Unbiased.co.uk facilitates over 4,000 pieces of online media coverage from ‘gold standard advisers’ in the last 12 months
· Unbiased.co.uk continues to ensure a solid presence of the ‘independent and whole of market’ brand in the media via its IFA and mortgage adviser experts
· Unbiased.co.uk’s media IFAs generated over 3,0001 positive comments in the online media over the past year
· Around 450,000 consumers using the unbiased.co.uk portal to find an independent adviser this year
· There are now over 280 expert commentators listed on unbiased.co.uk’s media IFA and mortgage adviser searches
The last 12 months have seen a bumper period for independent financial and whole of market advice in the media, as unbiased.co.uk’s expert IFAs and mortgage advisers have been quoted over 4,0002 times across the online trade and consumer media. This is in addition to the over 8003 online articles unbiased.co.uk has generated in its own name, highlighting areas and issues where IFAs and mortgage advisers can add value to consumers’ personal finances.
Ever since its launch in 1989, unbiased.co.uk has been running a long-standing campaign of promoting the benefits of independent financial advice to consumers. Positioning whole of market mortgage advisers and IFAs as trustworthy commentators in the consumer media has played a crucial part in this. With this in mind, unbiased.co.uk launched its Media Services function designed to help journalists source IFA and mortgage adviser commentary for their articles.
In the last 12 months alone, unbiased.co.uk has dealt with around 450,000 consumer searches through its online ‘find an IFA’ and ‘find a mortgage adviser’ searches. There are now over 60 white label versions of these searches across national print websites, personal finance websites, trade bodies and product providers.
There are currently almost 300 finance and consumer journalists signed up to unbiased.co.uk’s Bluebook, giving them access to over 280 media IFAs and mortgage advisers at their finger tips – who they can contact directly for expert media commentary and opinion. Journalists can find IFAs who specialise in every area of finance and create their own personal favourites list. They can email IFAs directly, add private post-it notes to IFA profiles, view where else IFAs have been quoted online and even find case studies to support their articles.
The Bluebook has enabled consumer journalists to easily seek out quotes from the ‘gold standard’ advice type in their articles, which presents the IFA brand as the best possible advice type for consumers to search for. Especially with the RDR looming, unbiased.co.uk is continuing with its core campaign of educating consumers about the choice they have when seeking financial advice – and quoting IFAs in the media they are reading goes a long way to do this.
Karen Barrett, Chief Executive of unbiased.co.uk comments, “We have been running our Media Services database for over 20 years and it remains core to our over-arching campaign of educating consumers about the benefits of independent financial advice. Our online Bluebook has been running for over two years and its success can be seen by having almost 300 journalist sign ups. We are thankful for the ongoing time and effort given by our media IFAs and whole of market mortgage advisers in order to make the campaign so successful. It is only through them that we have been able to achieve over 4,000 positive comments in the online press alone, helping to firmly establish the IFA whole of market brand. Although the RDR hasn’t hit the average consumer’s radar yet, this will happen in the near future and therefore we are continuing our campaign to ensure that consumers understand the benefits of independent financial advice, and see it as the ‘gold standard’ advice type.”
ENDS
1 Number of unbiased.co.uk Media Services IFA quotes in online media from 01.10.09 to 31.09.10 was 3165
2 Number of unbiased.co.uk Media Services whole of market mortgage adviser quotes in online media from 01.10.09 to 31.09.10 was 1109
3 Number of unbiased.co.uk mentions in online media from 01.10.09 to 31.09.10 was 822
Karen Barrett, Chief Executive, unbiased.co.uk: 020 7833 3131
Anna Schirmer/Anna Moulds/Emily Falla, Lansons Communications: 020 7294 3682
For expert commentary or case studies from over 150 media-friendly IFAs, journalists should visit www.unbiased.co.uk/bluebook.
About unbiased.co.uk, the professional advice website
The unbiased.co.uk portal is a free and confidential UK-wide search matching consumers with local professional advisers: ‘find an IFA’, ‘find a mortgage adviser’, and ‘find a solicitor’, and is currently inviting registrations for its ‘find an accountant’ service. These searches enable consumers to find professional advisers by postcode, area of specialism, qualification and payment method. In 2009, unbiased.co.uk fulfilled half a million searches for local, professional advice.
IFA Promotion, the organisation behind unbiased.co.uk, is now in its 21st year, and was set up to promote the benefits of independent financial advice to consumers. IFAP is sponsored by the following companies:
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AEGON |
J.P. Morgan Asset Management |
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Alliance Trust |
Legal & General |
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Aviva |
Lockton |
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AXA Life |
Lutine Assurance Services |
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Bright Grey |
MetLife |
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Canada Life Ltd |
Opinium Research |
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Cardif Pinnacle |
Prudential |
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The Children’s Mutual |
Royal London 360° |
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Clerical Medical Investment |
Scottish Life |
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Ecclesiastical Investment Management Ltd |
Scottish Widows Plc |
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Franklin Templeton Investments |
Standard Life Assurance Company |
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Friends Provident |
Sun Life Financial of Canada |
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ICM Research |
Zurich Intermediary Group |
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Invesco Perpetual |
Registered Office: unbiased.co.uk is the consumer brand of IFA Promotion Ltd, 90 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow G2 5UB. Registered in Scotland: No. 114606
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