Government calls on Theo Paphitis and Karren Brady for pensions campaign

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) ads, which have been created by Adam & Eve DDB, are aimed at getting 11 million people to sign up to the Government's forthcoming automatic enrolment programme, and are part of a communications drive costing £8.1m.

From October, UK bosses will be required by law to pay into a workplace pension scheme for all staff who do not actively opt out of the DWP’s automatic enrolment scheme.

By doing nothing, employees will automatically be opted into the scheme. The government reckons this will result in an additional 11 million workers paying into a workplace pension by 2018.

TV, print, online and radio advertising starts from today (17 September) and runs until mid-October. Brady, Paphitis and a host of other business celebrities, including Kingfisher boss Ian Cheshire and Nick Hewer from 'The Apprentice', will tell consumers how they are backing the scheme, stating: "I'm in."

The initiative, which the Government is dubbing the "biggest change in pensions for over 100 years", goes live from the beginning of October.

The TV ads are being run on ITV, Channel 4, Sky and Five. Media planning and buying has been handled by Manning Gottlieb OMD.

The campaign was conceived by Adam & Eve/DDB creative team Matt Lee and Pete Heyes with creative directors Patrick McClelland and Feargal Ballance. The TV spot was directed by Joseph Bullman and produced by Bare Films.

Steve Webb, the pensions minister, said: "I'm delighted that well-known bosses have taken part in our latest awareness campaign, and back the biggest change in pensions for over a century – automatic enrolment.

"People should know that all they need to do is look out for a letter from their employer, and if they do nothing and stay 'in', they are effectively getting a pay rise."

The DWP anticipates that two-thirds of the UK's workforce will enter the scheme.

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk