In its quest to dominate the UK market, credit comparison site TotallyMoney.com has upped its multichannel presence and refreshed its focus on PR and advertising.

The London-based firm has unveiled a series of innovations aimed at changing the UK consumer credit market. With just 2% of consumers currently switching credit cards every year using comparison websites, compared to 38% in the car insurance sector, TotallyMoney.com said it is on a mission to ‘catalyse growth’ in the credit comparison market.

As well launching a national multichannel campaign, including its first TV advert, the 2007-founded business has invested heavily in its communications division with the recruitment of both an in-house and PR agency team.

Raising Brand Awareness & Views on Google

CEO and co-founder of TotallyMoney.com, Will Becker, said the company wants to focus on one area of personal finance and do it really well and in order to achieve this, this means getting its communications strategy right and raising brand awareness.

On the subject of Google’s presence in this market, Becker said unlike many of Totallymoney.com’s peers, they do not rely much on traffic from Google, so are largely unaffected.

“However, we do agree with the EU’s challenge to Google to give fair prominence to other vertical search businesses versus its own output,” Becker begins.

“In our view, Google’s comparison services don’t merit the prominence they currently have in the search rankings, if you judge them by the criteria that Google usually uses to rank other websites – that doesn’t seem to be in the interest of the consumer, so we think the EU has been right to act.”

Becker said the company’s investment in PR and marketing is completely unrelated to Google’s presence.

“We’re trying to transform the market which means reaching out to the vast majority who don’t currently compare consumer credit online, while bringing superior products to market that make comparing and switching credit easier,” he said.

“Google’s offering only affects those who are already searching for credit products online, and actually they’re a relatively minor player even in the existing market.”

Industry Pro Joins Team

PR guru Tracy Dickerson has now joined TotallyMoney.com as head of PR, having previously headed up the European PR team for shopping comparison website Kellkoo.co.uk and personal finance PR at uSwitch.com.

“Creating a new market which has the potential to deliver an enormous amount of value to consumers is an amazing opportunity for us,” Becker said.

“Clinching the number one spot in the credit comparison sector whilst stamping out consumer apathy is no mean feat but it feels perfectly achievable.”

Addressing Industry Weaknesses

Becker said the expansion of the communications team sits alongside the creation of ‘market leading online credit comparison tools’, which break the financial comparison mould and collectively deliver the most comprehensive service in the industry.

He said the website addresses two major weaknesses in comparison services as it allows consumers to see exactly how much money they will earn or save by switching to the best deals based on annual spend, borrowing and repayments. It also identifies which of these deals consumers are actually eligible for, which he says is currently a major inefficiency with rejection rates hitting 70%.

As well as launching a new PR strategy, the company has also hired PR agency GolinHarris, alongside digital marketing agency support.