GMAC-RFC Award-winning case study

We've won most effective Integrated Campaign at the Financial Services Forum Awards.

For those of you who don't know the Forum is an independent membership organisation which exists to encourage marketing effectiveness specifically within financial services. The awards are dedicated to recognising and rewarding proven success in the presentation and promotion of financial services and products.

Our campaign for GMAC-RFC was short-listed along with some heavyweight brands and agencies - Lloyds TSB, MORE TH>N, Scottish Widows, National Savings and Jupiter Investments.

Reasons for the campaign
In September 2006, GMAC-RFC was the first lender in the world to give brokers point of sale mortgage offers, POSO. This revolutionary breakthrough galvanized the mortgage industry. It reduced the decision-to-offer time for customers from an average of 18 days to less than an hour for qualifying cases.

What we did
Our integrated campaign to launch the new system was backed by extensive broker and consumer research. GMAC-RFC already had a strong identity using Formula 1 imagery. We simply developed the theme and designed the campaign to educate brokers with a simple message that was enjoyable to learn - Using 'Stop-Go' boards we urged customers to "Stop wasting time - Go seriously quick".

The attraction phase of the campaign consisted of rolling branded emails using ReportMail, direct mail and online advertising. To engage potential users, this was backed up with a dedicated microsite (www.posoffersonline.co.uk) which includes a full system demonstration, a promotional movie explaining the benefits to the user, animated testimonials to provide assurance and an online game offering a prize of a trip to the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix to encourage viral marketing. We also produced branded promotional gifts and scratch cards give-aways. This was then followed up with fulfilment packs including a user guide and FAQ documents.

Why it's a winner
The Forum announced it was a clear winner due to the range of alternative formats across both on and offline mediums whilst the campaign effectiveness was proven by a significant increase in business.

Our client says
"We were delighted to win the Best Integrated Marketing Campaign at the Financial Services Forum Awards. The campaign itself was truly a joint effort between GMAC-RFC and Abstracts. Their understanding of the brief resulted in a fully integrated campaign which was not only educational in putting the message across but also had elements of fun that encouraged involvement and participation. At all stages from brief to launch the work was managed on time and to budget, with results smashing the targets set."