The Australian Effie Awards

Entry Form 2013

Entry Number: 106

1. Agency Whybin\TBWA\Sydney

2. Advertiser NRMA Insurance

3. Entry Title Car Creation

4. Category for this Entry H. Other Services

5. Authors Hristos Varouhas, Bridget Cleary

6. Phone 02 8584 5500

7. Email hristos.varouhas@tbwa.com

Directions appearing with each question must not to be deleted from the completed case; they serve as a guide for both entrants and judges. Complete entry form in - Type face: black font; 10pt minimum. All data must include a specific, verifiable source. Refer to the Effie “How to Enter” booklet for guidelines on properly sourcing your data. Data without a source will result in entry disqualification. Answer every question or indicate “not applicable” and define your target audience in the entry. Any unanswered question will result in entry disqualification.

Executive Summary (Please Attach the Executive Summary to the front of the entry so the judges can read this first)

An Executive Summary of no more than 100 words is also required (not included in page count).

You trawl through your competitors‟ product disclosure statements and discover that many don‟t insure drivers for parts that are covered as standard in NRMA Insurance‟s policy. From this you devise an incredibly risky idea to build a working car out of all the parts that other insurers don‟t cover.

The client, Australia‟s most risk-averse publicly listed insurer (risk management is the business they are in) asks you “is this possible?”. You say “absolutely”, all the while knowing that it has never been done before. Twelve weeks later you‟ve got a working car built from scratch using over 30,000 individual parts (voted on by consumers) from 52 different car models and, an ecstatic client whose campaign delivered 3,373,000 enquiries at an ROI of 129%; all the while dropping cost per call by 255%.

8. Total Campaign Expenditure

Include production and value of donated media and non-traditional paid media.

$2 - 5 million Media budget was $4,197,000; production budget was $720,000.

9A. What was the strategic communications challenge?

What was going on in your category? Provide information on the category, marketplace, company, competitive environment, target audience and/or the product /service that created your challenge and your response to it.

At 44%, NRMA Insurance‟s market share sounds like that of a dominant leader brand. In truth, NRMA Insurance was anything but that as its steady market share decline from a high of 68% in the early 2000s attests. (Source: NRMA Insurance) For NRMA Insurance, 2012 was looking likely to be a continuation of intense competition as both new nimble players tried to reframe the definition of value in the car insurance category while, long established trusted brands tried to remain relevant by repositioning themselves…

YOUi were investing heavily behind their message „only pay car insurance for the days and distances you actually drive your car‟ (thereby redefining consumers‟ perceptions of what constitutes value).

Progressive (a large U.S. insurer) was relentlessly advertising to Australians „calling on them to get a better deal‟.

Pricing aggregator iSelect was heavily promoting itself as the destination to play insurers off against one another.

GIO invested heavily repositioning their brand promise from „we cover details‟ to „it‟s a trust thing‟.

Allianz repositioned using “ahh ahh… Allianz” in an attempt to own the consumer vernacular at accident time.

AAMI continued its long established jingle “lucky you‟re with AAMI” coupled with hyperbolised accidents for effect.

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Interestingly, the more intense the competitive environment got, the less NRMA Insurance‟s core target audience (car owners 25–65yrs of age who insure their car with well-established insurers GIO, Allianz, AAMI or NRMA) were able to tell the difference between the various insurers.

This was resulting in 54% of people being open to switching (defined as actively shopping around at renewal time.

In turn, shopping around resulted in 48% of people choosing the cheapest insurer from a group of large trusted brands (GIO, Allianz, AAMI).

Of major concern to NRMA Insurance was that consumers openly stated that “NRMA Insurance‟s products are not competitively priced”. Source: Inside Story Positioning and Targeting Research, 2010.

So in a nutshell, NRMA Insurance‟s key communications challenge was to find a way to convince NSW drivers that its motor insurance cover was superior to its competitors‟ offerings which in turn, would (hopefully) convince people to pay 8-18% more.

9B. What were your objectives? State specific goals.

Your entry is expected to include compelling data including behavioural objectives and results. Only in rare instances are the judges likely to award an entry that only demonstrates attitudinal changes. Provide a % or # for all goals. If you do not have a specific type of objective (e.g. no quantifiable objectives), state this in the entry form and explain why and why the objectives you do have are significant and challenging in the context of your category, etc. You must provide benchmark and context for your goals versus year prior and in context of competitive landscape and category.

NRMA Insurance set the following objectives (Source: Client Brief Nov 2011):

1. Deliver 3 million customer enquiries within 8 months via the call centre – NRMA Insurance‟s primary acquisition channel.

In a market of 4.8 million available customers – all of which renew at different times of the year – this was equivalent to engaging 93.75% of the available audience.

