How Financial Services and Insurance Brands are Balancing Product and Brand Messaging

Purpose of This Research

• ‍Identify which channels (both paid and organic) Canadian insurance providers and financial services brands are activating on
• ‍‍Identify a messaging split between “product” and “brand” messaging
• ‍Identify top-performing content themes and tactics for brand and product messaging in the last year (Oct. 2022-Sep. 2023)

In order to determine an optimal messaging mix for Financial Services and how they could be activating.

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Competitors Analyzed

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Key Questions

How should messaging between brand messaging and product offer-based messaging be balanced?

• Answer
  (i) Focus on brand messaging at the top of the funnel to attract new audiences on organic social and web. The top content buckets for brand messaging in this section include supporting social causes, giveaways, funny TikTok trends and educational content.  
  ‍‍(ii) Balance your messaging between product and brand messaging in the middle of the funnel with your paid media. The top content buckets for brand messaging in this section of the funnel address lifestyle applications, offer wellness education beyond finances and show off their Canadianness. The top content buckets for product messaging in this section of the funnel are transfer incentives and new products.
  ‍‍(iii) As you move towards the bottom of the funnel, increase product messaging to alert existing audiences of new products and features, through channels like email and paid media. The top content buckets for product messaging in this section of the funnel are product updates that share features users are not taking advantage of. 

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Brand Messaging

CHANNEL

Organic social is the top channel for brand messaging. 91% of content on this channel is brand-focused.

• Recommendations
  (i) Build your brand on organic social and showcase your brand’s personality on this platform. 
  (ii) Show that you understand what is important in life nowadays and reflect this in the content that you produce and the partnerships you choose to take on. 
  (iii) Tell audiences why your brand suits their lifestyle so they feel their needs are understood. 

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Organic Web stands out as a leading channel for brand messaging. 79% of content is brand-focused. 

• Recommendations
  (i) Provide free podcasts and blogs to help users inform their financial decisions. 
  (ii) Partner with industry experts and invite them to co-host your podcast or co-author a blog post. Manulife invites social scientists, doctors and other professionals to its Beyond Age podcast. 

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MESSAGING

Educational topics perform well:
1) Wellness content that focused on mental and physical health generated 5X more impressions
2)  Financial educational content generated 6X more views & engagement.

• Recommendations
  ‍‍(i) Don't just focus on financial topics — financial well-being is just one part of the equation. Cover topics such as healthy personal relationships, physical health, and social causes, as shown in the Manulife podcast. 
  (ii) Create decision trees to help readers learn about products that provide valuable information and keep them engaged. Use simple, visually attractive infographics that are more likely to be shared.
  (iii) Create quizzes or play games like “2 Truths and a Lie” to make educational content more digestible.

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Vancity created content in support of social causes, which outperformed its average content by over 9x. 

• Recommendations
  (i) Create content that shares your brand’s commitment to supporting social causes such as women’s rights, environmentalism and the LGBTQ+ community. 
  (ii) Work with influencers who represent the social causes you are supporting to add credibility to your brand’s commitment to social causes.

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Intact used TikTok to post funny videos, generating 497K views on average. This was a viral outlier that generated over 631x more views than the industry average.

• Recommendations
  ‍‍(i) Stay alert to TikTok trends and adapt them to your industry, similar to how Intact used the eye and mouth filter to educate their audience about home insurance. 
  (ii) Use humour and a casual tone to contrast your paid content. 

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Product Messaging

CHANNEL

Email is the top channel for product messaging. 69% of content on this channel is product-focused.  

• Recommendations
  ‍‍(i) Share new products and product updates with users already in your funnel. 
  (ii) Prompt users to take advantage of useful tools and services that they are not currently using. Provide the use case for these and the efficiency it would help users gain.

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Paid social and display are split evenly with product messaging representing 50% of spend. 

• Recommendations
  ‍‍Use paid social to share product information that might otherwise not be explored organically with audiences to expand your product’s reach.

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MESSAGING

Vancity offers incentives for users to open new accounts. This content type performed 4.3x better than its other
paid messaging.

• Recommendations
  ‍‍(i) Highlight your product’s benefits such as cashbacks or new account bonuses to attract new clients. 
  (ii) Use graphics which clearly state the offer as the main feature of this type of creative. 

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‍Vancity educates users about their product’s benefits and features using organic social and organic web. This content type performed 29% better than industry benchmarks. 

• Recommendations
  ‍‍(i) Partner with influencers to communicate the benefits of your products in a more casual tone 
  (ii) Create blogs, podcasts and webinars with in depth educational content that are free for users to access.

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Questrade shared the launch of its Tax-Free First Home Savings Account on TikTok, which outperformed its other paid advertising by 11x.

• Recommendations
  ‍‍(i) Create native advertising content that fit seamlessly into the platform, such as this TikTok video where Questrade partnered up with an influencer. 
  (ii) Use an omni-channel strategy to launch new products so you capture both top of funnel audiences and bottom of funnel existing clients. 

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Brand messaging is used at the top of the funnel, with product messaging increasing at the bottom of the funnel.

