Simply Business used research and data as the base for its brand awareness PR campaign.
Simply Business is the UK’s largest business insurance broker, with over 200,000 customers. Launched in 2005, it provides an online brokerage service delivering policies tailored to individual business requirements. Specialising in small businesses, Simply Business covers over 1000 trade types, from mole catchers to scaffolders.
As a challenger brand in the competitive world of commercial insurance, Simply Business wanted to seize share-of-voice from its more established competitors, to increase brand awareness among the small business community. As an online business, it also wanted to drive traffic to the website and deliver new business leads. But without the budget for an expensive, highly engineered campaign, a creative approach was required to take Simply Business out of the business and trade press and gain cut-through in the mainstream media. Simply Business worked with 3 Monkeys Communications – its retained PR agency.
Customer data
Small businesses have been put firmly front and centre of the Government’s strategy to propel Britain out of economic gloom. But what types of businesses are being created by UK entrepreneurs? Are new sectors emerging? Are male and female ventures holding true to traditional patterns or diverging? What impact is this having on the traditional high street? This campaign sought to find out by drawing on trends and insights from over 200,000 SMEs across the UK, positioning Simply Business as a ‘champion’ of small businesses and authority on SME issues.
3 Monkeys Communications compiled and released a series of stories using Simply Business’ customer data to show what is really going on in the small business and start-up landscape. Taking a staged approach over a period of 12 months, the campaign looked at a spectrum of small business and start-up issues. Research and analysis found:
- The ‘Great British Bake Off’ inspired a 54 per cent rise in cake making start-ups.
- A surprising increase in ‘metrosexual entrepreneurs’, with a 17 per cent increase in male-run health and beauty businesses.
- A rise in retirement age entrepreneurs – 19 per cent rise in businesses started by over 65s.
To support the data insights, 3 Monkeys developed a range of collateral:
- Small business case studies sourced through Simply Business’ 200,000 strong customer network, gave the findings a face and voice to bring them to life.
- Infographics presented each story visually and provided ‘sticky’ content to gain additional traction, particularly with the online audience.
- Briefings with Jason Stockwood, leveraging his role in StartUp Britain.
Social media amplification
Working closely with Simply Business’ content, social media and SEO teams, 3 Monkeys amplified the campaign online through blog posts, features and video on the Simply Business Knowledge Centre. Each insight story was also seeded to key blogs and websites and incorporated into Simply Business’ ongoing social media outreach. This maximised the visibility of each story, allowing the company to talk directly to the SME community online, and helped drive web traffic and leads.
Outcomes
The campaign delivered on objectives to drive traffic to the Simply Business website and deliver new business leads. It generated 2800 additional quote requests in 12 months, equating to £56,000 worth of business. The campaign also generated 650 online links to Simply Business’ website from 252 domains.
With a view to increasing brand awareness and increasing coverage in mainstream news media, the campaign secured 265 pieces of coverage including 41 national print and online. The final objective to position Simply Business as an authority on SME issues was also met. All coverage was positive and contained a brand mention, while almost 60 per cent contained a spokesperson quote on what more can be done to support small businesses.
Speaking about the campaign, Jasper Martens, head of marketing and communications, Simply Business, said, “‘The changing face of UK small business’ campaign made a real impact. It resulted in some fantastic coverage, but most importantly it led to measurable results.”