Direct Line achieves clarity in renewals with interactive video technology

By Andy Berry, VP EMEA Software Solutions, Pitney Bowes  

Insurance policies are too complex for 80% of the UK population, according to a study from the University of Nottingham and law firm Browne Jacobson. Some of the policies in the study required the equivalent of an A-level qualification to understand them, and others required an undergraduate or even postgraduate level of education. Long sentences and uncommon words didn’t help, with many leaving readers confused. For consumers, this results in uncertainty in their insurance cover. For insurers, it means dedicating resources to answer queries and explain cover. Sometimes this results in unexpected and undesired outcomes, with consumers realising they have insufficient cover only when it’s too late.  This creates risk, affects customer satisfaction levels, and risks driving away loyal customers. To address this, insurance firms are looking to technology.

Engaging and education videos with the consumer as the star

Direct Line is known as the industry’s ‘fixer’. Free from the confines of a middleman, the firm has developed a brand that is engaging and exciting. Now one of the largest insurers in the UK, Direct Line continues to focus on direct communication, and to ensure that customers are fully informed about their policies. Strongly committed to delivering a transparent customer experience, Direct Line considered different strategies to improve clarity and understanding of renewal documents, to make them as clear as possible so that their customers’ needs and expectations were met.

Knowing the small print often went unnoticed, the insurer needed a dynamic, eye-catching creative campaign with technology that would make customers sit up and take notice. It opted for interactive personalised video. The technology can be accessed from any device, and draws on customer data to deliver high levels of personalisation. It delivers a series of prompts for viewers to complete and take charge of their own journey, giving them a unique and informative, real-time video experience.

For Direct Line, the objectives were for the new customer engagement technology to:

• Improve customers’ understanding of policy coverage
• Achieve high customer engagement
• Support Direct Line identity as an innovative brand.

A powerful campaign

The campaign achieved an unprecedented success rate for Direct Line, with:

• A 50% open rate for emails with links to personalised videos, more than double the typical open rate for Direct Line direct emails, against an insurance industry average for email open rates of 22%
• A click-through rate of approximately 30% to watch the videos, three times the usual  performance of Direct Line’s video content

• Figures showing that 66% of customers who began watching their personalised video watch it in its entirety. The average viewer retains just 37% of viewers to the last second

The technology was so popular that customers shared their personalised videos across their social media networks and watched them again and again. Direct Line achieved more than educating their customers on their renewals: using technology, they effectively created stories with their consumers playing centre stage.