Direct Mediacom News

Home & Legacy moves into motor

2009-04-24T09:03:00.000-07:00

Home & Legacy, the household and contents broker, has expanded into the motor market.
The company, a subsidiary of Allianz, has lined up insurers Chaucer and Groupama on the panel of its new product, Ultra Motor. Ultra will launch on 1 April.

Barry O’Neill, Home & Legacy’s managing director, said: “We have spent the last year preparing our infrastructure by relocating our business and investing a great deal in technology.

“We have now created the infrastructure that will allow us to grow our business rapidly.”

The high net worth broker has also relaunched its policy wordings for household insurance. The firm is ranked in the top category for its policy wordings by Defaqto, the independent rating service.

O’Neill said the company would continue working predominantly as a wholesale broker. It has 65 employees with its headquarters in London.

Moneysupermarket’s 10% fall

2009-04-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

Moneysupermarket.com has said its insurance revenues for the first quarter were down 10% on the same period last year with motor falling but growth in its home insurance business.

It said demand for discretionary insurance in general, including travel insurance, was lower than the same period last year.

The company has cut 80 jobs.

Peter Plumb, chief executive, said: “Trading levels appear to have stabilised over the course of quarter one. As promised at the time of the preliminary results we have taken action to reconfigure our cost base for the lower levels of both demand and supply arising from the current recession. We have also made good progress over a relatively short period of time with our marketing plans and these should deliver benefits in the second half of the year.

“We remain the UK's leading price comparison website and customers remain at the heart of everything we do. We continue to add functionality and products to our site to make it even more useful for customers. I am confident that the successful execution of the group's strategy in 2009 will position moneysupermarket.com for continued long term sustainable growth.”

Hastings offer bikers free Personal Accident Cover

2009-04-24T08:55:00.000-07:00

Motorcyclists comprise just 1% of road traffic, yet are involved in 19% of all accidents according to figures from the Department for Transport.

Hastings Direct motorcycle division, Hastings Bike Team, are aiming to support bikers by offering them up to £15,000 free Personal Accident Cover on every bike insurance policy, also including £750 or less towards helmet and leather cover.

The Hastings Bike Team consists of specialists in motorcycle insurance equipped with the experience to address any potential queries clients might have or other issues around motorbike insurance.

With the recent glorious summer weather, more and more bikers will enjoy the sunny days on their bikes, but they should not neglect the possibility of encountering accidents.

Most accidents are caused by being careless or reckless, or failing to pay due care and attention at turns or other people’s path or speed.

Easter DIY disasters cause spike in insurance claims

2009-04-09T07:25:00.000-07:00

DIY disasters will cause a spike in home insurance claims over the Easter weekend, AXA warned yesterday.

The home insurance provider said DIY accidents will peak on Saturday morning, with spilled paint as the prime suspect.

Paint spillages in past years have accounted for 40% of Easter accidents.

Other Easter mishaps include accidental holes in walls and ceilings (28%), broken furniture (23%), and water damage (19%).

Worryingly, 14% of claimants have caused a fire.

One in five of those taking out the toolbox this weekend will have an accident, AXA said, and claims will cost insurers an average of £900 each, with some accidents costing as much as £10,000.

Furthermore, a number of DIYers will end up nursing injuries in hospital.

Nick Kidd, AXA head of home insurance, said: “We’re a nation of enthusiastic DIYers but people need to be careful.

“As well as all the other preparation that’s essential for a good DIY job, it’s worth checking out whether you’ve got suitable insurance in place.”

Twitter-focused UK start-up launches with big media clients

2009-04-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

LONDON - Warner Music and Virgin Media are among several brands working with a start-up agency called Twitter Partners, which plans to offer services from consultancy to customer insight, CRM and reputation management.

Twitter Partners is led by former Nielsen president and angel investor Peter Read and is a privately held, London-based firm.

Read has assembled a line-up of well-known digital figures to advise the company. They include former Yahoo! vice-president Toby Coppel, Last.fm founder Stefan Glaenzer, LoveFilm co-founder Saul Klein and Lastminute.com founders Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman.

One of Twitter Partners' first tasks is a campaign promoting the release the animated band Gorillaz' upcoming documentary titled 'Bananaz'.

Other clients include Universal Pictures, Lionsgate, Knitting Factory, Paramount and Comedy.com.

Twitter Partners will offer the brands a number of services, including customer insight, profiling and segmentation, CRM, buzz monitoring, virtual focus groups and corporate reputation management.

It will initially work on a consultancy basis but plans to expand into products and automation in the future.

According to twitter Partners' website, it has already lined up 11 agency partners, including Razorfish and Unanimis, and is "building a suite of apps, tools and services to help brands, media companies, and celebrities harness the power of the Twitter ecosystem".

The Twitter 'ecosystem' is now inhabited by more than 7m users but Twitter itself has yet to find a secure revenue model. The company houses approximately 30 staff, mostly engineers, and has been more focused on technical than commercial development.

Twitter is currently being courted by many firms, including Google, which was reported to be in "late-stage" acquisition talks with Twitter last week, though it now appears negotiations are at a much earlier stage.

A number of brands and celebrities are already well-established on Twitter, including Stephen Fry, Starbucks and Comparethemarket.com, which recently ran a campaign asking Twitter users if they would like to appear on a testimonial page on its mascot's website.

Sainsbury's insurance warning for cost cutters

2009-04-09T07:17:00.000-07:00

As the credit crunch continues to grind on, Brits have been coming up with ways to cut back on costs in a bid to save money.

According to a study conducted by Sainsbury's Bank, people are going so far to scrimp on outgoings that they are actually reducing insurance cover and some are cancelling policies altogether.

However, the bank has warned that insurance should be viewed as a necessity, not a luxury.

Sainsbury's Home Insurance manager Neil Laird explained: "It's inevitable that people are going to be looking to make cut backs, but it's a real concern when those cut backs leave them vulnerable to far greater expense down the line."

In a bid to ensure that people are adequately covered at an affordable cost, given the current economic climate, Sainsbury's is to launch a '30-30-30' offer, which could see customers getting a discount of 30 per cent on contents and building cover, in addition to two lots of £30 shopping vouchers.

British drivers downsize to save on insurance costs

2009-03-23T08:29:00.000-07:00

March is traditionally the month when drivers renew their insurance policy, and according to research by Saga, nearly three million motorists have downsized to a smaller car in recent months to save on insurance costs at policy renewal.

Eight percent of motorists - 2.7 million drivers -have opted for a car with a smaller engine to reduce their monthly insurance bill, as well as cutting back on fuel and tax costs.

A further 8% have increased their voluntary excess to reduce monthly insurance premiums, whilst 4% have removed named drivers from their policy.

One in twenty (5%) motorists have removed optional extras from their policy, such as breakdown cover or legal expenses.

Three quarters (73%) of drivers, however, have not yet done anything to reduce their insurance costs.

Saga chief executive Andrew Goodsell encouraged more drivers to take ’simple steps’ to reduce the cost of policy renewal.

Goodsell said: “Remembering to update your car insurance policy as your needs change can help save money on monthly premiums at a time when many people are looking to reign in their spending.

“However, it’s important to ensure the quality of the cover isn’t compromised and the policy still meets all your needs.”

One in five motorists drive without insurance

2009-03-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

One in five motorists admitted to driving a car without insurance in a recent survey by moneysupermarket.com.

The price comparison site found that 19% of drivers have broken the law by getting behind the wheel of a vehicle they weren’t insured to take on the road.

Nearly a tenth (9%) of motorists have driven their own car without insurance, whilst 8% have driven someone else’s car whilst not adequately insured.

Men are more likely than women to flout insurance laws, with one in four admitting to driving whilst uninsured, compared to one in six women.

Andy Leadbetter, moneysupermarket.com director of insurance, said: “It is a shame to see so many of us have taken to the roads when uninsured to drive, and this year’s results reveal a worrying trend.

“In 2008 we found 15 per cent of motorist admitting to the offence so 2009 has seen an unfortunate increase.”

He added that penalties for those caught driving without insurance include a £200 on-the-spot fine and six points on their driving license.

The uninsured vehicle can also be impounded, with a £150 collection charge and £20 per day storage fee.

“If Brits are forgoing their motor insurance for cost reasons it clearly is a false economy,” Leadbetter said.

Moneysupermarket adds to home and motor panels

2009-03-23T07:55:00.000-07:00

Virgin, Churchill and Privilege all sign up

Moneysupermarket has added Virgin, Churchill and Privilege to its motor and home insurance panels.

The price comparison site now has 91 partners on its motor panel, while its home insurance panel has increased to 50.

Andy Leadbetter, managing director of insurance at Moneysupermarket, said: “We strive to provide the widest range of car insurers for our customers to compare and are delighted to now offer these new insurance providers. Customer feedback tells us that choice, and clear, impartial information about car insurance policies is important and we want to deliver this to our users. We are constantly expanding and upgrading the service we offer so consumers get exactly what they need as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

"In 2008 moneysupermarket.com launched its ‘next generation’ motor insurance channel, with improved functionality and questions which removed the need for assumptions. Motor insurance quotes should now be 100 per cent accurate – the price customers see is the actual price they pay. The addition of the dynamic Policy Wizard function means consumers can tweak and tailor their policy to add and remove features whilst clearly viewing the premium price update in real time.

He continued: “Through the next generation motor insurance tool we are confident we offer the best motor comparison service which is easy to use, with powerful features and a huge percentage of the market available to compare. Whilst price is still a key consideration, consumers also want to compare the features included in their insurance product, and our new tool makes it quick and easy to find the right product at the right price.”

“Alongside the motor insurance offerings we are pleased to welcome these home insurance providers to our listings. We look forward to continuing to increase this selection – thereby offering customers a wider choice and more comprehensive view of the home insurance market.”

Insurance renewal forms confuse householders

2009-03-23T07:50:00.000-07:00

Home insurance renewal forms are the most confusing documents received through the post, according to a poll of UK households.

Research commissioned by Gocompare.com found that 24% of Brits simple file their home insurance documents and allow the policy to renew automatically because they find the renewal documents too confusing.

Gocompare warns that because of this confusion, many insurance customers are missing out on the best available deals.

In addition, because the documents are not read through properly, insurance customers could be buying an inappropriate policy, or leaving themselves underinsured.

Hayley Parsons, Gocompare.com chief executive, said: “The language used and the technical nature of renewal documents make them a less than compelling read.”

However, she warned that householders should read through the documents to ensure they are getting good value for their premium payments, and to check that they have the right cover for their needs.

Utility bills were the second most difficult document for households to understand, with 20% of those polled finding them frustrating to read

Insurance Related issues

2009-01-23T08:54:00.000-08:00

Government targets motorists without insurance

Keeping a car without insurance is to become a criminal offence under changes to the law proposed by the government today.

Around 6.5% of motorists are thought to be uninsured, and an estimated 160 people are killed and 23,000 injured each year by drivers without cover.

It is already an offence to drive without insurance, but under the changes proposed today it will also become an offence to keep an uninsured car. Those convicted will face a fine of up to £1,000 and the possibility of court action to seize the vehicle.

The road safety minister, Jim Fitzpatrick, said new processes would allow the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and the Motor Insurance Bureau in Milton Keynes to work together to cross reference records and identify those vehicle owners without valid insurance.
The DVLA will write to drivers telling them to either pay for insurance or explain why they have not got cover.

If they do not take out insurance or fail to provide a reason why they have not, they will face a fixed fine of £100. If they still do not get cover they could be fined £1,000 and have their vehicle seized. Car enthusiasts and amateur mechanics who will not be driving their vehicles and have a statutory off-road notice (Sorn) in place will be excused.

Fitzpatrick said: "The selfish minority of drivers who refuse to insure their cars push up premiums for other motorists and kill or injure thousands of people each year.

"Increased police powers already mean more than 400 uninsured vehicles are seized every day, but these tough new measures will leave uninsured drivers with nowhere to hide."

Drivers without insurance are believed to cost law-abiding motorists around £30 a year in extra insurance premiums. The AA said last week that the cost of motor insurance premiums had increased considerably over the past year as a result of rising personal injury claims and incidents of insurance fraud.

The average cost of comprehensive cover has increased by 8.7% on this time last year to £741.66 a year.

Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, said the insurance industry was under "considerable financial pressure" and that further price hikes were likely.

"We expect this upward trend to accelerate," he said. "Although the bank base rate has fallen and there is widespread price-cutting across credit-crunch Britain, the costs insurers face are rising fast."

Competitors

2009-01-23T08:35:00.000-08:00

Norwich Union marketing director explains name change in video blog

LONDON - Norwich Union, soon to be Aviva, is launching its first ever video blog, starring its sales and marketing director John Kitson.

The blog, which targets insurance brokers, was developed by Chemistry and will support the companies re-brand from Norwich Union to Aviva from 1 June.
Readers of Insurance Times will be able to watch Kitson's blog in which he will talk about his journey managing the name change from Norwich Union to Aviva.

Brokers will be able to make written posts about the blog, which will also be promoted through the Insurance Times website.
Norwich Union is currently running a major above-the-line marketing campaign to promote the name change to Aviva which the company uses in most territories around the world.
The ad features celebrities, such as Bruce Willis and Ringo Star, who have changed their names.

To watch the blog visit http://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/thejohnkitsonblog

Competitors

2009-01-23T08:25:00.000-08:00

AIG ends Man Utd sponsorship deal

The troubled US insurer AIG will not be renewing its shirt sponsorship deal with Manchester United that expires in May 2010.

AIG agreed to pay £14m-a-year for four years for the shirt sponsorship and also has a longer £5m-a-year deal to run MU Finance.

It is currently restructuring itself, having received a $150bn (£109bn) bail-out from the US government.

It is not clear whether the MU Finance deal will continue.
AIG signed a six-and-a-half year deal at the beginning of 2008 to offer insurance, credit cards and mortgages using the MU Finance brand.

Manchester United said that it had already started talking to a select group of potential sponsors.

Its spokesman added that it was normal to begin the process this early because technical issues surrounding the manufacturing of shirts meant that it has to know who will be its shirt sponsor for the 2010/2011 season by the autumn.

