Q&A: PensionBee CMO talks new global campaign

Jasper Martens, CMO at PensionBee, takes us behind the scenes on the pension provider’s new global campaign.

Can you explain the background of the upcoming PensionBee global campaign and how it fits into the business’s strategy?

This global campaign is designed to highlight what distinguishes PensionBee from other retirement providers. It follows our Believe in the Bee campaign which we rolled out in 2022 and helps us to reach as many customers as we possibly can and builds trust in PensionBee.

Consolidation is not new, the way we do it certainly is. The technology we use is second to none, we provide you with excellent customer service with a personal BeeKeeper at hand.

And simple is not basic, the investment products you’re moving your retirement savings into are modern, built for purpose and come from established money managers such as State Street and BlackRock.

Highlighting these USP’s in both markets will be an important part of our global multi channel campaign.

What mix of channels do you plan to use?

In our more mature UK market, this will be a range of brand channels such as TV, radio and digital brand channels. In the US this will be predominantly digital as we are building out our proposition to that market.

You launched in the US in July. What are the key differences you have found in marketing to a US audience?

The average US consumer is just as ready for our modern and easy to use retirement product as in the UK. Initial demand looks promising. US savers are generally a bit more clued up when it comes to investing but do face a provider landscape with overcomplicated products. Inevitably, inertia kicks in and people leave their old work retirement accounts where they are which is often not a great idea. Although the rollover process is not always the biggest barrier, it’s where you put the money into that can also put many people off.

Another thing I found astonishing is that over 40% of US pension savers cash out their 401(k)s (workplace pension pots) by paying modest penalties, unheard of in the UK. So aside from transferring old retirement accounts into a PensionBee product, education about saving for later is important as the temptation to cash out early is there.

Have you had to reshape or reposition parts of the brand to connect more with that audience?

We have just launched in August and are refining our proposition to US consumers. Our first customers are really valuing our BeeKeepers (personal account managers) as the transfer process sometimes involves phone calls and cheques (!) in the post so some handholding is key. It just highlights how old fashioned the banking system is in the US but fortunately our BeeKeepers are at hand. Our BeeKeepers are guiding our customers step by step. However, it’s not too dissimilar from the UK where we have seen quite some interesting practices from UK pension providers to avoid customers transferring their pension pots over to us.

There are some day-to-day differences such as the terminology. Workplace savings are called 401(k)’s and a pension pot is an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). This presents a challenge when global marketing teams work on both markets.

What are some of the highlights of your US launch so far and where do you hope to be a year from now?

This is the first country PensionBee has launched outside of our home market in the UK so it’s quite an exciting time for us all. Learning from our first customers  can help shape and mature our product offering in the US. In 12 months time, acquiring thousands of US customers through our multi channel approach against an attractive Cost Per Acquisition would certainly make me very happy.