iSelect to shake up marketing after appointing Warren Hebard as CMO
Consumer comparison site iSelect has appointed Warren Hebard as chief marketing officer, replacing Geraldine Davys, who stepped down in February.
Hebard, who joins the company in a shake up that has seen CEO Scott Wilson stepping down after disappointing trading results, was previously chief marketing officer at William Hill. He joined the online bookmaker when it took over competitor Tom Waterhouse in 2014.
iSelect is in a world of pain. When you say ‘disappointing trading results’, I’m surprised you didn’t note the detail i.e downgrading their guidance for FY18 by 59-69%, a share price collapsed from $1 to 37 cents. It was $1.42 in December when iSelect started a buyback…
This chap – and the Royals – have a huge task ahead of themselves.
Appears the decision to go heavy on TV impacted their online search performance significantly. Expect to see that TV spend flow back to Google.
Congrats Rusty
This company has literally been ridden into the ground. A strategy predicated on consumers actually liking and trusting the brand, countered by a customer experience that was downright harassment. iSelect have been thumped by the consistency of their competitor Compare The Market. Good luck Warren, you’ll need it.
I don’t think the new campaign that was just brought into the world is gonna help.
Spot on.
A strange juxtaposition of ’empowering the customer’ positioning yet they’ll follow up with daily calls just for simply using the site once.
Hmmm,
iSelect to shake up marketing……I hope it’s a better “shake up” than when Warren took the marketing reigns at William Hill – a business that was purchased (from Sportingbet) for over $700m – and recently purchased by Crownbet for some $200m. This should be an interesting “shake up” to watch…..
Life Admin?
What a load of over-thought, over-promise gobbledygook.
What parts of my life can ISelect administer for me?
Absolutely nothin’ – say it again.
Absolutely nothin’!!
It’s just another aggregator – nothing more, nothing less.
The only thing Life Admin will do is suck whatever life is left out of a once dynamic brand.
At $200 plus a click i’d be rationing Search big time and building an engaging brand on traditional media first off. Current batch of creatives have been all over the shop with Wilson and Davies.
No place for babes in the wood it seems
In addition to the health insurance industry headwinds it is facing (the business has tried to diversify but it’s survival is still entirely reliant on health), iSelect faces a pretty dire competitive landscape:
Compare the Market – owned by Auto and General (Budget Direct, among other brands)
Choosi – owned by Hollard Financial Services
Compareinsurance – owned by Travel Insurance companies
Finder – privately held and has been undertaking a marketing blitz of late
Canstar – privately held
All of these guys employ the same types of marketing and the first three have rather deep pockets.
The business is burning money.
This is the last hail mary.
It’s messaging is too complex.
It’s value too obscure.
18 months and it’s gone.
There is not enough content or pages on their site. You cannot find anything remotely educational or overly helpful. Fluff and giggles website… You leave a phone number and get harrassed… they need a heavy investment into digital… give us an app… give us something we can use…
Congrats Waz, hope all is well mate.
iselect have all the marketing attraction of a Nigerian email scam. Go anywhere near them and all you’ll get is harassment and pain. Way to build brand trust. It is about TRUST (stupid!).They really needed to look at Google’s mantra of ‘don’t be evil’.
Telemarketers in consumer advocate clothing. They’re going to get found out real soon.
As for “life admin”… our admin team don’t try and sell me foxtel.