Insurance Articles
Phone Names: Case Study
Posted by admin - 26/02/09 at 02:02:13 pmClient: Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd
Outline of case study
Our company conducted side-by-side testing of a phone name v a phone number for our client Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd. The objective was to assess the impact of a phone name v a phone number – with all other variables being held constant.
Methodology
Two identical radio ads were produced. The only difference between the two ads being the ‘call to action’ used at the end of each ad. The first ad used a regular 1300 phone number – 1300 628 678. The second ad used the phone name 1300 THE BYRON.
The two ads were run in even rotation – with identical media weights – over a seven day period on two Sydney radio stations.
The calls and bookings through the phone name and phone number were tracked for the seven day campaign period and for the seven days after the completion of the campaign.
Results
In the week of the campaign, the ads with the phone name generated three times more calls and bookings than the ads with the phone number.
* The phone name provided a 300% increase in response rates.
* The phone name reduced the cost of generating each sales lead by 66%.
In the week after the campaign, the calls to the phone number stopped almost immediately. While calls to the phone name kept coming through – further increasing the ROI on the advertising activity and reducing the cost of acquiring each lead.
As a result of this test, Harvey Norman Holdings rolled out phone names in all its advertising campaigns.
To hear Gerry Harvey’s comments on this case study, please Click Here.
Source: www.phonewords.com.au
Insurance Articles
Shopping stress fuels motor insurance claims
Posted by admin - 25/02/09 at 01:02:06 pmAustralia’s car parks are becoming more hostile. All across the country, accidents in car parks are increasing, with many motorists not having the correct motor insurance to fund necessary repairs.
According to a leading insurer, people are becoming increasingly time constrained in their quest to find a parking spot, with the frustration causing a marked rise in the amount of insurance claims.
Statistics show Chadstone shopping centre in Melbourne caused 95 collisions in the two weeks before Christmas, with other shopping complexes also fairing badly.
The level of stress can increase the likelihood of being involved in an accident and that is a sure way to ruin your day.
However, the days of many motorists were ruined further by not having the correct motor insurance.
Motorists in Australia must, by law, at least have third party personal car insurance. It is, in the majority of cases, included as part of the car registration process. State law governs which provider and what other clauses are required. For example, only New South Wales and Queensland offer consumers a choice of insurer for their third party personal cover.
Car insurance companies will pay out for any unplanned work that the vehicle needs, after a car park accident, for example.
When you are next at the shopping mall and cannot find a space, relax and take a deep breath. If not, you may become one of the hundreds of Australians each day having to claim on a motor insurance policy.
Source: www.money-au.com.au
Insurance Articles
Underinsurance a rising problem
Posted by admin - 23/02/09 at 04:02:07 pmUnderinsurance of homes and contents is a rising problem in Australia, with most homeowners forgetting to update policies in line with inflation, building costs and increasing values, says Australian Central.
Recent surveys across Australia found that up to 81 per cent of homeowners are underinsured and of those up to 59 per cent have insured their homes for 70 per cent or less of the cost of rebuilding. Also, most don’t bother to increase their insurance after completing substantial renovations.
Source: www.adelaidenow.com.au 13 June 2008
Insurance Articles
Are you Underinsured? Dont find out too late!
Posted by admin - 20/02/09 at 09:02:14 amUnderinsurance is alive and well and living in Australia. Whether it’s home, contents or life insurance, most Australians have insufficient cover.
A recent study by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) found that between 27 percent and 81 percent of consumers were underinsured by 10 percent or more if they were faced with having to rebuild their home.
ASIC explains that much of this underinsurance is because the burden of estimating rebuilding costs rests with the consumer who generally does not have reliable or comprehensive enough tools to make a correct estimate. While many web-based calculators exist, ASIC found that there were significant inconsistencies. Indeed, the gap between the highest and the lowest estimates for rebuilding a home was a whopping 169 percent.
Working out the costs of rebuilding is either done on a cost per square metre basis or else on an elemental basis. Generally speaking, the latter is likely to be the more accurate.
Insufficient cover can emerge over time. So even if you correctly estimate your cover in the first place and then annually increase the sum insured, it can still lag the actual rise in building costs. ASIC research found that while the CPI increased by 17 percent between March 2000 and March 2005, building costs in fact rose by 33 percent.
One factor contributing to underinsurance is the rate it is taxed and therefore consumer resistance to the high levels of premiums. The Centre for International Economics found that general insurance in Australia suffers a similar tax burden to alcohol, tobacco and gambling with tax on home insurance as high as 44 percent.
But it’s not just home insurance, where Australians have insufficient cover. Contents cover often fails to recognise new purchases made by a household.
