Last month Confused launched a new ad campaign fronted by James Corden.
Behind the wheel (a position already familiar to viewers of his Carpool Karaoke slot), Corden picks up his passenger and proceeds through a series of green lights. The voiceover at the end of the ad proclaims: "That's a driver win. Just like saving on car insurance at Confused.com"
Corden’s debut marked the unceremonious end of Brian the Robot. His ad campaigns, even the racier ones simply failed to drum up traffic for the price comparison site in the way that Aleksandr Orlov generated major changes in customer shopping patterns for Compare The Market.
Giving away Brian toys with any insurance or credit card purchase gave a temporary boost, but it wasn’t enough to cut through the noise of the other price comparison websites.
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Our research shows that Confused was the fourth PCW in July 16 with 13% of motorists who bought from a PCW, and 16% from home owners. A far fall from first amongst the big four and a 40% driver share before meerkats scuttled onto the scene.
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Creating character and personality works
MoneySuperMarket is also trying to gain market share with last week’s return of its ‘strutting’ businessman Dave and splashed out on an X Factor ad slot for the debut of its latest campaign.
The success of Compare The Meerkat shows that creating a compelling customer experience works. This is about more than one advertisment but about creating character and personality and building it over time. We saw it again when Gio Compario’s return to the screens boosted motor market share from 7.8% to 18.1% for Go Compare between May and July last year.
Time will tell whether Corden’s appeal can bring drivers back to Confused over the long term. that will depend on whether this is a simple markeitng gimmick or whether "A drivers win" is an experience that can resonate with consumers over time. It will also be interesting to see whether the ads, and their motor focus, will translate into home insurance customers.
PS for those who will miss Brian, although Confused has also stopped giving away the toys with insurance purchases, the dedicated can buy a bundle of the three robots for £20.
Measure your performance across all the major price comparison websites
To be able to optimise your pricing you need to be able to see how you are competing on all the major price comparison websites (PCW's). The multi aggregator pricing toolkit will improve your sales and profit by giving you a broad understanding of your performance across the market. Selling too cheaply can be as dangerous as not being competitive and with this toolkit you will find out how you can improve profit and where you might need to tighten margins to increase policy count.
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