STANDARD LIFE: HELP WHEN IT MATTERS MOST

Nomination

Images

Videos

Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OxF50bT0YA

Company

Standard Life

Summary

Many people, through the COVID pandemic and the recent cost of living deterioration, have seen their vulnerability (as categorised by the Financial Conduct Authority) increase and are not getting the support and guidance they need to make good financial decisions. As one of the UK’s leading Pensions and Savings providers, Standard Life has responded with the creation of a specialist Vulnerable Customer Team and the design of the Helping Hand Programme which specifically caters to the needs of vulnerable customers. This award-winning team are extensively trained in how to recognise the range of possible vulnerabilities across their customers and how to deal with each in an empathetic, practical, and positive way. Standard Life’s brief was to bring to vivid life their Helping Hand Programme so that existing and prospective clients could witness first-hand the depth of specialist support available to their members. Our film leverages the power of VR to bring to life the vital work that the Vulnerable Customer Team undertakes. Through immersive and emotive story-telling this VR content provides a deep level of engagement for a variety of audience groups that include clients, industry stakeholders and colleagues, in each case leaving a lasting and meaningful impression with the viewer.

Reason for nomination

Standard Life should win Client of the Year for the simple act of bravery of thought. Pensions and Savings is probably one of the least dynamic, progressive or distinctive sectors within finance let alone commerce. And yet Standard Life have made a concerted, strategic effort to swim against this tide. Pensions and Savings are by definition a matter of life and death and yet this has almost been normalised to the point of invisibility, to become mundane. The reality of it however is that this is the most human of sectors, where every customer is an individual, with different wants and needs. Standard Life have recognised this and invested heavily to build an award-winning Vulnerable Customer Programme. This is principally in response to the rising characteristics of vulnerability amongst customers; research showed nearly 71% of customers display one or more vulnerability characteristic (67%) last year. So what has this to do with design and bravery? Standard Life recognised the power of storytelling. To tell the stories of their customers and their employees and the great work that they undertake for their customers through the Vulnerable Customer Programme. But crucially they did not limit themselves to the traditional communications channels, they took the brave move of embracing new mediums that, when leveraged correctly, can supercharge storytelling and audience engagement. Virtual Reality is not the first communications channel that you would associate with Pensions and Savings and yet with this Project it has proven to be the most effective. Standard Life should be commended (and awarded) for their bravery in embracing immersive technology to gain the best results. They trusted the process and were fully invested in the creative execution from idea to Oculus. It was their first original content created for an Oculus and it has since been a resounding success. At Material, the creative agency who delivered the project for them, we appreciated their openness to new thinking, undoubted enthusiasm for the medium, collaborative ways of working, professional approach and fulsome support for the vision and execution. In short, they were a pleasure to work with and a great team of people. "The team are working hard to make Standard Life dynamic, progressive and distinctive and they are succeeding." Colin Spence, Founder, Material “Excellent experience. Shows the policy in action as intended. This is exactly what the Vulnerability Framework was aimed at achieving in a firm’s response.” Jo Hill, Independent Governance Committee, Board Member As a former Director of Market Intelligence, Data and Analysis at the FCA, Jo was responsible for the creation of its approach to vulnerability and access in financial services.

Links

https://fca.org.uk/publications/finalised-guidance/guidance-firms-fair-treatment-vulnerable-customers