Your Future Self

British pension provider Scottish Widows (owned by Lloyds Banking Group) sought to increase brand awareness, preference, and consideration by prompting people to think about their future and retirement planning. The challenge was addressing pension apathy - getting younger audiences to engage with a topic that feels distant and abstract.

Scottish Widows had been supporting Pension Awareness Day for many years and had previously developed the "Age Me" tool, which allowed users to input their pension savings and retirement goals to see how they would look at retirement age. The "Your Future Self" project represented an evolution of this concept, making the experience more immediate and accessible.

The campaign took a "media-first" approach, combining behavioral psychology principles with cutting-edge facial recognition and aging technology. The creative insight was that showing people their future, elderly selves would make retirement feel more tangible and immediate, prompting earlier engagement with pension planning.

The experience worked across multiple touchpoints:

• Out-of-Home Installations: Six-sheet-sized interactive panels deployed in eight UK cities
• Mobile Tour: Integration with Scottish Widows' mobile advice centres during the annual September tour
• Web Experience: The scottishwidowsyourfutureself.co.uk platform allowing users to explore their retirement prospects online

The project utilized a sophisticated technology stack including:

• HTML/CSS/JavaScript: Core web technologies for the interactive experience
• WebGL: For rendering and visual effects
• WebComponents: For modular, reusable interface elements
• AR (Augmented Reality): For the facial aging feature

The out-of-home component integrated bespoke aging software into interactive panels that captured passersby's faces using cameras and displayed their projected appearance at retirement age in real-time. The web experience extended this functionality with additional pension calculation features based on Office for National Statistics data.

Key assumptions built into the calculator:

• Life expectancy rates from ONS National Life Tables (2020-2022 data)
• Annual investment growth rate of 4% with 0.75% yearly fund charges
• Monthly payments increasing annually in line with Average Weekly Earnings Index
• Price inflation assumed at 2.0% annually
• UK tax rules and pension contribution limits applied

The project presented several technical challenges:

1. Real-time facial processing: Implementing smooth, performant facial detection and aging effects in the browser
2. Cross-device compatibility: Ensuring the AR and WebGL features worked across different devices and browsers
3. Performance: Balancing visual quality with responsiveness for the interactive elements

Campaign Metrics:

• 3,600 direct interactions with the out-of-home advertisement installations
• 11,000 visits to Scottish Widows' mobile tour trucks
• Campaign deployed across 8 UK cities
• Aligned with Pension Awareness Day (September 2019)