MOBAS TICKS ALL THE BOXES FOR CAMBRIDGE BUILDING SOCIETY AS IT EXCEEDS £30M MORTGAGE SALE TARGET

At a time when the general perception is that banks are unwilling to lend, it is refreshing to find out that a local building society is proving everyone wrong with a mortgage offer for ‘wherever you are on the property ladder’.

The Cambridge Building Society has just completed a six-week mortgage sale campaign during which it sold more than £30 million worth of mortgages to homebuyers in and around the region.

The campaign, created by integrated agency Mobas, was designed with the double objective of driving sales and bringing about a more personable profile for Cambridge Building Society thanks to a fluffy, blue character: Mr Tick.

“We were appointed by Cambridge Building Society following a business pitch in April 2010 and immediately started work on a spring mortgage sale campaign introducing Mr Tick, which went live in May”, said Mobas Client Development Director Sonia Lawrence. “This first campaign went very well. It reached its sales target and changed the society’s image in people’s minds. It gave Cambridge Building Society a more approachable and endearing persona, placing it at the heart of the community while signalling to the borrowers that they are making the right choice – ticking the right box.

“The autumn campaign used the momentum created by the spring campaign and expanded the Mr Tick concept to a whole group of characters impersonating a range of products for homebuyers at different levels of the property ladder.”

Mr Tick and friends appeared on window graphics, posters and leaflets in all the society’s branches and on branded Smart cars. Ads were placed throughout the city and in the surrounding villages, on TV screens inside Park&Ride buses and on the King’s Cross to King’s Lynn train line. Mobas also helped develop the sponsorship of Star Radio’s Star Money programme.

Mark Smitheringale, Head of Sales & Marketing at the Cambridge Building Society, commented: “This campaign was a real success, with Cambridge Building Society’s mortgage sales reaching more than £34 million over the six-week period – 114% of our target.

“What worked particularly well was Mobas’s use of a broad range of media to reach a wider audience and direct them to The Cambridge, thereby allowing us to deliver our exciting range of mortgage products, personal underwriting criteria and first-class customer service.

“And the Mr Tick concept was particularly successful – so much so that we used the mascot for a series of stunts around Cambridge”.