us was brought on board to answer the challenge of entering a sector already dominated by well-established competitors.
Our first step in creating a full launch campaign was to develop an overarching brand and brand strategy, swiftly followed by an all-encompassing marketing plan for launch; with the HRA coming into force in April of 2018, we were working against the clock.
Our launch plan was developed comprising a full spectrum of activities including web development, digital and social media marketing, direct mailing campaigns, event support, media and PR, content production and sales support. At launch, PRAH achieved outstanding market adoption; over 25% of the sector purchased the Housing Jigsaw HRA solution. That this number of LAs took the decision to buy a standalone service – very often at the expense of an alternative solution that could have been easily integrated into their existing system – was testament to the product’s features, USPs, brand and marketing support.
What would become a longstanding partnership with Housing Partners had begun. Shortly after we began work on the launch of Housing Jigsaw, we were appointed to work on another of the Housing Partners brands: HomeSwapper.
As the UK’s leading mutual exchange service, HomeSwapper has over 450 paying landlords and more than 250,000 active users. However, by 2017 HomeSwapper had begun to face increasing competition from new entrants to the market and it became clear that some TLC on the marketing side was required for it to retain its market-leading position.
Our brand reinvigoration strategy for HomeSwapper focused on addressing some of the core challenges we had identified, namely the variation in user ability amongst tenants, the public negative sentiment this was causing, as well as the need to more firmly demonstrate value to landlord customers.
Our approach was two-pronged. Firstly, tackling the tenant-based challenges with a digital support hub and multi-media support guides, social media and promotional campaigns, as well as conducting ongoing market research to support a system enhancement programme. The second layer of the strategy focused on the landlord customers of HomeSwapper, in which we gave the landlord brand a refresh, developed a Landlord Resource Centre and updated and created new support materials.
Since Autumn 2017, market share has increased by over 10%. HomeSwapper’s position as Housing Partner’s number 1 brand has been firmly and unequivocally re-established.
It was in 2018 that us was asked to work alongside the product team at Housing Partners to reinvigorate and relaunch their existing product, Insight. The system was being reimagined as a suite of products, with an additional platform to be included. The new suite would be known as TAIM (Tenancy & Income Management).
us worked closely with Housing Partners to ensure that the brand design, naming and hierarchy worked both for existing customers, as well as for potential new customers during a transition and launch phase.
us began work on developing a new website for the suite, creating social media channels and preparing supporting sales materials. Video and written content was generated to support the relaunch and firmly establish Housing Partners as an authority in the sector.
The brand repositioning and redefinition has resulted in impressive results: the reach of the TAIM brand has increased significantly with the customer base growing by more than a third.
Since then, MRI Software has now acquired Housing Partners, giving the products and brands significant global scale.
