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Consumer campaign shelved as funding dries up

26 November 2009 Breaking News

The campaign to raise public awareness of the need for protection has been shelved following a failure to secure funding from the industry,

The Consumer Protection Insurance Engagement Campaign (CPIEC), spearheaded by Tom Baigrie, managing director of specialist intermediary LifeSearch, was launched in early 2009 with the backing of 22 life insurers and reinsurers.

The challenge of calculating the return providers would gain from investing in the campaign and of devising a way to treat all methods of distribution fairly have been cited as the key causes of the impasse.

The cost of launching a media campaign was put at £5m in the first year and, if successful, £3m in the second. The bill was split between all by dividing the provider market by estimated annual premium.

Extensive consumer and market research has already been carried out to explore the market for protection in the UK and communication agencies were recruited to devise a media strategy.

Baigrie said: "As the range of genuine issues became apparent it was clear that we could not seek to address them all, but for now should merely fully report them as vital learning points to inform subsequent efforts.

"Whether there is further action in the future is for others to decide. What is absolutely clear, and which everyone agreed upon, is that there is a great need to raise consumer awareness on the need for protection. It is therefore a great shame that the leaders of the protection industry could not agree to move forward and meet the costs. However, I feel there are valuable lessons to learn for the future.

"Many people worked hard in this cause, and richly deserve thanks. The CPIEC committee, Richard Jones of Scottish Widows, Jason Hurley of RGA, Alan Ferguson, late of L&G and Graham Harvey of AXA; the Two CPIEC consultants, Mark Twigg of Cicero Consulting and Graham Brown of MediaSense and the marketing firms, SPA research, DLKW creative and Zed Media."

Signs that funding might prove difficult were in evidence at this year's Protection Review where one reinsurer warned that, given the economic climate, "it's going to be much more difficult to find resources and money to move things forward."

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