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How Nest and Aardman Made UK Pensions Worth Watching in 2025
Nest's 'Together, we'll build you a bigger pension' is a 2025 animated brand campaign, produced by Aardman and created by Atomic London, designed to make workplace pension saving feel relevant and approachable to the one in three UK workers who hold a Nest pension account.
Nest is the United Kingdom's largest workplace pension scheme by number of members. That scale brings a distinctive communications challenge: reaching tens of millions of working people across enormously varied occupations and life circumstances, many of whom regard pensions as a distant or intimidating subject. The campaign's strategic response is to depict pension saving not as a financial obligation but as something quietly happening in the background while members simply go about their working lives. Launched on YouTube on 29 September 2025, the campaign initially comprised two animated short films, with the creative system encompassing four distinct bird-led workplace vignettes, each representing a recognisable slice of everyday British working life.
Atomic London developed the long-term brand strategy underpinning the campaign, positioning Nest members themselves at the centre of the narrative. Aardman, the Bristol-based animation studio behind Wallace and Gromit, provides the visual language: a giant Nest tree inhabited by anthropomorphic bird species navigating human work situations, from a parakeet hairstylist attending a nervous client to a bullfinch wrestling with a supermarket checkout scanner. Comedian, musician, author and keen birder Bill Bailey narrates each film. The campaign is planned to extend beyond YouTube to additional channels across the United Kingdom, broadening reach among the scheme's approximately thirteen to thirteen-point-seven million total members, as reported by Corporate Adviser. Clapboard scores this campaign 69 out of 100.
Atomic London identified a persistent creative gap in the UK pension and retirement savings category. Financial services advertising in the United Kingdom has historically defaulted to information-heavy executions — charts, projections, regulatory disclosures — that communicate obligation rather than motivation. The insight driving this campaign is that Nest members are not disengaged because they lack information; they are disengaged because no one has spoken to them in a human register about something that is, functionally, already working for them in the background.
The competitive context sharpens that rationale. In the United Kingdom's multi-employer defined-contribution pension market, Nest competes for member attention and employer relationships alongside providers including Scottish Widows and Legal and General, both of which have invested in brand-level advertising. According to insights from LCP, multi-employer defined-contribution assets in the UK reached approximately £814 billion at the end of 2025, up from £667 billion at the end of 2024, reflecting a market growing in both scale and competitive intensity. Atomic London reported that the creative work tested well above average for the financial advertising category, suggesting the tonal departure from information-led norms was legible and effective with target audiences.
Nest's own public data, as referenced by Corporate Adviser, places total membership between approximately thirteen and thirteen-point-seven million, with more than four-point-eight million active savers across the United Kingdom. One in three UK workers holds a Nest pension. That penetration means the campaign does not need to generate consideration from scratch; it needs to convert passive enrolment into active interest. The decision to use animation rather than live action, and comedy rather than earnestness, is a direct strategic answer to that objective. A Nest spokesperson stated that the organisation wants people to engage with their pensions sooner rather than later, and that partnering with a purpose-driven organisation like Aardman allows that message to reach people in a warm and accessible way.
Aardman is the creative force behind the animated execution. The Bristol studio, whose work on Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep has established a globally recognised visual and comedic vernacular, brings its trademark blend of warmth, physical comedy and precise character design to a financial services context that rarely invites that sensibility. Steve Harding-Hill, Creative Director of Short Form and Commercials at Aardman, stated that the studio is thrilled to bring its trademark storytelling, warmth and wit to the new campaign for Nest, according to aardman.com.
The films are set inside a giant Nest tree, a literal and conceptual environment that grounds the pension metaphor in a visually coherent world. The bird species are chosen with care: a parakeet hairstylist, a dove waiter, a bullfinch at a supermarket checkout, and a bluetit working from home and navigating video-call technology failures. Each character type maps to a recognisable segment of the United Kingdom's workforce, reinforcing the campaign's argument that Nest pensions are relevant across all occupational contexts, not just white-collar or high-income employment.
Bill Bailey's narration adds a further layer of tonal precision. As a comedian, musician, author and self-described keen birder, Bailey connects the avian conceit to genuine personal enthusiasm, lending the films an authenticity that a purely transactional celebrity endorsement would not achieve. Creative Boom described the two thirty-second films as exquisite viewing, specifically praising the character design, animation style and humour, according to their published review. Atomic London's creative direction, working within the brand platform it developed for Nest, ensures the storytelling does not drift into pure entertainment at the expense of the pension message: each vignette closes with the reassurance that while life is busy and imperfect, the Nest pension is building steadily in the background.
Measurable performance data for this campaign is available in part. The YouTube film titled 'Price Checks and Perfect Quiffs | Nest Pensions' accumulated two million, seven hundred and ninety thousand, five hundred and sixty-nine views according to archive data held by Clapboard. For a financial services brand operating in the United Kingdom's workplace pension segment — a category not typically associated with organic video engagement — that view count represents meaningful reach beyond paid media delivery.
Atomic London reported, as cited by Creative Boom, that the creative work tested well above average relative to financial advertising norms. The testing methodology or provider is not specified in public documentation, but the claim aligns with the observable creative differentiation: the use of Aardman's animation style, physical character comedy and Bill Bailey's narration places the films outside the conventions of the category in ways that recall System1 Group's well-documented finding that emotionally engaging advertising builds longer-term brand equity more effectively than rational product messaging.
Structurally, the campaign addresses three effectiveness fundamentals. First, it achieves clear brand linkage through the Nest tree setting and the verbal pension message carried in narration. Second, it targets the broadest possible slice of the United Kingdom's working population by depicting occupational diversity across its character roster. Third, it selects a distribution platform — YouTube — that allows for longer creative dwell time than broadcast spots while enabling precise audience targeting among working-age adults in the United Kingdom. Corporate Adviser covered the launch on 29 September 2025, confirming Nest's stated objective of raising awareness and motivating active engagement among its membership base across the UK.
Nest's 2025 campaign is an animated brand platform created by Atomic London and produced by Aardman. It uses anthropomorphic birds in everyday UK work scenarios, narrated by Bill Bailey, to show that Nest pensions grow steadily in the background while members go about their working lives. It launched on YouTube on 29 September 2025.
Nest partnered with Aardman because the studio's warmth and wit offered a deliberate contrast to information-heavy financial advertising. A Nest spokesperson noted that Aardman, like Nest, is a purpose-driven organisation, making it a natural creative partner for communicating the pension message in an accessible and emotionally resonant way to UK workers.
Bill Bailey narrates both Nest animated films. Bailey is a British comedian, musician, author and self-described keen birder, making him a fitting voice for a campaign built around anthropomorphic bird characters representing Nest's diverse membership across the United Kingdom's workforce. His casting adds authenticity beyond standard celebrity endorsement.
Nest has approximately thirteen to thirteen-point-seven million total members in the United Kingdom, with more than four-point-eight million active savers, according to Corporate Adviser. One in three UK workers holds a Nest pension, making it the country's largest workplace pension scheme by number of members.
Clapboard assigned this campaign a score of 69 out of 100. The score reflects the campaign's strong creative differentiation and cultural fit within the United Kingdom's workplace pension category, balanced against limited publicly available performance metrics and the inherent challenge of driving active engagement in a low-interest financial subject.
Atomic London developed the long-term brand strategy and creative platform for Nest, positioning scheme members at the centre of all communications. The agency also reported that the resulting work tested well above average for the financial advertising category in the United Kingdom, according to coverage by Creative Boom.
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