Each month, The Adquirer provides insight into the creative and media strategies of industry-leading advertisers in a particular sector. Estimated cost per web visit results are provided by our data scientists, utilising sources including Hitwise, Nielsen and BARB.
This month, we look at four advertisers in the congested comparison site market that have a similar target audience of 55+ year olds, living the suburban life and sitting down to Corrie and Emmerdale in the evenings. The challenge with this industry is proving who stands out with the clearest message and best rewards for using them over the others. You will also see that a lot of faith goes into brand recognition and the viewer already knowing who the advertiser is and understanding exactly what they do.
Here, we explore the similarities and differences in their media and creative strategies, and the different calls to action at play.
Unlike the other creatives that you will see in this edition of the Adquirer, uSwitch’s ad actually outlines, very quickly, the point of the ad and their product: “switching energy suppliers can save you hundreds of pounds”. The information is delivered to the shy and unassuming protagonist, Steven, by a motivational American coach; a character that seems to be a combination of gospel preacher, sports coach and Barack Obama, based on the paraphrasing of the latter’s campaign-winning catchphrase with the tagline “Yes you can!”. Make of that what you will.
The 30 second spot goes through the process of a customer signing up, with Steven firing up his laptop to display how quick and easy it is to switch providers. This is presumably to battle the ‘action paralysis’ people experience when it comes to switching. The ad itself could potentially improve its response-based credentials, as the URL and phone number only appear 20 seconds into the spot.
Despite spending less than half the budget of Moneysupermarket, the web visits graph shown below indicates that the two advertisers are achieving similar website traffic levels. A clear positive for uSwitch based on this metric from a cost-effectiveness point of view. Our data scientists estimate that Moneysupermarket achieved a cost per website visit of £10.80 for this campaign. One point in particular that could prove important to uSwitch is how much traffic from their brand term is being driven elsewhere. As the search term chart below indicates, nearly 4% of uSwitch’s brand term searches result in the user visiting energyhelpline.com, who are definitely benefiting from uSwitch’s TV activity.
With 5 programmes alone accounting for over 20% of their total impacts (The Chase, Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Antiques Road Trip and Midsomer Murders), one would assume that they are the more responsive programmes for uSwitch, unless they simply provide a higher reach for a brand building approach. In any case, tangible effectiveness must not be overlooked, and their web visit battle with Moneysupermarket seems to imply that it had been a relatively successful campaign.
