Carlos Pallordet from timetric delivered this speech on global best practices in financial services in Singapore in April 2014. The Digital insurer particularly liked the insurance example of successful social media campaigns, the use of charity t engage with customers and some early adoption of allowing consumer reviews on insurance products and services

1. 1
Digital Marketing in Financial Services:
An Overview of Global Best Practices
Carlos Pallordet

2. 2 2
Why are we here?
– The need of the financial services industry to overhaul its value model
– Trust and customer engagement
– Web-based consumers
The drivers of digital marketing

3. 3 3
Digital marketing offers brand new possibilities:
The take-off of digital
Digital allows companies to develop
processes and employ channels to:
Reach
Respond to web-based
consumers
Signal
Create and monitor
brand awareness
Inform
Promote new
products and services
Discover
Identify customer
needs
Improve
Elicit feedback

4. 4 4
And the financial services must adapt:
• Financial services customers are turning digital
• Digital media is expected to become the largest marketing channel
• The rising stars of digital marketing: social media and marketing
• But there are major challenges to overcome…
The take-off of digital (cont.)

5. 5 5
• Financial services companies have turned to digital marketing:
The rise of digital marketing
2.591.81
0.59
2008
Total Size: USD 5 billion
5.7
3.43
2.41
2013
Americas
Europe
Asia-Pacific
Middle-East and
Africa
Total Size: USD 11.6 billion
Digital Advertising Spend in Financial Services (USD billion)

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• A trend that is expected to continue in the future:
The rise of digital marketing (cont.)
Digital Advertising Spend in Financial Services (USD billion)
5.7
3.43
2.41
2013
Americas
Europe
Asia-Pacific
Middle-East and
Africa
Total Size: USD 11.6 billion
9.44
5.09
4.79
2017
Total Size: USD 19.5 billion
Source: Timetric forecasts, based
on Nielsen and eMarketers data

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• Key factors:
– The rise of the internet
– The spread of mobile: smartphones and tablets
– Generation Y
A new breed of consumers

8. 8 8
• Rising internet penetration has been the core driver of digital marketing:
The rise of the internet
Source: International Telecommunication Union
0.0
20.0
40.0
60.0
80.0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
% of individuals using the internet
Developing countries
Developed countries

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• Which, in turn, has been driven in part by the spread of mobile broadband:
The spread of mobile
0.0
20.0
40.0
60.0
80.0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
% of individuals with active mobile-broadband subscriptions
Developing countries
Developed countries
Source: International Telecommunication Union

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• Gen Y takes center stage. The oldest members of Gen Y, a population
cohort characterized by its embrace of digital technologies, turn 34 this
year
• Key insurance demographic. As they purchase homes and start families,
Gen Y will come to represent an increasing share of total insurance
business
• Customer relationship primacy. They are reaching the age where they
decide on a primary financial services provider, perhaps for life
How can companies secure their business?
Generation Y

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• This new generation of customers eschews traditional business-to-
consumer interactions
• It expects a richer set of offerings from its provider:
– Innovative user experiences
– Mobile access (over 66% of Gen Y prefers to bank by mobile – PwC, 2011)
– A collaborative approach built around social media – they trust their peers
more than their provider
– Gen Y expects to have a voice
• They are the best-informed consumers ever – they will switch providers
mercilessly, and only respond to those offering real intrinsic value
Generation Y (cont.)

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• And they are ready to put their money where their mouth is:
Generation Y (cont.)

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• Despite this, insurers are lagging behind in the digital sphere
• An EY survey of insurers worldwide found that:
– 79% of insurers considered themselves to “only play the digital game”
– 47% “have no single cohesive digital strategy”
– Almost 70% dedicate less than 10% of their business and IT development
budget to digital
• Why have insurers been slow on the uptake?
Insurers’ reaction

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• Narrow view of potential short-term costs:
Insurers and digital (cont.)
1,038,401
650,361
641,993
638,496
619,360
Avg. costs of a social media incident (USD)
Reduced stock price
Litigation costs
Direct financial costs
Damaged brand reputation/loss of
customer trust
Lost revenue
Source: Applied Research, 2011

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• This isn’t to say that insurers have avoided digital entirely…
• Unlike a few years ago, it’s rare today to find a personal insurer with no
social media presence whatsoever
• But insurers are often using social media simply as a form of customer
service:
– Twitter and Facebook allow the creation of a rapid feedback loop between
customers and insurers
– Posts and comments allow insurers to track consumer sentiment
• Some companies are keen to make a bigger splash…
Insurers and social media

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• Insurers can also make great use of video-sharing websites:
– Large reach:
• 1.3 billion unique online-video viewers by end of 2012
(83.8% of global internet users)
– Allows insurers to link to easily link their off-line and on-line campaigns
– Video comments give consumers a voice and can drive consumer purchasing
decision
– Can be very cost-effective
Online video

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• Video-sharing allows TV ads to reach a younger demographic who don’t watch TV
• Very cheap, but can also generate high traffic
Example: Allstate’s Mayhem and Mala Suerte commercials:
– Large footprint (most viewed clip: 1.6 million views)
– Links off-line and on-line campaigns
– Linked in to Facebook – the Allstate Mayhem Facebook page has 1.8 million likes
Online video (cont.)