Last week in Macau, Manchester United chief executive David Gill said he would not be surprised if the AIG shirt sponsorship deal was not renewed.

AIG has already ended its sponsorship deal with the US Davis Cup tennis team.

LV= to provide insurance products to Nationwide Building Society customers

2009-01-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

UK-based LV= has announced that it is providing a range of insurance products to Nationwide Building Society customers.

According to LV=, the strategic partnership, which was originally announced in June 2008, will run for an initial period of six years, during which LV= will be the sole provider to Nationwide of car and travel insurance, as well as business insurance policies for shops, offices, surgeries and owners of buy-to-let properties. LV= will also manage the sales, underwriting and administration of new policies.

Mike Rogers, CEO of LV= Group, said: "We share many of the same values as Nationwide and as fellow mutuals we can focus purely on providing the best products, prices and service to our members and customers."

Good news for RBSi on a recent online insurance survey

2009-01-08T06:47:00.000-08:00

Churchill and Sheila's Wheels offer the 'best experience' online for motor insurance customers, but Lloyds was found to be best for Home Insurance, according to a new poll.
The research from customer experience benchmarking company, Global Reviews, measured customers' experience on twelve motor insurance and fifteen home insurance websites.
The sites were assessed against more than 550 objective criteria including the information available to prospective buyers, customer support, service offered to customers, and general site usability.

The study found that there is a huge difference between the home insurance websites. Lloyds leads the way with 62% and Zurich has the lowest score with 46% (see below for full benchmark).

Lloyds is top of the table because they are head and shoulders above the rest for the quality of the customer support online with a score of 70% for this category.

- Churchill received the highest score for online applications with 64%, closely followed by Lloyds at 62%.
- Privilege and Churchill were found to offer the best sales support online with scores of 68%.
- Lloyds ranked number one by some way for customer support with a score of 70%. Churchill came second with 51%.
- When it comes to the quality of the homepage, search and overall navigation, Norwich Union and Halifax received the highest scores of 79%.
- Direct Line was found to offer the best content online, with the highest score of 56%.

The variance across motor insurance websites is much less with only 10% difference in the scores. Churchill and Sheila's Wheels lead the way with 51%. Tesco (44%), Admiral (43%) and Budget (41%) have the lowest scores (see below for full benchmark). Churchill and Sheila's Wheels are top of the table because they receive good scores in all areas.

- More Th>n received the highest score of 57% for online applications, closely followed by Admiral and esure at 54%.
- Sheila's Wheels was found to offer the best sales support online with a score of 52%, closely followed by More Th>n with 51%.
- Swiftcover (61%), Direct Line (58%) and Churchill (52%) are head and shoulders above the rest for customer support.
- When it comes to the quality of the homepage, search and overall navigation, Norwich Union received the highest scored of 75%.
- The AA was found to offer the best content online, with the highest score of 55%, closely followed by Swiftcover and Churchill with 54%.

The Home Insurance scores may seem higher than the Motor insurance scores, but they are different benchmarks, so they cannot be compared like for like. It is only possible to compare companies within each product benchmark.

Global Reviews director, Bertie Stevenson said: "The vast majority of consumers depend on websites to research their insurance options. If customers find it difficult to find the information they are looking for, or to apply online, their competitors are just a click away. Even those at the top of the benchmark need to look regularly at what competitors are doing as change can happen quickly online."

Churchill Ad Success

2008-12-23T03:32:00.000-08:00

17th December 2008

Marketing's Adwatch of the Year 2008

LONDON - A slew of celebrity endorsements have aided major retailers' dominance of consumer recall of TV commercials, but humour, no-frills clarity, bold price promotions and even plain weirdness have also had an impact.

The UK's biggest retailers have forced their way into the public consciousness with some truly memorable TV advertising over the past 12 months, according to Marketing's Adwatch of the Year survey.

The rankings, aggregated from the Adwatch tables that have appeared in Marketing in the 12 months to October 2008, show which brands achieved the strongest recall across the year, and also the ads that scored highest recall in any single week. The figures also reveal which advertising and media agencies have had the most success in producing ads that have stuck in consumers' minds.

A trio of supermarkets dominates the table for the most recalled ads of the year. Morrisons and Asda posted the most impressive recall scores, putting them head and shoulders above the competition and demonstrating the continuing power of celebrity-led campaigns.
Celebrities were also to the fore in the work for Tesco and Marks & Spencer, which made third and fourth place respectively.

It is Morrisons that tops the list, however, thanks to its ads featuring the likes of Lulu, Denise van Outen and Richard Hammond going about their shopping, backed by a catchy Take That soundtrack. It is an astonishing performance for a brand that did not appear in last year's top 20, and one that vindicates its decision to invest in the high-profile campaign, created by DLKW.

Asda holds onto its second place from last year, thanks to a £10m increase in its TV spend, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. Tesco also spent more on TV over this period, and both its recall points and elevation from fifth to third place in the table reflect this.

Kellogg is the only non-retail brand to make the top 10 (down one place), while Sainsbury's (up four), Argos (down one) and DFS (down one) all retain top 10 placings from last year. However, last year's most recalled brand, PC World, slips down to ninth place this time around, a move that has coincided with a year-on-year cut in its TV spend.

Insurance brand Churchill may rank only 16th in the table of highest recall across the year, but one of its ads scored the highest recall in any single week. The 30-second commercial, created by WCRS, is set in a TV quiz show studio, where ‘Kim from Beckford' challenges Churchill with a series of questions. It achieved 83% recall during research conducted between 22 and 25 February.

Meanwhile, Asda makes it a brace of second places in our two main Adwatch of the Year tables, with the second-highest recall in any week for its ad featuring Julie Walters working as a Christmas trainee.

It was an extremely close and hard-fought battle between the creative agencies that produce the most recalled ads, with Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO taking the top spot and retaining its crown from last year - just one mention ahead of DLKW, which, in turn, was just one mention above third-placed McCann Erickson.

Competition was equally intense among the media agencies, with MindShare retaining its number one position by just one mention from Carat, which also came second last year.

Competitors

2008-12-23T03:00:00.000-08:00

2nd December 2008

Post Office extends home insurance protection against Christmas crime

UK-based Post Office Financial Services has announced that it is increasing its home insurance cover by 10% during the month of December 2008.

Post Office said that its contents insurance automatically increases the level of cover at no extra cost during major celebrations such as Christmas to ensure that any gifts or extra valuables in your home at this time are covered.

The company said that the new customers can now claim GBP50 cashback when taking out a combined Post Office buildings and contents insurance policy in branch until March 31, 2009.

Emma Baunach, head of home insurance at Post Office, said: "At this time of year people often have more valuables in their homes than usual. Over Christmas you don't want to be worrying about whether or not you have enough cover on your home insurance, so we have made the extra cover automatic to make sure you are protected."

Insurance Related Issues

2008-08-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

RBS has £691m loss in first half

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has posted a pre-tax loss of £691m during the first six months of 2008, the second-biggest loss in UK banking history.

RBS, which owns NatWest bank, said it was hit by £5.9bn of write-downs after the credit crunch cut the value of many of its mortgages and assets.
The bank made a profit of £5bn during the same period last year.
RBS boss Fred Goodwin warned that a "deteriorating economic outlook" would compound problems in financial markets.
RBS had been expected to post a much larger loss with some analysts predicting the UK's second-biggest bank could see a loss of between £1.2bn and £1.7bn.
The company's shares added 2.7% to 239.25 pence in London.
Chief executive Mr Goodwin said the losses had been a "chastening experience", and that reporting a shortfall of £691m was something he and his colleagues "regret very much".
Mr Goodwin warned that difficult conditions in financial markets "look set to be compounded by a deteriorating economic outlook".

Credit crunched
Much of RBS's write-down total stems from investments at Dutch bank ABN Amro, bought by RBS and partners last year.

RBS, along with other UK and global banks, has suffered from a drop in the value of risky assets, particularly those linked to US sub-prime mortgages. Sub-prime borrowers are those with poor or non-existent credit histories, and in recent months the number of defaults has jumped.

The BBC's business editor Robert Peston said that RBS's undoing was that it had piled into toxic securities linked to the dire US sub-prime housing market - and its exposure to the poison was increased through the ABN takeover.
As a result, RBS's so-called credit market write-downs were £5.1bn - an almost "incomprehensibly" big figure.
Our correspondent said that this was particularly galling for the bank as the rest of its business was not doing too badly.

Cash boost
As a result of the problems in the US and other global financial markets, many lenders have had to find ways of boosting their cash reserves, with many deciding to sell shares to existing investors via a right issue.

RBS sold shares worth £12bn in a rights issue that was strongly supported by shareholders, who agreed to buy some 95% of the stock on offer.
The rights issue was the biggest in UK corporate history, and the firm said investors would take up 5.8bn new shares at a value of 200 pence each.
Following the rights issues, RBS said that its core tier 1 capital ratio, a key measure of cash and asset levels, was now 5.7%.
Referring to the current economic difficulties, Mr Goodwin said the bank had "moved decisively" and had drawn heavily on its shareholders for financial support.
"We recognise that we must now deliver a level of performance that meets their expectations for the company and restores value to our shares. We are determined to do so, and this is our focus," said Mr Goodwin.

'Wrong deal'
Our business editor said that Mr Goodwin's comments were as close as you will ever hear to a chief executive saying that he is living on borrowed time.

He continued that Mr Goodwin was under unambiguous instruction from RBS's owners and its non-executives to fix the business, or "he would be out of the door quicker than it takes to say ABN was the wrong deal, at the wrong price, at the wrong time".
Other lenders which have also appealed to investors for extra cash including HBOS, and Bradford & Bingley.
RBS shares have more than halved in value over the past year - including a 25% slump since the rights issue was announced in April.

Competitors

2008-08-08T09:17:00.002-07:00

Media: AA set for Virgin Radio 'fuel' work

Marketing 29-Jul-08

AA Car Insurance is to sponsor a 'Free fuel Monday' slot on the Virgin Radio breakfast show hosted by Christian O'Connell.
The promotion, which offers listeners the chance to win petrol vouchers, comes at a time of rising fuel prices.
Ads will air on Virgin Radio throughout the weekend encouraging listeners to register online at a dedicated microsite.
Virgin Radio, which was recently acquired by TIML, is investing £15m in building its business. A new name for the station is expected to be unveiled soon.

Insurance related issues

2008-07-04T03:18:00.000-07:00

Use of direct channels improves online traffic

Direct marketing drives online traffic by up to 40%, according to collaborative publisher Tilt, which created its own insurance broker brand to conduct the research.

by Jacquie Bowser Brand Republic 02-Jul-08

The fake brand, called Quote Genie, was positioned as an online insurance broker providing a wide range of home, travel and motor insurance quotes.

Quote Genie was advertised in consumer guide Asrecommended Insurance, which was distributed to 600,000 prospects in January 2008.

Unique online visitors were recorded via the Quote Genie website and calls were routed and recorded by a call lead manager. The ad did not appear in any other form apart from direct mail.

In total, more than 2,000 consumers responded to the ad. Of that number, 41% responded by visiting the website, rather than picking up the phone.

Ben Allan, managing director at Tilt, said: "This project is the first of its kind and finally shows a true measure of the affect offline media has on driving online response.

"We are seeing more and more consumers preferring to communicate online rather than via the phone, regardless of where they picked up a brand message.

"If brands don't apportion a percentage of online response back to offline media and instead just reduce offline investment, they will be making flawed marketing spend decisions."

Insurance related issues

2008-07-04T03:12:00.000-07:00

Cash-strapped consumers switch to pay-as-you pricing model for mobile phones, cars, insurance and utilities

Until recently, pre-pay pricing deals have appealed mainly to adults with credit problems or no bank account, and children. However, as the economic climate worsens, consumers in other demographics are also beginning to turn to such propositions as they, too, find themselves short of cash.

by Alex Brownsell Marketing 24-Jun-08

Last week, Sony Ericsson's UK marketing manager Dave Hilton revealed that the handset manufacturer is dedicating more of its marketing budget to the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) market.

It is not only mobile phone companies that have spotted a growth in demand for PAYG. The concept is catching on in other sectors, where consumers are not willing to commit themselves to a 12-month contract. Gyms and leisure clubs, for example, are known for tying customers to lengthy deals, but Virgin Active is now allowing consumers to cancel with 30 days' notice at any stage in their contract.

Streetcar has based its entire business model on the pre-pay concept. The car-rental brand hires out vehicles starting at £3.95 an hour or £39.50 a day. Co-founder Andrew Valentine says that when times are hard, people look to do everything in the 'easiest and cheapest way they can'.

'People are having to be more careful with their money, and they are using this type of service more,' he adds. 'The length of rental is falling too - where people once rented a car for a day, they are now renting it for two to three hours.'

PAYG has also made inroads to the insurance market. AA Travel Insurance is running an outdoor campaign reminding holidaymakers that they can purchase cover for £5 a trip, as opposed to £32 for the year. Similarly, home-emergency insurance provider HomeServe has relaunched as a consumer brand offering 'Jobs on demand' for consumers who can't afford a full policy.

Despite having suspended its Pay-As-You-Drive insurance policy last week, Norwich Union says it is committed to the concept in the long term. It was introduced to help young drivers, who are often lumbered with costly premiums, by installing an in-vehicle device that records when and how far they drive.

Norwich Union spokesman Erik Nelson said the policy was successful, but as car manufacturers have not yet started to build these devices into models, it was a costly venture for the insurer. 'Average customer savings were about 30% and the retention rate was about 90%,' he says. 'We are saying the policy has "paused", because it will return.'

However, Paul Gordon, managing director at marketing agency Tangible Financial, points out that PAYG has its limitations, and is unlikely to make a big impact on financial services.

'You can see PAYG in transactional services and grudge purchases, such as insurance,' he says. 'But it would be difficult to implement it in longer-term projects, especially those linked to the stock market's ups and downs.'

The biggest problem faced by brands is that PAYG has long been considered poor value. Companies can claim, with some justification, that charges reflect the higher costs of operating a PAYG service, but, ultimately, consumers may be hesitant to sacrifice the long-term savings offered by pay-monthly deals.

