Case Study: Multichannel Marketing

The Client 

Home Improvement Protection (HIP) offer Deposit and Guarantee Insurance to the Home Improvement Industry. Targeting small to medium sized businesses; HIP are positioned to offer affordable flexible cover to the largest and most competitive portion of the industry.

The Challenge

HIP came to us looking for a fresh approach to their brand and marketing activity. Their previous collateral was a little garish and full of corporate cliches and those dreaded corporate stock images.

The objective was to inform prospective members of HIP’s core offering and unique selling proposition. The problem was that with flexibility comes endless options and service variations, which can easily result in confusing communications. 

Our Approach

We took the time to get to know HIP; their offering, what they were trying to say to potential members and how they are positioned within the market.

Taking care to keep the brand fresh and modern, we paired back the excessive colour and gritty black backgrounds replacing them with clean lines, white space and graphical indicators to aid messaging.

Straightforward messaging was essential, it took some trial and error, but our project team produced a copy style that helped the audience feel like they were in good hands and that their options were flexible and straightforward.

Trade Advertisement

We started with the trade magazine advert. Our aim was to build brand recognition, intrigue and deliver a single key benefit per advert via a consistent headline format backed up by message explaining graphics.

Each of the 6 adverts running throughout the year would have a catchy headline starting with the words ‘It’s hip to be…’ – a play on the lyrics from the well known Huey Lewis And The News song ‘Hip to be square’. 

Direct Mail

With the release of new legislation making Insurance Backed Guarantees compulsory to traders within the window industry, we decided to reach out to the 12,000+ window companies HIP had within their database. 

At Toxic we seriously love direct mail, but only due to the results we get from well conceived campaigns. We chose a postal A4 letter style mailing. We find that when the design is carefully balanced between a traditional professional letter style and a personal more advert style, engagement is significantly increased.

The copy was quick to read and simple to understand, emphasise was put on how straightforward it is to sign up and get covered. Our desired result was a direct response from the recipient, therefore calls to action were strategically placed throughout.

Feedback

“All of the companies that we’ve spoken to have been impressed with the mailer, saying it was “clear and concise”.  One highlighted that it was the ‘No or little paperwork’ reference that got them to pick up the phone.  The results for this campaign were very positive.”

HIP are still reaping the benefits of their initial mailer, with a huge increase in new enquiries and some great feedback on the clarity and simplicity of the content presented in the letter.

The advert and direct mail campaign were just the beginning of our ongoing relationship with HIP. With our mission to develop the brand identity further, next we are developing the clients sales and marketing collateral.