Churchill Insurance

Churchill Insurance is an insurance company based in the UK, and one of the first direct motor insurers in the country.

History

The company, founded by Martin Long launched in 1989 initially offering car insurance, with one of its early employees Henry Engelhardt who in 1991 founded Admiral Insurance. The company began selling home insurance in 1990, and over the years has expanded the types of insurance on sale. Products are sold by telephone or internet; the company has no branch network.

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group purchased Churchill Insurance from Credit Suisse Group for £1.1 billion in June 2003. Prior to this, Churchill had acquired Prudential's Insurance arm in 2002. The company planned to close several of Prudential's key UK offices (including Cardiff and Nottingham) and transfer call-centre and administrative operations to India, with the loss of 30,000 jobs. The takeover by RBS to form part of the group's Insurance division prevented this.

Churchill Insurance is the underwriter for many other popular insurance brands including Lloyds TSB, Nationwide and Prudential.

Branding

The current Churchill mascot was the product of a staff competition designed to identify ways to differentiate the Churchill brand from Winston Churchill. In the summer of 1994, staff were invited to suggest a brand character that would do just that and the Churchill bulldog was born.

A real bulldog called Lucas was first used in the company’s advertising in October 1994 and less than two 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 "Oh 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 launched in spring 2004 and was the UK’s largest special shaped hot air balloon. The dog design canopy measured 34 metres wide by 24 metres high and stretched wide and far enough to accommodate 50,000 real bulldogs or 1.3 million of its famous Nodding Dog replicas.

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.

Awards

The 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.

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.

Sponsorship

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

Churchill was the main club sponsor of Crystal Palace FC from 2000 to 2006.