sanlam-sky-quarterly-marketing-update-july-2020 Sanlam Sky Quarterly Marketing Update: July 2020

Dear colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to readjust our Sky marketing strategy and address the challenges and opportunities that have emerged because of it. We have put together a high-level summary of the brand’s performance in the market and what we are currently working on.

Brand and Health Performance

Every year, we conduct a survey to help us understand the public’s perception of the brand against competitors within the long-term insurance and investment space. This is referred to as ‘brand health tracking’ – a method used to measure the consumer’s perception of the brand. While the results only show a piece of the puzzle, the report focused on results across the Entry Level Market (income of R3 000 – R7 999) and Emerging Middle Market (income of R8 000 – R14 999).

The report gives insights for brand usage, brand motivation and spontaneous awareness amongst others. From 2017 to 2019, Sanlam ranked third amongst 22 brands. In 2019, we had an increased share of motivation from 7.5 in 2017 to 8.8 amongst Emerging Middle Markets.

Access the full brand health tracker report for more insights.

Digital Trends

In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis and adapting to the “new normal”, there has been a noticeable shift in the way people consume media, and what they choose to consume, such as an increased interest in podcasts, music and video streaming services, as well as the use of video conference tools in an attempt to stay connected and communicate with colleagues, friends and family.

These trends have given insights in how we can apply certain sections to our campaigns and the channels selected in a bid to attract the young, urban consumers (aged 25 to 35) in the Emerging Middle Market.

Stay tuned to see how we have integrated these lessons into our latest campaign.

Agile Experiment – Methodology and Key Takeaways

1. Methodology

At its core, agile marketing is a tactical marketing approach in which we identify and focus our collective efforts on high value projects, complete those projects, measure their impact, and continuously improve the results over time.

Sanlam Sky has launched the following campaigns thus far:

Communication Strategies Test

The first sprint of this experiment focused on reach, particularly a tactic one: the referral mechanic where an SMS was sent to 10 000 key account policyholders identified as essential workers, encouraging them to participate in a recognition live stream. The campaign went live in April.

Tactic two focused on micro-targeting new key account-based employees. The campaign went live on the Google Display Network and Facebook.

Ad Test – Younger Proposition

This experiment tested the impact of messaging, imagery and specific unique selling points on a younger audience. The younger ad resulted in 3.6x more leads compared to that of the generic ad.

Urgent Lead Generation

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, we had to come up with ways to engage with clients, generate solid leads, retain existing clients and drive sales.

From 28 April – 28 June, we generated 119 iCover online sales, 286 iCover exit leads, 818 Funeral Page ‘Contact Us’ leads and 685 Facebook leads.

A Shout-out to SA’s Frontline Heroes (Key Account Referral Tactic)

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether we could reach key accounts and how effective the referral mechanic could be in driving our message within chosen key accounts.

• 32% of the 110 individuals that uploaded a photo referred the site to a friend
• The essential services conversation seems to remain a hot and positive discussion among key account employees and the greater public – 101 likes, positive comments and 2 000 views

View the full campaign.

2. Key Takeaways

Agile experiments have been relatively positive and delivered lessons that will be applied in the overarching key account campaign. The main lesson so far has been the ability to target and reach particular key accounts and generate leads through creative personalisation and focused targeting on Facebook and the Google Display Network.

Through The Line (TTL) Campaign

We have recently launched a campaign titled ‘The Memory Collection’, a space created to honour the lives of those who are no longer with us. The focus of the campaign is to:

• Establish a compelling reason to buy that will differentiate Sanlam Funeral Plans from competitors and drive service and benefit differentiation for Sanlam Funeral Plans
• Support and build a roadmap towards vision 2023 which aims at gradually moving from only pushing funeral to funeral and service, and eventually to an advice-driven value proposition
• Leverage, amplify and integrate key account activities

The campaign makes use of a mix of media platforms namely digital media (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter), traditional media (radio, billboards, print), and direct communication (email, WhatsApp digi-cards and videos, website).

Here is a sneak peek of some of the campaign elements:

Billboards across rural and urban areas:

Here is a sneak peek of some of the campaign elements:

Billboards across rural and urban areas:

The campaign also has presence on some of South Africa’s most loved and watched soapies – The Queen, The River and Scandal.

If you’re interested, feel free to listen to some of the radio ad testimonials.

Other Projects

Township Murals

Considering the additional challenges posed by the pandemic, we have to increase our presence and stay relevant in the communities we operate in so that we are able to generate solid leads, retain existing clients and drive sales. The murals are in some of the townships across the country and have been strategically placed to drive traffic to nearby Client Care Offices (CCOs).

Township Murals

Considering the additional challenges posed by the pandemic, we have to increase our presence and stay relevant in the communities we operate in so that we are able to generate solid leads, retain existing clients and drive sales. The murals are in some of the townships across the country and have been strategically placed to drive traffic to nearby Client Care Offices (CCOs).