Medialab, the UK’s leading independent media agency, has been appointed by Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group, as its UK media agency. Medialab brings its wide and increasing range of innovative products and services to further Standard Life’s ambition to support people’s financial futures.   

The move strengthens Medialab’s relationship with Phoenix Group, the UK’s largest long term savings and retirement business, following the agency’s 2019 appointment by SunLife, another one of Phoenix Group’s family of brands. Together, Medialab and SunLife have built a strong partnership, delivering sizeable media buying efficiencies, strong business growth in 2020 – despite the impact of Covid – and launching several new SunLife products. Medialab will look to replicate this success by elevating Standard Life’s new brand platform, ‘Everyone deserves a life more certain’. 

With a multi-million pound budget, Medialab will deliver integrated multi-channel activity across TV, radio, out-of-home advertising and partnerships to support the brand. This will be implemented alongside an array of digital and print media, aiming to position Standard Life as the number one retirement brand in the UK.  

All media activity will be planned, modelled and reported through Medialab’s proprietary marketing intelligence platform, Apollo.  

Sangita Chawla, Chief Marketing Officer at Standard Life said: “The economic challenges everyone has been facing over the last two years means that many people are feeling far from secure about their financial futures and are craving a degree of certainty in life. Our new Retirement Voice survey found 9 out of 10 people feel income certainty in retirement is important to them, and we are well placed to support this through an emphasis on financial education and wellness throughout people’s lives, as well as supporting them in those crucial years immediately before and at the point of retirement.  

“We’ve been impressed by Medialab’s engagement with these vital issues, and recognise their considerable strengths in TV, digital planning and buying and partnership development. We’re passionate about using media as part of our brand distinctiveness as we continue to grow and help more customers on their journey to and through retirement, and this will be complemented by the Medialab team. We are confident that they have the skill and the will to help us boost the UK’s retirement confidence.”     

Marcus Orme, Chief Executive, Medialab added: “We are delighted to be working alongside Standard Life, a trusted and renowned brand dedicated to helping people prosper financially. This partnership builds on Medialab’s existing work with our high-value partner SunLife, also part of the Phoenix Group.  

It marks another significant milestone in our growth journey and underscores our stronghold in the financial services sector for the agency.”