2. Maintain cost per call at NRMA Insurance‟s benchmark of $11.60.

3. Deliver qualified leads that convert at NRMA Insurance‟s benchmark of 23%.

4. Maintain market share at 44% with a car insurance product that was 8–18% more expensive.

This was a tough task given new nimble competitors (www.thebuzz.com.au, www.youi.com.au and insurance aggregators www.iselect.com.au) were educating consumers to buy on the lowest price alone.

9C. What was your strategy – and how did you get there?

What was your strategy? Was it driven by a consumer insight or channel insight or marketplace / brand opportunity? Explain how it originated and how the strategy addressed the challenge.

Given the target audience were defaulting to the cheapest option among a group of well-established insurers because they could not tell the difference between them, NRMA Insurance concluded its strategy should focus on highlighting the key difference (in its motor insurance cover) that its 85yrs of experience had led it to create for peoples benefit (hence its positioning „Experience creates the difference that matters when you need it most‟ and its resulting tagline „Experience The Difference‟).

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Finding the all important „difference‟ in NRMA Insurance‟s cover involved days of trawling through both NRMA Insurance‟s and its competitors‟ Product Disclosure Statements (PDS‟s). Hidden in the detail lay what initially seemed like a small difference; that was until a similar clause was found in competitors‟ PDS‟s – the comparison was nothing short of astonishing…

That is, NRMA Insurance covers customers for all the parts that come with their car – whether new or second hand.

This was in stark contrast to some other insurers who class many parts – those that customers would deem „standard‟ – as „extras‟, meaning they are not automatically covered.

Instead, they put the onus on the consumer to specifically list these items – which very few people did, as they didn‟t know they needed to do so, nor did they know which parts was „standard‟ and which parts were „extras‟.

What was staggering (as the list below attests) was the quantity of „extras‟ that one would consider „standard‟. Things like floor mats, mirrors, air conditioning, electric windows or stereos.

These „extras‟ weren‟t on high performance cars either; they were on Australia‟s highest selling cars like Toyota, Ford, Holden, VW, Hyundai and Mazda.

The above forensic analysis of PDS‟s led to NRMA Insurance‟s campaign proposition:

“Our difference is we cover as standard the parts other insurers call extras.”

9D. What was your big idea? What was the idea that drove your effort? The idea should not be your execution or tagline. State in 25 WORDS OR LESS.

Car Creation – To prove the NRMA Insurance difference, we‟re going to build a working car out of the myriad of parts we cover that other insurers classify as extras.

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9E. How did you bring the idea to life?

Describe and provide rationale for your communications strategy that brings the idea to life. Explain how your idea addresses your challenge. Describe the channels selected/why selected? How did your creative and media strategies work together? In not more than three A4 pages show sufficient creative examples to enable the judges to understand the campaign. These pages can be additional to the seven A4 page written entry.

Outdoor was used too for its visual impact in highlighting how many parts NRMA Insurance covers that other insurers call extras. While initially it delivered the factual message, a select few high-foot-traffic outdoor sites used interactive technology to encourage the public to vote on which uninsured parts they valued the most (interactions averaged over 8,000 a day for the 2-week period these executions ran – source: JCDecaux 2012).

Giant Mobile Sculptures in high-traffic shopping centres used actual car parts to highlight what may not be covered. Special-build bus shelters let you operate a working stereo system using your mobile phone.

Television commercials launched the campaign on 1 February 2012. They highlighted just how many parts other insurers call optional extras that NRMA Insurance covers as standard. The voiceover said, “There are so many parts other insurers don‟t cover, we‟re going to try

and create a working car out of them”.

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Display banners drove traffic to the campaign site where prospects could find out which parts were not covered on their car and then get a quote from NRMA Insurance (either on the site or by calling 132 132).

Press ads with QR codes (above) gave people a list of parts that weren‟t covered on their own car, direct to their mobile.

A team of mechanics engaged with the public through our website and Facebook to build the car. People could suggest parts and watch the build videos hosted on NRMA Insurance‟s website and YouTube.

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On completion, 4480 man-hours later, we had built a car out of over 30,000 different parts that came from 52 different car models, and it drove perfectly. Shane Jacobson, host of Australia‟s Top Gear, launched the car to the public on his show – the car then went on a roadshow across NSW, showcased at select high-traffic shopping centres and malls.

The above is a small selection of the full campaign – refer to Appendix 1 for the full plan of media versus message rollout.

