Belgium suffers under the pressure of an untenable pension system. If we don’t work longer in the near future, our aging population makes it impossible to keep on paying pensioner’s monthly loans.

As one of Belgium’s biggest pension insurance companies, Delta Lloyd Life felt it was its duty to enter this debate to help finding solutions. That way, it wanted to claim it’s position as thought leader when it comes to pension matters, and indirectly increase its brand awareness.

Belgians gradually understand they’ll have to work longer to maintain their pension system. Numerous initiatives are taken to extend their careers. But no one ever launched the idea of re-activating pensioners on the labor market.

However, we know from European research that a third of the older population is willing to work after 65. Research also showed that pensioners who stay active are happier.

That’s why Delta Lloyd Life started a national test project where retirees could go back to work. Not to do the job they had been doing for over 20 or 30 years, but to experience new jobs they always dreamed of.

The insights of the test project resulted in a political recommendation for politicians to improve Belgians current pension system.

By involving pensioners, companies, politicians, and pension experts, Stage Sans Age contained a relevant news angle for almost every medium: whether they were popular or quality media; radio, TV or print; regional or national.

This resulted in a 1.500.000 euro media value. And Belgians biggest TV-stations already asked Delta Lloyd Life if they could use ‘Stage Sans Age’ as a new TV-format.

'Stage Sans Age' was launched by the Ministers of Work and Pensions, on World Elderly Day, with a press conference in the government's pension headquarters. The launch was supported by social media activities, online bannering, Facebook ads etc. From that moment, interested pensioners and companies could submit their participation via the campaign website.

The internships start in November and end in January 2013 with a press conference where media can interview all interns and their companies. One of them is Felix, the 65-year old trainee who was Delta Lloyd's Social Media Manager for 3 months.

Communication Results:

Stage sans Age was followed with great attention of national media. Almost every medium discussed the idea of working after 65. Today, the project is worth more than €1.5m media value, which is a lot for a small country like Belgium. It was covered by 5 TV stations and 7 radio programmes. 25 print media and 50 news websites published an article about the campaign.

Commercial Results:

During the campaign, the number of quotation requests from agents and bank agents at Delta Lloyd Life quadrupled in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared with the same period in 2011.