DIRECT LINE - THE MARKETING SOCIETY EXCELLENCE AWARDS · DIRECT LINE - THE MARKETING SOCIETY EXCELLENCE AWARDS MAIN ENTRY A brand in dire straits In 1985, Direct Line re-wrote the

DIRECT LINE - THE MARKETING SOCIETY EXCELLENCE AWARDS


Executive Summary Searching for insurance is a bore. You don’t care who the provider is – they’re all the

same, aren’t they? You just want the cheapest, speediest solution.

This is the mindset that, back in 2014, caused Direct Line to slump from market

champion to just another insurer. The onset of price comparison websites was driving a

tide of commoditisation, and customer numbers had been declining for five years

straight.

The company needed radical intervention. It set objectives to:

• Differentiate the brand.

• Rebuild consumer trust.

• Stem and reverse the commercial decline.

Direct Line’s bold strategy was to disrupt the market’s preoccupation with price head on,

by directly addressing consumers’ fundamental insurance need (putting things right

quickly and easily when they’ve gone wrong).

After 18 months of R&D, Direct Line repositioned itself as the ‘fixers’ of the industry. It

launched a series of unique service propositions that offered high performance, hassle-

free insurance with no additional costs or catches. The propositions were launched with

a large-scale integrated campaign that targeted consumers at multiple touchpoints. The

campaign drew on cutting-edge digital channels, but the root of the execution was

highly successful TV advertising featuring Pulp Fiction’s Winston ‘The Fixer’ Wolf

(generating a 53% improvement on quotes for every £1 invested).

Having delivered a step-change in performance and using “Can your insurance do that?”

straplines, Direct Line differentiated itself and is now number one in the market across

all key brand metrics: awareness, consideration, connection and preference. In the 80s,

Direct Line revolutionised insurance with its ‘come direct’ proposition. Today, the brand

has achieved no less than a revolution with this campaign: The last three years have

seen Direct Line transform both as a business and a brand, with its declining position

turned into a position of significant growth and increased market share.

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MAIN ENTRY

A brand in dire straits

In 1985, Direct Line re-wrote the insurance rulebook with its revolutionary ‘come-direct’

proposition, famed for cutting out the middle-man. Our brand and iconic ‘little red

phone on wheels’ ruled the market, and by 1997 we were insuring one in ten private

cars on the road1

However, by 2013, Direct Line was in dire straits. Our world had been unexpectedly

turned upside down by the onslaught of price comparison websites (PCWs), which

undermined our direct revolution. Suddenly customers were only interested in price and

cover when choosing insurance, rather than performance and quality. The sector was

becoming increasingly commoditised, and Direct Line was out-of-date and irrelevant.

Market share, customer numbers, quotes and policies took a five-year nosedive.

Put simply, PCWs had shattered our business model. We’d gone from the consumer

champion to an undifferentiated brand in a deeply-distrusted industry. Without a major

change, our future was bleak.

In 2005 Direct Line had more search volume than the top five PCWs combined. By 2007, In 2005 Direct Line had more search volume than the top five PCWs combined. By 2007, In 2005 Direct Line had more search volume than the top five PCWs combined. By 2007, In 2005 Direct Line had more search volume than the top five PCWs combined. By 2007,

Moneysupermarket alone had more search volume than Direct Line.Moneysupermarket alone had more search volume than Direct Line.Moneysupermarket alone had more search volume than Direct Line.Moneysupermarket alone had more search volume than Direct Line.

1 Source: Based on a comparison of internal data and Office of National Statistic Vehicle Registration

by Keepership for 1997 (VEH0202).


Objectives Though the scale of the challenge was immense, in 2014 we embarked on an ambitious

three-year journey to reboot the brand. We would create a new, coherent identity

capable of driving new proposition development, high performance creative execution

and operational improvements.

Our objectives were:

1. Differentiate the brand from the competitor set: Increase awareness and

consideration.

2. Rebuild trust with the consumer: Increase connection and preference.

3. Drive commercial growth: Stem and reverse the company’s revenue decline.

The research for a new direction

To achieve a paradigm-change in consumer experience, we had to have substance – and

that meant investing significantly in insight. Direct Line has always had a strong

commitment to evidence-based decision-making, and we used both qualitative and

quantitative methods to:

1) Establish a new brand position

Focus group research identified that, above all, consumers want hassle-free insurance

that just works. A subsequent market-mapping exercise ensured this positioning would

appeal to a wide audience. We found it had appeal across all key demographic groups

and, crucially, no other brand owned this space.

