Churchill Insurance

Churchill Insurance was launched in 1989 by Martin Long as one of the UK's first direct motor insurers. Today Churchill provides a range of insurance products from Car Insurance to Travel Insurance.

Overview

Churchill Insurance has all its call centres within the UK. However, following Churchill's takeover of Prudential's Insurance arm in 2002, the company earned some unfavourable publicity when it was announced that Martin Long would close several of Prudential's key UK offices (including Cardiff and Nottingham) and move call-centre and administrative operations out to India, causing the loss of 30,000 jobs.

Churchill Insurance was acquired by Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc from Credit Suisse Group for £1.1 billion in June, 2003. This prevented the move of call centres to India as planned the previous year.

Churchill Partnership Brands

Churchill Insurance is the underwriter for many other popular insurance brands. The policy is essentially Churchill policies sold for Churchill by other well known high street names. The current Churchill policies being sold under other names are Alliance & Leicester, Help The Aged, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, Pearl, Prudential and Royal London.

Challenge Churchill

In 2006, Churchill launched a campaign which revolved around the concept of challenge. The people of Britain were asked to challenge Churchill for a cheaper insurance quote.

[http://www.challengechurchill.com challengechurchill.com] is a website that was created as part of the campaign. The campaign site hosts a virtual driving game, competitions and monthly surveys.

Award winning insurer

The [http://www.churchill.com/general/aboutus/churchill.htm Your Money Awards] are short-listed by a panel of Your Money readers. Readers then rate the providers on service and product quality. Churchill has been recognised in this way through the following awards:

*Best Direct Car Insurer 2008
*Best Home and Contents Insurance Provider 2008
*Best Online Motor Insurance Provider 2007
*Best Online Home and Contents Provider 2007
*Best Motor Insurance Provider 2006
*Best Online Motor Insurance Provider 2006
*Best Online Travel Insurance Provider 2006
*Best Home and Contents Insurance Provider 2005
*Best Online Home and Contents Insurance Provider 2004.

In addition to the Your Money Awards, Churchill was voted Travel Insurer of the Year 2005 in the International Travel Insurance Journal Awards and Customer Service Complaints Team of the Year in The National Customer Service Awards.

Investors in People

Churchill holds the nationally recognised "Investors in People" Standard. “Investors in People” is the national Standard which sets out a level of good practice for training and development of people to achieve business goals.

The brand

The "Bulldog", famously modelled on Labour 'bruiser' John Prescott, was first used in Churchill's advertising in 1994. Less than 2 years later, the Nodding Dog brand was born. The star of his own TV ads, Churchill the computer-animated nodding bulldog plays a big role in all of Churchill’s advertising and is now synonymous with the brand name; his catchphrase, in response to those who ask if he can save them money on insurance, is a cheerful "Ohh yes!". He was originally voiced by Bob Mortimer, responding to voice-overs by Mortimer's comedy partner Vic Reeves. Nodding dogs modelled after him are available from the Churchill website. A giant hot air balloon version of the bulldog was also made out of 'actual assorted dog body parts' in 2004 by Lindstrand Balloons and is regularly seen at the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta

Churchill.com

Churchill.com holds policy information about all Churchill products and gets hundreds of thousands of hits each month from customers looking for a cheaper quote.

Churchill also offers the following services (rebranded from viamichelin.com) : [http://www.churchill.com/routeplanner/routeplanner.htm route planning] , [http://www.churchill.com/routeplanner/maps.htm online mapping service] and a [http://www.churchill.com/routeplanner/tourism.htm tourist attractions locator] .

Churchill In Sport

In the early 1990s Churchill sponsored the World Bowls Championship.

From 2000 to 2006 Churchill were the main club sponsor for Crystal Palace FC. They were replaced at the end of the 2005-2006 season by GAC Logistics.

External links

* [http://www.churchill.com/ churchill.com]
* [http://www.challengechurchill.com/ challengechurchill.com]