Quality Solicitors Raises The Bar
The big news in the legal marketing sector this week has undoubtedly been the announcement that legal network Quality Solicitors is to spend £15m on a new series of television adverts. The company has appointed Team Saatchi and Mediacom to launch what it believes to be “the largest ever legal marketing campaign in the UK.”
The advertisements are due to take a different angle from the previous efforts which were character-led, and will now be more emotive and in the style of the recent adverts for John Lewis, according to Team Saatchi Managing Director Sophie Hooper.
But what does this mean to those firms not in the QS network?
Clearly QS have taken this route because they believe that their customers are more sophisticated than their previous campaigns supposed, and that buying decisions will now be made through emotional pull rather than a features and benefits list as outlined before. Their new agencies have confidence that the market is knowledgeable enough of their offering and it’s now about nudging prospects to act.
It also shows that QS have realised they need to up their game in the wake of ABS coming into effect, as competitors such as The Co-op start to bring the full force of their marketing budgets into play. It’s clear that while £15m is a huge amount of money for a law firm – or in this case a network of law firms – to pay, for the Co-op it isn’t a number that would necessarily deter them.
Very few law firms are going to want to take on QS on this basis, because their budgets can’t accommodate such figures but also because they don’t need to promote themselves to a nation: they just need to be in the minds of prospects local enough to do business.
By emphasising the care they take in treating their customers as individuals, by demonstrating their legal expertise and (whisper it) by being competitively priced, high street solicitors can compare themselves favourably to QS and the new players that AMS bring to the field.
Of course, the medium in which they do this is going to be crucial. As explained, television advertising is probably unnecessary and likely too costly but online offers a more intimate relationship with the prospect as credibility is built through blogs and white papers and better accessibility through a properly structured social media campaign. The search engines will of course play their part, and ultimately the online space is ideal for local firms to win their local business.
After all, QS Chief Executive Craig Holt expects 90% of ABC1 consumers to see his company’s new ad, but if any one of the audience was recommended a local firm by a friend on Twitter or through a local search, there’s little doubt that they will reduce the ROI on Quality Solicitors’ £15m outlay by one enquiry.
