Case Study - Egg (Corporate)

Problem

Prudential launched the Egg brand in 1998 against strong competition without the benefit of a high street presence. Initially, Egg was conceived as a telephone bank offering outstanding customer service. However, the combination of a fresh new brand with market leading rates resulted in an unprecedented initial response. Within days, Egg was on the verge of melt down, unable to cope with the huge volume of telephone and postal applications.

The only viable solution was to switch focus and become an online business but would people trust a brand new online bank? Could a new brand attract target prospects to the website and convert them to become valuable customers at a time when most people were worried about buying a book online? Could the planned volumes be handled securely online?

Solution

As Director of Web Experience, Peter Hawtin led the strategic and creative development of egg.com: the heart and soul of the Egg proposition and personification of the brand. A new website was designed and built in just 6 weeks that included:

• online applications
• internet savings servicing to significantly reduce the volume of service related calls
• an online Egg bookshop (as Amazon was launching)
• on online community area called the Egg-free zone

A range of pioneering online marketing initiatives followed including an internet only savings account, an Egg ISP and an Egg PC offer designed to attract more UK people on line.

In September 09 the innovative Egg credit card was launched. Peter used his previous retail experience at Asda to develop the Egg Shopping Zone: with over 100 online retailers.

In addition to his web role, Peter Hawtin was Head of Media and developed an econometric model to transform marketing return on investment (ROI) and also pioneered the used of interactive 'brandcasting', developing video content for Egg TV.

Results

Within 3 years of launch, Egg had attracted over 1.9M valuable customers (mostly online) and reached its profit targets despite the dotcom crash. It is the most successful UK financial services brand launch ever.

Published 2nd December, 2009