Hole-In-One, Anyone?
Tasked with transforming the traditional insurance purchasing process, ICI sought to offer its products directly to end users through an innovative eCommerce platform. The challenge was twofold: breaking through insurance market clutter and showcasing the value proposition of hole-in-one insurance to a targeted B2B audience spanning Ontario to British Columbia. Leveraging strategic segmentation and tailored messaging, our Integrated Team crafted a campaign that resonated with golf enthusiasts and event planners alike.
Background
It's tournament day. You arrive to freshly rolled greens, a gentle breeze, a sun-filled sky, a filled tee sheet, and sponsors aplenty. Sounds like a golfer’s dream. And it is. Only one thing could make it better: winning the hole-in-one prize.
Insured Creativity (ICI), an insurance provider in the world of sports, entertainment, and promotions, engaged our Integrated Team to develop a new approach to marketing specialty insurance products to business prospects, beginning with hole-in-one insurance. Typically, an insurance broker is required to facilitate the purchase of specialty insurance, but ICI planned to offer its insurance products direct to the end user via an innovative eCommerce platform.
Challenge
Although insurance is not the most sought-after product, it is a vital one that provides peace of mind and security. And it is a difficult category to gain attention in, but the right messaging can capture interest and help shed light on the value and protection offered.
Challenge
Although insurance is not the most sought-after product, it is a vital one that provides peace of mind and security. And it is a difficult category to gain attention in, but the right messaging can capture interest and help shed light on the value and protection offered.
Solution
Our approach to combat that entrenched mindset was to pinpoint select B2B audiences from Ontario to B.C. and position hole-in-one insurance as an unexpected opportunity. Knowing there wouldn’t be mass demand for such a specialized product, we identified prospects we knew had pre-existing interest in golf or golf tournaments—a few were straightforward (golf pros and tournament or corporate event planners), others were unexpected and intended as test-use cases (small/medium business owners who also love golf and could use that affinity to promote their business with a hole-in-one sponsorship).
With a limited media budget, we selected channels where we could best segment our audiences and logically target messaging—from paid search to LinkedIn and Facebook/Instagram. Then, we carefully curated content that kept messaging simple, tailored, and value based. Our goal was to show golf pros and event planners that insurance could be purchased easily online while educating golf-keen business owners that hole-in-one sponsorships could help them build awareness of their business and grow revenues through a game they already loved.
Results
So, did we drive the middle of the fairway?
The eight-week campaign was optimized throughout, yielding very encouraging results:
- Paid search was highly targeted and earned a final click-thru rate average of 8.57% (more than 5% pts. higher than industry average)
- LinkedIn ads were customized by B2B audience and served based on occupation, producing more than 10x the goal for second-level clicks (not only did viewers click on our ads, but more importantly they completed valuable secondary actions on the websites tied to purchase intent); also, our business owner metrics equalled those of our golf pros and event planner segments, indicating that test segment was a relevant target
- Facebook & Instagram advertisements, served only to our business owner audience as that group provided the best ability to target, delivered more than 20x the goal for second-level clicks
With first-year results scoring better than expected, a second campaign is due to tee off at the start of next golf season, and we’re anticipating more than par for the course.
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