2) Understand our target audience

Market segmentation modelling indicated that with this brand positioning we’d reach

approximately 3-4m individuals aged 25-54 years old. As a mass-market insurer, this was

ideal.

3) Put our insights on trial

Research suggested that seven out of ten complaints related to timescales of settling a

claim or failure to keep customers informed, so we launched a new proposition to trial

our ‘hassle-free’ brand position: “Your car fixed in seven days or we pay you £10 a day

until the job is done.” We liked what the proposition said about the quality of our

insurance, and internally we realised a shift too – seeing the number of repairs

completed within seven days double.

Thanks to these insights, for the first time in a long time, our identity was clear. We’re

Fixers. We put things right when they go wrong, taking the hassle out of insurance.


The Direct Line strategy: We solve problems

Fixer strategy

We would reposition Direct Line as ‘high performance insurance’ that fixes problems

and gets lives back on track. This meant moving the conversation away from price and

cover at the point of purchase, and towards performance at the point of need.

Our strategy was to introduce a series of unique home and motor propositions that

show our service is as hassle-free as possible. Each proposition would make a unique

‘fixing’ promise we would deliver.

Campaign

We would spread our message using:

• ‘Always-on’ activity – building up a base of fixing content.

• Attention-grabbing, disruptive ‘fame-building’ bursts to launch each proposition.

Needing more than simply a clever ad, we launched a large-scale multi-channel

campaign. Every new proposition would start with a persuasive Winston Wolf TV

execution carrying the strapline “Can your insurance do that?” This would drive

connection to our brand all year round (not just around insurance-renewal dates) and

consistently reaffirm our USP.

Creative

We identified Winston Wolf from Pulp Fiction as the perfect embodiment of our new

fixer identity. He was a superb parallel for the way great insurance works – a call away,

knows what to do, puts it right without fuss and gets out of your life. With the phrase

“I’m Winston Wolf, I fix problems”, our fixer message could feature across every

touchpoint.

We took the fixer creative to 800 respondents for pre-testing, and the results were

overwhelmingly positive:

• Brand linkage 20% higher than the average of all ads tracked to date.

• Top 5% most salient campaigns ever evaluated.

• Top 4% most involving campaigns ever evaluated.

• Top 2% performing campaigns in increasing brand consideration.


This reboot wasn’t simply new creative, it was a new identity. Consumers needed to

know that we weren’t merely paying lip service to fixing. That’s why our service

proposition team and marketing team are one and the same. They overhauled our

insurance products – each one provided a fixing brand promise unrivalled in the

marketplace. Starting in 2014, these were launched systematically and underpinned all

our marketing activities.


Some examples of our TV creative, which formed the core of our creative strategy.


Secondary channels (both above-the-line and below-the-line) were used to amplify and

add weight to the TV creative. Below is a snapshot of just some of our activities:

National radio:

Radio campaigns were acutely relevant, communicating our motor propositions during

commuter times and around ‘traffic and travel updates’ to capture in-car listeners. We

also partnered with key stations, e.g. presenting ‘The Big Music Fix’ with Global Radio, in

which we solved listeners’ music-related prob-lems, such as replacing a listener’s lost

vinyl collection. Without a topic as dull as insurance, this tactic enabled us to engage a

target audience that are normally difficult to reach outside of their renewal pe-riod.

Geo-synchronised OOH, mobile and radio:

When commuters passed our billboards, innovative geo-fencing technology would

broad-cast an associated message on their radios, and they would also receive a mobile

message. This amplified our message that ‘Di-rect Line provides customers with a taxi to

anywhere in the UK after an accident’ during con-textually-relevant commuter

environments.


Direct Mail:

To creatively reflect Winston’s message

below-the-line, we de-signed an eye-

catching comic-strip team of Fixers who

would ‘work’ on behalf of Winston. Indi-

vidually, they represent various

insurance lines; together, they work as a

team to ensure prob-lems are sorted

quickly and effi-ciently by delivering on

our service promises.

