I note with interest today the launch of Compare for Good, a new price comparison site whose stated aim is to “go head-to-head with MoneySupermarket.com, GoCompare.com, ComparetheMarket.com, Confused.com etc”.
However, their USP is that two thirds of everything that they make (profit rather than revenue presumably) will be given to Oxfam. It is a white label of Beat That Quote (who do not appear on the list above!) and is backed by Ivan Massow, who has a very interesting back story. They also feature a quote from Joan Collins on the homepage, slightly more glamorous than Aleksander Orlov.
It’s an interesting strategy and I’m sure that it will attract a lot of publicity at the outset, with it attracting celebrity tweeters such as ex Corrie star Charlie Condou and Julian Clary who have over 10,000 followers between them.
They claim that the site will raise over £700 million a year for Oxfam. I find this claim a little hard to believe. This means that the site would be making over £1 billion worth of profit a year. Given the desperation of Scripps to get rid of uSwitch recently, I can’t see that there’s this kind of money in the price comparison market any more.
Also, how else are they promoting the site? So much of succeeding in this space is about being front of mind at the right time. You renew your car, home, travel insurance on an annual basis and this is why the established players invest so much money on not only PPC, but also press, TV, radio and outdoor advertising to ensure that out of all the comparison sites available, you are the one that is front of mind when you get that renewal letter through the post.
Whilst Compare For Good will undoubtedly attract a great deal of initial publicity, will they be able to keep this up? Clearly undertaking costly offline advertising, or trying to play in the extremely competitive PPC space is going to eat into the profit and reduce the amount given to Oxfam.
It’ll be extremely interesting to see how it goes and whether companies such as Direct Line and Aviva, who have pulled out of this space, will engage with Compare for Good based on the perceived ethical standpoint. I wonder whether it will lead to more of these charity “grey labels” and a move into other spaces such as a cashback or voucher code site backed by a large charity?
