Shepherds Friendly has launched a new integrated marketing campaign celebrating its bicentenary, building on the success of its Mutual Moments advertising series while expanding its media activity across multiple channels.
The Manchester-based mutual society, which marks 200 years of serving members on Christmas Day this year, has refreshed its consumer-facing campaign to incorporate references to the milestone anniversary.
Commenting on the campaign, Zac Chetwynd, head of marketing at Shepherds Friendly, said the organisation wanted to celebrate both the life milestones of its members and its own landmark anniversary.
“After the success of the brand campaign last year, it’s exciting to roll out our latest multichannel campaign referencing Shepherds Friendly’s 200th anniversary, and also to make our first move into linear TV,” he said.
“While the messaging remains the same in that we’re here to support our members at every stage of their lives, we wanted to demonstrate our extensive history of doing so and we could think of no better way of doing this than leaning into our own milestone.”
The activity highlights Shepherds Friendly’s long-standing commitment to helping members navigate key life moments, from buying a first home and starting a family to planning once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
The latest campaign follows an intermediary-focused initiative launched earlier this year and includes outdoor, radio, Meta, video-on-demand and, for the first time, linear television advertising.
A six-week outdoor campaign featuring 10 billboards across the UK generated 46.4 million impacts, while new radio and Meta adverts launched in June and will run through to the end of November.
Creative assets have been updated to reflect the bicentenary celebrations, with the new radio adverts referencing the society’s 200-year heritage.
One advert tells the story of a customer moving into their first home, building on Shepherds Friendly’s wider “Kick off your future” messaging, which also featured in its recent pitch-side advertising at the Challenge Cup.
Alongside the bicentennial activity, Shepherds Friendly has expanded its media strategy with its first investment in linear television advertising.
The initial four-week campaign aired on Sky channels throughout April, generating 12.8 million impacts. A second wave of television advertising is scheduled for September and October.
The mutual has also continued to invest in video-on-demand advertising, with campaigns now running on ITVX. In May alone, its video-on-demand activity delivered more than one million impacts.
The campaign builds on Shepherds Friendly’s first television advertising activity, launched last year under the Milestone Moments theme.