Yorkshire Building Society

The brief

Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) is the UK’s third largest mutual. Brahm was asked to produce the first major advertising campaign for the society since 1992. The proposition for this was developed in response to their brief to ‘attract more loyal and long term customers to take up their mortgage products’. The mortgage market has become increasingly more rate led in recent years which results in a much higher rate of customer churn and less revenue for the providers to invest in new products. YBS therefore had a commercial requirement to redress the balance of the mortgage business they were attracting.

Our response

Brahm’s strategic recommendation focused on the idea of using the awards YBS had won for a number of their mortgage products to promote a message which would re-define ‘value’ away from being simply the mortgage with the lowest rate. By acknowledging what a headache finding the right mortgage can be for people, the campaign focused on the message that YBS has the right product for you amongst their range of award winning mortgage products.

The multi-media campaign was led by a 30 second TV commercial appearing on ITV and Channel 4, supported by press, outdoor and direct marketing activity.

The outcome

The results of the campaign were tracked and it has since been confirmed that the activity succeeded not only in attracting a greater volume of customers but also a less promiscuous and more profitable customer profile.

The effectiveness of the campaign has also been recognised within the Financial Services Industry when Yorkshire Building Society won two awards at the Financial Services Forum Awards for Marketing Effectiveness 2004. The Yorkshire Building Society advertising campaign developed by Brahm won the top award for ’Most Effective Advertising Campaign’ and the Judges Award for the ‘Best Contribution to Marketing Learning’.

Anne Somers, Head of Group Marketing at Yorkshire Building Society said: “We are especially delighted to win this award at our first attempt and I would like to thank our Advertising Agency, Brahm, for producing such a great campaign that not only helped us sell large volumes of mortgages but also improved our profitability”.

Brahm is currently working on the next YBS advertising campaign.

For further information please contact:

Ruth Holgate our Business Development Manager on 0113 230 4000 or email greatoutcomes@brahm.com