Competitors

2008-07-04T03:09:00.000-07:00

Auto Trader signs Liverpool Victoria for Post-it notes campaign

Auto Trader has secured a four-week ad campaign with Liverpool Victoria Insurance, which will feature branded Liverpool Victoria Post-it notes bound in the magazine.

by David Allott Media Week 25-Jun-08

Auto Trader claims the campaign marks the first time Post-it notes have been used in a classifieds magazine in such a way.

Branded Liverpool Victoria Post-it notes will be bound into the front of the contents page, to be used to mark cars that the readers are most interested in.

Liverpool Victoria will also have a presence on the front cover, with a strip ad announcing the notes.The campaign will run nationally, excluding the Republic of Ireland, across Auto Trader's 12 regional editions for four weeks from 3 July.

In February, Auto Trader moved to broaden its advertiser base with a title relaunch and £15m ad campaign to arrest declining circulation, which included a new-look front cover, changes to editorial content and a revamp of its website.

Behavioural Targeting

2008-07-04T03:07:00.000-07:00

Newspaper Society launches interactive planning tool for advertisers

The Newspaper Society has launched an interactive planning tool that aims to provide agencies and advertisers with insight into social, behavioural and political differences between communities within the UK.

by Jacquie Bowser Brand Republic 20-Jun-08, 10:50

The Local Matters interactive planning tool contains data that reveals how attitudes towards issues including economy, personal safety, sports, environmental awareness, community and national government, vary considerably across 12 regions of the UK.

It is hoped that agencies and advertisers will be able to use the planning tool to find out how these issues are related to media usage. The data can be divided by region, lifestage or population centre.

Robert Ray, Newspaper Society director, said: "The UK is a hugely diverse country and the Local Matters research has shown how dramatically people's social and political attitudes, and behaviour, change depending upon the region in which they live.

"By using the Local Matters interactive planning tool, agencies and advertisers will be able to see these variations for themselves, also cutting by lifestage or population centre, and maximise the relevance of their communications message."

The Local Matters interactive planning tool is based on findings from a national study, which was conducted by Millward Brown and commissioned by the Newspaper Society.

Behavioural Targeting

2008-07-04T03:02:00.000-07:00

Bunnyfoot founder opens offline behavioural agency

LONDON - Behavioural research consultancy Bunnyfoot has spun its offline eye-tracking service into a separate entity to meet demand from clients.

by Joe Gill Brand Republic 03-Jul-08, 14:10

The new consultancy is called Think Eyetracking and specialises in testing consumers' behavioural response to offline media including TV, print, outdoor and packaging.
Its clients include JCDecaux, Proctor & Gamble, Ipsos and Unilever.

Rob Stevens, co-founder of Bunnyfoot, has opened Think's first office with managing director Lizzie Maughan heading the operation.

Since joining Bunnyfoot in 2004 Maughan has pioneered several methodologies and eye-tracking techniques in the areas of print, email, packaging and TV, and implemented them on a global scale.

Stevens said: "In an age when most companies are expanding to accommodate the digital era, we are bucking the trend and doing the reverse, by taking our eye-tracking experience in the digital world and translating it into the offline world."

The Reading-based test centre employs nine specialists to perform testing of up to 350 people each week using software developed over the last two years in conjunction with P&G.

Think's consultants use eye-tracking to determine cognitive processes related to visual stimulation such as decision-making, brand recognition and engagement.

The company said most of its interviews take between 10 and 15 minutes, including a 30-second calibration game, eye-tracking and a short questionnaire.

Behavioral Targeting

2008-06-20T08:25:00.000-07:00

Orange launches balloon race across the internet with Poke

by Staff Brand Republic 16-Jun-08, 12:00

LONDON - Orange is to launch a 'balloon race across the internet', as part of its Pay As You Go Animals marketing campaign, challenging people to fly across 1,500 websites.

The one week Orange Balloon Race, which will take place across sites including Yahoo! and the Sun, has signed up over 13,000 people who are chasing a luxury seven-night holiday prize for themselves and seven friends in Ibiza.

The Orange Balloon Race, designed and delivered by Poke and i-level, will run from June 23-30 and supports the Orange Animals Pay As You Go marketing campaign launched in May 2008. The campaign uses Orange Animal shaped balloons to represent the packages available, based on different types of consumer behaviour.

Contestants all begin from the same starting point, the Balloon Race home page. Entrants then race their balloons across a series of sites, boosting their balloon as they go along to make it travel faster. Players will be able to choose their own Orange animal balloon, which is powered by user-friendly controls that pop-up on screen, tracking their balloon as the race progresses.

Players will also be able to enlist the help of friends to boost their balloons and tools have been built for social networking sites including Bebo, Facebook and MySpace.

Spencer McHugh, head of digital and direct marketing Orange UK, said: "The digital space is becoming an important way for us to engage with our target audiences. The Orange Balloon Race is an exciting and innovative way to raise awareness of our new Pay As You Go Animal packages, while giving our customers a fun and interactive experience with the Orange brand."

DR Media

2008-06-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

Rias puts positive spin on ageing in DRTV drive

by Nikki Sandison Brand Republic 16-Jun-08, 11:20

LONDON - Watson Phillips Norman focuses on the benefits of getting older in a DRTV campaign for over-50s insurer Rias, called 'Better with age'.

Rias is launching the campaign to promote its car insurance products and it focuses on the multiple discounts available to customers over 50-years old.

The TV spot begins with a man in his late 50s sitting on his sofa, picking up his newspaper and thinking: "Some things about getting older I'm not crazy about. But there are compensations."
He puts on his glasses and we see that he is looking at a Rias car insurance ad, which lists a range of discounts available to the over 50s.

There are discounts for: being over 50; being retired; low mileage; having an older car; parking in the garage or on the drive; and up to nine years no claim discount.

The spot ends with the man peering over his glasses at his wife, who is also reading, and saying: "Yes, some things definitely get better with age."

The 60 and 30 second spots, which build on WPN's press and direct mail campaign for Rias, will appear across terrestrial, digital and satellite channels for the next two weeks.
The objective is to recruit new customers for Rias and the ads end by asking people to phone for a free car insurance quote.

Maria Phillips, creative partner at Watson Phillips Norman, said: "Many car insurance ads have a rather 'down market' look. The theme 'some things get better with age' resonates with the target audience and puts a very positive spin on growing older.

"The double entendre at the end brings a touch of humour to balance the very strong sales messages."

Direct marketing: It's all in the mix

by Robert Gray Marketing 10-Jun-08

A simplistic approach doesn't cut it any more. As consumers' media consumption habits change, marketers must invest in a multichannel approach to engaging with them in order to ensure their brand's survival.

Generating high levels of response, conversion or brand engagement is never easy in direct marketing. There is a wealth of variables to get right to achieve a decent return on investment, whether targeting existing customers or prospects.

Unquestionably, it is vital to pick the right mix of channels. However, as channels have proliferated - mail, email, SMS, telemarketing, DRTV, loyalty programmes, customer magazines, experiential - settling on the appropriate ones and giving them the optimum weighting in each campaign is becoming more problematic.

'Consumers have preferences for different channels at different times of the day,' says Direct Marketing Association (DMA) director of media channel development, Robert Keitch. 'No one channel is going to do it for you - end of story. The days of having a simplistic mix are gone. It comes down to understanding who the customer is.'

Consumer habits are evolving; for example, people now spend more time interacting with the web or their mobiles than sitting passively in front of the TV. Richard Higginbotham, head of marketing at marketing services provider CDMS, believes many marketers have as yet failed to exploit this shift.

'Once the customer has been identified, successful multi-channel implementation allows the marketer to actually contact the customer through the channel they prefer,' he says. 'Ensuring customers are receiving communications through a medium to which they are responsive is key to producing customer satisfaction and improving ROI.'

There is plenty of evidence that a multichannel approach to direct marketing tends to deliver far better results than concentration on a single touchpoint. Research from Royal Mail, for instance, has found that integrating digital advertising with direct mail campaigns can increase customer spend by almost 25%, while 55% of 'confident web users' prefer to be contacted by a combination of direct mail and online.

Anthony Miller, head of media development at Royal Mail, says this shows that consumers recognise the benefits of online, email and direct mail for different types of communications - and how well they work together.

Chris Bourke, managing director of mobile ad agency Aerodeon, meanwhile, disputes the received wisdom that SMS is an unpopular direct channel, claiming it can deliver response rates higher than either email or mail. Brands that have experimented with mobile over the past two years are consolidating their lessons and developing mobile marketing strategies.

Personalised communications that cut through the clutter are becoming more important. To achieve this, marketers and agencies need to understand their customers as never before. 'We now have access to sophisticated tools that enable us to track consumers' media consumption, online behaviour and purchasing habits, which we can use to create an individual and tailored communication strategy - bringing us closer to that single customer,' says Andy Snuggs, managing director of digital agency Geronimo. 'Because of the prevalence of personalised communications, consumers expect to be treated on a personal basis, whatever the medium.'

Relevance is rooted in a detailed understanding of customer behaviour, whether based on actual knowledge or intelligent assumptions. Taking a strategic and creative approach to direct marketing is the best way to ensure that the right response is generated more often. Channel selection plays a key role and should be based on an understanding of how the target audience wants to interact with a brand, coupled with knowledge of their stage in the buying cycle.

'The intrusiveness of SMS makes it a poor tool for cold acquisition but its immediacy makes it ideal for informing customers their car insurance renewal is imminent,' says Heather Westgate, chief executive of direct agency TDA.

As consumers' media behaviour evolves, marketers who ensure they choose the most appropriate channels for their message will reap the benefits.

Competitors

2008-06-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

Fortis encourages consumers to consider tomorrow in global push

by Darren Davidson Brand Republic 16-Jun-08, 16:10

LONDON - Fortis, the international banking and insurance provider, is launching a global ad campaign, based on the theme 'Life is a curve', marking its first marketing activity under the main brand.

The push, which launches on June 16, encourages people to think about their financial needs today and plan for tomorrow.

It is the first campaign by Fortis, in which all of its brands from across the globe have been combined in one campaign. It was created by Grey Worldwide.

The campaign was based on 12 months of research, which produced the campaign strapline "Here today. Where tomorrow?" The launch also marks the first major campaign by Grey Group since it picked up Fortis's global ad account in October 2007, following a six-month pitch process. Carolyn Carter, president and chief executive of Grey Group, Europe, Middle East & Africa, said: "Grey is delighted to partner with Fortis as it charts its next era of growth. The Fortis brand is in a new position of strength and our campaign delivers the company's core values in a way that's right for the times."

The campaign will be initially rolled out in Belgium and the Netherlands across TV, digital, print, in-branch, cinema, radio, outdoor and ambient. It will then roll out in other markets at the end of the summer.

Gocompare.com moves £10m ad account

by Darren Davidson Brand Republic 17-Jun-08, 10:00

LONDON - Gocompare.com, the online insurance comparison service, has appointed TBWA\Manchester to its £10m advertising account, following a competitive pitch.

The account moves from EHS Brann Cirencester, which has handled the account since August, during which time it produced a TV campaign for the company. The agency repitched for the account.

TBWA\Manchester will handle direct marketing as well as all other through-the-line communications.

Nicholas Hall, head of marketing for Gocompare.com, said: "The market is becoming increasingly competitive and we believe that we have selected a communications partner that will enable us to reinforce our market position -- helping our customers find the best insurance cover for their requirements, and at the best price.''

Launched in November 2006, Gocompare.com was the first comparison site to focus on displaying the product features of an insurance policy, rather than just listing prices. It has also developed a five star rating system.

Robert Harwood-Matthews, chief executive of TBWA\Manchester, said: "Gocompare.com is without a doubt the best in class and we're proud to be working with them. There was a natural chemistry between us and mutual sense of ambition."

Media planning and buying duties, which are handled by Mediaedge:cia, are unaffected by the appointment.

Behavioural Targeting

2008-06-06T03:54:00.000-07:00

Creating a buzz
Platform: Mobile Author: Alex Farber Source: nma.co.uk Published: 05.06.08

A wake-up call for the mobile creative advertising industry fell out of a clear blue sky this week via Honda's live skydiving TV ad. Mobile agencies need to start matching this creatively rather than just helping brands tick a mobile box and time-based campaigns offer a real opportunity. Aside from location-based awareness, which is regularly held up as a unique selling point for mobile marketing, phones also offer guaranteed immediacy for communications.

Brands can issue time-based calls-to-action and start to innovate in a new direction. Flash-mobbing where groups of people gather randomly for parties relies on instant and viral communication.

Mobile is in a prime position to pull off more brand-led live marketing campaigns. When you send a text message to a friend it's pretty certain it will arrive within seconds. The same is true of mass text-outs albeit with a slightly longer delay. And generally consumers can't resist reading an SMS message the moment it arrives.
The vision and chutzpah of Honda's advert, which showed a team of skydivers spelling out the word Honda while in freefall, was engaging, exhilarating and innovative. Even watching it for the first time a few days later on YouTube I found myself worried that the skydivers wouldn't manage to pull it off.

If the same sort of buzz can be invoked around a mobile campaign then the medium is really starting to prove how original it can be.

Competitors

2008-06-06T03:51:00.000-07:00

More Than launches women's only motor insurance
by Alex Brownsell Marketing 06-Jun-08, 10:49

LONDON - Insurance provider More Than is to take on HBOS-owned Sheilas' Wheels in the women's drivers' space.

The Royal & SunAlliance-owned brand is launching More Than Women Drivers' Insurance, a female-targeted insurance featuring 'female friendly' repairers, £300-worth of handbag cover, and child car-seat replacement following any accident.
Women Drivers' Insurance also includes generic services like a mobile phone locator, priority roadside assistance and a replacement vehicle within two hours.
Product manager Jane Foster said the new insurance package targeted women whose main concern is safety in the event of an accident or breakdown. The product is available to buy both online and at high street stores.

Lloyds TSB unveils direct pushes for Corporate Markets division
By Jacquie Bowser Brand Republic 06-Jun-08, 10:40

LONDON - Lloyds TSB is launching a direct marketing campaign that combines new media and post to raise awareness of its Corporate Markets division.
The bank worked with the Royal Mail and Sony DADC to create an interactive CD that is personalized and tailored for each of its 10 Corporate Market regions across the UK.
The CDs, which will be sent to prospective customers, contain customer interviews, local case studies and local contact details that inform the recipients about the division's capabilities.

