Marketing, communications and creative agency Ferrier Pearce won a prestigious award at the Design Business Association (DBA) Design Effectiveness Awards on Thursday 16 February.
The annual awards are the only ones that use commercial data to judge the effectiveness of great design in achieving business results.
It is the second year running Ferrier Pearce has won a DBA Design Effectiveness Award. This year it achieved a silver award for internal communications, for its work on a new pension scheme for the engineering and design consultancy, Arup.
The communications strategy by Ferrier Pearce led to more than 90% of Arup employees joining their new DC pension scheme, with 73% of new joiners actively choosing where to invest their contributions.
Ferrier Pearce’s campaign put even the most complex decisions about appetite for investment risk into a format that employees could relate to, to help them make decisions about their benefits.
Using email alerts, a new pensions website, booklets and leaflets Ferrier Pearce drew out the key features of the new pension scheme. One year on take-up is almost double the national average, at 93%, compared to 50% nationally and 63% for Arup’s previous scheme.
Rosemary Mounce, Group Pensions Manager of Arup, said: “Our pension has always been a significant part of the attraction for potential new employees to Arup, but often it was just too difficult to understand the options available. Now it is easy for new staff members to understand, find the information they need and join.”
This is Ferrier Pearce’s second Design Effectiveness Award win, having received a 2011 award for marketing and communications work for South Oxfordshire District Council’s new waste collection and recycling service.
The award is also the second piece of recognition for Ferrier Pearce’s work with Arup, which won a silver award in the Digital Impact Awards for Best Digital Employee Communication last year.
Jon Pearce, Managing Director of Ferrier Pearce Communications, said: “The DBA’s recognition of the importance of commercial impact dovetails perfectly with our own aspirations for our clients’ brands, and ultimately, their business.”
For more information on the Design Business Association please visit: www.dba.org.uk.
