• AA needs to reinforce its premium offering in the face of price cutting competition
• A new TV campaign highlights the reassurance of the AA patrol man
• The activity attracts 250,000 extra new members 
   

The challenge

The Roadside Assistance market is worth some £1.5bn a year with 74% of motorists signed up for some form of emergency help.

As the market leader AA Roadside is a premium product with 42.4% share and has traditionally focused much of its activity on driving loyalty rather than seeking new recruits.

In recent years, however, new entrants such as supermarkets have tried to commoditise the market while the number two player, RAC, has been bought by Aviva, which has backed the organisation with extra marketing spend but also offered cut-price deals.

The challenge set by the AA’s new owners, private equity firms CVC and Permira, was to reduce the decline in members and maintain the price premium.

The key message to get across was the fact that it was worth paying a little bit more to be an AA member.

The TV solution

Research found that the biggest driver of member loyalty was the experience of being rescued by friendly AA patrol. The challenge was to recreate this loyalty among consumers who hadn’t needed to call out the AA patrol teams.

A new brand TV campaign featuring the classic Carol King song You’ve Got a Friend launched in March 2006 and was designed to drive emotional consideration of the AA brand.

The ad showed a mix of singing and dancing patrolmen in their bright yellow jackets converging on a broken down car and its passengers on a lonely road in the mountains.

It was scheduled in programmes designed to reach ABC1 Adults in peak such as dramas, soaps and films. For the first two weeks a 60-second execution was used before the activity shifted to a 30-second version.

The ad was aired in two bursts running in March and April and July and August with an additional spot running every fortnight in ITV 1’s Sunday drama programming – an ideal environment to add further warmth and emotion to the campaign.

It was supported by direct response activity across DR TV, press, digital and direct mail emphasising the fact that such service was available from just £39 a year.

DR TV spots ran mostly on multi-channel using 30-second creative designed to drive get consumers calling or going online. This element of the campaign was bought against an adults audience.

The brand activity also ran in cinemas.

Results

AA’s new business share grew from 25.6% to 30% in 2006, in line with its aim of improving acquisition. The AA also maintained its number 1 position for loyalty.

The marketing activity generated an estimated extra 250,000 members compared to what would have happened if the campaign had not been launched.

Unprompted brand awareness hit 79% far higher than that achieved by the RAC, which actually spent more. Brand image scores also increased markedly with prompted consideration up from 60% to 65% at the end of 2006 while likeability was up five percentage points to 42%.

The £16m investment generated a return of more than £18m. Most impressively the new members are more likely to be switchers from other brands, with 53% aged 25-44 who consider themselves price conscious.

In 2007 the AA continued to focus its media investment on the roadside operation.