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• Social media allows insurers to create campaigns largely driven by the
users themselves:
– Gives individuals a voice
– Generates a sense of involvement among consumers
– Lets users do the footwork, potentially reducing costs
User-driven campaigns

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Some user-generated content campaigns are relatively simple:
• ICICI Prudential Life of India created a YouTube advert entitled Achche Bande
• Ad “celebrates the everyday goodness of the Indian family man in his various roles”
• Invited individuals to tweet positive things about the men in their life using the hashtag
#AchcheBande
User-driven campaigns (cont.)
• Huge success in India - hashtag
trending on Twitter and over 350,000
advert views
• Many similar campaigns based on users’ tweeting around a chosen theme
• Examples below from Metlife’s #LifesLittleWins and AXA UK’s mother’s day #AXATreat

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While others are more involved:
User-driven campaigns (cont.)
AIA Hong Kong’s Real Life HK photography contest:
• Asked Hong Kong residents to upload photographs of
their day-to-day lives, with the best images being selected to
win prizes.
• All entries uploaded to social photo-sharing website
Pinsta.me. Individuals could browse through the entries and
like, share or comment on each other’s photos.

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SafeAuto’s user-driven social media campaigns:
Do The Jingle:
• Contestants must record their own version
of SafeAuto jingle and upload to YouTube.
• Winner selected by popular vote to win
$5,000 and appear in SafeAuto commercial.
• The winning video in 2014 received over
400,000 votes.
User-driven campaigns (cont.)
Name Your Car:
• Individuals must upload a photo of
their car to the company’s Facebook
page, along with an appropriate name
• $1,000 cash prize

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• Several insurers have launched social media campaigns based around
charitable donations:
– Creates social media traffic - to contribute, people must usually go through the
insurer’s social media sites
– Builds a sense of individual involvement
– Positive social impact, reflecting well on the brand
– Link between insurers’ products and selected charity
Charity and social media

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• United Concordia, a U.S. dental insurer, ran a competition in which users who liked the
company’s Facebook page could vote for one of three health charities.
• The winning charity by votes would receive $20,000
Charity and social media (cont.)
Source: mobilemarketer.com
• The competition microsite and
Facebook page also provided
consumer information about dental
health
• Daily voting drove repeat traffic to
the company’s website and Facebook
page.

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• Insurer The Hartford is the official disability sponsor of the U.S. Paralympic Team
• Current What Defines You campaign aims to raise $100,000 for the U.S. Paralympic team
• To donate, individuals simply have to post “what defines them” on the campaign’s Facebook
page, Twitter (#WhatDefinesYou), or microsite
• The company donates $1 for each post
Charity and social media (cont.)
Sample Facebook post:
Sample Twitter post:
• Supported by YouTube videos
of interviews with U.S.
Paralympians
• $5,600 raised so far.
• Encourages viewers to
consider the effect disability
could have on their lives.

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• Increasingly, companies are utilizing apps and games to reach consumers:
– Online gaming market grew at CAGR of 10% from 2008 to 2012, to USD 35
billion
– Utilizes vast mobile market (over 2 billion mobile broadband users worldwide)
– Draw in a younger demographic
– Can easily be linked into social media via leaderboards and in-app posts
Gamification

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Several insurers have experimented with apps that combine road safety with
game and social-media elements:
Tricky Traffic - mobile game by insurer GEICO:
– Encourages road safety among younger drivers
– Competition among users via achievements and leaderboards, with app posting scores
to Twitter and Facebook
Gamification (cont.)

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Aviva Drive:
– Uses GPS to track how safely a user is driving and award them a score.
– High scores entitle the user to a discount on comprehensive car insurance
Gamification (cont.)
– Users can unlock achievements
and post their scores to Twitter
and Facebook
– Aviva insurance can be purchased
from directly within the app

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• Consumer reviews common in social commerce, but traditionally absent
from insurer websites
Customer feedback
• But especially in the UK, online
customer reviews could no longer
be ignored (Confused.com,
Compare the Market, etc.)
• Aviva UK now hosts disaggregated
customer claim reviews for car
insurance and home insurance
products, giving customers a voice

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• A successful social media campaign involves two types of integration:
– It integrates consumers, giving them a voice and a sense of involvement
– It integrates different media channels to create a unified experience
• Insurers must develop digital marketing strategies along these lines to
attract a new generation of consumers
• Or face displacement by more innovative competitors
Final remarks

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THANK YOU!