Clerical Med moves to present day

Clerical Medical Investment Group is to move away from its early 19th century bishop-and-doctor image in its advertising campaign after research showed that consumers perceived the company to be out of date.

Advertising agency Butterfield Day Devito Hockney has created a new £2.2m television ad campaign for Clerical Medical, which breaks next week, to replace costumed characters with present-day workers.

However, Clerical Medical’s recall research indicates that aspects of its old ads are readily remembered by the target audience.

“We did have an internal debate about this,” says Clerical Medical corporate communications executive Kerry Selwood. “Our audience also remembered that we target professionals and that comes over strongly in the new ads.”

Selwood says that the old ads will run again this week, and the 19th-century characters will appear at the end of the new ads to provide a link. “This is not a complete departure from our brand image,” says corporate communications manager Martin Finch.