What do we know about financial services?
Who have we worked with?
Advertising Branding Brochure Digital Direct Mail Experiential
Strategic thinking and creative
solutions deliver exceptional results
Atkinson Associates is a full-service advertising and marketing agency. We work with our clients on both specific and industry-wide initiatives in order to meet even the most challenging of business objectives. We are passionate about what we do and develop solid strategies, combined with relevant creative communications in order to deliver tangible and measurable results.
End-to-end marketing and creative services:
• Broadcast, print, DM and digital advertising
• Design
• Events
• Experiential
• Mobile and social media marketing
• Media planning and buying
• Retail merchandising
• Web development and design
The Atkinson Associates team has vast financial services experience across a broad spectrum of clients. Working with both B2B and B2C audiences, in retail, commercial corporate and global banking divisions. Our background includes work within asset funding, asset management, card services, insurance, invoice finance, leasing, loans, mortgages and structured finance.
The results we have achieved speak for themselves, with the following case studies highlighting how our approach has made a difference. To find out how we could help your business
call George Atkinson on 020 8870 8220 or email: [email protected]
Adding value
Creating unique incentives
The Challenge
• To create credibility and cut-through for RBS Invoice Finance.
• Heavily congested market place.
• Little differentiation between brands. The Insight
• Often a distress purchase, so we need to open dialogue and put
RBS Invoice Finance on the shopping list when businesses need the product.
• Need a point of difference/USP.
• Competitor incentives (where used) are generic and widely available from other sources, are of tenuous relevance and provide the recipient with little or no unique information. The Solution
• Create something no other finance house can use.
• Conduct credible and relevant research (via Ipsos MORI).
• Develop a bespoke report branded by the FT, an authoritative and independent source. The Results
• Used in direct mail, off-the-page and online.
Product innovation
New product launch
The Challenge
• To inform customers about a new product.
• To generate renewed interest in talking to your bank. The Insight
• Selling your business is a once in a lifetime experience, so where do you go to find out how to do this?
• How far in advance of ‘getting out’ do you need to plan?
• How would the purchaser/MBO raise the finance? The Solution
• Conduct unique research with 200 businesses that had been sold (cashed-out) in the last five years.
• Highlight a number of case studies to whet the recipients appetite.
• Develop a bespoke report based on this research. The Results
• Direct mail, in-house magazine press ads and online, offering the report as an incentive.
Prospect programme
Building dialogue with prospects
The Challenge
• To open up dialogue with key prospects to keep RBS front of mind. The Insight
• They are busy people who wouldn’t ordinarily receive DM (the gatekeeper intercepts all mail).
• Need something relevant and of interest to the prospect.
• Deliver something on a regular basis that they’ll open.
• Give them something over and above the norm. The Solution
• An annual (52-issue) subscription to Time magazine allowing for multiple messages to be put in front of the recipient.
• A weekly magazine with monthly bespoke RBS communications (cover wraps, inserts, letters etc.), highlighting various products and services: invoice finance, asset finance, international trade, added value reports, transactional banking, etc.
The Results
• Four new customers with an individual annual PFI between £50,000-£75,000.
Creating standout
In a crowded market, how do you get noticed?
The Challenge
• To create something of interest to the prospect.
• To ensure the prospect receives the communication. The Insight
• The average length of payment from invoice date was more than 90 days.
• Visually demonstrate what else could be done in the same time. The Solution
• It took Ellen MacArthur just 94 days to circumnavigate the world!
• We mailed a copy of Ellen’s book, in a bespoke box, to dramatise the time delay in getting paid.
The Results
• Over 5% response across the campaign period.
• As a proven acquisition tool, we developed similar packs for other product sectors including: Bonsai trees, Rubik’s cubes and numerous books.
Helping achieve targets
Creating engagement with the sales force
The Challenge
• How can we help the sales team hit their revenue targets? The Insight
• Most of the sales people are really relationship managers and aren’t natural sales people. The Solution
• Create an online ‘help microsite’, with an explanation of how certain products work, who they should target and sales tips etc.
• Mail out, SMS and emails to sales teams directing them to a microsite.
• Ongoing sales competition by region over the quarter to encourage participation.
• Trialled in a single region to refine proposition and train telesales, rolled-out region by region. The Results
Maintaining a presence
Right place, right time
The Challenge
• How do you ensure you are in the right place at the right time, cost-effectively? The Insight
• Invoice Finance is often a crisis purchase and not always a planned route to creating cash flow. The Solution
• A series of postcards, MPUs, banners and skyscrapers explaining the benefits of invoice finance.
• Delivered every month to increase exposure to the product and keep front of mind.
• Highlight different benefits of the product.
• Incentivise response to open dialogue.
Customer retention
Global transition from ABN AMRO to RBS
The Challenge
• To communicate the positive aspects of the acquisition of ABN AMRO by The Royal Bank of Scotland, to both consumer and business customers.
• Develop a credible creative platform which communicates the opportunities and connections of becoming a customer of RBS.
The Insight
• Reassuring existing customers is a vital retention tool.
• By bringing together the strengths of ABN AMRO and RBS you, the customer, will benefit from access to even more capability.
The Solution
• Developed a range of propositions based on the creative platform of ‘Together’.
• Global direct communication toolkit created and implemented in local languages for personal, business and global market segments.
The Results
• Due to the global credit crunch the results weren’t divulged.
Collateral
Sector brochures
The Challenge
• To develop supporting collateral for use by sales team. The Insight
• Create empathy with target audience.
• Use sector-specific imagery.
• Use plain English and talk in their language. The Solution
• Unique propositions developed for each sector.
