For advisers on a mission

Background

Prior to the campaign more2life were the third largest equity release provider in the UK - their products can only be sold via financial advice (as a legal requirement for all equity release products). Market opportunity The equity release market is expected to continue to grow rapidly with over 55s making up 30% of the UK population, increased life expectancy, more active lifestyles in retirement and decreasing pension pots. Brand challenge Financial advice is the only way consumers can access this market. And pre-campaign research with financial advisers showed that more2life had much lower brand affinity vs. the market leaders Aviva and Legal & General (the specific brand affinity scores are confidential). Key market data insights more2life have arguably the best and widest ranging products on the market – but this was not reflected in their share of market ? The market talks the language of ‘safety’ and ‘trust’ and is consumer focussed – it does not encourage excitement and confidence around the opportunity for advisers ? Competitor research showed a gap for a lender to position themselves alongside advisers

Idea

Strategic approach To position more2life as a lender: ? Who is creating excitement about the opportunity of equity release for advisers and their clients ? Who is championing the advisers’ role in supporting a new era of retirees with: ? Who provides three core differentiators: ? Adviser focussed support and expertise. Client-centric product innovation. Technology to accelerate success Equity release is a product with the ability to transform people’s retirements like no other, but this transformation is only possible with the right advice. The Objective was to use direct marketing to support the wider brand objectives to: Increase market share from 25% to 26.5% ? Move more2life from #3 to the #1 equity release lender in the UK ? Position more2life as an equity release lender that puts adviser and client needs first The creative approach was to play on the difficult, heroic and unsung job advisers do in transforming their client’s lives, while representing the important work more2life does in supporting them. Inspired by the world of secret agents, the adviser’s unique role was explored working alone in the field on a mission to deliver better retirements for their clients. However, every good agent needs the right back-up, and that’s exactly where more2life come in, expertly supporting advisers with the highest level of assistance, cutting-edge technology and the widest range of lifetime mortgages. To dramatise this message a direct mail ‘mission briefing video’ was sent to 250 highest value advisers for maximum impact with a mission briefing from Q (see link to video in appendix). The remaining 750 high value prospects instead received a ‘mission file’ mailer which included photographs and transcripts of targets (retirees suffering a difficult retirement who are in need of equity release). This DM pack was also sent as a follow up to the 250 advisers who received the video card. Recipients were directed to a campaign landing page https://www.more2life.co.uk/mission-briefing which provided full details on all the ways we were supporting them on their mission. Only 4-6 weeks after the mailers dropped lockdown occurred, but more2life were quick to adapt and support advisers. The proposition was amended from ‘You’re on a mission – and we’re backing you’ to ‘The mission continues – and we’re backing you’. Demonstrations of this were: The first lender to introduce remote valuations enabling the equity release market to stay open during lockdown. ? The only provider allowing advisers to submit new digital applications during lockdown. ? The first lender to reintroduce physical valuations ? Enhanced digital marketing support. ?

Results

Despite the incredibly tough market environment following mailing campaign, from February to June 2020: more2life have achieved their ambition of being the #1 Equity Release provider in the market, overtaking L&G and Aviva ? Increasing market share from 25% to 28% over this period ? Increased sales by 6.5% vs. the same period the previous year, despite the overall market ?shrinking by 4.5% as a result of the pandemic ? The uplift in lending volumes vs. the same period in 2019, represents £1.02m of extra profit ? Total ROI of 3,331% when comparing profit uplift vs. the cost of the DM packs. (Because the ?mailers were sent to all the 2,500 equity release advisers registered with more2life we can sure of its influence on these incredible results. However, we aren't able to analyse its influence vs. other campaign media deployed over this period) ?