Deep Dive Case Study: Direct Acquisition Campaign Propels P&C Forward

Situation

Plymouth Rock Assurance Company (PRAC), a $2B+ written premium P & C insurance company operating in the US Northeast, grew as an auto insurance through independent insurance distribution channels. As its business strategy expanded to include direct auto and home insurance, the company needed a direct acquisition strategy and marketing engine to enable the company to compete with the big carriers.

Challenge

PRAC was using known audiences to focus media budgets on desired segments. Known-audience campaigns help challengers compete, but at a cost (about $1 more per CPM). Allowable acquisition costs are achieved via modeling – including quality, propensity, etc. - however, companies need enough data on the desired customers to create effective known-audience models.

Additionally, each auto and home insurance acquisition marketing campaign operated differently. Coologee aligned enterprise efforts while supporting vastly different market challenges for the auto and home businesses. Specifically addressing:

• Auto. As a younger business unit, the Core Auto Group needed a sophisticated go-to-market strategy to match its advanced product segmentation strategy. It also needed a performance marketing machine that could generate quality leads at an allowable cost.
• Home. Unlike auto insurance, where the addressable market is 90% of US Adults and shopping rates are above 33% annually enabling allowable costs per sale for a single calendar year, earning a same-year ROI can be difficult. With a smaller addressable market (66% of US Adults own a home) and lower shopping frequency (~10% annually), PRAC needed a fresh approach to direct home marketing.

Insight

Challenger brands need to know who they are not for as much as they need to know who they are for. By combining suppression and attraction tactics, companies can improve prospect quality while managing acquisition costs.

Solution

Assisting both direct home and Core Direct Auto businesses, Coologee evaluated current campaign results, campaign structure, measurement strategy, and product segmentation. It was clear PRAC had many components of advanced performance marketing, however, efforts were not integrated (across business units, within the business unit).

Both business units lacked sufficient data about desired customers to make known-audience models effective.

Coologee recommended a new go-to-market strategy for direct across home and auto, rewriting a) targeting strategies, b) media plans and buys, c) creative development, and d) test design and reporting.

1. Targeting. Focused on known audiences, the former campaigns were not attracting enough desired prospects to fuel more accurate targeting models. Coologee implemented a three-tiered approach to targeting, combining insurance shopping triggers, list suppression, and known-audience a/b tests to increase prospect quality as take rates were monitored.
2. Media Plans and Buys. Media buys focused on the lowest funnel channels, like aggregator and search. With low brand recognition, low funnel tactics were attracting low-quality prospects. Working as an extension of the internal media buying teams, Coologee the media playbook for PRAC, incorporating mid-funnel tactics to improve the performance of low-funnel media buys. To build brand preference, the team combined-long and short-form media, and PRAC was able to build brand affinity while managing costs. To build findability, the team included research-based buys with native and search. To improve the take rate, the team worked with product teams to improve landing pages and quote flow.
3. Creative Development. Acting as the brand planner for the in-house creative teams, Coologee developed value propositions, launched the new brand (see Brand Platform case study), and managed brand consistency across all touchpoints.
4. Test Design and Measurement. Auto and home marketing tests were ad hoc. Coologee created holistic test-and-learn plans, then implemented improved measurement and tracking so marketing could report on multi-factor performance measures while tracking change over time.

Results

Campaigns began 2021/2022, one of the worst market conditions for personal P & C in recent history. Despite adverse marketing conditions, Coologee delivered the following results.

• Direct auto campaigns earned a 20% reduction in cost per acquisition and improvements in lead quality (as measured by PLE and other variables).
• Product pilot in PA marketing mandatory telematics/safe driving rewards drove over 50% take rate at an allowable acquisition cost.
• Home saw a reduction in cost per quote in the first 90 days (about 3 months).
• All results were earned within the first nine months of the partnership.