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Organic social has the highest percentage (91%) of brand messaging and the most diversity of content.

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Top organic content is focused on brand messaging (over 74%) across all platforms.  

*The top 100 posts per platform were used to determine the messaging split for this slide

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Organic web is 79% brand messaging and offers free articles, podcasts and blogs to enrich user experience on their websites.

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Manulife used organic web to provide both a blog and a podcast to enrich user experience.

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Middle of funnel messaging features an increasing amount of product messaging. 

But consideration campaigns slightly favour brand messaging at 55%.

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All brands except for Intact and Canada Life are prioritizing Product Messaging on Paid Social & Display. 

*The top 200 posts per platform were used to determine the messaging split for this slide

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Product messaging is a key focus for brands in the competitive set for Facebook ads (except Canada Life).

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Brand messaging is more prominent through Instagram advertising with only WealthSimple prioritizing product content.

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Only three brands are using TikTok to reach (1) younger audiences with a focus on brand messaging. Use this low competition space as an opportunity.

TikTok had the lowest average CPM ($4.87) of all platforms. 

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YouTube focused on brand messaging and was the most expensive platform for all competitors ($14.31 CPM). 

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Display averaged 58% for brand messaging across competitors and had an average CPM of $11.95.

*Vancity’s Display advertising was 100% brand messaging.

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The majority (61% average across competitors) of paid search featured brand messaging.

Canada Life and Vancity were the only brands focusing the majority of their efforts on product messaging.

*The top 200 posts per platform were used to determine the messaging split for this slide

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Email is the only channel using mainly product messaging (69%) to cross-sell additional products to users at the bottom of the funnel.

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Email is used primarily to send product reminders to users or respond to user actions. 

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Wealthsimple created TLDR, an investment newsletter with 1.3M subscribers that is 100% focused on brand messaging.

The wealthsimple.com domain sends only automated trading emails from user-generated actions. 

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Proudly Canadian 

Resonate with Canadians and share your history of supporting them.  

Canada Life shares its history of helping Canadians for 175 years, offering messaging in different languages with cultural adaptations to be accessible to all. Questrade shows off its status as Canada’s #1 online broker. 

Tactics Used:

• ‍Part of the local community: The mention of 175 years in Canada Life's ad implies a rich heritage and tradition. Show how your brand has a deep understanding of Canadians and the local community.
• ‍Accessible: Offer your content in multiple languages with captions to reach all Canadians and show your commitment to inclusion. 

Channels Used:

• Paid social, Display, YouTube, organic web (blogs) 

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‍Lifestyle Applications‍

Show ways your brand will help prepare people for what life throws at them. 

Intact shows a series of unfortunate life scenarios where one would need insurance. Vancity’s creatives show how they are part of the solution for social change. 

Tactics Used:

• ‍Storytelling: Tell a story in your creative to keep audiences engaged.
• ‍Relatable: Show how you understand people’s life struggles and offer solutions to their problems through your products. 
• ‍Appeal to Audience Values: Help your audience understand that your values are aligned with theirs, such as with Vancity and its focus on social change. 

‍Channels Used:

• Paid social, Display, and YouTube 

Imp: 9M | Spend: $49.4K | CPM: $5.49

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Wellness Advice

Provide free podcasts and blogs to help users inform their financial decisions.

Manulife used paid ads to promote their free educational content, which goes beyond financial education to share ways to improve mental and physical well-being. 

Tactics Used:

• ‍Beyond Product: Create content that shows you care about your clients and go beyond just giving them information that will lead to purchase. 
• ‍Free: Offer free content such as (2) blogs, podcasts and newsletters to boost your brand’s offering. 
• ‍Partner with Industry Experts: Manulife invites social scientists, doctors and other professionals to its Beyond Age podcast to speak about wellness. 

Channels Used:

• Paid Social, Display, YouTube, Facebook, and organic web (blogs and podcasts)

Imp: 7.5M | Spend: $39.6K | CPM: $5.28

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Imp: 3.1M | Spend:$16.6K | CPM: $5.35

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Support Social Causes 

Show you support causes in your messaging and be transparent in aligning your business practices and culture with these causes. 

Vancity partners with creators to support social causes like (3) LGBTQ+,(4) women’s rights and environmentalism.

Tactics Used:

• ‍Create Episodic Content: “Money is a drag” has multiple episodes featuring different drag performers, enticing viewers to watch all segments to hear each performer’s story. 
• ‍Interview-Style Format: Interview influencers and notable people from their respective fields to produce content that resonates with audiences and shows that your brand’s values are aligned. 

Channels Used:

• Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and organic web (blogs, podcasts & (5) magazine articles)

Views: 110K | Eng: 1.6K‍

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Views: 60.6K | Eng: 1K

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Giveaways

Use contesting to attract audiences and expand your reach to their followers. 

Questrade hosts cash giveaway contests, which cleverly aligns its brand, an investment fintech, with the prize of disposable income one could use to start investing. 

