Confused.com, part of the Admiral Group, is a British price comparison website specialising in insurance and financial services.
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Confused.com launched in 2002, becoming the UK’s first car insurance comparison site. It is based in Cardiff, Wales with its offices located near the headquarters of the Admiral Group. The Admiral Group floated on the London Stock Exchange in September 2004, it is currently the only FTSE100 listed company headquartered in Wales.
Confused.com is regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
Confused.com has undergone a high degree of management churn in recent years. At the top level, founding Managing Director Kate Armstrong, an IT consultant originally from Sydney,[1] retired from the business in 2005, following the successful floatation of the Admiral Group. She was succeeded by Deborah Williams who took the reins from 2005 to 2007. The business underwent expansive growth in this period with profit hitting £36 million in 2007.[2] It was with some degree of surprise therefore that the industry received news of Williams' departure to join a relatively unknown insurance broker.[3] Williams was succeeded by South African Carlton Hood in the newly created position of CEO. However, unable to defend market share from ambitious new entrants,[4] Hood in turn lasted less than 3 years in the role, leaving unceremoniously in 2010.[5] The role of Managing Director is currently held by the Admiral Group CFO, Kevin Chidwick. Chidwick has let it been known this is intended as a temporary measure.
The marketing department came under new management in July 2010 when Mike Hoban formally passed a six month probation period[6] and stepped into the role of marketing director. Prior to joining Confused.com, he spent 18 months as the Communications Director of Directgov, helping to position their website as the ‘nation’s official website'.
In early years, Confused.com achieved notoriety and success with a simple, repetitive direct response advertising format. In later years as competitors Moneysupermarket.com, GoCompare.com and Comparethemarket.com have entered the market, Confused.com has tried numerous different advertising vehicles. None have emulated the success of the initial campaign and Confused.com has slipped from the position of market leader to being the fourth largest car insurance comparison website in the UK.
Confused.com[7] have a reputation for their television advertising campaigns starting way back at the company’s inception, when their in-house team came up with the idea of a man with a megaphone shouting about exactly what Confused.com was offering. This led seamlessly into the longest running of Confused.com’s campaigns, featuring simple cardboard props on a white background.
This was followed by adverts containing real life testimonials, featuring customers and prolific social media users talking about their experiences while using the website, as well as showcasing the website’s simplicity by explaining how it works. The campaign was produced using assistance from outside marketing agency, The Farm, who became Confused.com's first external creative agency.[8]
A third wave of advertising was tested regionally in 2009 before being aborted. This campaign featured a haggard, puppet character called Confucius, which bore an uncanny likeness to the Star Wars character Yoda in appearance and speech.
A fourth wave of advertising launched in early 2010 focused on the concept of regret and featured members of the public lamenting that they could have purchased something they'd wanted if they had purchased their car insurance through Confused.com. The campaign was developed with leading agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay (BMB). However, following disappointing results and further loss of market share versus other television advertisers, Confused.com formally dismissed BMB in July 2010.[9]
In September 2010, Confused.com introduced "Cara", an animated version[10] of the original Confused.com logo, who features in the company’s latest advertising campaign. The campaign saw the appointment of another external agency; this time Hornet of New York. The campaign’s current tagline, "it pays to be Confused.com," has been running since January 2010, surviving from the ill-fated BMB "regret" campaign. In January 2011, an animated advertisement featuring Queen's "Somebody to Love" began running, with a tag line of "18 million strong and still growing". In February 2011 a new advert started featuring Diana Ross' "Chain Reaction" sung by the main character (voiced by Louise Dearman) and 20 million more.
Marketing Director Mike Hoban has claimed the latest campaign has gained Confused.com 2 million customers since launch,[11] however this claim seems at odds with commentary in the Admiral Group 2011 interim management report that documents a decline in market share and revenue.[12]