Sue Bird Takes Symetra's Retirement Planning Campaign Into New Territory
Symetra's 2024 integrated campaign 'Plan Well, Play Well' is a social-first branded content series starring retired WNBA legend and Olympic gold medalist Sue Bird, produced by long-time agency of record Copacino Fujikado, in which Bird tries hip-hop tap dance, beekeeping, and cake decorating to model what an untraditional, modern retirement journey looks like for women across the United States.
The campaign launched on August 1, 2024, according to Symetra, with three long-form episodes released on consecutive Thursdays: 'Tap Dance' on August 1, 'Bees' on August 8, and 'Cake' on August 15, before concluding its run in September 2024. Each episode placed Bird in an unfamiliar pursuit alongside a recognisable expert: social media sensation and choreographer Chloe Arnold, baking show judge Robert Lucas, and beekeepers Jeff and Julie Russell of Mr. and Mrs. Bee Rescue. The format was deliberately warm and human, treating retirement not as a financial checkpoint but as an open door to curiosity and reinvention.
Symetra, best known in the United States for retirement plans, employee benefits, and life insurance products, designed the series as the brand's first-ever serialised content platform. The objectives were precise: make financial products more accessible to audiences with less historical connection to the category, and reach women in particular as a primary audience. Bird, who retired from professional basketball at 41, provides a natural and credible bridge between the brand and women across the country who are beginning their own retirement journeys. In addition to the long-form video episodes, the campaign incorporated paid social and influencer elements to extend reach beyond organic discovery. Clapboard rates the campaign 78 out of 100.
Symetra built the 'Plan Well, Play Well' platform on a clear consumer insight: retirement clichés no longer reflect the lives of modern retirees, and women in particular have been underserved by conventional financial advertising. The campaign does not open with a montage of golf courses and grandchildren. It opens with Sue Bird attempting a hip-hop tap routine, which is precisely the point. The brand is signalling that the retirement journey is personal, unpredictable, and worth planning for because of — not despite — its uncertainty.
Copacino Fujikado, Symetra's agency of record since 2004, as documented by both Symetra and Copacino Fujikado, drew on an established strategic theme first introduced with the 2021 'Teammates' campaign: Symetra is present for life's next stage. The 2024 execution shifted the format decisively away from conventional television advertising and toward serialised, platform-native content. That shift reflects the broader advertising landscape. According to Innovid, completion rates for YouTube pre-roll videos longer than three minutes reached 33 percent for this campaign — a figure that suggests the long-form, personality-driven format held attention in an environment where most pre-roll content is skipped in seconds.
The competitive context in the United States is demanding. Fidelity Investments commands substantial name recognition in the retirement planning category, and major insurers deploy significant media budgets to dominate share of voice. Against that backdrop, Symetra's decision to invest in serialised branded content rather than high-frequency interruption advertising represents a differentiated strategic choice. According to TechSci Research, the global insurance advertising market was estimated at approximately $14.78 billion in 2025, reflecting sustained competitive spending pressure that makes creative distinctiveness more commercially valuable, not less. In the United States specifically, the financial and insurance advertising vertical was forecast to spend $21.8 billion in 2024, according to Taylor, underlining the scale of the market Symetra is operating within and the importance of earned attention over paid volume alone.
Michael Call directed all three episodes of 'Plan Well, Play Well.' Call is an established reality television producer and director, and his background is not incidental to the campaign's creative success. The episodes operate with the pacing and warmth of unscripted television: Bird is genuinely learning in real time, the experts are genuinely teaching, and the moments of difficulty or surprise are left in rather than edited out. That production philosophy distinguishes the series from the polished, controlled aesthetic of most financial services advertising in the United States, where risk aversion in creative execution often mirrors risk aversion in the products being sold.
Each episode was structured around a specific activity chosen to reflect the spirit of post-career exploration. In the first episode, Bird works with Chloe Arnold, a choreographer who has built a substantial social media following and has taught dance to high-profile clients, to learn a hip-hop tap routine — a skill that is entirely outside Bird's professional background and therefore genuinely challenging on camera. The second episode placed Bird, who is allergic to bees, in the care of Jeff and Julie Russell of Mr. and Mrs. Bee Rescue, a detail that was not softened in the edit and gave the episode an authentic tension. The third episode saw Bird compete in a cake decorating contest judged by Robert Lucas, a recognised figure from competitive baking television.
The campaign extended beyond the three hero episodes through paid social placements and influencer distribution, with the long-form content supported by shorter assets optimised for social-first consumption. According to Symetra, Sue Bird provided voiceover throughout the series, anchoring the brand's voice in a tone that is candid, self-deprecating, and direct — qualities that align with the target audience's expectations of authentic communication rather than aspirational financial messaging. The creative package also included retirement-planning resources, connecting the entertainment layer to the brand's functional purpose.
The 'Plan Well, Play Well' platform accumulated more than 57 million views across all seasons, according to figures cited in the Shorty Awards submission documentation. That aggregate reach figure reflects the cumulative performance of the platform rather than the 2024 season in isolation, but it establishes the scale at which Symetra's content investment has operated. The 2024 campaign contributed to a 1,300 percent increase in YouTube subscribers for Symetra, a figure reported in both the Shorty Awards and Symetra's own documentation, which represents a structural audience asset rather than a one-time campaign impression.
Completion rates provide further evidence of creative effectiveness. According to the Shorty Awards listing, YouTube pre-roll videos longer than three minutes achieved a 32 percent completion rate — a performance level that, in the context of skippable long-form advertising in the United States, points to genuine viewer engagement rather than passive exposure. The 17th Annual Shorty Awards recognised the campaign as a finalist in the Financial Services, Insurance, and Video Series categories, as confirmed by Shorty Awards records. The 11th Annual Shorty Impact Awards also listed the platform as a finalist in Financial Services, per Shorty Awards documentation.
These results are structurally consistent with the campaign's design choices. By building around a talent partnership with authentic credibility among the target audience, choosing a director with unscripted television expertise, and committing to long-form content rather than condensed interruption formats, Symetra and Copacino Fujikado created conditions in which audience retention was achievable rather than aspirational. The Clapboard Score of 78 out of 100 reflects a campaign that executes its strategic brief with clarity and creative confidence, even as the category remains one where emotional resonance is difficult to sustain at scale.
Symetra's 'Plan Well, Play Well' is a social-first branded content series launched in 2024. It stars retired WNBA star and Olympic gold medalist Sue Bird exploring hip-hop tap dance, beekeeping, and cake decorating to model an untraditional retirement journey, with women across the United States as the primary target audience.
Copacino Fujikado, Symetra's agency of record since 2004, created the campaign. Reality television producer and director Michael Call led production on all three long-form episodes, which were released on consecutive Thursdays in August 2024 across YouTube and paid social platforms in the United States.
The platform accumulated more than 57 million views across all seasons, according to Shorty Awards documentation. The 2024 campaign contributed to a 1,300 percent increase in YouTube subscribers for Symetra, and long-form pre-roll ads exceeded 32 percent completion rates, both figures reported via Shorty Awards records.
Sue Bird retired from professional basketball at 41, giving her direct and credible experience of navigating an untraditional retirement journey. Symetra identified women as the primary target audience for the campaign, and Bird's profile provided a natural connection to women across the United States approaching their own retirement planning decisions.
The 'Plan Well, Play Well' platform earned finalist recognition at the 17th Annual Shorty Awards in the Financial Services, Insurance, and Video Series categories, and at the 11th Annual Shorty Impact Awards in Financial Services, according to Shorty Awards records. The campaign carries a Clapboard Score of 78 out of 100.
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