Tactics Used:

• ‍Request social actions: Have audiences participate by taking social actions to like the post, tag their friends and share it to qualify for entries. This helps expand your brand’s reach.
• ‍Relate the prize to your brand: such as money that could be used on your investment platform. 
• ‍Host Themed Giveaways: Piggyback on occasions such as holidays and the start of summer. 

Channels Used:

• Instagram and email

Engagements: 9.6K

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Engagements: 6.9K‍

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Funny TikTok Trends

Use trending filters and effects to create funny, relatable organic style content.

Intact had the only viral organic posts on TikTok, featuring a filter that overlaid eyes and a mouth onto a house, which told audiences everything they weren’t aware of in their homes/cottages that could benefit from being insured. 

Tactics Used:

• ‍Casual Tone: Use a casual tone to add relatability while sharing a cautionary tale that clearly illustrates the use case for your product. 
• ‍Use Humour: to connect with your audience and enhance relatability. 
• ‍Filters: Use trending filters and effects to participate in TikTok trends and challenges, which perform well organically. 

Channels Used:

• TikTok

Views: 719K | Eng: 3.3K

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Views: 434K | Eng: 1.7K‍

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Financial Education

Educate your audience about their finances and options in interactive ways. 

Wealthsimple’s top-performing post featured a decision flowchart, which guided users to either invest in an RRSP, a TFSA, or put their money into savings.

Tactics Used:

• ‍Games: Educate audiences with interactive games such as quizzes or “2 Truths and a Lie” to engage them while they are learning.
• ‍Infographics: Use infographics to create decision flowcharts audiences can swipe to engage with.
• ‍Contextual Information: Relate the financial information you share with how it directly impacts your audience and their lives.  

‍Channels Used:

• Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, organic web (blogs, podcasts, & webinars), and YouTube

Views+Engagements: 5.8K

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Engagements: 2K

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Transfer Incentives

Offer monetary incentives for audiences to switch over to your brand’s products. 

Wealthsimple and Vancity's approach includes providing financial incentives for moving your accounts to their services.

Tactics Used:

• ‍Visually Prominent Incentive: Feature your incentives in the creative image or video to draw attention to your offer. 
• ‍Branding: Use logos in your images as a secondary highlight so users associate your brand with the attractive offers.
• ‍Caption: Share additional details about your offer in the caption so audiences have more information. 

‍Channels Used:

• Paid social, Display and YouTube

Imp: 83M | Spend: $437K | CPM: $5.27

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Imp: 6.5M | Spend: $35K | CPM: $5.38

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New Products

Announce your new products by creating native content and partnering with influencers. 

Questrade launched its new Tax-Free First Home Savings Account (FHSA) primarily on TikTok to share a mix of native and more traditional commercial content. 

Tactics Used:

• ‍Share Product Benefits: Share why your product is beneficial to audiences and its lifestyle applications. 
• ‍Captions: Use captions to highlight key information about your product’s features and benefits. 
• ‍Create Native Content: This video fits seamlessly into TikTok, as Questrade partnered up with an influencer to talk about FHSA. 
  

Channels Used:

• TikTok (Paid and Organic)

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Product Updates

Remind users about product features they are not taking advantage of. 

Manulife and Questrade use email to share product updates and ways for clients to access their services. 

Tactics Used:

• ‍Links: Include links in the email body that help users easily access the products and services you are promoting. 
• ‍Product Benefits: Highlight product features in the first few sentences of your email so readers can quickly understand the key benefits. 
• ‍Branding: Display your logo prominently so users know who is offering a product. 

Channels Used:

• Email and organic web

*These metric is calculated using email volumes.

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Educational Product Content

Educate your audience so they understand all the benefits of your product offering. 

Vancity has creators help explain its RRSP products to its audience on TikTok. It supplements this with (6) helpful articles on its blog. 

Tactics Used:

• ‍Partner with Influencers: Use creators to help deliver information-heavy content in a more casual tone. 
• ‍Omni-channel: Offer a variety of educational content in both long-form content such as (7) blog articles and shorter content like TikTok summaries to give audiences information on how it suits them. 
• ‍Link back to the Website: Link to (8) relevant products that are applicable to the content of your video or article. 

Channels Used:

• Organic web, organic social and paid social

Views+Engagements: 1.8K

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Views+Engagements: 1.3K

*This metric is calculated using the top channel’s views+engagements only.

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*Data date range: Oct. 1, 2022- Sept. 30, 2023.

*Includes Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and Display.

*Our measurement tools were unable to track Intact Insurance’s email newsletter, The Coverage.

*This metric is calculated using the top channel’s impressions only.

*Content buckets are assessed per individual competitor to accommodate variations in spend that would skew data.

*Most organic channels have low views and engagements for most content in the financial, investment and insurance space

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References:
1.TIKTOK AGE DEMOGRAPHICS

2.Winter storage tips that'll float your boat

3.The economic reason we need to support our LGBTQ+ community

4.How Vancity makes every day International Women’s Day. 

5.Money Diaries: Pride Edition

6.9 RRSP hacks you need to know.

7.What is the First Home Savings Account (FHSA)?

8.9 RRSP hacks you need to know.‍