St. James’s Place: The (Sky) Art of building a partnership

Key Points

• St. James’s Place has been a leading provider of financial advice in the UK for nearly 40 years. Despite success, the brand lacked awareness within the target audience (32%)
• They partnered with Sky Arts to reinforce the brand’s commitment to its ‘Invaluable Advice’ philosophy. They blended content, social and targeted advertising to create a cohesive and immersive brand experience.
• 28% of viewers were aware of the partnership. Spontaneous and promoted awareness saw massive uplifts. Viewers linked ‘Invaluable Advice’ to achieving financial goals and expressed positive sentiment toward St. James’s Place.

The Challenge

St. James’s Place is a leading UK financial advice provider, with a nearly 40-year track record of providing sound financial advice. Despite its success, the brand was unable to reach a wider audience, which can be seen by the brand having awareness levels at just 32% in the UK.

St. James’s Place handed their media agency, Mindshare, a clear set of objectives. The campaign would need to increase spontaneous and prompted brand awareness among a target audience of culturally engaged ABC1 adults between 30 and 60. Along with this, the campaign would need to drive positive shifts in brand perception, positioning the brand as accessible, human and invaluable.

The TV Solution

Armed with insights, Mindshare got to work in crafting an approach that would deliver the results for St. James’s Place. They knew that the brand was a well-respected financial institution, but it needed to transcend this view and form deeper and more meaningful relationships with their target audience. Mindshare felt that the key to this was tapping into a shared passion, The Arts, and demonstrating the brand’s commitment to enriching lives beyond just financial portfolios.

TV was selected as the lead channel thanks to its ability to establish credibility and deliver broad reach, ensuring the brand’s messaging resonated with as wide an audience as possible. Mindshare negotiated a partnership with Sky Arts - a beacon of cultural accessibility and enrichment.

The challenge was to make the partnership resonate authentically and to show St. James’s Place as being genuinely committed to supporting and celebrating artistic endeavours. The big idea was to weave St. James’s Place’s ‘Invaluable advice’ philosophy into the fabric of Sky Arts. Alongside the channel sponsorship, they wanted to create content that resonated with the Sky Arts audience on an emotional level.

The Plan

Having laid down the strategic framework, crafted to maximise reach, resonance and engagement with a target audience of culturally engaged ABC1 Adults, Mindshare put their plan into action. This would see St. James’s Place and Sky Arts seamlessly blend sponsorship with branded content, social media and targeted advertising to create a cohesive and immersive brand experience.

The TV sponsorship formed the backbone of the partnership between Sky Arts and St. James’s Place. It provided a platform that would allow the brand’s ‘Invaluable Advice’ philosophy to connect with a broad audience. The on-air sponsorship was timed to coincide with key Sky Arts programming and seasonal viewing patterns. The high frequency of idents ensured that viewers were exposed several times, reinforcing the ‘Invaluable Advice’ message. The idents aired across Sky Arts’ linear programming, including flagship content like ‘Portrait Artist of the Year’, as well as on demand content. This was further amplified across social media with competitions, driving deeper engagement and brand awareness.

Alongside the linear sponsorship, Mindshare and St. James’s Place created short-from branded content, which was promoted across Sky Arts’ digital platforms and social channels. Hosted by Andi Oliver and featuring creatives like Nikita Gil and John Waugh, the series reinforced the brand’s ‘Invaluable Advice’ philosophy. The content generated over 4.5 million views and nearly 3,000 clicks to the St. James’s Place landing page, successfully linking the concept of trusted advice with the brand’s financial expertise.

Finally, the partnership extended into the business itself, with St. James’s Place employees and Partners engaging with behind-the-scenes access and tickets to Sky Arts events, empowering them to articulate the partnership’s significance to clients.

Results

St. James’s Place’s sponsorship of Sky Arts delivered a resounding success for the brand, delivering against the objectives and showing significant improvements in key brand metrics.

Firstly, viewers aware of the partnership highlighted the synergy between brand and channel, with 28% of viewers aware of the sponsorship in some way.

The creatives resonated with viewers and outperformed norms, with viewers agreeing that the sponsorship ‘told them something new’ and ‘improved my opinion’ both showing improvements.

With the category seeing minimal changes, St. James’s Place recorded the biggest difference in viewers and viewers aware of the sponsorship, demonstrating the sponsorship’s positive impact:

• 125% in spontaneous and prompted awareness
• 73% of viewers reporting improved perceptions of St. James’s Place
• 80% of viewers associated ‘Invaluable Advice’ with achieving financial goals
• 76% of viewers expressed positive feeling toward St. James’s Place

The campaign was a finalist in the Best Use of Sponsorship category at the TV Planning Awards 2025 and won the TV Sponsorship Award at the UK Sponsorship Awards 2025.

Databank

Sector: Finance

Brand: St. James’s Place

Campaign objectives: Change perceptions, drive brand awareness

Target Audience: ABC1 adults between 30 and 60

Budget: Unknown

Campaign Dates: The sponsorship has been running since 1 April 2024

TV Usage: Sponsorship & branded content

Idents produced by: Recipe (now All Things)

Media Agency: Mindshare