Underinsurance is also rife in life insurance. A study conducted for the Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA) found that 60 percent of Australian families with dependent children have not got enough life insurance cover to look after their family for a year should they die.
Equally a report earlier this year by insurance researchers Dexx&R and commissioned by AXA found that only 22 percent of Australians actually have life insurance. The report went on to say that even those who did were underinsured with cover on average of $210,976 compared with the $670,621 that is really required.
Article extract from money.ninemsn.com.au
Insurance Articles
New 1300 Insurance Television Ad’s
Posted by admin - 18/02/09 at 03:02:09 pm1300 Insurance have produced a new series of television commercials that will air across Australia from March 2009.
If you are interested to see what these look like, we have posted them on YouTube.
Follow these links:
Feel free to let us know what you think.
Insurance Articles
Keep your insurance cover afloat
Posted by admin - 17/02/09 at 04:02:55 pmToo often in Australia personal tragedy is made even harder by the simple admission: “I have no insurance.” Victoria’s bushfires are no exception. Whether we’re talking about insurance to cover the loss of our homes, belongings, cars or more valuable assets such as ourselves, our family and our ability to earn an income, Australia has an ongoing under-insurance problem.
Research by the Insurance Council of Australia in 2007 found almost one in four households – 23 per cent – didn’t have home or contents insurance. An investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission following the Canberra bushfires found anywhere between 27 and 81 per cent of consumers who did have insurance were under-insured by 10 per cent or more against current rebuilding costs.
A report last year by The Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees and Industry Funds Forum found more than 50 per cent of industry super fund members were under-insured for death cover by $100,000 or more while 74 per cent were under-insured by $100,000 or more for total and permanent disability insurance and 45 per cent were under-insured by $1000 or more a month for income protection insurance.
An earlier report by the Investment and Financial Services Association found less than one-third of Australians insured their ability to earn an income and families with dependent children were particularly prone to being under-insured. It estimated that in 2005 parents with dependent children were under-insured by about $1370 billion.
Reasons for not buying insurance are obvious: cost, a perceived lack of benefit for the money invested, and more pressing demands on the budget. Not to mention the old “wing it and worry about the worst if it comes” approach. Or “it won’t happen to me”.
But the scale of the latest tragedy has delivered a harsh lesson that the worst can and does happen. And when it does, it’s often unexpected. It’s a wake-up call for all of us to review our cover.
To a large extent, it is under-insurance rather than non-insurance that is the more insidious problem. The decision not to insure is a conscious one where you knowingly take on extra risks.
You may be counting on emergency relief efforts to meet the gap if disaster strikes but that won’t cover events such as burglary or having an accident that leaves you disabled. And you can’t know in advance how adequate any relief efforts will be.
But under-insurance tends to be unconscious. You might give careful thought to how much cover you need when you originally take our your policy but few give the matter any ongoing thought. We pay the premium each year as it arrives, trusting the cover will be there when we need it.
This doesn’t take account of changing circumstances. Renovations, new purchases and gifts should ideally be added to our home and contents insurance as soon as possible. But many of us overlook them entirely or only consider lifting the sum insured when it comes up for renewal.
Similarly, changes in your job, income and family situation can all affect the amount of personal insurance you need. But only a minority of consumers apply for their cover to be lifted as these events occur.
As the Canberra bushfires showed, standard home insurance policies also failed to keep pace with the growth in building costs. Many consumers who thought they had enough cover found their insurance would not meet the full cost of rebuilding as costs had grown faster than inflation, and then the high level of demand after the fire pushed building costs up even further.
Most insurance policies include some form of indexation but you can’t assume the increases will be enough. At the very least, we should review the level of cover each year when we renew the policy. In most instances, lifting the level of cover is relatively simple and inexpensive. Most insurers now have calculators on their websites to help estimate your insurance needs.
Many insurers now have total replacement or extended cover to protect customers against rising costs. The former provides for your home to be fully rebuilt, while the extended cover provides a buffer – typically 25 to 30 per cent above the sum insured – that the insurer will pay for rebuilding. That’s a big help but the onus is still on consumers to understand their policies and know exactly what they are covered for.
With home and contents insurance, are you covered for full replacement or the sum insured? Do you have cover for the additional costs you’ll incur if your home is destroyed, such as accommodation, removing debris and drawing up plans for your new home? What exclusions apply? Will your insurer pay for flood damage? How does it distinguish between storm damage and flood? Is the cover high enough?
If buying the cover you need from your existing insurer is too much, can you get a better deal by shopping around?
