Here we take a look at some of the protection campaigns over the last 10 years, focusing on their intentions, the level of success they enjoyed and their enduring legacy. Let us know if you think a campaign is doing good and should continue - or indeed be resurrected - and what you think the advice sector and providers can do in the future to boost the profile of protection.
Protection on the TV
Five years ago the Consumer Protection Insurance Engagement Campaign (CPIEC) was launched by Tom Baigrie of LifeSearch. The idea was to raise £5m to advertise the need for protection on prime time television, without promoting any particular insurer or product.
Phase one required notable funding from insurers and reinsurers to carry out detailed research into what sort of advertising was required, what would make consumers act and what might the costs be. This was successful and following a presentation to the industry, insurers were then asked to raise £5m in total to take the project forward and build a series of adverts and supporting marketing designed for TV.
This is where it fell down. With hindsight the breakdown of who should pay what wasn’t right while all the time some of the bigger insurers jostled for position. While the campaign effectively failed, several firms who were involved in the project subsequently went on to advertise protection on television, including Unum and Aviva.
Social media storm: @scotprovsaysno
@scotprovsaysno is the twitter account of a chap called Chris Hargreaves, who had an income protection claim declined by the insurer a few years ago. Incensed with their decision he took his claim to the Ombudsman, where it was overturned, and has since campaigned to improve the policy definitions for IP policies, in particular improving, if not completely scrapping, the ‘Work Tasks’ definition of incapacity.
His story, which FTAdviser reported first all the back in November 2011, has also been followed up by numerous TV programs and covered by a range of national newspapers. At the time of writing he has 12,000 followers on Twitter and various trade publications and organisations have supported his call to improve policy definitions – with many insurers changing their terms as a result.
No advice, no protection
