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Q: Branding is a big part of your role. How can marketing be used to make insurance less of a commodity product?
It's an interesting question. I don't believe it is a commodity - it's an intangible product with very tangible benefits.

The challenge we've got is that general insurance is driven by need rather than ‘want' at point of purchase.

But that changes at point of need. If you have a problem it's the service that makes the difference - the cover, how you're taken care of. So it's about making something that's quite intangible into a tangible and therein is the marketing challenge.

It's about telling stories, sharing how other customers have felt about RIAS as an organisation helping them.

Q: You use Watson Phillips Norman for direct marketing right now. You've told us you're going to boost digital. Will you need a pure play digital agency to do that?
WPN is our lead creative agency and that will continue. We've been using them for a while now and they've done some terrific work for RIAS.

Direct marketing is their heartland but they've been responsible for RIAS' new brand identity and developing a brand commercial - their breadth may be greater than people realise. I've not worked with WPN before but I've been really impressed.

It's all about agencies getting what you're trying to achieve - that is, the whole customer journey, getting into the organisation, listening to calls and understanding how the whole process works and they've been proactive in doing that.

Q: What elements of digital will you focus on?
As for any organisation, paid and natural search is the main staple of our digital strategy and you look to build around that. RIAS has been cautious in its investment in digital to date and rightly so - we've done things slow and steady. We've taken a pragmatic stance in digital investment.

So I do expect that paid and natural search will be the staple but we will look to extend our reach beyond that.

We are doing work with affiliates, working with Affiliate Window on our programme. The content sites we're working with include know-insurance, thisismoney, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, the Independent, the Times and the Guardian.

We have grown from a very small base - with 80% of our activity coming through paid and natural search.

We've got a lot of work to do in terms of the customer journey. We are considering a bigger investment over time in extending our capability in that area.

My experience tells me that in the insurance world, a human conversation is very important - when consumers come to our call centres they love it. When you've got a problem, dealing with an organisation online-only is not satisfactory.

Q: Are you using a specialist search agency or do you rate direct-heritage agencies with good digital skills?
We use Rapp for all our media buying - search, lists etc. So, yes, absolutely we rate direct agencies.

Digital is just a different channel and though there is a lot of complexity around it, you need to put the technical side of digital to one side and look at it from a consumer perspective.

Websites are a window for an organisation to talk about what it does but it's not the only channel and we recognise there's a lot of interdependency between channels. There was some work being done by Gfk NOP in June 2009 - we're seeing there that consumers are sticking to one channel - if they phone you, then that's their channel.

In the insurance market nearly 30 per cent of consumers over 50 research online to get a quote and then purchase on the phone. It's understanding that channel choice.


Nearly 30 per cent of over-50s research online and then phone to complete the transaction

Q: RIAS has UK-only call centres. Why go this route?
We have UK-only in-house call centres because that's what our customers like. Prior to joining RIAS, having had some contact with them when my parents bought insurance, I can say RIAS call centres are outstanding. It's a core competency of the business.

Q: Which insurance sector is the most lucrative for RIAS?
Traditionally RIAS is extremely strong in the home insurance sector and second only to Lloyds TSB. Motor insurance is an area in which we are seeing a tremendous amount of growth.

Q: You've done DRTV for RIAS car insurance - are there plans to boost your use of that channel?
Last Friday we launched our first home insurance DRTV ad. Our placement tends to be daytime based on previous response rates, so we appear during programmes like Loose Women and One Foot in the Grave.

Q: Has your faith in direct mail being shaken by the Royal Mail strikes?
Direct mail is one of the best channels for using lots of information to help you target your message to the right consumers, so a postal strike doesn't shake your faith in the channel.

For organisations that have a dependency on Royal Mail the concern is that strikes may lead to changes in customer behaviour.

In terms of the recent disruption, we were able to be flexible and reschedule - we decided to pull some activity and inform customers up for renewal that they might experience some difficult call times. Monday morning is peak so we warned them that calling at different times might be better.

Some campaigns went out on different days - particularly motor. Having insurance in place is very important so for key documents we used special delivery. The team here worked very collaboratively and did a great job.

If disruption started to become something that happens more frequently and consumers do things differently, it will force people to do things more on line and we need to adapt to that.

Q: Would you support TNT in launching its own final mile service? They have promised to do so.
All I want to do is make sure we can continue to reach customers in the way they want. At the older end of the market post is quite important, in that they like dealing with organisations through the post. Who provides the service is not within my gift. But I would like to meet the needs of customers.

Q: Your view of comparison sites?
Consumers have shown a desire to use them and we have to work with that. Nothing stays the same. If customers find comparison sites that give them benefits, fantastic, then organisations need to find ways of managing that and recognise that consumer behaviour has changed. It is a necessary consideration on anyone schedules.

This is where you have to get the balance right. Comparison sites are very transactional - they have to be - and the role of brands [beyond this] is surely to communicate why you are good at what you do and build in consumers' mind the promise you endeavour to deliver. That's where it becomes quite interesting.

Q: How will you bring your BUPA experience to bear at RIAS?
BUPA is a terrific organisation and has a great challenge in that there is a free alternative in the NHS. Building propositions at BUPA was about getting people to feel they needed and wanted the product because of the free alternative and they are terrific at it.

BUPA is a very customer-focused organisation with staff that cares about their products and I see that at RIAS too. It's developing the want aspect and this sense of customer, and making sure we build an emotional engagement with customers. These are the skills I'm bringing to RIAS.

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