It also aims to encourage prospects to book appointments with their local relationship directors via an online booking form.

The case studies and customer testimonials found on the CD mirror those showcased in Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets' current "Capabilities" advertising campaign, which has been rolled out nationwide.

Ryan Haylock, project manager and assistant marketing manager for Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets, said: "We are constantly looking for ways to improve our customer communications and experience has taught us that personalisation is key to connect with customers and prospects.

"This individual, tailored approach works well with the relationship approach that we adopt for corporate banking, and we hope this will deliver real results for our locally based, relationship banking teams."

There will also be follow-up email and telemarketing after the CD mailing.
The Royal Mail and Sony DADC used their Personalised Integrated Media software to create the CDs for Lloyds TSB. The software allows companies to include information for a wide range of customers but program it so that content is tailored to individual recipients.
Antony Miller, head of media development at Royal Mail, said: "This revolutionary marketing solution fuses traditional post and digital media, enabling businesses to reach their customers with a truly personalised communication that is accountable and measurable."

Insurance Related Issues

2008-06-06T03:50:00.000-07:00

TESCO MOVES TO BUY-OUT ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND FROM JOINT VENTURE CHESHUNT, UK:

Britain's largest supermarket chain Tesco is set to buy out cash-strapped Royal Bank of Scotland from their 50/50 joint venture, Tesco Personal Finance. RBS, hitherto perceived (like prime minister GordonBrown) as an impregnable bastion of Caledonian fiscal stolidity, is currently struggling to bolster its battered balance sheet.To this end it is attempting to sell its RBS Insurance operation, currently producing around £500 million ($989.6m; €636.0m) in annual profits.

The bank is also on the verge of a £12 billion rights issue. Although a host of potential bidders have expressed an interest in the RBS insurance arm, none are reportedly willing to pay the £7bn asking price. Meantime, Tesco, whose profits last year hit £2.55 billion, now seeks to avoid any potential fallout from RBS's woes by acquiring 100% ownership of their decade-old joint venture. Under the terms of the putative deal, RBS will continue to provide back-office services to Tesco Personal Finance during a transition period. Once a sale is inked, TPF chief executive Robin Bulloch, will quit to rejoin RBS. In the year to February 23, TPF generated a net profit of £128m.Data sourced from Financial Times; additional content by WARC staff , 03 June 2008

Competitors

2008-05-16T07:38:00.000-07:00

Will the scrapping of Norwich Union help or hinder Aviva?

By David Benady - Marketing Week 8/5/08

Insurance and pensions giant Aviva’s long-expected announcement last week that it is axing the 200-year old Norwich Union (NU) brand comes amidst turmoil in the credit markets and concerns over the trustworthiness of financial institutions. But the company believes that phasing out the UK’s biggest and most trusted insurance brand name and replacing it with the little know Aviva parent brand will send out a powerful message.

“It’s good timing,” says Sally Shire, group brand development director for Aviva. “It is a message of a company growing the business and creating value for customers and shareholders. It is very refreshing to read about a company looking at the future and growing rather than worrying about the credit crunch.”

A cause for concern?

However, some wonder whether the switch to the global Aviva name will cause consternation among Norwich Union’s UK pension customers. “They may be concerned that they will become a small cog in a very large machine,” says one observer. “The added buying power of the global brand can only be god, but will I still be an important customer in the grand scheme of things?”

Even so, the source says: “Norwich Union has come to stand for quality, reliability and really good service. If Aviva can make it even better, it stands a chance of enhancing the brand.” However, branding all its operations under the Aviva name is the next logical step in the company’s development, it argues, and will deliver cost savings on marketing and help it exploit global synergies. It offers the opportunity for Aviva to stand for something different. As Paul Gordon, managing director of advertising agency Tangible Financial says, “rebrand’s in the financial sector can be successful and points to HSBC’s takeover of Midland Bank.

Norwich Union will be gradually replaced by Aviva during the next two year and much of the rebrand’s success will depend on the quality of the advertising campaign created by Abbott Mead Vickers. BBDO.

Insurance Related Issues

2008-05-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

Insurer goes ‘worry free’

by Robin Hicks Media Asia 14-May-08, 07:51

Bangkok Insurance is the latest insurer trying to amuse Thai consumers into buying its products with a new advertising campaign created by Creative Juice/G1.

The initiative, with estimated spend of up to US$5 million, is the latest move by Bangkok Insurance to boost its brand status, three years after launching its first branding campaign.Since 2005, Thailand’s airwaves have been heavily populated with insurance companies targeting the mass market with product-led initiatives, promotions and branding work.

The new campaign looks to assert Bangkok Insurance’s position within an increasingly competitive market, with the likes of Mittare, Ayudha Allianz and Krung Thai Axa all jostling for share - and all using humour-based advertising.

The Creative Juice ads position Bangkok Insurance as the ‘worry free’ insurer. In one spot, a man pulls up to a posh hotel in a convertible Mercedes. He gets out of his car, and hands the keys to a porter - who promptly drives the Mercedes into a wall. The man looks stunned at first, then begins chatting amiably to a friend. ‘Worry free’ reads the endline.

Pongsuree Asanasen, the managing director of Creative Juice/G1, said: “The key objective of the TV campaign is to launch the ‘Worry free’ positioning. Supporting media - print and posters - will explain more about how and why consumers will feel ‘worry free’ with Bangkok insurance.” In another spot, three plane crash survivors relax on a sofa beneath the remains of the wreck. A pilot staggers from the debris and one of the trio casually asks him where he’s from. “Mayday, mayday!” the pilot says. “Ah, from LA,” the husband replies.

The campaign targets 20 to 50 year-old consumers.

Behavioural Targeting

2008-05-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

PRCA endorses Netemic's Web 2.0 monitoring tool

by Jacquie Bowser Brand Republic 16-May-08, 09:50

The Public Relations Consultants Association is to endorse Netemic's automated online social media monitoring tool, after striking a discount deal with the software firm. Netemic's iFeed tool, which launched last November, allows PR agencies and digital marketers to monitor Web 2.0 media, such as blogs, forums and wikis in real time. The iFeed tool scours the sites to discover content matching companies, products and services; it then delivers the relevant results to the user. This gives subscribing agencies a real time measure of brand awareness and consumer sentiment.

Netemic said that iFeed was created in response to the explosion in social media content and its rapidly growing importance as a key channel of influence. Francis Ingham, director general of the PRCA, said: "Social media has huge implications for brands. "At the very least companies should be monitoring what is said about them in these uncontrolled and uncensored environments to ensure they are able to anticipate potential issues. "More proactive companies will see the ability to monitor unconstrained influencers as an opportunity to improve their products and services. iFeed makes these processes much easier."

Competitors

2008-05-02T03:08:00.000-07:00

Esure drops Michael Winner to focus on product benefits

By Catherine Turner Marketing Week 01.05.08

Michael Winner has been dropped as the face of insurance brand Esure for the second time in three years, this time to be replaced by aliens.

The campaign which breaks later this week, will promote Esure’s improved benefits for policy holders who are hit by uninsured drivers (such as UFOs) or whose cars have been vandalised. It will have the strap line: ‘Esure Championing your no claims discount’.

Esure brand manager Lee Crawley says the campaign marks a ‘departure’ from its previous advertising, and focuses on the product benefits and customer service and Esure offers.

The ad will be shown across ITV, Channel 4, Five and Digital Channels. It will also feature on Esure’s ITV national weather sponsorship indents.

Winner began directing and starring in the Esure ads in 2002 after the insurer took its advertising in house.

Insurance Related Issues

2008-05-02T03:05:00.000-07:00

Motorists would go green if the price was right

Kay Murchie http://www.financemarkets.co.uk 29.04.2008

‘Motorists can pay £50 more to insure a ‘green’ car’

Research by Tescocompare.com, has established that 2 million motorists claim to be driving an environmentally friendly car.

However, Tescocompare.com, discovered that more than 21 million are driven by financial incentives and would consider converting to a ‘green’ or low-emission car if the price was more competitive and the Government offered incentives for doing so.

If road tax was reduced, 62% would be persuaded to go green while 25% could be convinced if there was a steep rise in fuel prices. 36% would consider going green if the incentive was cheaper parking fees.

Paul Baxter of Tescocompare.com said the message that the British driver is sending to the Government is empathetic. They are happy to embrace green driving but want to be rewarded for doing so. Penalising them for not being green is much less of an incentive.

Mr Baxter added that he was disappointed that the Chancellor did not look more widely at the cost barriers for purchasing green cars in the recent Budget and consider cutting Insurance Premium Tax for green cars as an added incentive.

Our research clearly shows the nation’s motorists are much more likely to go green if it saves them money as well as saving the planet, concluded Mr Baxter.

Tescocompare.com established that on average, motorists can pay £50 more to insure a ‘green’ car.

Behavioural Targeting

2008-05-02T02:59:00.000-07:00

Digital direct: Social media means brands will need to learn some manners

By Ross Taylor. Revolution UK 01.05.2008

Is it really possible to introduce social media into the marketing channel strategy?

It's not a question of choosing between Facebook, Bebo or MySpace foryour banner ads. It's all about recognising that these propertiesreflect a fundamental change in the way people use the net to share rather than to consume.

From a marketing perspective, the challenge is not what will be the nextFacebook, but how we can evolve the way in which we think aboutmarketing products, so we can take part in the ensuing conversations onwhatever new cool platform breaks cover.

The real question is: how can we use this evolution in behaviour tointroduce brands and products in a way that will be welcomed and valued by users?

Think about how users will now find information on your products in theway they want - make sure your Wikipedia entry is up to date, make sureyour archive, current product, marketing images and videos are widelydistributed, so they can be easily found. Also, make sure you know whothe key influencers are in your service space and actively engage withthem, use your internal expertise and share that with consumers on theirown terms in spaces such as Yahoo! Answers. Above all, be generous, beopen and be honest at all times. Recognise that you are now a guest atthe party. Be individual: interaction at a social level is about people,and not about brands. But most importantly, be responsive. Social mediais all about social interaction and, of course, manners, and there isnothing more off-putting than asking a question only to be ignored.

In terms of integrating social media into the marketing channelstrategy, it is a vitally important tool in ensuring that your productis seen, discussed and admired online. It should always be considered aspart of any overall communications strategy, but it is highly unlikelythat simply translating the campaign proposition into a Facebook page isgoing to give you the results you are hoping for. Social media requires,fundamentally, rethinking how you interact with your customers andprospects, releasing control and embracing dialogue. And, that is notgoing to fit into a traditional channel strategy.

Digital Media and the changing market

2008-04-18T07:54:00.000-07:00

Why bands need brands
16-Apr-08

With the music industry locked in flux as its business model erodes as a result of the rise of digital media, brands are getting into bands as never before, and creating a new kind of “record company”.

It is a situation that has led to the creation of companies such as Harvest Entertainment, which act as a conduit between brand and band. Harvest has signed up Placebo, McFly and 1980s band Madness as its clients. Its job now is to find an appropriate brand to fund and support the activities of each group, which will be able to retain complete ownership of their copyright.

Harvest, which launched at the end of last year, is run by Ric Salmon, a former vice-president of Warner Music International. He of all people knows how much the music industry has been transformed since the days when record labels held a monopoly. Thanks to the Web, barriers to entry have broken down to the detriment of the traditional record label model. Significantly, established artists are no longer making the bulk of their revenue from record sales. In the UK last year, album sales dropped nearly 11%, according to British Phonographic Industry figures. So musicians and their backers are now turning to more lucrative revenue streams such as touring and merchandising.

While some are choosing to go independent, others are opting for the venture capitalist investment model. Record labels themselves are also launching spin-off labels in partnership with brands.

Last week Procter & Gamble and Island Def Jam Music Group announced they would launch a music company called TAG Records, named after P&G’s TAG men’s deodorant and body spray. Even former Beatle, Paul McCartney, has got in on the act, last year teaming up with coffee shop chain, Starbucks, through its new Hear Music record label.

Groove Armada, which recently came out of a five-year deal with Sony BMG’s Jive Records, has chosen Bacardi-Martini. The British dance-music duo signed a one-year deal with Bacardi in March which will see the brand fund a four-track EP. As part of the deal the duo will also perform at Bacardi-branded events and present radio programmes created to air on various radio stations.

Groove Armada will also appear in Bacardi’s advertising campaigns. Bacardi global experiential manager Sarah Tinsley says the duo will write a song for the drinks brand’s TV commercial, working closely with Bacardi’s advertising agency RKCR/Y&R.

He says: “I don’t think Prince’s fans were disappointed when they got his music free if they bought a copy of The Mail on Sunday. I don’t think Radiohead’s fans were cynical when the band allowed them to pay however much they wanted to for their album. It was a brilliant marketing ploy and it worked, because it went straight to number one in the US and UK.”

Other pitfalls include what happens to a brand if its musical partner finds itself making headlines for all the wrong reasons. As Tinsley says, any scenario which involves using a third party as a brand ambassador always carries a risk. The point is to go through the necessary processes to make sure that risk is minimised.

Salmon suggests that some brands see the value of being associated with controversial characters like Peter Doherty. “Who would have thought that Lily Allen would become the sensible, mainstream artist she is now. In that way, some brands may like that journey and risk,” he adds.

But while tie-ups between bands and brands is nothing new, this brave new world of brands acting like record labels is still largely uncharted territory. And with the likes of Harvest negotiating these deals, a new kind of service company is also emerging and forming part of this new model.

Whether or not this will become a viable business model in music’s brave new world is something not even the “experts” can second-guess. But there is no question that the relationship between brands, bands and the music industry will continue to grow.

Insurance Related Issues

2008-04-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

User engagement must be measured
by Marc Nohr Marketing Direct 01-Apr-08

Marc Nohr gives his opinions on social networking

Speaking on the radio recently, Ben Elton argued that social networking sites signal "the end of privacy". Along with reality TV, they represent a confessional tendency, a desire on the part of the Facebook generation to reveal all. Only when he said it, it sounded funnier.

