Fund Manager of the Year 2014: Marketing Team of the Year
Winner
CommInsure
Finalist
Challenger
CommInsure has been named winner of the Marketing Team of the Year for its work across five separate issues faced by the group in the past 12 months. In tackling these issues CommInsure employed 11 strategies focused on their adviser and consumer clients, leveraging off other entities within the wider Commonwealth Bank group.
The five strategies were aimed at increasing insurance business and preventing policy lapses, as well as reacquainting financial advisers and consumers with CommInsure as a life insurance product provider.
CommInsure focused on creating primary insurance policies with linked benefits, which led to $1.5 million of new premiums since August last year. It also focused on halting lapse rates through more informative policy anniversary letters and adviser tools, while an unclaimed super campaign aimed at consumers returned $330 million to them and boosted funds under management in superannuation products by $45 million.
Challenger was named as a finalist for its advertising campaign which focused on lifting the group's presence among consumers and boosting the take-up of annuities among advisers who were already very familiar with the group and its annuity products.
The campaign ran across television, consumer and trade print titles, radio, cinema and online, with adviser strategy focused on demonstrating the use of annuities as part of a retirement income plan that tied into aged care funding and advice.
The consumer campaign sought to educate and inform people about the benefits of annuities during retirement and the need to seek advice about setting up appropriate plans for the future.
As a result of this campaign, consideration of annuities rose from 29 per cent to 40 per cent among consumers, while 45 per cent of advisers received enquiries about annuities. Retail annuity sales at Challenger hit record levels during the end of 2013 and the start of 2014.
Recommended for you
Grant Hackett has been promoted from CEO of Generation Life to head up the wider Generation Development Group.
Tribeca Investment Partners has made a distribution hire from Australian Ethical in a newly-created role focused on the national intermediary market.
Asset managers may be urged to diversify their product ranges, but investment executives have warned any M&A deal should avoid simply filling gaps and instead consider long-term value creation.
Specialist wealth platform provider Mason Stevens has become the latest target of an acquisition as it enters a binding agreement with a leading Sydney-based private equity firm.
