There are many funeral providers in the market offering both pre-need and at-need services. But few offer a guaranteed service for customers whilst maintaining an affordable price point. Trends are also changing with people looking for a more simplistic approach to funerals.
The main objective of the ITV campaign was therefore to receive an uplift in both telephone and web enquiries, to reach a wider audience and increase awareness of the services offered.
After considering options within the market, ITV was chosen due to its wide reach for the desired audience. The regionality also allowed Affordable Funerals to target specific areas of the country. This provided a strong opportunity to increase brand awareness and let people know about the services available.
A mixture of national and regional activity was planned, to allow the ability to test and learn performance to gain a strong understanding of the impact of the activity.
ITV3 and ITV4 were utilised from a national perspective, and the Granada, Yorkshire, Central West areas from a regional perspective.
The activity also ran in line with call centre opening times until 8pm in the evening, and to capitalise on ‘whitespace’ opportunities when rivals were focusing on daytime activity only.
ITV’s in-house commercial production facility was also utilised.
We are delighted with the results of the ITV campaign. We have seen an increase in both our pre-need and at-need sales. Year on year growth is up and the regions we tested have seen a higher growth rate.Howard Hodgson, CEO, Affordable Funerals
The regional activity saw percentage of sales increase from 8% to 16%. In terms of total website traffic, there was an increase of 28%.
We have seen a growth in sales and an uplift in people searching for us and visiting our website after the TV advert was aired. Being able to have a heavier weight campaign in specific regions as well as some national coverage ensures maximum coverage and reach, which we find really beneficialHoward Hodgson, CEO, Affordable Funerals
