The client:

Argos Pet Insurance covers cats and dogs and offers a range of policies to suit customer needs, including lifetime cover. The business has been established for over 18 years and has covered more than one million paws since 2002.

The challenge:

Pet insurance is a saturated market with little differentiating each player, other than price and level of cover. To make Argos Pet Insurance (API) stand out among competitors, Jam was tasked with devising a solid social media strategy that positioned API as the home of happy pets, with the overarching aim of generating leads.

Jam’s challenge was to create a point of difference by positioning API’s social channels as a micro-community of pet lovers, drive 12,000 clicks to site from social, generate 120 lead conversions from social, achieve 1,200,000 social impressions and achieve 9,600 social engagements. Many don’t consider pet insurance essential to being a pet owner. However, one in three pet insurance customers claim annually for unexpected vet bills.

In-depth research revealed that people value their pets just as much as family members – and even gift their pets with more presents than their other half! This insight was to form the basis of Jam’s social narrative to encourage a positive brand perception and set API apart from competitors.

A thorough audit of API’s social channels and its competitors’ identified opportunities for growth and category ownership. Where they were very factual, Jam wanted API to be the followers’ pooch and pussycat pal.

A huge challenge was a limited social budget – a pivotal factor given the scale of competitors. Unable to create bespoke branded content Jam had to get smart with the messaging. Research dictated that seasonality and timing were crucial, so Jam tapped into a carefully selected pool of national awareness days and relevant hashtags that potential customers wouldn’t miss.

Jam recognised that they couldn’t rely on a sell-only strategy if they were to create a micro-community of pet lovers. Afterall, Jam understood that pet owners were akin to new parents – a concept embodied to generate cut-through. Content couldn’t ignore existing loyal customers either so the messaging had to be inclusive of them.

The strategy:

Jam created a two-pronged approach with a weighted focus on an engaging and continuous strategy driving traffic to site (80%), and positioning the brand as playful and the home of happy pets (20%).

Community engagement was the linchpin of Jam’s strategy, creating two-way dialogue and directly engaging with audiences, to position API as the brand that genuinely cares about the welfare of pets, generating a positive brand perception. Jam developed a detailed playbook to ensure all replies were delivered within agreed timeframes and the tone of voice was consistent.

Sharing bespoke blog content, housed on the API website, was key for driving clicks. This offered essential insight and advice for knowledge-hungry pet owners, and served as value-add for existing customers.

Regular competitions, including Pet of the Month, tapping into topical days, such as Tongue Out Tuesday – encouraging proud ‘paw’rents to share photos of their pets – and sharing funny gifs and pet news, such as a dog who looks like Paddington Bear, all aimed to generate engagement, clicks to site, and conversions.

Mindful of Facebook’s algorithm changes limiting the reach of organic content, Jam’s paid social campaign had a combined approach on driving engagements, clicks to site, and leads for maximum conversions. Understanding peak times of the year for pet insurance, Jam focussed on driving leads during January-March – a key period for sorting finances, and August-October – breeding season.

Cementing API as the home of happy pets, Jam launched a ‘Pet of the Month’ photo competition. The competitions were pushed throughout the month, tapping into topical pet-related days such as #WorldPhotoDay and #TourismDay, capitalising on the reach of the popular hashtags and generating engagement throughout the month.

Jam cross-promoted the competition through API’s newsletter, resulting in an average 1,500 clicks to the competition, and generated a huge spike in entries the day the newsletter was issued.

On average, Jam generated more than 500 entries on the competition each month, and resulted in 192 assisted conversions for API. Alongside a weekly content planner formed of key dates and topical pet-related posts, supported with reactive content, Jam incorporated community engagement, implemented a highly targeted paid strategy to make the best use of limited budgets, tested ad sets for optimum results and implemented a timely and relevant content strategy to drive social conversions.

Organic content was supported by a paid strategy targeting pet owners, focusing on three objectives: engagement, clicks to site and lead generation.

The result:

Community engagement, teamed with weekly performance analyses allowed Jam to refine content and surpass the set KPIs.

Jam achieved:

●12,400+ clicks to site ( +4% of KPI), with 82% of traffic from new users

●814 conversions (+578% of KPI)

●Delivered 1.8m+ impressions (+54% of KPI), 43,900+ engagements (+348% of KPI) and 75,600+ video views with £400/month

●Generated similar levels of engagement per post versus API’s competitors despite them
having 2144% more followers

●API’s Facebook page grew at 7.29% relative growth against its largest competitor

●Increased mentions on Twitter by 335% from 724 to 3.2k mentions

●£0.02-£0.04 cost per result

The Pet of the Month delivered 456,000 impressions, 6,700 entries and pieces of UGC, 12,000 reactions and 2,600 shares. Followers were so keen to see their pet crowned the winner, they inboxed the page hoping for their prized pet to be chosen.

Jaime Gee, MD and co-founder of Jam, said: “We went over and above to understand Argos Pet Insurance’s target audience to ensure thecmessaging was spot on. Our research into pet owners told us they thought of their pets as familycmembers, and that they preferred sharing photos of them than their humans! We also knew that internet pet content was hugely popular, and showing no signs of abating.

“We not only smashed the KPIs, but our social media campaign has also been recognised within the industry, winning awards for Best Use of Social Media at the CIPR PRide Awards and the Northern Digital Awards.”