To the DM fraternity, this phenomenon is a major opportunity. We don't need to devise elaborate strategies for eliciting information about consumers if they're willingly giving it. Neither do we need to find ingenious ways of targeting consumers if they're identifying themselves to us. Or do we?

In a recent posting, a blogger shared the results of a test he had conducted which pitted the direct response credentials of Facebook against Google. He devised a Facebook ad, set the targeting parameters and tested it against a Google ad with similar content. I'm sure you can guess the outcome. The cost per response on Google was 25 per cent lower than Facebook. The conversion rate was 100 per cent better. No surprises there. People seeking a product on Google are further down the purchase funnel than those on Facebook, so are likely to be cheaper to recruit.

You could argue he missed the point - since Google searches clearly signal intent to purchase, while that's not how people use Facebook. The sites are different. So if Google is direct response nirvana, does that mean we should give up on social networks from a response perspective?
Yes and no. Yes, if we are expecting social networks to generate the same kind of leads as search. But as punters are at different points of the purchase funnel, it may mean using social networks not to close the sale, but to open it, to encourage dialogue (or polylogues) between customers and promote advocacy. Which in turn poses two new challenges. First, how to generate the kind of content that will encourage this behaviour, if it is not a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'm banner. And second, to develop the kind of metrics that will allow us to track how effectively (including cost-effectively) we open conversations and deepen engagement.

Microsoft's new Engagement tool is one such attempt, and hopefully timely, too. A recent JupiterResearch report said that 75 per cent of clients simply aren't assessing the effectiveness of their efforts to stimulate user interaction. It's time for us to change that for a start. If it matters, let's measure it.

Competitors

2008-04-18T07:46:00.000-07:00

Home & Legacy seeks growth to match rivals
Issue 17-04-2008
By Michael Faulkner

High net worth insurer in drive to compete with larger rivals

Home & Legacy managing director Barry O’Neill has insisted the business can compete with high net worth (HNW) giants like Hiscox and Chubb, but admitted that it has perception issues which need to be addressed.

O’Neill, who joined the high net worth specialist last September, also said that the company was set to launch its first motor product towards the end of the year.

A mid-net worth home insurance product, underwritten by NIG, is also due to be launched.
Allianz Insurance acquired high net worth home specialist Home & Legacy in 2006. At the time it said it was looking to triple its size to around £100m gross written premium through the launch of new products.

O’Neill said: “We are a true high net worth player [competing] with the likes of Chubb, Hiscox and AIG. But we have perception issues in some areas.”

He added that the company’s acquisition by Allianz was a seminal moment for the business. “It was critical for it to move forward,” he said.

Developing the company’s capabilities, including its technology, was vital. “We need consistently good services and products,” he added.

Home & Legacy is currently migrating to Acturis technology, which will provide the springboard for the business’s growth.

The company launched its first new product, for let properties, earlier this year. Six more products are planned for launch during the year. This will include the company’s first motor product, slated for launch in the fourth quarter, and the mid net worth home product.
O’Neill said: “The motor product has been on the cards for a while. It is a major development for us.” Last month, Allianz Insurance reported that Home & Legacy had failed to hit target in 2007. Allianz Insurance chief executive Andrew Torrance said at the time that Home & Legacy’s targets had been aggressive.

O’Neill said: “We would have liked more growth in 2007. It was mainly about getting the fundamentals right. The messages to brokers didn’t get through. The growth today has been about core product sales.”

He said that the past 18 months had seen relatively flat growth, but this had improved.

“The signs have been extremely encouraging. March 2008 has been the best month for new sales since the acquisition.

“Brokers who previously went with Chubb and Hiscox are coming to us,” he added.

Competitors

2008-04-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

Sainsbury's offers discount on home insurance
27th March 2008
By Staff Writer

Sainsbury's Bank has announced that it is offering 12 months home insurance cover for the price of nine, and a further 10% discount if consumers buy online.
The offer is available to those purchasing both buildings and contents cover together between March 25, 2008 and May 26, 2008.
Neil Laird, manager of home insurance business at Sainsbury's said: "Home insurance policies vary dramatically so its essential people compare policies not only on price but also on the level of cover they provide”.
"Quality cover such as unlimited buildings insurance doesn't have to be expensive and although premiums have been rising, by shopping around and taking advantage of discounts such as ours, there are significant savings to be made."

Up to 1.78 million homeowners without buildings protection, says Sainsbury's
14th March 2008

By Staff Writer

New research from Sainsbury's Home Insurance has revealed that 1.78 million homeowners are without buildings insurance and a further 656,000 people claim not to know whether they have this cover.
The research has found that female homeowners are far more likely to be without this cover than men. Among women, 1.05 million admitted to not having buildings cover compared with 722,000 male homeowners.
On an age basis, 8% of homeowners aged 65 and over and a further 8% of those aged between 25 and 34 admitted to not having buildings insurance, the highest percentage for any age group.

Insurance group in one-year radio deal
by Isabella Piasecka Media Week 19-Feb-08, 10:27
LONDON - Insurance brand More Than is to sponsor Bauer Radio’s Magic 105.4 for one year
As part of the deal, brokered by Bauer Advertising and Interpublic media agency Universal McCann, More Than will sponsor an ad-free hour on Sunday nights, featuring the tagline: “More Is… Giving You More Indulgence”.

Breakfast, drive-time and weekend promotions will also offer listeners the chance to win tickets to four More Than Indulgence Events running throughout the year. More Than, which launched in 2001, is part of the Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group

Insurance Related Issues

2008-04-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

Prudential ads to back home and motor policies
by Ed Kemp Marketing 01-Apr-08, 08:45

LONDON - Prudential is to focus its promotional activity on its home and motor insurance services after handing its £9m integrated ad account to Inferno.
The insurance company has briefed the agency to develop an integrated drive to promote the two key areas of its business. The initial activity will get under way in July, with work spanning TV, press, online and direct work. The campaign is intended to increase its volume of car and home insurance policy customers, as well as cross-selling its other insurance products.
Prudential, which is part of the RBS Group, appointed Inferno to the brief following a three-way pitch led by RBS head of category marketing, commercial and intermediaries, Chris Bottle. The account moves from direct shop Tequila\London, which re-pitched for the business. The insurance company's media planning and buying will continue to be handled by MediaCom.
Last year, Prudential resurrected its brand character Prudence after more than a decade as it shifts the firm away from its 'Man from the Pru' activity.

Media is vital to direct marketing mix
by Andrew McCormick Media Week 18-Mar-08, 09:00

As demand for traditional direct marketing declines, Andrew McCormick examines what steps media agencies and their clients are taking to keep up with the different approaches to direct mailThe decline of traditional direct marketing is posing media agencies and their clients a number of critical questions about how they should best secure the highest number of responses to campaigns. Should direct operations be merged with digital? How does branded advertising relate to direct marketing? And should campaigns revert to sending messages en masse or pay a premium to develop capabilities to deliver to hard-to-reach target markets.

David Beale, head of direct at Carat, points out: "We need to build our insight on consumer behaviour and produce properly integrated on and offline direct marketing. It's not about going back to the days when it was just direct marketing planners and buyers."Clients' requirementsThe question of whether agencies decide that direct demands a distinct unit or whether it should be merged into their other media operations can be rendered obsolete, depending on clients' approaches, according to David Kyffin, managing director of direct and digital at WPP's trading arm GroupM."Some clients are structured in silos and expect either digital or direct teams to turn up on any given day, so we tend to structure ourselves to clients' requirements," he says.

Big direct spenders in WPP's fold include MediaCom clients RBS and Sky, who take different approaches to direct marketing. RBS sees it as inextricably linked to its activity across all media and has consolidated spend within MediaCom as a result.

Meanwhile, Sky runs its media and ad operations based on which individual agency delivers the best results on any given medium, with the new definition of direct marketing covering a number of channels.This is reflected in Sky's agency roster, where WPP's MediaCom hand- les the bulk of the broadcaster's media spend, Aegis's Diffiniti works on online media and natural search, while part WPP-owned Syzygy agency Unique Digital handles paid search. MediaCom has a stand-alone direct department of 95 people, structured as a self-contained agency, according to joint managing director Clive Howse. MediaCom Direct claims billings of £225m, making it the 11th largest media agency in the UK in its own right.

Sister WPP agency Mediadge:cia, meanwhile, wraps its direct and digital operations into one entity, under MEC:Interaction. Managing partner Jason Dormieux says agencies don't need to restructure to deal with direct. "We resisted the urge to integrate direct marketing in the structural sense in the extreme ways other agencies have," he says. "We can drive integration from behavioural change. Brand planners might not be expert in direct marketing, but they need to know how it affects client sales."Dormieux admits this approach is tough to implement. Direct marketing is not in vogue, and convincing TV planners to make it central to their plan is not an enviable task.Under threatMaking direct response a theme throughout media plans is essential, however, as the days of people picking up a leaflet and calling a number to request a loan or credit card appear numbered.Spencer Stratford, media director at Mike Colling & Company, says: "Mass cold direct mail is increasingly under threat. Markets such as car insurance are dying a death as a result, as buying addresses in bulk doesn't make economic sense.

"The internet is largely responsible for the change. While purchases have often been made on the price promised by clients through direct marketing promotions, the rise of price comparison sites means potential customers often consider the best-value offers, with the company that owns the best brand winning out.Mike Colling & Company has a pedigree in direct marketing, but has had to change to offer clients a range of media options, exemplified by its work in reversing declining subscriptions for Which? (see box).The agency redirected Which?'s media spend from 95% direct marketing to 95% on a mix of TV, radio and press inserts. All of these ads contain a call to action, but are more creative and brand-enhancing than mail on the doorstep.Carat and MediaCom have settled on a model where they have a stand-alone direct department containing planners with cross-media experience. Direct marketing has moved a long way from being seen as a provider of junk mail and media agencies have had to bring in knowledge and skills from all other disciplines to cater for the differing approaches of clients in this new environment.

Behavioural Targeting: New trends in direct response

2008-04-04T08:43:00.000-07:00

How to Make Proper Use of Ad Networks
March 26th, 2008 by Cory Treffiletti

Many media planners use ad networks, and rightfully so, as they’re a great tool and provide great services — but after some personal research I conducted over the last couple of weeks, I’ve concluded that many planners are using them incorrectly.

There are three primary categories of ad networks. The first: general networks with lots of impressions served over a number of small, medium and in some cases second -tier large sites. These are the usual suspects when putting together a media plan and include such industry staples as Valueclick, Advertising.com and Tribal Fusion.The second category is behavioural networks: companies that use the same inventory as the general networks, but tend to layer technology for targeting over the top, such as Blue Lithium.

The third category of network is vertical networks: those companies that aggregate together inventory in a specific vertical and provide a singular service to advertisers trying to reach a targeted audience. This category includes GoFish (kids’ inventory) Jumpstart (auto inventory), Glam (women-targeted) and Sportgenic (sports-targeted).There are two ways to use this inventory that match up to your client’s objectives — but I rarely hear of planners using them correctly.

The primary way that media planners use these networks is to achieve direct response goals. Most every media planner will layer networks onto their ad buys and negotiate down the CPMs, place a pixel tracker on the client’s site and measure through to conversions. Many people will negotiate a little further and pay only on a CPA basis, depending on the forecasted conversion and what ROI the network feels it will make and can charge on the back-end.
In most cases this tactic guarantees your client will get second- or third-tier inventory, being bumped by any advertiser willing to pay a CPM. This can work out just fine if you only care about direct response measures, but the flaw here is when media planners layer four or sometimes five or more ad networks onto the same campaign.

The dirty little secret here is that much of the network inventory comes from the same places and most publishers are working with multiple networks, so if you’re layering multiple networks on top of one another for a campaign, you’re likely building lots of duplication into your plan and generating a much higher frequency of exposure than could possibly be effective! High frequency can translate into burnt-out ad units and poor returns. It’s better to identify no more than three ad networks for a given ad buy and attempt to calculate a duplication report for those three players. If you have more than 50% duplication, then your campaign will likely be less effective than if you reduced the overlap.

The second erroneous way I hear of media planners using ad networks is when they consistently overlook them as a proper branding vehicle. To date, across all media, reach and frequency are still applicable metrics (trust me; I tried to argue against this many years before and I realized I was incorrect) — and a branding campaign relies on these two primary metrics, along with impact and attentiveness. To build a brand you first need reach followed by the means to make an Impact on the consumer, or drive what I call the “epiphany point” (that moment when a consumer consciously recognizes they are being marketed to and assertively shows interest or passes the message by). This point can be achieved through strong, very-well-thought-out creative, and therefore frequency can be adjusted, as a result of impact and attentiveness.
Ad networks represent a tool for generating massive reach across networks of small to medium-sized sites at a very cost-effective price. You can negotiate a low CPM here and support any campaign that uses primary portals or even offline activity to speak to its audience.

The ad networks get a bum rap because of the improper ways they’re utilized, but if you use them correctly, they are still a VERY significant tool in the arsenal — though certainly not the tent-pole strategy that many media planners profess them to be. They are a tactic - just one tactic in the toolbox of online media. They are not a strategy unto themselves.

Insurance Related Issues

2008-03-19T07:08:00.000-07:00

'Media is vital to direct marketing mix'

Media Week 18th-25th March - Andrew McCormick

The decline of traditional direct marketing is posing media agencies and their clients a number if critical questions about how they should best secure the highest number of responses to campaigns. Should direct operations be merged with digital? The question of whether agencies decide that direct demands a distinct unit or whether it should be merged into their other media operations can be rendered obsolete, depending on clients' approaches, according to David Kyffin, managing director of direct and digital at WPP's trading arm GroupM. Big Direct spenders in WPP's fold include MediaCom clients RBS and Sky, who take different approaches to direct marketing. RBS sees it as inextricably linked to its activity across all media and has consolidated spend within Mediacom as a result.
Making direct response a theme throughout media plans is essential, however, as the days of people picking up a leaflet and calling a number to request a loan or credit card appear numbered. Spencer Stratford, media director at Mike Colling & Company, says: "Mass cold direct mail is increasingly under threat. Markets such as car insurance are dying a death as a result, as buying addresses in bulk doesn't make economic sense."
The internet is largely responsible for the change. While purchases have often been made on the price promised by clients through direct marketing promotions, the rise of price comparison sites means potential customers often consider the best value offers, with the company that owns the best brand winning out.
Mike Colling & Company has a pedigree in direct marketing, but has had to change to offer clients a range of media options, exemplified by its work in reversing declining subscriptions for Which? The agency redirected Which?'s media spend from 95% direct marketing to 95% on a mix of TV, radio and press inserts. All of the ads contain a call to action, but are more creative and brand-enhancing than mail on the doorstep.
Direct marketing has moved a long way from being seen as a provider of junk mail and media agencies have had to bring in knowledge and skills from all other disciplines to cater for the differing approaches of clients in this new environment.