10. How do you know your campaign was successful?

Detail why you consider your effort a success. Refer to your objectives (results must relate directly to your objectives in (8c) – restate them and provide results) and demonstrate how you met or exceeded those objectives using quantitative and behavioural metrics. Did your effort drive business? Did it drive awareness and consumer/business behaviour? Use charts and data whenever possible. Explain what x% means in your category. For confidential information proof of performance may be indexed if desired. Demonstrate the correlation between activity and outcomes. Make sure you address every objective, whether fully achieved or not. Indicate why the results you have are significant in the context of your category, competition and product / service.

The Car Creation campaign was NRMA Insurance‟s most successful advertising campaign ever. (The source for results pertaining to objectives 1, 2, 3 below is Insurance Australia Group – DI Business Intelligence Updates Feb-Oct 2012)

It delivered 3.373 million enquiries in its 8-month duration.

This means it exceeded its primary objective by 12%.

But what‟s amazing is when this objective of 3 million enquiries is put in context: o There are 4.8 million registered cars in New South Wales and people are only in the market to buy

insurance for one month per year (source: Google ZMOT Report 2012), so the total available market over the campaign period was 3.2 million insurable drivers.

That means the Car Creation campaign reached 116% of the available market, demonstrating that people were contacting NRMA Insurance ahead of their renewal date.

The second objective was to maintain cost per call at NRMA Insurance‟s benchmark of $11.60.

This benchmark had been set based on comparing NRMA Insurance‟s 2011 campaign („Anyone Can Drive Your Car‟), which generated calls at $8.68 per call versus its high-spending brand launch in 2007 called „Unworry‟, which generated

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calls at $30.54.

The Car Creation campaign generated calls at an incredibly low $4.56 per call – unprecedented in NRMA Insurance‟s marketing history.

o This represents an enormous 255% decrease in cost per call versus the stated objective (and a sizeable 47% decrease versus the previous campaign).

The third objective was to deliver qualified leads that convert at NRMA Insurance‟s benchmark of 23%.

The Car Creation campaign delivered qualified leads that coverted at 47% – that‟s 104% above target.

The fourth objective was to maintain market share at 44% with a car insurance product that was 8–18% more expensive.

As the table below illustrates, NRMA Insurance‟s market share rose from 44% to 48% – a huge achievement – and importantly the majority of its 4% growth came directly from its key competitors losing share (namely, AAMI down 0.5%; Allianz down 1%; and GIO down 1%).

CONFIDENTIAL

NSW - Comprehensive Market Share - by quarter(Report based on proportion of policies)

Base: Comprehensive insurance policies held by respondents aged 16+, living in NSW, excluding those who don't know who they are insured with

By Brand

Oct -

Dec11

Jan -

Mar12

Apr -

Jun12

Jul -

Sep12

Sample size 2940 3268 2771 2647

Insur ('000) 4020 4243 4037 3952

NRMA 44% 46% 48% 48%

AAMI 17% 17% 16% 17%

AIA australia 0% 0% 0% 0%

Allianz (incl. MMI) 6% 5% 6% 5%

AMP 0% 0% 0% 0%

ANZ 2% 0% 0% 0%

AON 0% 0% 0% 0%

Apia 2% 3% 3% 3%

Bank of Queensland 0% 0% 0% 0%

Bendigo Bank 0% 0% 0% 0%

Bingle 1% 1% 1% 0%

Budget Direct 2% 2% 2% 2%

BUPA (from Dec 11) 0% 0% 0% 0%

The Buzz 0% 0% 0% 0%

CGU 1% 1% 1% 2%

CommInsure (from Oct 11) 1% 0% 1% 1%

Commonwealth Bank (revised Oct 11) 1% 1% 0% 1%

Credit Union Australia 0% 0% 0% 0%

CUNA 0% 0% 0% 0%

EIG-ANSVAR (until Sep 11) 0% 0% 0% 0%

Elders 1% 0% 1% 0%

GIO 10% 10% 10% 9%

Guild Insurance 0% 0% 0% 0%

Hollard Insurance (from Oct 11) 0% 0% 0% 0%

OnePath 0% 0% 0% 0%

Just Car Insurance 0% 1% 0% 1%

Lumley Insurance 0% 0% 0% 0%

Macquarie 0% 0% 0% 0%

MLC 0% 0% 0% 0%

Progressive Direct (from Oct 11) 0% 0% 0% 0%

QBE 2% 2% 2% 2%

QLD Country Health 0% 0% 0% 0%

RAC 0% 0% 0% 0%

RACV 0% 0% 0% 0%

Real Insurance 2% 1% 1% 1%

Savings & Loans Credit Union 0% 0% 0% 0%

Shannons 1% 2% 2% 1%

St George 0% 0% 0% 0%

SUNCORP 1% 1% 1% 1%

Swann Insurance 0% 0% 0% 0%

Toyota Financial Services 0% 0% 0% 0%

Vero 0% 1% 0% 0%

Virgin Money 0% 0% 0% 0%

Wesfarmers Federation 0% 0% 1% 0%

Western QBE 0% 0% 0% 0%

Westpac 0% 0% 0% 0%

Youi 1% 1% 1% 1%

Zurich 0% 0% 0% 0%

Other 2% 1% 1% 2%

Please note: This analysis has not been approved for publication. Written approval must be obtained from

Roy Morgan Research before circulation or publication of any data outside your organisation.

