Now: Pensions has employed reality TV star Stacey Solomon to front its campaign to get more small businesses on board with its pension scheme.
The advert, described as “light-hearted” will target small business owners through Sky AdSmart and programmatic radio including Spotify, CBS, Aol Radio, among other mainstream radio stations.
Its goal is to unravel the complexity of auto-enrolment by suggesting Now: Pensions can provide a simpler workplace pension solution.
Amy Mankelow, communications director at Now: Pensions, said: “Stacey Solomon and auto enrolment are two phrases that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to see together.
“But, when we thought about the campaign and the focus on making complex subjects simple and easy to understand, we could see she’d be a perfect fit.”
The 2009 X Factor finalist was selected for the role because of her widespread appeal and the fact that she’s a small business owner herself.
She also won the 2010 edition of I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! becoming Queen of the Jungle.
Ms Mankelow added: “Stacey has done a great job at bringing some humour to a somewhat dry topic and we hope that small employers will sit up and take notice.”
Now: Pensions is one of the UK’s largest auto-enrolment workplace pension providers.
Martin Stewart, director of London-based London Money, said pensions do not engage the individual, especially the younger generation and questioned whether employing a “c-list celebrity” would change that.
He said: “[I feel that] the whole pension regime needs resetting. The majority of people I meet laugh when I ask them what age they plan to retire.
“Society has changed over the years both in terms of demographics and objectives. Call it what you want but a pension seems an antiquated term to many.”
This is not the first time an unusual character has been recruited to publicise auto-enrolment.
Last year the government launched an advertising campaign featuring Workie, a multi-coloured furry creature.