Insurance Related Issues

2008-03-19T06:40:00.000-07:00

‘Lloyds TSB enters insurance comparison market’

Lloyds TSB has launched its own insurance comparison website, allowing consumers to compare car and insurance policies. Information comes from 35 insurance firms and is based on price, policy benefits and strength of service. The site, at http://www.insurance.co.uk/ has been created by search specialist Tamar to offer a streamlined and user-friendly experience. Tamar claims that the quote process is completed in as few as four online pages, and at the same time makes fewer assumptions about customers' requirements."For too long now, consumers have had to make do with comparison sites that offer only some of the information they need to make the right choices," said Lesley Oliver, client service director at Tamar. "Although there's no shortage of online services that claim to compare insurance policies, you'd be hard pressed to find one that can truly demonstrate it's built on a solid understanding of what consumers want.Lloyds TSB worked with Tamar last year to create its ‘Help I'm Flooded' site in response to the summer floodings. The new site enters a maturing price comparison site market with major new entrants, including Tesco which launched its own service last year, joining more seasoned players such as uSwitch and Confused.com.

By Hayley Pinkerfield / Revolution UK 12-Mar-08

Competitors

2008-03-19T06:38:00.000-07:00

‘AA trials free car washes to pull in business’

The AA is offering free car washes for a year to prospective members as part of a drive to increase sign-up. The breakdown service has teamed up with car wash firm ARC/IMO to offer joiners a free car wash each month for a year.
The trial is testing the vouchers against the AA's previous incentive of £20 M&S vouchers. If the new reward proves successful, it may be extended to the end of the year. Parallel Promotions created the AA's partnership with ARC/IMO, which has more than 300 car washes across the UK. In January, the AA joined the Nectar Business rewards scheme. In the same month, it began a review of its £33 million above and below-the-line accounts.

By Julia Buchanan / Promotions & Incentives 06-Mar-08

Behavioural Targeting

2008-03-19T05:10:00.000-07:00

‘Bebo offers targeted media in wake of takeover by AOL’

Social network to use AOL's Platform A technologies to deliver ads users want.
Bebo plans to deliver targeted media to users for the first time, which will then act as a basis for delivering ads, following AOL's $850m (£424) takeover of the social network. Bebo intends to use the array of targeting technologies housed within AOL's Platform A unit to deliver relevant content from media owners such as Sky, ITV and Channel 4 - three of the 400 media owners that have signed up to Bebo's Open Social project. Joanna Shields Bebo President says "It's not like we're combining with the AOL portal. What it gives us is access to amazing social networking products such as AIM and ICQ." The deal is very interesting and shows AOL clearly trying to catch up, recognising that social networks are the next generation of portals," said Stuart Sullivan-Martin, chief strategy officer at Mediaedge:cia. Onlookers are nervous about how AOL will handle ads for the network. Alex Millar, head of Jam, I-Level's social media unit, said: "Bebo sells its integrated solutions and standard display advertising separately and it should keep those teams separate, retaining the Bebo sales team, which seems very good."

by Andrew McCormick Media Week 18-Mar-08

Insurance Related Insurances

2008-03-07T09:15:00.000-08:00

Could it soon be last post for direct mail?

06-Mar-08

Direct mail is in full retreat and direct marketing agency pitches have all but dried up. Is this a dreadful portent for a once-thriving sector, or simply a blip while it reorganises itself?

It has to be said the outlook does not look good. Most DM agencies would stoutly rebut the suggestion that they are all, or indeed anything, to do with what the public calls 'junk mail'. But while what's stuffed through the letter box scarcely represents the strategic high-ground of precision marketing, no one can deny that historically it has been the sector's bread and butter. Nor that the 7.4% volume decline recorded by Royal Mail for last year represents a serious setback.

The problem, in a word, has been the internet. If people can get more directly what they want through search, they are likely to be even less tolerant of the 'junk mail'. And so events seem to be proving.

But so what? In theory the advent of digital media is a huge opportunity for direct marketing agencies to reinvent themselves and build some added value in the process.

After all, in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed is king. Though clients are crying out for rapid mastery of the new digital communications medium, no one has an expertise that entirely fits the required template. But at least direct marketing agencies do, inherently, possess some important elements of that template. They understand the targeted response mechanism, they are at home with data extraction and management on a massive scale; and at their core is CRM. Seen from this perspective, 'digital' is simply a change of channel rather than a new medium.

Sadly, matters are not that simple. At a time when old-style creative advertising agencies are facing increasing difficulty in maintaining their role as the first port of call for communications-challenged senior clients, DM agencies have not been nearly as successful as they should be at making 'digital integration' the core of their offering and seeking out the strategic high-ground.
Why this should be so is puzzling. Possibly, DM agencies have an inferiority complex about their position in the agency pecking order that makes it difficult for them to rise to the occasion.

Certainly commentators have noted a creeping demoralisation and lack of entrepreneurial fibre within the sector of late. The talent, some say, is moving elsewhere.

That shouldn't be so as, managed correctly, direct and digital make good bedfellows. That aside, a major problem remains. The image of direct marketing (among some practitioners, let alone the client and consumer) has been befuddled by direct mail. Direct mail won't disappear, but it has to get smarter.

As EHS Brann chief Matt Atkinson puts it: "The key point now is it's quality over quantity…Consumers are not saying they don't want direct mail, they're saying they don't want junk mail. As an industry, we have to be more considered about what we do, and so do our clients."
Amen to that.

Expedia embraces the new generation of digital DM techniques
by Kim Benjamin Marketing Direct

05-Feb-08

Kim Benjamin talks to Matthew Walls, head of marketing at Expedia.co.uk and Hotels.com, about why behavioural targeting will be key to future success.

With hundreds of brands offering services such as flights, hotel bookings, insurance and car hire, the UK online travel industry is booming. But it's an area that is becoming increasingly crowded and fragmented and jostling for prime position is no easy task

Responsibility for the marketing communications across two online travel brands is an even tougher proposition, but it's a role that Matthew Walls appears to be more than qualified for. As head of marketing for online travel hub Expedia.co.uk and its worldwide accommodation sister site, Hotels.com, Walls is building on a background firmly established in travel marketing.

"I started my career as a creative marketer - now I'm more a data analyst than anything else," says Walls. "My role is about uncovering hard data on our customers and products and producing believable numbers to get the brand to where it is today and will be in the future, rather than conducting a straw poll. The online environment has given us the ability to harness data and to tailor products specifically to individual customers. Instead of saying: 'Here's the brochure, take it or leave it,' we can be much more targeted."

Maxed out

The data he refers to is considerable. As online brands, Expedia.co.uk and Hotels.com have invested heavily in search marketing. "Many of our potential and existing customers end up on search engines. Google is the filter for our business, but we are now almost maxed out on search marketing." He is now exploring other digital marketing channels such as behavioural targeting, mobile search and social media - all of which provide a wealth of user behaviour information.
Expedia has wasted little time in beefing up its agency credentials to this end. In July, it appointed Meteorite to handle its direct marketing activity, alongside retained agency Freud Communications.

"There are shortcomings with the amount of tracking that can be done online," says Walls. "It's easy to get hung up on what can and should be tracked and this changes all the time as digital is such a fast-moving area. But the ability to track affords us a great deal of certainty - we know what is and is not working. In the travel sector, for example, keywords can change every three hours, so we have to manage the data we collect effectively. We analyse what people are searching for, how many clicks there are, how much volume is being generated, the conversion rates and ultimately how much money this makes for us."

With the competitive nature of online travel, it's not difficult to see why it's a sector that can engender very low levels of customer loyalty. "Typical segmentation issues don't really apply as our customers tell us what they want. Yet regardless of the fact that someone has bought products from us three times, for example, they will invariably end up using search engines. This is why content, website functionality and usability are now vital. Travel is an emotive product - it's not about us saying, 'This is a good hotel', it's about peer reviews - both good and bad. We have to be clear about the product, because otherwise it achieves a short-term sale."

With hundreds of thousands of email addresses on its databases, the vast majority of which have been generated from the sites rather than through third-party activity, it's somewhat surprising that email marketing is an area that Walls admits is still in development. The database of Hotels.com, for example, is used more to generate electronic vouchers offering discounts to individuals after certain purchases. "Our definition of CRM is to solve customers' problems and generate loyalty this way. Email does play a role in this, but newsletters, for example, are not a major part of our marketing activity - the functionality of our sites is ultimately more important."

To this end, behavioural targeting is set to play an important role in terms of enriching the customer experience and it's an area Walls is considering for future investment. Expedia currently works with behavioural targeting provider Omniture and Walls says the brand has achieved "reasonable success" from trials so far.

"Rather than just serving banners out to people, we can do so based on their past behaviour," he says. "It's a trade-off between cheap distribution of banners, and low cost-per-thousand rates, to no degree of targeting. We've found some interesting middle ground and the medium is working for us as we are delivering content to the right person at the right time more often than most. The previous approach was wallpapering, blasting everyone and hoping for the best, and for those who don't want to receive the content, it can be a pretty bad experience."

In mid-January, statistics from online research service Hitwise revealed that Expedia.co.uk lost top spot to Thomson Holidays in terms of the number of weekly website hits achieved. With the online travel industry expected to be worth more than £33bn by 2011, according to figures from Euromonitor International, the stakes, and the rewards on offer, can only get higher.

POWER POINTS
- Expedia.co.uk and Hotels.com have invested heavily in search marketing
- Expedia is testing how offline DM can increase online activity
- Content and website usability are vital in an industry that often engenders low levels of customer loyalty

WALLS ON...

Behavioural targeting: "We'll develop our use of behavioural targeting. Rather than serving general banners, we can be more targeted and serve them based on past behaviour, whether in relationship to our site or another one."

Mobile search marketing: "There remains some doubt about the way the technology platforms will develop and deliver. The more there are, the more complicated it gets. It's at an acceptable stage, though, and offers another route to consumers."

Social media: "It's certainly an opportunity, but people use social media for reasons other than receiving our marketing messages. There's still an element of the unknown involved and it's an area we are treating with caution."

Digital direct: "I don't subscribe to the idea that digital and direct are separate. If DM means an engagement between a brand and its customers, then in our view that's what digital's about - we can respond to a customer's specific requirement."

Competitors

2008-03-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

Cash in on luxury home cover

Simon Lambert, This is Money - Tuesday, April 24, 2007

A new home insurance provider has introduced a no-claims bonus with a twist – investing 20% of premiums and returning the proceeds after three years.
The buildings and contents insurance policy is claimed to be the first of its kind. It is aimed at high rollers and those with multiple homes and is available to people who spend at least £3,000 a year on their household insurance.

Launched by specialist insurance brokerage Private Insurance Portfolio and Sterling Insurance Group, the new policy will invest 20% of the premiums in the UK money markets.
A bonus payment consisting of that 20% of the premium invested, plus proceeds, will be returned to policyholders who don't make a claim over three years.
The need to have an annual premium of £3,000 or more to qualify pitches the policy squarely at millionaire and billionaire homeowners.

Using This is Money's home insurance comparison service, the owner of a £500,000 home counties property with £50,000 contents cover and £350,000 rebuild costs would pay around £500 per year in premiums.

But as policyholders with Private Insurance Portfolio can incorporate multiple homes, including buy-to-let, it could benefit amateur landlords who hold a handful of properties, or families that own a main residence, buy-to-let investments and holiday home.

After three years homeowners who have signed up to the policy and made no claim can either cash in their investment or roll it over and accrue more for another three years.
The home and contents insurance can cover works of art, wine collection, jewellery, fine furniture and antiques and comes with cover for identity fraud, stalking and kidnapping.
Amelia Robertson-Young, managing director of Private Insurance Portfolio, claimed the company was turning the insurance market on its head. She said: 'For too long, people haven't received enough reward for not claiming on their household insurance. Our clients will receive both a competitive premium and a return on that premium.'

The investments for the policy will be made against the Sterling yield curve – which reflects the rate at which pounds sterling is borrowed on the money markets, currently around 5.75% - and managed by boutique bank and financial services group Kaupthing, Singer & Friedlander.

Behavioural Targeting

2008-03-07T09:11:00.000-08:00

ISPs eye bigger slice of ad pie

28-Feb-08

Targeting online ads based on people's surfing habits is not a new thing. Behavioural targeting has been a welcome development in online advertising, validated by the rapid uptake of technologies developed by the likes of Bluelithium and Revenue Science. Publishers collect information about what their users are up to online to be able to offer more refined targeting: the theory is that advertisers access more valuable audiences, and media owners are better able to monetise their inventory.

In the old days, online planners would mainly target audiences by environment. And while we would make our jobs sound sophisticated, much of what we did wasn't rocket science. Trying to sell holidays? The obvious place to buy ads would be contextually relevant environments, such as a portal's travel section. Hardly surprising that this often worked. Indeed, it still does and has done in all types of communications throughout history.

But there are some issues with this approach. As with any market, limited supply and high demand lead to inflation. This has been experienced in paid search where mature sectors such as finance have started feeling the pinch.

Behavioural targeting represents a different way of doing things. It isn't about reaching people where they are, it's about targeting them by who they appear to be. For example, Yahoo! can identify mortgage seekers as those who visit their mortgage content and then serve timely ads elsewhere on the Yahoo! network of properties, perhaps while they're checking their e-mails.
Until now most "behavioural targeting" has been done at a site or network level but Phorm - which launched this month - is moving the game on. By teaming up with internet service providers it will collect behavioural data at the gateway.