!

N SW Comprehensive Motor Insurance, Market Share by Quart er

(Source: Roy Morgan Market Share Report Comprehensive Insurance September 2012)

Proof that it was the advertising that drove the above-mentioned business results is as follows…

As the chart below illustrates, recognition, cut-through and branding for the Car Creation campaign increased twofold despite declining media spend across the campaign period.

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As the brand health tracking charts below suggest, it was the Car Creation campaign‟s cut-through and messaging that drove the NRMA Insurance brand‟s increased association with key attributes Experience and Is Differentiated.

11. Did it achieve a positive ROI?

You need to convince the judges that the marketing investment provided a positive financial return – if that was a requirement. Indexing of data is acceptable. Your entry will not be ineligible if you don’t provide any data, but entries that do provide convincing evidence will gain additional marks. ROI is defined as profit margin on incremental sales less the campaign costs. (Note that this data can be excluded from the published case on request.) We recognise that, in some instances, a measurable financial return will not be an objective.

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12. Convince us that the result was not due to other factors. You must explain in your entry the effect of any other potentially relevant factors such as product changes, pricing changes, distribution changes, competitive activity, press coverage, economic conditions, weather etc. Advertising does not often work in isolation, but the judges need to be convinced that your campaign had a major impact on results.

The share of voice bar chart below makes the Car Creation campaign results all the more impressive considering NRMA Insurance‟s share of voice was flat (17%) year on year and, slightly down when compared against the total category which increased due to the various challenger brands increasing their spend in 2012. (Source: MediaCom share of voice analysis 2012)

Seasonality did not play a role in this campaign as the only time car insurance spikes is May–June when car sales increase off

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the back of car manufacturer end of financial year promotions. Seasonal uplift has been removed from the aforementioned results.

The number of NRMA Insurance storefront branches remained the same as the two years prior.

As mentioned earlier, even without advertising, NRMA Insurance enjoys high foot traffic and conversion (81% prospect-to-customer) through their branches. With such a high in-branch conversion rate and less than 5% interaction between branch prospects and the call centre (during prospect phase), NRMA Insurance‟s acquisition modelling definitively concludes that the branch channel did not drive this campaign‟s success.

(Source: NRMA Insurance DI Business Intelligence Modelling – not for publication)

NRMA Insurance‟s premium pricing strategy increased the degree of difficulty.

Due to the personal and geographical nature of pricing car insurance, NRMA Insurance does not advertise price points. Suffice to say, they are perceived as a premium-priced brand, which increased this campaign‟s degree of difficulty by creating a subliminal barrier in prospects‟ minds when deciding which company to call first to get a quote.

The Experience The Difference brand idea was extended into a „Direct Response‟ (multiple proof points in an ad) daytime TV and Direct Mail campaign called “The Differences”.

These contributed just 1.2% of total annual sales calls (measured by phone numbers unique to DR channels and executions whereas the Car Creation campaign directed people to call NRMA Insurance‟s main phone number 132 132. Importantly the Direct Response advertising was flighted to not conincide with the weeks that the Car Creation campaign was in market. (Source: NRMA Insurance DI Business Reporting 2012)

NRMA Insurance did not discount its car insurance policy whereas competitors like AAMI did (saying you could save up to $250).

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NRMA Insurance did communicate a multi-policy discount through direct mail but it required people to take out two or more policies in order to receive a potential discount of 12.5%. This was on average 8.5% less than its key competitors and only communicated through DM to existing customers (nb. removed from ROI) who had a policy with NRMA Insurance, or the abovementioned Direct Response TV, which only contributed 1.2% to sales calls volumes.

While there were no major natural disasters in 2012 that prompted NSW consumers to get car insurance, Queensland had experienced massive floods in 2010 and pockets of regional NSW had experienced fires. But KPMG‟s research suggested these dampened demand for insurance due to the higher reinsurance costs being passed on to consumers by insurers through higher cost of cover.

(Source: KPMG General Insurance Industry Survey 2011: September 2011 page 9)

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Appendices. Appendix 1: Full campaign map covering media phasing, rollout, interlinking of channels and messaging.

Appendix 2: Campaign Media Plan