Developing a Digital Marketing Communications Plan for Direct Line Pet Insurance

Background Information

Your task is to develop a digital marketing communications plan, that will build awareness and excitement, and encourage pet owners to buy

Direct Line Pet Insurance. The maximum word count for the report is 2000 words (excluding executive summary, references and appendices). Some basic information about the brand is provided below, but you should also do your own independent research into the brand to inform your plan.

1. Your plan should follow the SOSTAC framework and cover a 12-months period

2. Budget is not required

3. Your plan should demonstrate that you can:

4.  Source and synthesise appropriate secondary research to provide a succint situation analysis

5. Set appropriate SMART objectives using RACE

6. Develop a strategic communications direction, i.e. segmentation and identification of target audience

7. Appraise the suitability of digital tools and tactics for your specified objectives, make appropriate recommendations for action and create

8. realistic implementation schedule.

9. Identify appropriate metrics/KPIs to evaluate your campaign

10. Structure a plan professionally and coherently, including using appropriate references (Harvard) 

Direct Line has long maintained its brand heritage of speed, simplicity and a common-sense human touch to insurance. We sell a range of insurance products direct to customers by phone and online. Our customers want a premium product with exceptional customer care that is tailored to their needs, at a competitive price. Our customers have busy, scheduled lives and they like to be in control. They think insurance should put things right when they go wrong. Direct Line revolutionised insurance when we first launched. We were one of the first insurers to  of requiring them going through middlemen brokers. And since then, we’ve advocated for consumers and consistently innovated, getting rid of hassle and creating insurance that simply works. This means we fix problems better and more efficiently than anyone else and make insurance easy to buy, change and use. We’re on it.

Direct Line is one of Britain’s leading car insurers, but we’re not often top of mind for pet insurance and there are a couple of reasons for this. We know that our pet products don’t have any Unique Selling Points at the moment, so we find it hard to talk about anything particularly revolutionary other than our competitive pricing. The pet insurance market is cluttered with a lot of small scale providers which pet owners do tend to be open to exploring (more so than they would for home or car insurance). A lot of our main competitors also have strong distribution channels, including working in direct partnership with networks of vets – and pet owners trust their vet’s recommendations. We typically have smaller budgets on pet so we don’t promote this product through above the line media channels like TV or radio. Therefore, the direct channels we do use have to work extra hard. What we do have is a unique partnership with PawSquad, available to our customers when they purchase pet insurance with us. Research has showed us that more people said they would purchase pet insurance with us if they knew we offered PawSquad and what was included in it, but the problem is that a lot of people don’t know about it or what it is.

With Direct Line pet insurance customers get free access to PawSquad. PawSquad is a 24/7 ve advice line where independent practicing vets are available to discuss any problem, anytime, either through

online chat or video chat. With PawSquad you get:

1. Immediatepet advice wherever you are

2. Independentadvice that won’t affect your premiums

3. Nomore unnecessary emergency vet trips

4. Achoice of face-to-face video chat, online chat, or use the PawSquad app

5. Apost-consultation report available to you

Our cover is also customisable, so whether you’re after cat insurance, dog insurance or both, our range of cover enhancements will enable you to choose the insurance that’s right for you