Teenage take over 17 - Pay your pension some attention? Really?
Now we all know the truth teenagers aren’t the most likely people you’ll find talking about pensions. We’re probably talking about something random like Shrek or complaining about the maths homework that no matter how much I seem to do there’s always more. Yet, the Pay Your Pension Some Attention campaign is happening, telling us to start saving for something that feels a lifetime away. But does it connect with young people? Has anyone under 30 even seen it? – (I don’t count by the way I only heard of this from my hip and cool mother (was not paid to say this I promise)). And more importantly, does it make us care?
What even is the Pension Attention Campaign?
Apparently, it’s supposed to raise awareness over people’s pensions and make sure that young people in particular “engage with their pensions” and save money to something that feels like a lifetime away from us. But how many young people have a pension and how many are even willing to pay into one?
Is it meant to reach young people?
Probably not, even if you could land it in a school’s bulletin let’s be real most people are too asleep to pay attention to it on a Monday morning or on their phones under the desk (not me of course). And unless you manage to turn into some viral brainrot meme that’d land on everyone’s feed It’s probably not gonna be massive.
And let’s face it, to make it work it’d probably need some genius marketing and a miracle.
Should we care?
I get it. Saving money is important. But it’s hard to care:
Now unless you lot are under a rock you’ve definitely heard of the cost of living crisis and starting at the bottom of a corporate ladder and renting your own property and managing household costs are probably – now more than ever – harder to juggle.
When you’re 18, 20, or even 25, retirement is pretty much a billion years away, next year feels ages away let alone another 50! There’s a good chance most of us won’t even be able to afford a house in the next decade – so why would we think about a pension?
The economy is unpredictable, the job market is changing, and wages haven’t exactly been skyrocketing. Will pensions even be a thing in 50 years? Or will we all be working until we’re 90? Or even better completely provided for by the government!
Talk to me
If this campaign was intended to reach young people, then maybe try
Cutting the jargon, let’s be real we probably wouldn’t know what it means anyway – keep it relatable too!
Keep it concise – Got a 30 second (funny?) video, a challenge/trend or even some flashy new Ai tool to keep us entertained?
Explaining how it can help not just in the long-term what about today are there any benefits for me now? Can pensions help us get more out of our salary now? Can better financial planning mean we afford the things we want sooner?
What do I do with my money?
It’s not all saving and pensions! Sorry! We have lives you know! Trips with our friends, trips with school – Tanzania – (more on that soon). And worst of all, we let it sit rotting in an account (a bad habit but what if we don’t know better).
Next year…
Instead of trying to use influencers that young people (like below 30!) have never heard of – head over to Instagram or TikTok and look for any old meme page that’s getting millions of views.