Working initially in the UK with BT, Talk Talk and Virgin Media, Phorm will monitor customers' behaviour in its entirety. This is where things differ from other approaches which observe only segments of people's online actions, such as intra-site or across a cluster of properties. Phorm will have a clear view from the top of the mountain rather than one of its valleys.

There will obviously be questions about privacy but Phorm has this covered. Users are anonymous and once an audience match has been made no data is retained. While some people will opt out, just like there are some who delete cookies, most will not. Ultimately, as Google's vast coffers verify, people are not necessarily averse to advertising if it is relevant to them and not too intrusive.

A travel operator, for example, could target ads to an audience only if they have been to search engines and keyed in phrases such as "Caribbean holidays", looked at Lonely Planet's Jamaica website and read pages of a competitor site heavy in conterelating to package holidays. It may seem like something out of 1984, but it's got a lot of people excited.

Publishers and advertisers connect via Phorm's marketplace - the Open Internet Exchange. Within the OIE advertisers define how much they are willing to pay for their uniquely defined audiences. Publishers set the minimum they want to receive. Phorm's technology does the rest, by using the insights garnered from the internet service provider (ISP) to add a layer of value-adding targeting. Space goes to the highest bidder.

On the surface it seems a winner for most parties. Advertisers get a new way to reach aggregated and highly defined consumers. Most publishers haven't got much to lose, as generally they have more inventory than they can sell, hence the reason many are almost giving it away. The opportunity to get a greater return will be compelling.

And I am sure the ISPs could do with the cash as there is little margin left in the commoditised subscription business. We already have an ad-funded mobile phone service, who knows an ad-funded ISP might not be that far off?The level of accountability in digital means there's nowhere to hide. If this proves a more cost-effective way to reach and influence consumers it will go a long way. Given the current climate, it may not be long before one of the big boys gets their cheque book out again…

Behavioural Targeting

2008-02-25T03:29:00.000-08:00

Targeting

Sean Hargrave, NMA magazine, 14.02.08

The days of sending the same email to all customers are gone. Now eCRM is about segmenting prospects and tailoring messages dynamically.

Email marketing is set to have a bumper year in 2008 as eight out of ten marketers look to increase spend on the channel, according to latest figures from the Direct Marketing Association. This means marketers will be looking to become increasingly sophisticated in the way they manage the whole cycle of communication with their customers.

Among those increasing spend on email year, there's a near-even split between those who say the money will be diverted from other channels and those who say it will be new money. Funds are being shifted towards eCRM as marketers improve their lists (the average company only has email addresses for half its customer database). Those already heavily involved are showing that simply moving from direct mail to email is not enough.

Consumers are now very web savvy and are turned off by impersonal mass mailouts. To be successful, the attention being focused on eCRM this year will need to be directed at purchases, not just measuring open or click-through rates.

Email marketers that are leading the way are segmenting their databases so emails are made more relevant for their recipients, according to eCRM analyst Clive Longbottom, service director at Quocirca. The accepted wisdom that it costs 15 times as much to gain a new customer as it does to sell to an existing one is concentrating marketers' minds on asking their customers pertinent questions, so that those databases can be brought up to date and customers put into more closely defined groups.

Splitting your audience

Once a database has been brought up to date and customers placed into appropriate segments, the task of using the improved data-bases comes into focus.

Improvements in lists and eCRM services from agencies and software vendors are proving a boon for Philip Maskell, MD of Essex Auto Group, which runs showrooms for car manufacturers including Fiat, Ford and Mazda. He says that being able to target particular audiences with focused messages is what any retailer wants.

Spreading downwards

SMEs moving into eCRM is one of the industry's quiet revolutions, according to Clint Oram, VP of open-source community relations at eCRM software supplier Sugar. It used to be the preserve of those with enterprise-level budgets, he says, but the internet has enabled companies of all sizes to participate

Among the enterprise-level clients that have used eCRM systems for years, the way forward is to move beyond segmented lists and ending what many in the industry refer to as the 'silo mentality', where lists reside in separate departments and are never shared. Prime offenders are FMCGs whose many brands rarely cross-sell.

This mixing and matching of brands as well as delivery channels, allowing lists to be shared and applied to mobile as well as email, is where eCRM is heading, agrees Jon Pollard, head of operations at Mighty Mouse Digital, which is behind Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club groups.

In the near-term future for eCRM will be to update and segment lists and provide users with individually tailored offers, while the medium or longer-term future would appear to be found in letting different departments' lists be combined and applied not just for email but also mobile.

To summarise:

Eight out of ten marketers will be increasing eCRM spend this year, according to the DMA
Half of these will be shifting funds from other channels, mostly direct mail and press advertising.
Marketers are personalising messages as well as segmenting lists so that messages are made relevant to core customer groups.
ECRM is no longer the preserve of enterprises. Affordable software is allowing SMEs to launch campaigns as well.
The challenge ahead for enterprises is to manage huge lists and share them among their different brands

Competitors

2008-02-25T03:27:00.001-08:00

The Post Office launches pet insurance policy

Kay Murchie February 7, 2008

As well as providing car, home, travel, health and life insurance, the Post Office has now announced that it is to launch a pet insurance policy.

The new policy will offer a comprehensive range of care for cats and dogs, covering veterinary bills up to a maximum of £5,000 per condition.

The Post Office recently discovered that almost all claims (97%) on pet insurance policies are for less than £5,000, so customers will not get charged for unnecessary cover. The cover comes with a set level of excess at £75.

The Post Office pet insurance policy differs from many others that are available as all ages are covered and payouts on claims will continue for over one year after the initial treatment.

Head of pet insurance at the Post Office, Emma Baunach, said: dogs and cats are often a huge part of the family with 11% of people saying they would re-mortgage their house to pay for a vet bill.

Furthermore, the policy includes cover for taking pets overseas, emergency kennel and cattery costs.

Finally, those with more than one pet to insure can also benefit from a 5% discount.

Insurance related issues

2008-02-25T03:25:00.000-08:00

British Gas appoints TDA for insurance site launch

Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic, 22-Feb-08

British Gas Business has chosen direct marketing agency TDA to develop an integrated direct marketing strategy aimed at encouraging customers to use its new online insurance aggregator, Insurance-for-business.co.uk

TDA will create online and offline campaigns targeting trade and retail SMEs, particularly those in niche sectors that might struggle to find comprehensive and competitive cover.

The activity is expected to go live next month, involving trade press ads and direct mail.
Neale Phillips, head of insurance at British Gas Business, said: "Our new insurance service can provide a quick and cost-effective solution for many businesses, including those that traditionally struggle to get insured.

"TDA's combined track record in B2B and financial services makes it the ideal direct marketing partner for us."

Insurance-for-business.co.uk searches for the best insurance deals -- including public liability, professional indemnity and employers' liability -- from leading providers such as AXA, Zurich and Norwich Union.

Peter Wilton, managing director at TDA, said: "We are working on a highly targeted acquisition and conversion strategy. Insurance-for-business.co.uk offers a wide range of competitively priced insurance options to the difficult to reach SME market, and it's a target audience ripe for effective segmentation and targeted proposition testing."

Insurance related issues

2008-02-08T07:56:00.000-08:00

Home insurance crucial as more floods are predicted (Tesco online)
17/01/2008

Homeowners are being warned of the possibility of further flooding and some are already seeing the effects of recent weather conditions which have breached their homes once again.

The forecasts for a combination of flooding and high winds to come have urged Halifax Home Insurance to encourage people to ensure they have adequate home insurance in case their homes are damaged, especially the five million people living in areas threatened by flooding, and those affected by last summer's floods, the consequences of which are still ongoing and many families remain displaced from their homes. Halifax's recommendations include putting sandbags outside of doors and windows to reduce the amount of water entering the property, turning off mains supplies of water, electricity and gas, disconnecting pipes to appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers to avoid damage to the pipes, and moving as many furniture items, curtains, rugs and other belongings as possible upstairs.Officials have said that the next several days will prove critical in assessing the potential damage to homes, and last night the Environment Agency had 71 flood warnings in place as many homeowners battened down the hatches against the elements for the second or third time in just eight months.

Savvy shoppers set to benefit as comparison sites prepare for home insurance price war (Tesco online)
16/01/2008

Price comparison websites are preparing for battle as an increasingly competitive home insurance market is forcing down prices, providing web-savvy customers with the opportunity to snap up cut price deals. Research by Consumer Intelligence (CI) has found that home insurance customers are becoming more price conscious which in turn is likely to cause a price war for price comparison websites later this year.A survey of 2,000 home insurance buyers, conducted monthly by Consumer Intelligence has seen a ten per cent increase in price sensitivity in recent months, the biggest rise since the study began 18 months ago. Currently, around 69 per cent of motor insurance customers use price comparison websites when they renew their policies. While car insurance shoppers are making full use of comparison sites, only 43 per cent of people seeking home insurance bothered with a price comparison site when renewing their policy. However, if these people decide to start comparing quotes, that would mean an additional 5.5 million more shoppers on price comparison sites in the next few years. Recent discounts offered to customers by insurance firms have reduced annual premiums for many by up to 50 per cent, allowing consumers to get more value for money than ever before.

Budget launches short-term car insurance
Wednesday, 23 Jan 2008 11:50

Budget Insurance is launching a range of short-term car insurance policies. The polices are aimed at those moving house, borrowing a car from a friend, overseas visitors, learner drivers, students returning home during term holidays and those test driving a vehicle. Temporary cover is available from a single day to four weeks. "But traditionally this kind of cover has been difficult to find when you need it." Temporary cover also offers reassurance to the vehicle owner, as their no-claims bonus is not at risk. "In the event of an accident, an accident involving a driver added temporarily to the owner’s policy could affect their no-claims discount. But if that driver took out a temporary policy, the owner’s no-claims discount would be unaffected," Mr Gledhill concluded.

eBay launches car insurance service
Wednesday, 23 Jan 2008 11:48

eBay is launching a new car insurance service for its site eBayMotors.co.uk.

A partnership with price comparison website insurancewide.com will provide visitors to the car auction site a comprehensive choice of car insurance policies under the eBay Motors Services section. Jody Ford, head of eBayMotors, said, "With over three million visitors every month, the needs of the eBay Motors community are wide and varied. ‘We believe insurancewide.com provides the right level of choice, service and value to address these needs’.Insurancewide.com chief executive James Harrison said: "eBay has been incredibly successful in helping people buy and sell cars simply, quickly and inexpensively. Offering car insurance comparison is a natural follow on from that. Insurancewide currently has partnerships with personal finance portals at MSN, AOL and Yahoo, and offers access to almost every UK insurer and broker.

Competitors

2008-02-08T07:54:00.000-08:00

Sheilas' Wheels launches ad campaign for female home insurance product
By Antoinette Odoi Marketing 01-Feb-08, 15:21

LONDON - Sheilas' Wheels, the women's motor insurance company, is rolling out an ad campaign to promote its new female-focused home insurance product.

The brand, whose current TV ads for car insurance are fronted by various ‘Sheilas' clad in lurid pink, is aiming to raise awareness of its new offering. The new service, which allows people to buy contents and buildings insurance either separately or as a combined package, is designed to appeal strongly to women, although men are also welcome to buy these products. Sheilas' Wheels car insurance has proved popular with women looking for a more bespoke service, and Sheila's Wheels thinks there should be more flexibility with home insurance too.Company spokesperson Jacky Brown says: "Traditional home cover has moved little with the times and until now has been unisex in its blandness. Sheilas’ Wheels home insurance is a very serious female-focused product in the wrappings of a sassy brand."One of the benefits of its home insurance cover includes free online access to the CreditExpert identity fraud detection and assistance service provided by Experian. Furthermore, customers can choose to add home emergency and pest cover if needed, and Family Legal Protection is free for a year when bought online.

Allianz reworks Petplan title (Pet Insurance)
by Nicola Clark Marketing 22-Jan-08

LONDON - Allianz Insurance has appointed customer publisher Sunday to re-launch its Pet-plan magazine in a bid to boost customer loyalty.

The magazine is being re-launched under the title VIP (Very Important Pets). It was previously called Petpatter. Sunday picked up the contract after a competitive pitch against Wardour and incumbent publisher Mediamark.

The insurance firm will also launch a range of online content to support the magazine, which is the biggest in the market with a circulation of 750,000. The work is intended to consolidate Allianz's position as the UK's biggest pet insurance brand. The bi-annual title will be sent directly to Petplan customers with the aim of encouraging customer retention and increasing policy renewal rates. According to Sunday, the publication will have a more contemporary feel and marketing-focused approach.

The move comes as Pet-plan faces increased competition. Its rivals include Esure, More Then, Virgin Money and the RSPCA. The Halifax has also promoted pet-specific policies. A report this month by market analyst Defaqto warned that consumer confidence in the pet insurance sector is low due to the high turnover of firms leaving and entering the market.

In the past 12 months, six pet insurers have left the UK market and nine have joined. Problems during policy transferrals have led to confusion and distrust, according to Defaqto. The pet insurance category accounts for just 1% of the insurance market and is worth an estimated £400m. Defaqto' s report also warned of stalling growth among the UK pet population.

Behavioral Targeting

2008-02-08T07:50:00.000-08:00

Ten things you need to know about behavioral targeting
by Alexandra Jardine Media Week 05-Feb-08

Finding the right ad for the right customer at the right time is an advertiser's dream. Alexandra Jardine talks to those who are working to make that dream come true.

If you have spent any time at all online recently, you might have spotted something. There you are, perusing a TV listings page perhaps, and an ad pops up for a last-minute travel deal to Barcelona - something you were researching just yesterday. Is it just a coincidence?
The answer is almost definitely not. With marketers increasingly turning to the web, the internet ad space is getting crowded.Popular sites are often "sold out"; brands need to find better ways of targeting their audiences on the sites where they know they spend time. Cue a huge upsurge of interest in "behavioural targeting" - that is, serving a customer with ads based on their previous online behaviour.Since behavioural targeting first emerged three years ago, advertisers have scrambled to buy into technology that makes it possible for them to reach a more relevant audience.So, what is the lowdown on this emerging phenomenon?

