New Site

Friends First: Awaiting Your Signature

Agency: Dialogue
Friends First  created the Friends First Distribution Partnership as Brokers are viewed as their essential partners. Through this programme Friends First offers a significant level of strategic and marketing support to any broker that signs up. To give a sense of the unique opportunity that joining the Distribution Partnership would offer, Friends First sent two mailings to 150 selected brokers. The first was a mysterious request for their signature; the broker was not told why but was simply reassured that they would be very impressed with what followed. The second mailing revealed all. A high quality presentation box was sent that included a unique metal pen etched with the recipient’s signature. The entire mailing was a clear indication of Friends First’s commitment to brokers and they responded accordingly. In fact the brokers who were prompted to join the Distribution Partnership programme by this campaign now account for 40% of Friends First’s total business. 

123.ie: The power of an envelope

Agency: Acorn Marketing
The financial services market is highly competitive - many brands offer similar products and the market is declining. 123.ie's differentiation is how it does its marketing and how it uses clever tactics to consistently improve the return on investment of its marketing spend. This campaign shows how testing formats in a single vehicle can yield excellent results. It also shows you how you can actually become more sophisticated in profiling and targeting, even with unaddressed mail.

FBD - Our Policy is You

Agency: Ignition
Insurance in an important purchasing decision and by using Direct Mail it was a very direct and personal medium to deliver a proposition to the consumer. In support of the brand positioning ‘Our Policy is You’, FBD created a tone of voice that was relaxed, personable and conversational, so consumers felt the letter was coming from somebody they could trust as well as having their best at heart in terms of the best policy and benefits. By getting the databasics right first and combining it in a design template for all three insurance policy types, the digitally printed and personalised conversational copy enabled the letter to ‘do all the talking’ for FBD and powerfully reinforce their ‘Our Policy is You’ proposition. This was even printed and personalised on the back of the letter. The campaign delivered a marked increase in quote request traffic and converted sales from the very first mailing (e.g. Car Insurance quote rate jumped from 5.7% to 37% and acquisition jumped from 1.7% to a high of 8%). In addition to an increase in quote and sales conversion rates, the cost per acquisition dropped by 56% making this an extremely effective campaign. So much so that following the campaign FBD sent out a Thank You letter to all new acquisitions complete with personalised season’s greetings.

Standard Life: Bring it Home

Agency: Drawing Inc
Standard Life wanted to promote their new pension product that enables people who have previously worked in the UK to bring their UK pension home to Ireland. However, with pensions being notoriously boring, perceived to be complex and difficult to understand, even for some financial advisors, Standard Life were faced with a difficult proposition challenge. The strategy was to target financial advisors with clients in the UK with a high impact, memorable direct mail campaign that would generate leads and meetings. They needed to ensure that the recipient grasped the concept as soon as they received the direct mail campaign. To achieve this, each financial advisor was sent a personalised, branded box, with a welcome note, 'Bring it Home' guide, and a triple pack of Toblerone bars in an ‘airport shopping’ wrapper to emphasise the transportable nature of the pension offering. The concept was tested in-house and with selected financial advisors before fully rolling out the campaign. Sales targets were exceeded and relationships re-established with a number of ‘lapsed’ contacts, delivering exceptional return on investment.

Aviva: Brand Migration

As part of the ‘One Aviva’ vision, Aviva wanted to communicate their name change from Hibernian to Aviva. Even though there was no legal requirement to inform customers of the name change, Aviva wanted to capitalise on this unique opportunity to drive awareness of its product portfolio, to generate leads to aid cross selling, update data protection permissions and grow the size of the marketable database. The entire Aviva Group Ireland customer database was segmented into 11 unique customer segments driven by product ownership, which were further defined into four customer groups. Customers received a personalised letter (one of 11 types) depending on their segment tailored by targeted product offers with a variable call to action, variable data protection wording and variable lead generation questions. Each letter contained a unique customer code for tracking. A lead generation form was used to gather additional renewal dates across Aviva’s General Insurance/Life and Health product portfolio. The unique code enabled customers to respond by Freepost or via a microsite. All customers received a brochure with details of discounts and savings and information of the Aviva stadium pre-launch. The campaign resulted in a 10% response rate to lead generation questions, 8% response rate for competition entries, a 75% lower than standard cost per acquisition and the Aviva marketable database was extended from 165k to 590k customers.