MediaCom wrests £12m Churchill Insurance business from Carat

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)-owned Churchill Insurance has moved its £12m media buying and planning business from Carat to MediaCom.

Since buying the insurer, RBS has initiated a wide-ranging restructure, which has seen Churchill Insurance’s senior marketers leave the company. Marketing director Nigel Bruce left the company in November, while executive director for sales and marketing Andrew Blowers left in September (MW November 6, 2003). The company has yet to announce a replacement for either.

RBS announced it was buying Churchill Insurance in June 2003 for £1.1bn, but only confirmed the move in September, despite owning the brand’s chief rival Direct Line.

Both Direct Line and Churchill Insurance have been placed in a new sub-company called RBS Insurance, but RBS claims to be committed to maintaining both the competing brands while merging their administration. The merged company makes RBS the third-largest general insurer in the UK, after Norwich Union and Royal & Sun Alliance.

Churchill Insurance’s advertising agency of record is Elliott Borra Perlmutter. RBS has a policy of allowing its various brands to appoint their own advertising agencies, but retaining a single media agency across the board.

Churchill Insurance was founded by Martin Long in 1988.