)