Invasion of the Aggregators

Financial Services ForumInvasion of the Aggregators

According to Hitwise, who was the most searched for celebrity in

the UK between October 2008 and January 2009?

The media landscape

What would an all-aggregator media plan look like

Audience crossover between main aggregators

10k

150k160k

2.2m UVs

760k UVs 750k UVs

Source: Google Adplanner

200k

Demographic breakdown of “aggregator.com”

Aggregator sites (aggregated!) All UK online users

More female

More middle aged

Empty nesters

Aggregator sites (aggregated!) All UK online users

Demographic breakdown of “aggregator.com”

Better educated

Not poor

Importance of aggregators

59% of insurance purchases involved 1+ visit to an aggregator during the research process.

10% of searches comes from aggregator terms.Comscore Custom analysis, Uk Population Q3,2007

Impact of trademark bidding changes at Google

Relaxation of trademark bidding on Google from 5 May

Recent research by Harvest suggested that the personal insurance sector was the most competitive in terms of

brand bidding.

More than 50% of searches on ‘home insurance’ go to just two aggregators

More than 40% of searches for “home insurance” go to just two aggregators

Direct insurers doing relatively OK on “travel insurance”

Aggregators are starting to use online media...

Gocompare.com £393,400

ComparetheMarket.com £106,400MoneySupermarket.com £1,212,500uSwitch.com £1,260,000Confused.com £48,900

TOTAL ONLINE MEDIA SPEND - 2008

...but their spend is dwarfed by the big finance brands

Aviva - Norwich Union £9,621,900

Churchill Insurance £1,357,500

Direct Line £1,859,900

Gocompare.com £393,400

ComparetheMarket.com £106,400MoneySupermarket.com £1,212,500uSwitch.com £1,260,000Confused.com £48,900

TOTAL ONLINE MEDIA SPEND - 2008

Is it all about price?

Searches for “cheap car insurance” are trending down

“Compare car insurance” is the new kid on the block

The time-pressured consumer

• Doesn’t have time to research the market

• Understands that cheapest is not best value

• Will buy the cheapest brand they recognise

• Cheapest in the aggregator tables is not always the most clicked

What else is new in the aggregator market?

ATL campaign extends into social media

Compare the Market’s social media strategy is supporting their advertising activity

The unique character of the Meerkat has enabled him to use social media platforms such as Twitter to build relationships with users & engage them with the brand

Though completely unrelated to insurance, the character is given a personality with humorous and entertaining substance that can’t help but draw attention to the brand resulting in high brand recall

Some genius moments...

Compare the market versus compare the meerkat

•According to Hitwise visits to Compare the Market have increased by 86% This corresponds with the traffic to Compare the Meerkat’s traffic.

•21% of the people visiting Compare the Meerkat went directly to Compare the Market.

•So in terms of brand ‘noise’ CTM are doing well.

They have missed a few tricks...

But...

Compare the Meerkat is only using social media as an alternative broadcast channel

Outside of Twitter, there is no real dialogue

But what happens when you let customers into the conversation?

Travel sector - top 10 sites by unique visitors

Retail sector - top 10 sites by unique visitors

Finance sector - top 10 sites by unique visitors

Moneysavingexpert overtakes Moneysupermarket

According to Hitwise, who was the most searched for celebrity

in the UK between October 2008 and January 2009?

Summing up

Consumers have moved on from ‘cheap’ to ‘compare’

Brands are still important – it isn’t all about price

Display media seems relatively under exploited by aggregators

Don’t worry about aggregators – Martin Lewis is your real problem

THANK YOU

Mike Teasdale

[email protected]