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Guide to protection awarenessProtection promotions to boost sales
Regular promotion of the benefits of protection across various forms of media are important but so too are strategic campaigns.
Basic advertising is helpful but to get the message across better, people need a nudge.
David Pugh, managing partner for Lemonade Reward, says: “Adverts by the big household names raise awareness, and the good ones make people stop and think, but most people need a nudge to take action.”
This means there is a greater need to get the message across, beyond strategic advertising placement and billboard marketing, although this is an essential starting-point.
Kelly Thomas, head of marketing at VitalityLife, says: “We have invested heavily in engaging consumers through advertising, which is fundamental to growing the market and people’s awarenss of protection.”
People matter
According to Phil Jeynes, head of sales and marketing for UnderwriteMe, case studies are crucial to getting the message home to the general public.
He says targeted marketing of “case studies, case studies and then some more case studies” will help make people more aware of the benefits of protection.
“We need to show our products working, in real-life contexts, supported by the fact protection policies pay out in more than 90 per cent of cases, and can save families from financial ruin.
“We shouldn’t be reliant on the traditional media promoting this content for us any more.”
Seven Families
The Seven Families campaign has been an important one in highlighting, through the use of case studies, the importance of having appropriate cover in place.
This campaign, launched in partnership with Disability Rights UK and the Income Protection TaskForce, garnered funding from more than 20 life and protection companies.
The aim of the campaign was to take seven British families whose lives have been changed as a result of critical illness, disability and death, and to provide funding for them while raising awareness of the need for protection.
Case studies included that of former midwife Melanie Knights, who was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
“Within our industry”, says Denise Wond, marketing manager for Royal London, “the Seven Families campaign has done a lot of good work in terms of raising awareness of the need for income protection.”
“The campaign focussed on the need for families to think about what would happen if they were unavble to work through illness or disability”, explains Emma Thomson, head of customer care for LifeSearch.
“We need more targeted campaigns like this, which focus on helping consumers understand relying on the state, their savings or family to pay the bills isn’t a good strategy for many”, she adds.
Togetherness
Mark Ireland, IFA for Richmond House Financial Services, believes it could be incumbent on large organisations and regulators to stand behind a sustainable campaign.
He says: “The protection industry or maybe the FCA to embark on a sustained, graphic and hard-hitting advertising campaign, in a similar way to those campaigns that focused on the health issues surrounding smoking or speeding.”
Kelly Thomas, head of marketing for VitalityLife, agrees: “The Seven Families initiative should be embraced by us all as an opportunity to collectively shout about the good work the protection industry does.
“While this campaign is coming to an end, it has shown the industry can work together for the greater good of promoting protection, and it will be interesting to see the lessons learned and what follows.”
Moreover, as the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has pointed out on several occasions, it is important for the ‘positive’ messages to be promoted, such as the number of claims paid out, and the falling number of ‘declined’ claims to be shown clearly to the British public.
In a statement, the ABI said: “A very high percentage of protection insurance claims are paid. The ABI’s commitment to transparency should help consumers and advisers understand why a small percentage of claims are not paid and how they can avoid their claims being declined.”
| Type of Product | Type of cover | Total value paid (£000) | Average claim paid (£s) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Term Life Insurance | 29,248 | 28,734 | 98.2% | 514 | 1.8% | 1,545,616 | 53,790 |
| Terminal Illness | 4,022 | 3,740 | 93% | 282 | 7% | 375,645 | 100,440 |
| Critical Illness | 18,307 | 17,045 | 93.1% | 1,262 | 6.9% | 1,128,140 | 66,186 |
| Total Permanent Disability | 875 | 581 | 66.4% | 294 | 33.6% | 37,889 | 65,213 |
| Whole of Life | 65,672 | 65,664 | 99.9% | 8 | 0.01% | 389,080 | 5,925 |
| Individual Income Protection1 | 14,664 | 13,372 | 91.2% | 1,292 | 8.8% | 131,026 | 9,799* |
| Total claims | 132,788 | 129,136 | 97.2% | 3,652 | 2.8% | 3,607,396 | 27,935 |
*Individual Income Protection policies may pay out for a few months or for many years. This figure is an average of all new and on-going claims during 2015. Source: ABI.
“More can always be done to promote protection to the general public”, says Steve Bryan, director of intermediary at Legal & General.
“It will take a multi-faceted approach from the government, insurers, intermediaries and the media to ensure as many people as possible are protected.”
According to Toni Smith, spokesperson for First Complete, the media has a part to play in getting the message across: “Consumer titles find it easy to bash insurers when a claim is not paid but these cases are rare.
“What we need to balance it out is more stories and hard-hitting features or case studies about the devastation caused by cancer or the death of a breadwinner and how proper protection saved the family from financial disaster.”
