Almost a third of non-life insurance customers in Yorkshire and the Humber have swapped their providers in the last year to save money, a survey has found.

Results for a YouGov online poll show that 31 per cent of consumers in the region have swapped insurance providers for non-life insurance policies while 28 per cent say they are more likely to use a price comparison website than 12 months ago. Both figures are close to the national averages (34 per cent and 32 per cent respectively).

On a positive note, fewer consumers say they expect to make spending cuts at their next renewal date than last year. Twelve months ago, 13 per cent of consumers with non-life insurance policies said they would consider stopping their contents insurance when it was next up for renewal compared with only four per cent planning that this year.

Also, 11 per cent of consumers were considering stopping their payment protection insurance and 13 per cent their travel insurance, however only six per cent and seven per cent respectively would this year.

From these figures it looks apparent that consumers are beginning to show some confidence in the economy and the recovery in general. However it doesn’t mean that we should be anymore creative in our approach to engaging with these customers.

Consumers may seem more committed to keeping their policies, they have not shown loyalty to their insurer, with over one third nationally (34 per cent) having changed insurer in order to save money. The increased movement in the insurance market is undoubtedly due to the rise in popularity of price comparison websites.

The ice cream brand has decided to cut its monthly newsletter because the feedback it received from customers suggested that the majority would prefer to be contacted on social media sites. Email marketing has long been established as one of the most effective digital marketing channels and has become a standard marketing channel for most brands.

In a move away from established practice, Ben & Jerry’s plans only one email update to customers each year. Instead, Facebook and Twitter profiles will be used to engage and build relationships with customers on an ongoing basis.

Its final email invited them to connect with the brand on Twitter and Facebook.

For certain brands this could well become an effective channel to form relationships with customers, particularly with the younger audience who are beginning to view email very differently. This will only increase as email integrates with social media, take Microsoft who this week announced a Facebook plugin for Outlook and mobile platforms develop further applications in this area.

PCD client Leeds City Credit Union (LCCU) has launched a new microsite aimed at potential new members. LCCU is an community-focused financial services organisation – it provides low rate loans and ethical savings plans to people who live or work in the Leeds area. Online and press activity will be driven to the new site, with the aim of increasing loan applications. Further development is planned once the site is paying for itself and we have some results and analysis from it. The site is on www.leeds-loans.co.uk

In another sign that we may have seen the worse of the recession out, online retail sales increased 22% over the past year, the highest rate of increase for over two years.

The latest IMRG Capgemini e-retail Sales Index results revealed online sales saw a total spend of £4.5bn in May, an equivalent of £73 for every person in the UK.

According to the report, online shopping increased by 3% compared with April this year, with many online retail categories impacted by the World Cup.

Alcohol sales jumped 23% in May, and electrical goods by 13%, as people sought to upgrade their TVs ahead of the tournament. Clothing also rose by 32% over the past year, boosted by sales of sportswear.

In line with IMRG predictions, the UK e-retail market has grown 14% YoY.

Knowing the tortore we have gone through and still go through with compliance departments when developing both on and off line camapiagns for clients this has not really come as a surprise.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has said that banks and financial services companies must comply with advertising rules when using Facebook and social media such as iPhone apps.

 The FSA issued the warning after conducting a study examining how financial serices companies communicate with consumers which found some use of social media channels lacked compliance with industry rues.

Companies posted Twitter updates or commented on discussion forum threads without the proper disclaimers and risk warnings, the FSA says, and engaged in promotional behaviour without complying with all the FSA’s rules.  The FSA studied 30 Twitter and Facebook pages and followed companies’ behaviour on financial forums.”Throughout the review we identified good and poor practice among firms who had adopted the use of new media to communicate financial promotions,” an FSA statement says. “Some promotions lacked risk warnings. Other promotions, while not very specific about products or services, nevertheless went beyond the definition of ’image advertising’.”

The watchdog warned companies that all their communications will come under scrutiny.

“Firms may not have considered these factors to meet the definition of a financial promotion and therefore have not applied the relevant communication rule,” the regulator says. “Our rules cover all communications by regulated firms to clients, not just promotional ones. The rules for non-promotional communications are fairly high-level – the main rule is that communications must be fair, clear and not misleading.”

The regulator also questions whether Twitter is an appropriate medium for financial firms to comminucate on at all. “It is important to consider whether a channel is a suitable method for the type of communication. For example, Twitter limits the number of characters that can be used, which may be insufficient to provide balanced and sufficient information,”

“It is important to consider whether the risk information could be displayed prominently and clearly using this media channel,” said the FSA. “Promotions and communications made using new media must meet the requirements for stand-alone compliance.”

Don’t worry, we didn’t down tools and congregate around burning dustbins yelling SCAB at anyone in ear shot due to someone forgetting to buy tea bags, again! We were on a works night out bowling, and to also say goodbye to one of our esteemed colleagues, Tony Suri, leaving the nest for pastures new. Everyone had a great night and we want to take this time to say that we will miss Tony’s laid back, web genius around the place. Have a look on our flickr account to see a few of us being silly.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pcdagency/

Following the massive success of our other sales based microsites PCD has now released the uk shakeweight site. With celebrity backing from Alex curran (steven gerrard’s wife) we are expecting big things.  Here is the new shake weight site

Please sponsor me – I’m doin a half marathon on Friday 19th March – all money raised is going to The Alzheimers Society & Sports Relief.
Pledge me a donation at tim.barber@pcdagency.com and if I don’t do it in 2 hours, I’ll put the money in!

Cheers  Tim

The push for high speed broadband across the UK received another boost recently when it was announced that businesses in Leeds could benefit from a new 100Mbit/s high speed broadband network that has been installed by telecoms firm aql.

The figure represents speeds at what the firm claims is at least 10 times faster than the national average, allowing firms to send and receive huge files in a matter of seconds, which will no doubt have gone down well.

The managing director of aql, one Adam Beaumont, underlined that the rollout would give many businesses “a head start” on competitors by offering the advantages of high-speed-working, long before the delivery of the Digital Britain promise, which was a nice dig.

“Smart businesses already realise the advantages of not waiting for their mail to download or for a file to transfer,” he added.

One firm touted by aql as benefitting was VTR North, a specialist post production and editing suite firm that regularly sends large files to London. The company was one of the first to trial the network and said it had been “sending and receiving files at jaw dropping speeds”.

Both Labour and the Conservatives have made various pronouncements on their desire to push high speed broadband in the UK, seeing it as a vital step in helping the country’s economy meet the challenges of the future.

The Leeds network will mean that the city can boast the same speeds as its near neighbour Manchester, after it was announced earlier this year that firms there could hook up to a network installed by Geo that also offered speeds of 100Mbit/s.

Geo’s chief exec said at the time that he believed the model of funding high speed rollouts for businesses was somewhat revolutionary for the industry but in time could become the norm, as means of complementing the government’s proposed rollouts.

While it’s undoubtedly good news for the north that these high speed networks are coming to fruition it remains to be seen how the rest of the country will ever get such speeds, with little firm agreement on the best way to push further deployments.