How Close became Cool

Primal Scream, Catatonia, The Chemical Brothers.....and Close Premium Finance. It's not easy to see much in common between rock bands and a company that provides cash to fund premiums, but all are clients of design agency Intro. And, if it's possible to be cool in the insurance industry, this is what's been achieved in a major rebranding project.

Creative director Adrian Shaughnessy says the last thing he wants is for Intro to be viewed as a hyper trendy agency that specialises in the music biz - even though this is where its roots are.

The company is now one of the UK's leading cross-media design agencies and while rock stars are on its books, so are many blue chip companies. These include Deutsche Bank, Penguin Books and venture capital provider 3i. It also works with the BBC on projects such as sports promotion and for charities including Breakthrough Breast Cancer and The Wellcome Trust.

Intro is based in London's Bloomsbury in funky premises close to the British Museum. Close was its first insurance client.

He says research showed that current branding and advertising for the sector was far from inspirational. Premium finance with its connotations of staidness and lack of creativity was an area his team could get their teeth into

New look
The brief came in October 2001. Close was then Prompt - an established premium finance provider that was respected and successful, in a competitive market. It had a new chief executive at the helm in Bob Golden and he wanted a fresh new look and ideas on how the company could differentiate itself. According to Golden, the mission was " to get across the brand values of longevity, stability and trust, matched with being contemporary, innovative and dynamic."

Shaugnessy attended the pitch with colleagues Elaine McIntosh, a senior producer and Adrian Talbot, a senior designer. No one knew what to expect, other than they were up against several other agencies, some of which had previous insurance industry experience.

"We wore suits when we went to meet Bob and his team because we thought that's what it was like in insurance. When we arrived they were all casual. They're like that all the time unless meeting clients," he says.

The sombre clothing did not put Golden off and they clicked. "He's an interesting guy who was also new to the industry. He's analytical, with an MBA and it was clear he was a new force there. He wasn't looking for predictability. We're about being different and we challenge our clients to be," says Shaughnessy.

Intro won the pitch. Golden says he was immediately impressed by the catch phrase "No one else is Close" and initial images. The agency since then has worked steadily on a stream of initiatives from the rebrand to direct mail campaigns and redesigning the website.

McIntosh was charged with ensuring all campaigns ran smoothly. She says Close was an exemplary client to work with. "They were really involved with what we were doing and were enormously positive about change. They also made sure that they communicated with all staff about the brand and that they were similarly enthused."

She also had to make sure Close was satisfied with the job being done. "We had to explain everything, they didn't want jargon and we needed to look at the business impact in addition to being creative."

Text for the campaign was produced by copywriting agency, The Writer, a company Intro has a long-standing relationship with. Literature is clean and crisp with plenty of white space. Different shades of blue are used to denote either personal or commercial lines material and a theme of horizontal fine lines runs throughout.

Adrian Talbot produced much of the design work. "Subliminally the lines can suggest a pinstripe, but it is also dynamic," he says.

He explains meetings with Close people showed they had specific messages. "They wanted to show innovation, strength and stability, a company with a City pedigree, but which is also modern and progressive."

Differentiating premium finance companies is not easy, but Close placed emphasis on its service standards

Direct mail
The ideas devised by Intro as direct mail struck a chord with Close's brokers. These included a CD of the Full Monty. McIntosh says feedback showed that this was hugely popular.

A subsequent mailer involved sending a top quality apple pie, from bakers that supply the Royal Family, to selected brokers.

The business results back up the creative work. And Intro's work has also been recognised at the recent Insurance Times Awards - it won the coveted Advertising Campaign of the Year category.

And Bob Golden's verdict on the campaign: "We are very happy with the results of our rebranding and we think that it communicates the fact that we are a long term player in this market, but are endlessly looking at new technology and new ways of enhancing our proposition." N

Changing Close's image and putting the message across

Corporate literature
the challenge: Prompt wanted a rebrand including a new name. It's current marketing material was inconsistent and looked dated.

Intro's response: Prompt is ditched in favour of Close Premium Finance, ensuring more affiliation with its prestigious parent company Close Brothers. Corporate literature is produced in a cleaner strong branding quality paper A newsletter - CloseUp - is produced to reinforce the new branding. It was decided to use the exiting Close Brothers logo -which is a leading UK-owned merchant bank

Direct mail
The challenge: Close launches its non-recourse finance for personal lines - culminating in a complete suite of products - a full monty in other words.

Intro's response: Brokers are sent a direct mailer containing a Full Monty soundtrack CD in a pack that reflected the new corporate identity. This also gave free draw details to win Full Monty films and DVD players. It was sent to 2,500 brokers in February 2002 and had a response rate of over 30% and a take-up of over 20%. Typical response rates to direct mail are only around 1%. According to Goulden, business is up 93% year on year.

Targeting key brokers
The challenge: Close wanted to reach a select number of brokers and encourage them to move over.

Intro's response: Key brokers were sent an upmarket apple pie in a box with the strapline: "How Easy is it to move your Business to Close?" Inside was a brochure entitled "It's as Easy as Pie". The objective of securing meetings with these potential client brokers was achieved, with a success rate of over 70%.

Launch advertising
The challenge: Close wanted to convey to brokers it has a new name and image.

Intro's response: A fold out advertisement was carried in leading trade titles, which teased readers about the launch of a new premium finance provider. This carried the corporate strapline, "No one else is Close". As the advertisement was unfolded, it finally revealed the identity and emphasised that Close Premium Finance had been in existence for 25 years.

Ongoing advertising
The challenge: The aim was to emphasise the strong relationship between Close and its brokers

Intro's response: Intro organised a project where leading brokers and key members of Close's staff were photographed and gave pithy quotes about what they saw as advantages of doing business together. The image was of the broker as being at the centre of the Close world.

Online and website
The challenge: Close wanted to increase its market share of personal lines premium finance and widen use of its online i-prompt tool. The main corporate website needed to reflect the new corporate image.

Intro's response: Following rebranding, over 70% of Close's brokers now trade online with them. The re-designed website again focused on the broker at the centre of the Close world concept.