As the uninsured damage from both the Victorian bushfires and the Queensland flooding is counted up, pressure will also be on governments to do their bit to cut insurance costs and encourage more consumers to take out protection.
The Insurance Council estimates the combined effects of taxes on insurance can add more than 40 per cent to the cost of a residential premium in NSW. In its November mini-budget, the NSW Government added a further impost by announcing the State Emergency Service would be funded from general insurance premiums, in addition to the existing fire services levy.
No one is arguing emergency services shouldn’t be properly funded. But it’s a bit rich that only those who do the right thing and buy insurance have to pay. Cutting insurance taxes is an obvious first step in solving the under-insurance problem.
Source – Sydney Morning Herald, 14 February 2009
Insurance Articles
Donate to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal
Posted by admin - 13/02/09 at 09:02:15 amYou can make a difference by donating to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal. It has been revealed that possibly one in four houses destroyed by the Victorian fires were under insured.
The red cross will donate the money to assist individuals and communities affected by the devastating fires.
Click here to make a secure online donation today.
Insurance Articles
One in four homes destroyed in bushfires under-insured
Posted by admin - 13/02/09 at 09:02:03 amINSURANCE companies have revealed one in four homes destroyed by Victoria’s fires might not be covered by contents insurance.
Twenty-five per cent – 490,000 -of Victorian homes do not have contents insurance and 3.7 per cent – 50,000 – do not have house insurance, figures provided by the Insurance Council of Australia show.
Insurance companies are rushing to offering cash advances to homeowners who have lost property in the bushfires and have urged homeowners to contact them as soon as possible so that they can start processing claims.
With more than 750 homes destroyed by the fires and countless others damaged the damage bill is expected to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
But the Insurance Council of Australia said it was too early to estimate the total bill and number of claims.
Insurance Council of Australia chief executive Kerrie Kelly said insurers assessors would be assessing claims as soon as they were able to access fire-affected areas.
“At this stage it is too early to provide an estimate for the expected insurable recovery cost.
“The Insurance Council has established an insurance task force and is working closely with the Victorian government as well as the Master Builders Association in order to start the rebuilding process as soon as possible.”
Ms Kelly said policy holders who had lost their documentation should not worry as insurance companies kept electronic records.
Some insurance companies have experienced a surge of phone calls from uninsured home owners in at-risk areas.
However, the owners are being told new policies will not cover them for fire damage in certain areas or for a particular period.
Source: www.heraldsun.com.au 9 February 2009
Insurance Articles
New & Improved Quote Engine
Posted by admin - 11/02/09 at 11:02:42 amWe now have a new and improved car and home quote engine. You can now get your car or home insurance quote faster.
Get a quote today and see how much you could save!
Insurance Articles
Gen Y ‘financially unfit’ says poll
Posted by admin - 10/02/09 at 11:02:16 amGENERATION Y is the most financially unfit group of Australians, with little savings, high debt and high housing costs relative to income, a new survey has found.
The BankWest Financial Fitness Index polled more than 1,000 Australians online, placing them in four categories according to the amount of their savings, insurance coverage, housing costs relative to income level and reliance on debt.
It found 22 per cent of Australians were financially unfit, with an over-reliance on debt, little or no regular savings, no insurance coverage and high housing costs.
Only 21 per cent were financially fit, with savings, insurance, low housing costs and high assets relative to debt and income.
The majority – 58 per cent – were borderline with moderate savings, some insurance, moderate debt and average housing costs.
Generation Y, those under the age of 30, are most at risk financially, with 29 per cent classed as unfit, 64 per cent borderline fit and just seven per cent fit.
In contrast, Baby Boomers and Retirees are much better off with only 15 per cent and nine per cent, respectively, rated unfit, while 32 per cent of boomers and 29 per cent of retirees were in tip-top financial shape.
Bankwest Retail chief executive Ian Corfield said the Financial Fitness Index was a timely wake-up call for many Australians with the effects of the global financial turmoil hitting home and unemployment predicted to spike.
“It’s possible a lot of people acquired some unhealthy financial habits during the unprecedented period of economic growth Australia has recently enjoyed,” Mr Corfield said in a statement.
“Being financially unfit in a boom is one thing, but it’s a very different proposition during the tight economic times many experts are forecasting in the year ahead.
“Increasingly we are told to look after our health and maintain a healthy lifestyle and it’s just as important to keep ourselves financially fit.”
Mr Corfield said the index also revealed men fared much better than women, with nearly one in three women carrying unhealthy levels of debt compared to about one in five men.
NSW and the ACT were also the top financially unfit states.
Source: The Australian 8 February 2009