Market Trends/ Direct response/ Digital Media

Financial services customers favor direct mail and online
By Mark Mayne Direct Response 05-Oct-07

Direct marketing and online provide the best routes to customers looking for information on financial services products, research from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) shows.
The report, which the DMA Financial Services Council compiled in conjunction with NMG Research, revealed that 55 per cent of consumers use the internet to look for information on financial products, while 24 per cent responded to personally addressed mail
The research, which was based on interviews with 1,000 consumers, also showed that 21 per cent would contact a provider by phone, while 10 per cent would respond to a call from a financial services provider.

Eric Austin, chair of the DMA Financial Services Council, said in a statement: "It is encouraging to see that integrated marketing is prevalent. Use of the internet for both researching and buying products is predictably high, but so are telephone and mail."
The survey also showed that the top reason for buying a product through direct and digital channels, rather than an IFA or high-street bank, was price.

"It is a concern that price is a key trigger in the purchase pattern," Austin added. "It is clearly important that consumers are also aware of what their cover includes and any exclusions." The financial services industry is recognized as one of the most prolific distributors of direct mail. Research from Royal Mail saw building societies' use of direct mail rise by 18.8 per cent to 15.9 million mailings in Q4 2006. The insurance sector posted a small year-on-year increase in DM volumes - from 83.4 million items in 2005 to 83.9 million in 2006.

Behavioural targeting

Social sites show potential
By Caitlin Fitzsimmons Direct Response 15-Nov-07

Online social networking is emerging as an opportunity for marketers seeking more direct relationships with consumers, as two of the most popular sites recently opened more of users' personal data to advertisers.

In November, UK market leader Facebook (according to Hitwise figures), and third-ranked MySpace launched separate targeted advertising products. Meanwhile Google has launched OpenSocial, an open standard for software development for social networking sites. This is expected to reduce the cost for marketers by creating applications for end users. MySpace, Bebo, Oracle, Xing, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Hi5, iLike, and Google's Orkut have signed up.The marketing opportunity for social networking is immense. Facebook is the fourth most visited URL in the UK, behind Google, eBay and Windows Live Mail (the new version of Hotmail)

"The potential is huge, given the number of users" he said. Pollard is impressed with Facebook's ad system, which lets advertisers set up a profile page and place ads into users' news feeds. Users can become "fans" of businesses and act as a referral by sharing information about a firm via their Facebook page. On launch, Facebook added more than 100,000 pages from various companies and brands to the system. Coca-Cola, Blockbuster, Dove and The New York Times have already signed up.

Meanwhile, News Corporation-owned MySpace has launched "Hyper Targeting", which will place ads on users' profiles on the basis of their interests and tastes, though they can opt out. Procter & Gamble, Microsoft and Ford are said to be interested in the service, which will look at what users say in their profiles and their behaviour online. Ross Taylor, managing director of digitaltmw, said the improved targeting was positive, but there were limits to how narrowly an advertiser would want to focus. He added users regard these sites as their personal space, so advertisers need to tread carefully.

Insurance brand (competition)

Halifax uses festive viral game to push home insurance offers
Article Type: Author: Danielle Long Source: NMA magazine Published: 13.12.07

Halifax has launched a festive viral game as part of an integrated campaign for the financial services’ home insurance brand. The game, Grotto Defence, forms part of a larger integrated campaign to inform Halifax home insurance customers that they could beat renewal quotes and freeze their premium for three years. The campaign aims to generate new home insurance prospects, capture renewal dates and increase traffic to the home insurance site.