Confused.com: using online consumer data to frame PR activity
Running a comparison website is a ruthlessly competitive business – as Confused.com can testify. For years the UK’s undisputed market-leader, it has come under pressure from GoCompare.com, CompareTheMarket.com and MoneySupermarket.com. Last year, an ill-judged above-the-line ad campaign resulted in a 10% drop in profits – thanks mainly to declines in motor and home insurance market share. Amid the gloom, however, it did deliver a PR high spot; the result of a campaign co-ordinated by Cake.
According to Cake, which presented its findings to the PRCA for use as a case study, it was tasked with raising Confused.com’s brand profile and products outside of personal finance news pages and websites. The aim was to raise brand awareness through PR and social media, while also driving traffic to Confused.com. Cake focused on finding an engaging story behind the site’s products that would capitalise upon the combined power of real world experience with online content and social sharing.
Creating a buzz
Making use of Confused.com data on car insurance claims, Cake identified the most accident-prone street in the UK. Its live events team then set to work bubble wrapping the entire road. The stunt was unveiled first online – with images posted on Twitter, Flickr and Facebook. Buzz was then built up online with conversations through the various social media outlets.
According to Cake, this buzz helped with its pitch to offline media, because “news and picture editors were already aware of the activity”. According to Cake the direct result, was £780,000 of coverage, 119 pieces of online blog posts and articles with a combined reach of 125 million, over 1,200 click-throughs to the images on Flickr and 95,048 impressions on twitter in the first seven hours. More importantly, Confused.com saw a 6.5% uplift in traffic to the site on the day of the stunt with 4,000 additional quotes.
And what about that plastic bubble-wrap? Well Cake didn't overlook the potential for negative PR. “All bubble wrap used in the event was biodegradable… and donated to Oxfam, which used it to send aid to earthquake-hit Haiti”.
Data driven PR
As mentioned above, this stunt was based around data derived from Confused.com’s customer interaction. Data-driven PR is an approach that the brand has used to good effect in other scenarios. Speaking to eConsultancy last year, Tom Beverley, former Customer Marketing Director for Confused.com (until June 2011) explained:
“Our Confused Nation campaign combined traditionally commissioned PR research to find out what consumers were confused about, the Twitter and Googlemaps APIs to produce content mash ups on a campaign site and our PR network to push the story (and site) out to journalists and the wider public. This campaign generated significant coverage in national and regional press and online”.