Social

Activities included YouTube ‘How to’ fixing videos and ‘Listen and respond’ Twitter

campaigns (#everydayfix, #directfix and #merryfixmans); these involve us responding to

people’s tweeted dilemmas with real/virtual ‘fixes’ (resulting in Direct Line being the

first insurance brand to trend on Twitter). While not directly linked to insurance, these

activi-ties enabled our brand to be ‘al-ways on’ – continually reinforcing its fixer

credentials outside of the TV campaign periods.

To engage 17-25 younger drivers, vlogging star Alfie Deyes demonstrated our DrivePlus

product, filmed in a series of driving challenges.


Digital:

Highlights include blog content (we created a

unique ‘Fixology’ hub within The Guardian’s

website, which featured videos of celebrity

experts fixing common problems) and high-

impact YouTube/FB Block reach/ MSN

placements, which were followed by innovative

time-sensitive dy-namic banner ads to target

key segments based on online behaviour.


Effective use of marketing resources

Investing in the team

This wasn’t a superficial communications campaign – the crucial building blocks were

actually internal. Our initial investments went into growing the marketing team

capabilities, challenging existing mindsets and engendering the necessary behaviour to

achieve the momentum and muscle required to tackle the significant change ahead.

Internally, the strategy was supported by two mantras: “What would Wolf do?” and

“We’re on it”.

Efficient spend

Our marketing budget has been reduced considerably as part of the company’s focus on

cost since Direct Line Group’s IPO in 2012. Annual spend has fallen by 38% between

2014 and 2017. We had to do more with less, so took time to ensure we invested in the

right channels:

A long-term testing programme demonstrated that leaflets were only recovering about

55% of their costs, so we reduced spend by 97%.

Online tracking painted a misleadingly positive picture of conventional banner

advertising, so we reduced annual investment by 50%.

Matchback analysis of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) media found there

are significant differences in efficiency, and we’ve been able to reduce annual direct

marketing budget by 51%.

Econometric modelling showed diminishing returns of DRTV, so we reduced spend by

60%.

ROI within 12 months

The Fixer brand TV delivered significantly greater impact per 100 TVRs than the creative

used in the 12 months before the campaign.

These improved TV uplifts translated into a 40% fall in cost per sale for car insurance TV

advertising and a 10% fall for home.


Resurgence in customer perception

The rebrand has clearly helped to improve customer satisfaction, with our Net Promoter

Score increasing by 30% since 2014. This is helping us deliver our overarching objectives:

Objective 1) Differentiate the brand

In 2014 we were simply another insurer in the pack. However, after the reboot we

successfully differentiated ourselves. Our campaign not only stemmed the decline in

consideration and awareness, but increased them too:


Objective 2) Rebuild consumer trust

Stemming the decline in awareness and consideration was never the only concern for

us. We were also worried about what people thought of us.

Before the reboot, preference scores for Direct Line and its competitors all ranged

between 10% and 12%. Today, connection has increased 6pts and Direct Line is the most

preferred brand in both Home and Motor insurance:


A turnaround in fortune

Objective 3) Commercial growth

From campaign launch to December-2017:

• Market share: We’ve gained new business market share without any significant

price change in our premiums. Between Aug-14 and Dec-17, our home share

rose from 16% to 17% and our new business sales for motor rose from 19% to

30%.

• Quote volume: The rate of decline improved immediately for both motor and

home. Within six months we moved into positive growth, despite an overall

declining market, reaching a record high in April ‘16:


• Revenue (‘Gross Written Premiums’): By January 2015 we had halted five

consecutive years of decline and reversed the business’s overall revenue, a full

year ahead of target. In 2017, our combined home and motor YTD GWP has

increased 45 percentage points vs pre-fixer (2013) :

Despite the enormity of bringing our brand back from the brink, our brave, insight-led

strategy has seen us carve out another insurance revolution. Our reboot wasn’t simply

about finding new creative, it was about forming a whole new identity – and we found

one that is entirely unique, giving consumers a reason to come direct once again.

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Documents

DIRECT LINE - THE MARKETING SOCIETY EXCELLENCE AWARDS · DIRECT LINE - THE MARKETING SOCIETY EXCELLENCE AWARDS MAIN ENTRY A brand in dire straits In 1985, Direct Line re-wrote the