Voted by The Judging Panel
Sponsored by Aascent Premium Finance
Winner
MCE
In 2002 and 2003, MCE mounted an intensive marketing campaign promote its newly formed motorcycle dealer support unit (DSU) - helping to treble the unit's policy count and premium income and almost double the size of MCE's dealer network.
MCE saw that problems arranging insurance for bikes and scooters were stopping dealers selling bikes - recognising an opportunity to help with a dedicated package of insurance support and advice.
Drawing on its specialist knowledge of bike insurance, MCE offered dealers instant paperless quotes and cover and dedicated support from advisers.
The campaign was based on working with dealers to achieve common goals, making the insurance process as easy as possible, giving dealers the tools and advice to sell more bikes, and simply being there for dealers whenever they needed support.
It included promotional mailshots, dealer visits, strongly branded sales and presentational materials, attendance at motorcycle open days, extended opening hours, a 10-second call response commitment, a 50% increase in dedicated staff, unique solutions for difficult risks, introducers' fees and account facilities for key dealers.
MCE has established widespread recognition of DSU as a committed and passionate team dedicated to pursuing long-term relationships with dealers and growing a profitable book of business for its underwriters.
Highly commended
Berry Birch & Noble Insurance Brokers
An integrated marketing campaign, targeted at UK-based BP employees, was designed to increase awareness of the voluntary benefits available to them. The renewal of Berry Birch & Noble's three-year contract in November 2002 means they continue to be responsible for ensuring BP employees have access to a range of high quality products with specially negotiated rates wherever possible, and receive a high level of service from a panel of providers appointed by BP. The voluntary benefits consist of a range of insurances, financial services and lifestyle products.
Berry Birch & Noble worked very closely with BP to ensure BP's brand image was used correctly across all communication methods.
InsureYourMotor.com
Along with an intensive advertising campaign, InsureYourMotor set about an intense marketing and public relations campaign, which would place a particular focus on young drivers, convicted drivers and owners of high performance sports cars.
David Harlow, on behalf of InsureYourMotor.com, began commenting on anything insurance or motor industry related, and pitching it out to newspapers and magazines. His articles and press releases covered everything from driver and insurance statistics to the latest crime figures and generated enormous amounts of media coverage.
The results of these combined efforts over the last 12 months have been staggering. The media coverage generated combined with the consumer exposure gained through sponsorship and advertising has lead to the company quoting on some 80,000 policies every month, with a turnover fast approaching £30m.
Stuart Alexander Insurance and Risk Management
Stuart Alexander has refocused on a two-pronged approach to create a more sustainable growth strategy - based on a marketing pilot scheme - and decided to grow the business organically, with an ambition to deliver challenging annual growth objectives to complement the acquisition strategy
The decision was taken to create a more proactive, sales and marketing-focused company; and over several months the company made a number of substantial changes to the way it did business.
The first major part of the strategy was to enhance the corporate image and to introduce a brand image. This was largely achieved through an overall repositioning and a consistent application of common nomenclature and visual identity across the product range.
