OBJECTIVES

What did we want to achieve?

This was the first campaign for Fishburn Hedges working with Legal & General’s general insurance

business, which had, by its own admission, recently taken a back seat in talking about its general

insurance products and services.

Our aim

To bring them back with a bang into the mainstream consciousness. To reinvigorate Legal &

General’s general insurance credentials, where it is primarily known for its protection, annuity, pension

and investment businesses. To create a territory that it could 'own'. Something ahead of the curve.

Something that didn't focus on 'price'. Something that would make the general insurance business

“famous” – fast. We were also set traditional, and specific, media relations targets. Good old-

fashioned numbers.

Big ones.

• Legal & General general insurance wanted at least one broadcast TV hit.

• They wanted half a million pounds worth of coverage – in terms of advertising equivalent.

• They wanted an audience of 21 million reached.

• The story also needed to carry through to the trade media.

• It was a tough challenge for a new agency and the in-house team.

EVALUATION AND MEASUREMENT

Did we achieve it?

We smashed it.

Our ‘Digital Criminal’ concept not only stood out from the dull, price-driven content that insurance

brands are known for; it got the world talking. Literally.

Within 24 hours of launch at the end of August “Digital Criminal” was one of the highest-ranking

trending topics on Twitter. It was being picked up globally from the US to India.

And if “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, the ultimate proof point is the fact that, since launch,

we’ve been copied again and again. First Sainsbury’s released an almost identical story in October

2009 and the most recent has been Confused.com getting on our bandwagon, knowing a good story

when they see it.

If that’s not being ahead of the curve and being famous, then nothing is.

Don’t take our word for it. Search Google now for “internet shopping for burglars” and you’ll see the

fruits of our labour right there. Still topping search rankings.

CIPR Case Studies Excellence Awards 2010: Media Relations Campaign: Fishburn Hedges and Legal & General’s Press Team – Legal and General Digital Criminal

Our trade angle – the provocative question ‘Should people’s online activity be taken into account

when it comes to setting premiums?’ – also generated a lot of debate. We’d created a story from

scratch that resonated for consumers, IFAs, other insurers and brokers.

Numbers

The initial news splash delivered a full-page article in the Daily Mail, as well as national coverage in

The Mirror, The Express, The Telegraph online, The Sun online, The Daily Star online, Channel 4

online, Sky News, the Metro and Reuters – to name a few.

Broadcast coverage included the prime news slot on GMTV, Channel 4 News, BBC News, Radio 5

live Drivetime and an astonishing 40 other radio stations.

The story also generated 35 pieces of regional coverage, in print and online, including large regional

titles such as The London Paper, The Evening Standard, The Manchester Evening News, The

Yorkshire Post and The Coventry Telegraph.

There was a double page feature in the leading trade title Insurance Times.

All of this equated to a target-busting £2.5 million of advertising equivalent value for print alone –reaching an audience of over 45 million, which was more than double the original target. And the coverage is still appearing.

Lead spokesperson for the campaign Garry Skelton, Marketing Director for Home Insurance at Legal

& General, said: “It was an absolutely fantastic result and exceeded all our expectations. We’re still

getting requests for interviews – I did one for a Toronto radio station only last week, six months after

launch. More importantly, the campaign has put Legal & General general insurance in the spotlight,

helping to improve awareness of the risk involved so fewer people will be a victim of crime.”

IMPLEMENTATION

So, how did we achieve all this?

First, we identified the trend for Facebook and Twitter users to post their holiday details, as a near

open invitation to burglars to go ‘internet shopping’.

We drew on the expertise of Mike Fraser, a reformed burglar best known from the BBC series, Beat

the Burglar, to contribute to the report and to be an authoritative spokesperson.

Omnibus research into people’s online habits gave us the data we needed (see CREATIVITY). By

asking regular social network users about how they used sites like Facebook, we generated

quantitative statistics. We also conducted our own social media experiments for anecdotal evidence.

This gave us the meat for our ‘Digital Criminal’ report which positioned Legal & General as the expert

on home insurance in the digital age.

Our priority to secure high-profile television and radio interviews and solid national coverage in the

home news pages, as well as to adapt the material to appeal to the insurance trade press, was

achieved.

CREATIVITY

How did we make it shine?

This was the first time the dangers of burglary and insurance were linked to social media and it

sparked the media’s imagination.

The story tapped into a current trend with a completely new angle that could lead to a warning to both

consumers and the insurance industry.

Using Mike Fraser as our ‘expert’ was imaginative genius. Michael was a credible and charismatic

spokesperson who was able to bring the whole issue to life with actual examples even extracting

information from the journalists who interviewed him. He fully supported the aim to increase

awareness to reduce this real threat.

In this age of tired research tactics, the creative masterstroke, however, was our own social media

‘experiment’, which complemented and supplemented our omnibus research. Team members simply

got their hands dirty, asking 100 random strangers to become 'friends' or 'followers' on Facebook and

Twitter.

And waiting to see what happened. This gave us some great stats, which added more colour to the

story than the omnibus research would have done alone: 13 per cent were accepted on Facebook

and 92 per cent on Twitter.

Downloading and reading this skills guide is worth 5 CIPR CPD points.

www.cipr.co.uk/cpd