WHAT IS IT AND HOW DOES IT WORK?Behavioural targeting (BT) basically means targeting an online consumer based on the actions and profile they have demonstrated in the past. This could be linked to a page of content they have viewed, a search they have done, or an ad they have clicked on.It can work in several ways:

1. In some cases, a network of sites tag pages according to their content. "Cookie" technology is then used to track users, following them around the sites and targeting them with advertising based on their previous behaviour.

2. In other cases, companies or media owners create "pre-canned" segments of people who have responded to specific types of campaign, then sell these segments to advertisers.

3. Other sites - retailers for example - might re-target users with ads once they have left their site, based on whether or not they have completed a desired action.

WHAT ARE ITS ADVANTAGES?

The immediate advantages are obvious: the more detailed a profile you build up of a specific user, the more targeted your campaign can be. This not only enables brands to target a more relevant audience, it allows publishers and site owners to sell their sites more efficiently. As Jeremy Mason, managing director European operations at behavioural targeting specialist Revenue Science, puts it: "As more money goes online, premium inventory is selling out very quickly."Behavioural targeting means advertisers can target their audience via a different page based on past behaviour."This allows advertisers to target consumers "out of context" - for example, on Yahoo's portal, a financial brand could target a user who is viewing news or sport pages, knowing that they have previously looked at a finance page - and can also save them money. Ed Stevenson, managing director of 24/7 Real Media, says: "A known reader of FT.com could be targeted with a financial ad while on their Facebook page, for a much cheaper price.

"WHO OFFERS IT?

In addition to several specialist behavioural targeting networks, including Tacoda, Wunderloop and BlueLithium, there are other specialists that sell their technology to media owners. For example, Revenue Science works with major UK publishers such as Guardian Unlimited and FT.com.Web portals such as Yahoo and AOL are also muscling in on the behavioural targeting game. Yahoo allows its advertisers to target audience segments based on data from search, content and ads that they click on. However, Yahoo has now also acquired BlueLithium, which specialises in re-targeting consumers that have shown an interest in brand ads with tactical, direct-response ads.BlueLithium European managing director Tim Brown says their combined reach will be vast: "An advertiser could buy a brand campaign on Yahoo and then blast a particular segment of people with a tactical message. It's about targeting the consumer right through, from the beginning to the end of the sales funnel."Online advertising specialists also offer their clients behavioural targeting services: for example, 24/7 Real Media is now offering clients a service called "search re-targeting", which allows brands to retarget customers that have already shown an interest in their products via searches.

WHAT'S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE?

Perhaps the greatest challenge in behavioural targeting is finding an audience that's targeted, but not too niche.Revenue Science's Jeremy Mason says: "There are cases where you can limit your audience too much - sometimes agencies want to go too specific. For example, if you want to target people who read a review of a particular car, it could be that you should step back and target those who read five or six different car reviews."Paul Goad of Tacoda agrees: "The majority of advertisers are looking at reach - although if you are Porsche, you probably want to look at just a few hundred people."

ARE THERE OPPORTUNITIES OUTSIDE ONLINE?

Although behavioural targeting is still mainly an online phenomenon, opportunities are emerging on the mobile platform. Revenue Science is about to conduct a mobile advertising experiment in Japan, targeting users of a mobile web portal, Mediba, with ads based on previous behaviour such as downloading ringtones and games, visiting news sites, and e-commerce.Blyk, the opt-in mobile phone network for 16 to 24-year-olds, which gives free texts and calls in return for brands targeting them directly, also claims to offer behavioural targeting. Brands can target customers with mobile ads based on previous responses: L'Oreal sent users a quiz asking which celebrity they looked most like, and tailored future offers to their replies.

WHAT DIFFERENT TYPES OF AUDIENCE CAN IT SEGMENT?

Audiences can be as specific or broad as advertisers choose. Tacoda, for example, offers 350 pre-qualified segments to advertisers, but it can also "mix and match". For example, advertisers can target someone interested in business and travel, but also in buying an air ticket.Yahoo says that it has 114 defined audience segments for advertisers to choose from; for instance, HSBC targeted a segment of 100,000 people looking for current accounts. It experienced an 86% click-through rate increase with its ad.

WHICH ADVERTISERS ARE USING IT?

Automotive, travel, finance, technology and entertainment are the most common categories where behavioural targeting is used, but specialists predict that more niche brands will begin to use it soon.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN 2008?

This year looks set to see a behavioural targeting explosion. A recent e-Marketer report predicts that US spending on behaviourally targeted advertising will almost double from $575m (£288.5m) in 2007 to $1bn (£0.5bn) in 2008.Although the UK is some way behind this, interest is strong. "There is very high demand," says Yahoo's Phil Macauley."We were completely sold out across the board in the final quarter of 2007.

"Meanwhile, the technology looks set to develop apace, with better ways of segmenting audiences and more data shared across networks. Revenue Science, for example, is to pool all its participating publishers' data to target users across multiple sites, while Yahoo is starting to develop bespoke audience models for advertisers.It seems as if brands are finally starting to tap into the real potential of the internet.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS IT?

According to a study by Jupiter Research, conducted for AOL and Revenue Science in June 2007, behavioural targeting is a more effective form of online advertising than contextual ads placed alongside related content.- 63% of consumers targeted by behavioural advertising were receptive to the ads, compared to 49% targeted by contextual ads. This was consistent across several categories including entertainment, pharmaceuticals, fashion, government services and classified.

The Welcome Ad Break
07-Feb-08

If TV viewers want to avoid ads, they can. It's never been easier because they have the most intuitive and easy-to-use technology to avoid them: digital television recorder (DTR) devices, such as the Sky Plus box.

The DTR's arrival sent a ripple of fear through the TV advertising industry. It assumed that, given the choice, consumers would skip ads. However, research shows that, rather than avoiding ads, most DTR homes actually watch more in real time.
People don't get DTRs to avoid ads; they get them to find content they want to watch.

Ads are also spotted and rewound to watch fully. Thinkbox found there was a greater appreciation of good ads and of the timeliness of some advertising, especially on live TV: for example retail sales, films and trailers. DTRs renew their owners' interest in the relevance of advertising. There will always be a minority who wish for an ad-free media world but the research showed DTR owners were more circumspect. Many acknowledged advertising's funding role and rejected the notion of paying more for ad-free TV.

It is also easier for viewers to engage and be loyal to programmes they like with a DTR. For existing series it removes some stresses and strains, including the need to be "there", the pressure of seeing every episode, the disappointment of missing out and the inconvenience of setting the VHS. For new series it prevents accidental dropping and encourages long-term sticking with a series, especially to longer-run series that require real commitment in busy lives.

The launch of Ebay's Price Comparison Service

2008-01-24T07:49:00.000-08:00

EBay is partnering with Insurancewide.com to provide a price comparison service on the online auction house's eBayMotors.co.uk pages. The eBayMotors community, the UK's busiest online showroom, will have access to Insurancewide.com's service, which offers a "comprehensive" choice of car insurance options.
The British Insurance Brokers' Association (Biba) this week raised questions about protection for consumers who use comparison sites, saying its research shows people do not fully understand the difference between the policies they are comparing. Such sites are believed to account for as much as 50% of motor insurance policy sales in the UK.
Insurancewide.com chief executive James Harrison says it is a natural step for eBay to be able to offer customers insurance information. The web comparison site, which launched in 1999, already has partnerships in place with personal finance portals including MSN, AOL and Yahoo!

Market trends/ Direct response

2008-01-18T09:36:00.000-08:00

Royal Mail develops chocolate direct mail format
By Alex Donohue Brand Republic 15-Jan-08, 12:00

LONDON - Royal Mail has unveiled a new mailing package for business customers devised by Proximity London that allows brands to send messages to consumers made entirely from chocolate.

The pack contains a letter made from chocolate that companies can use to write personalized messages to customers, and has been developed by Proximity London after research from Royal Mail's partner Brand Sense, a sensory branding consultancyA study by Brand Sense found consumers made decisions to buy particular products based on their ability to engage "sensory signals". Royal Mail said the chocolate mailing would allow direct marketers to engage with more than three of their recipient's senses and improve campaign response rates for businesses.
The chocolate mailing, which contains a heat sensitive cover, has been sent to 1,000 people at marketing and creative agencies in the UK to show how it could improve response rates on direct campaigns.

Amanda Phillips, chief executive at Proximity London, said: "Royal Mail wanted to highlight the role that direct mail has to play in building brands. We came up with the concept of a chocolate letter because it is simple but powerful and illustrates direct mail's exceptional capability to engage all the senses."

Social network 'super advocates' to influence brand choice
by Jacquie Bowser Brand Republic 15-Jan-08, 08:45

LONDON - The progress of social networks will lead to the rise of ‘super advocates' who will have the power to make or break a brand's reputation in 2008.

Experian suggests that super advocates, its monicker for highly influential, outspoken figures, will create one of the biggest challenges to companies trying to tap into user-generated content for advertising and marketing purposes.

Such figures will supposedly have a huge online following of people keen to know their thoughts on a company, its products or problems that they have encountered.

The 'Impact of Social Networking in the UK' report recommends that companies quickly identify super advocates and use any means to keep these influential figures on side. Experian suggests companies will need to make a conscious effort to avoid commercialism "at all costs" and provide highly exclusive information to help win super advocates' respect.
The report also predicts that the use of social networks for viral and search marketing will increase during 2008 following the improvement of the search and navigation capabilities of social networking sites, which will make websites' content more accessible to marketers.
Experian suggests that site owners will drive these developments with the aim of opening up their platforms to third parties and increasing profits via permission-based advertising.

Behavioural Targeting

2008-01-18T09:08:00.000-08:00

08 The Year Ahead - Online
20-Dec-07

Targeting gets serious

As behavioural targeting moves from niche to mainstream, advertisers must avoid consumer backlash. By Nathalie Kilby

Steve Davies, managing partner at Experian Integrated Marketing, says: “Even the biggest clients have viewed the online planning function from a different perspective, not applying the same principles as offline – online planning has evolved from Web development and analytics. They have been happy to co-exist but more clients and agencies are looking to marry the two and apply the same principles to both functions.

He says more marketers and their agencies are waking up to the fact that advertisers need to marry data from offline channels, such as customer relationship management and direct marketing, with online data.

One key development that can boost optimisation and achieve greater return on investment, and which observers say will gain momentum over the next year is behavioural targeting. A series of acquisitions took place in the area in 2007, with AOL buying Tacoda, Yahoo! snapping up Blue Lithium and Google taking over DoubleClick. More recent developments include social networks Bebo, Facebook and MySpace rolling out new strategies around behavioural targeting. And advertisers are keen to get on board – little wonder if they are able to advertise to consumers who really want to see specific ads and who will be influenced by them.

Sky’s Gallacher says it is important to be one step ahead: “What makes me successful this year, won’t do the same for me next year. Early adoption is not ‘a nice to have’. Technical advantage mean competitive advantage. If advertisers are not using behavioural targeting in two years they will be seen as an oddity.” He adds that advertisers can no longer buy ads across blind networks. Instead they must execute more effective planning strategies, and behavioural targeting can help.

There is, however, a fly in the ointment – privacy. Consumers are wary of the online data advertisers hold about them. They consider it “spooky” that faceless corporations gather data on them in order to advertise to them and sell more stuff. Users’ reaction to Facebook’s Beacon platform, built around behavioural targeting, is a clear sign of the negativity surrounding what advertisers know, even about those people who are willing to divulge so much online. Ethical issues are gathering momentum.

They say advertisers must prove the benefits of better targeting and allay concerns about invasion of privacy and “Big Brother” techniques. “The customer is not ready for individual targeting and nor are advertisers,” adds Katz. “But segmenting in the way we do offline around trends, groups and behaviours means more benefit for consumers. The purpose of advertising should be to enlighten people about what is available. The negativity must and can be countered if consumers understand the benefit.”

Insurance brand (competition)

2008-01-18T07:21:00.000-08:00

Zurich to re-launch Home Solutions product
7th November 2007
By Staff Writer

Zurich is planning to re-launch its standard Home Solutions, Home Solutions Advantage, for mid net worth individuals and its Residential Lets product.

With Home Solutions the insurer is targeting first time buyers and flat owners with smaller properties who would prefer to opt for a lower level of home contents sum-insured limits whilst those with more possessions or in larger properties will automatically benefit from a standard cover increase from GBP40,000 to GBP50,000. Zurich is also addressing the complexities of buying the right protection by simplifying its buildings cover which will move from a sum insured to a bedroom rated product, with automatically increased cover at no extra charge to the customer.

Home Solutions Advantage is designed to serve mid net worth customers and has been revised to offer more flexibility to increase cover limits for personal valuables such as jewellery and watches up to GBP20,000, GBP500,000 buildings cover as standard and worldwide contents cover.

Residential Lets covers buildings and landlords' business contents with optional cover for legal expenses. By providing a standard buildings cover limit of GBP500,000 the majority of property owners will not need to go to the trouble of establishing the rebuilding cost of the property.
Richard Coleman, head of personal lines and broker division at Zurich, said: "The devastating impact of the recent flooding seems to have changed many homeowners' perceptions of home insurance. Whilst home cover has never quite been the commodity purchase that motor has become in some areas, customers are now beginning to think more carefully about what they require to protect their most valuable asset."

Moneyfacts.co.uk and BeatThatQuote.com to offer motor and home insurance
16th January 2008
By Staff Writer

BeatThatQuote.com, a price comparison site, has signed a deal to supply Moneyfacts.co.uk with a white label version of its motor and home insurance service.

The new insurance service will sit alongside existing personal finance products making it convenient for Moneyfacts.co.uk customers to buy online. Thompson, Experian, Switchwise and Energy Helpline have all recently signed up to offer the BeatThatQuote.com powered insurance panel on their web sites under their own brands.
John Paleomylites, BeatThatQuote's founder and MD, said: "We anticipate the Moneyfacts insurance offer will drive huge volume in the market for us. We share a consumer champion ethos which means that we strive to ensure that our panel of insurers consistently returns the best quotes in the market making us a logical partner for Moneyfacts."

Market Trends/ Direct response/ Digital Media

2007-12-18T04:24:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-14T07:53:00.001-08:00

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)

2007-12-14T04:23:00.000-08:00

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.