"Most people protect appliances, pets, and cars, but don't understand why protecting their home, income, and loved ones is vital."
- Andy Gibson, Sales & Development Manager at Create Finance
Following the controversial advert by DeadHappy, the importance of ethical marketing has been brought back into focus, especially when talking about death and serious illness with people young enough to feel it doesn’t apply to them.
Scott Taylor-Barr, Director of Barnsdale Financial Management, emphasised that events such as heart attack, stroke, or cancer “tend to resonate more with the over-40s than 20-somethings […] however, good quality protection plans have a plethora of additional features that could appeal.”
“What if we concentrate on car accidents, sporting injuries, and mental health support?”
He believes it’s not that Gen Z can’t see bad things happening to them, “they just can’t see the bad things the insurance industry talks about most happening to them yet.”
David Robinson, Co-Founder at Wildcat Law, agreed that “Only by making the issue real to them can they start to see the benefit of protection.” He felt that using real-life stories would be a far more effective way of connecting with Gen Z than traditional sales techniques. “Gen Z have more information available to them than any generation before them […] we need to ensure we use this rather than ignore it,” he explained.
“Too many companies run scared of actively engaging with social media channels.”
From influencers selling the latest beauty products on Instagram to footballers promoting the newest trainers on TikTok, “We are in an era where we are being sold to everywhere we look.” Kylie-Ann Gatecliffe, Director at KAG Financial, said breaking through the smoke with something different and eye-catching is tricky but “consumers buy into what they believe in.”
She’s noticed that storytelling has become strikingly popular on social media, “which is what we should be seeing more of from protection firms.” Kylie-Ann suggests storytelling on claims and how protection has helped real people. “We shy away from talking about death and illness but the minute a celebrity becomes ill or dies, it comes into conversation […] storytelling from Gen Z about their experiences is needed,” she explained.
“I don’t think the ads from firms like DeadHappy are needed to do this.”
Joshua Gerstler, Chartered Financial Planner & Owner of The Orchard Practice, said most people consider protection when buying their first home. “They normally want to put Life Insurance in place […] It’s our job to educate them about the importance of other protection products such as Income Protection (IP) and Critical Illness cover (CIC),” he explained. In the last decade, Joshua has found that sometimes consumers understand the importance of protection immediately, but some add these in when reviewing their cover on a later date.
“There are lots of myths about Mortgage Protection, and why it is important,” agreed Andy Gibson, Sales & Development Manager at Create Finance. He felt that the key to tackling these myths is to “ensure advisers complete a full holistic fact find.”
“By completing the fact find, and ensuring people are put in a position of choice, consumers can make a fully informed decision.”
Andy highlighted that most people protect appliances, pets, and cars, but don’t understand why protecting their home, income, and loved ones is vital. To improve consumer understanding, he suggested using claim statistics to aid protection conversations. “People will then deicide on the types of cover relevant to individual circumstances,” he concluded.
