MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

Insurer launches fun campaign to stop the scourge of ‘hold music’

By our News Team | 2023

Survey finds people spend a month of their lives waiting for call centre agents to pick up. So insurer unveils ‘#StopHoldMusic’ campaign.

Call centres … are they a boost to customer service or merely a cost-saving blight on the marketing industry? Most consumers will likely opt for the latter, while CMOs will tell you it’s the former.

Seeking to capitalise on the widespread public antipathy towards call centres, South African-based online insurance platform, Naked Insurance, recently unveiled a campaign called ‘#StopHoldMusic’.

Marketing campaigns

Photo by Moose Photos from Pexels

According to a survey done by Naked, the average consumer spends around 15 hours each month speaking to a call centre for personal admin, which adds up to 31 days over their lifetime. 

In other words, a full month of your life spent listening to dreary elevator music and seemingly endless “your call is important to us” messages while holding for a call centre agent.

“Consumers increasingly prefer the control and convenience of managing their lives using online platforms. Yet it’s impossible for them to avoid phoning a call centre at least once or twice a month – whether that’s to follow up on a tax query, update their details with their bank, or to buy insurance,” says Ernest North, co-founder of the company.

Younger generations are impatient

“People of all ages are tired of listening to call centre hold music, but younger generations are especially impatient with call centres.”

Naked’s says its survey of almost 2,000 consumers found, among other things, that:

  • The average consumer in South Africa spends 888 minutes per year speaking to a call centre to get personal admin done.
  • The industries that people spend the most time on the phone with are insurance, telecommunications and banking, with calls to insurance companies and medical aids taking up the most time. While many said they were occasionally exposed to calls of more than 30 minutes, the average call time was reported at 16.8 minutes.
  • Over 10% of respondents reported doodling to fill the time, while almost 40% carried on with other chores while leaving the phone on speaker. Other popular activities include humming to the tune and continuing with work. 

Following on from these results – and to promote its own digital-focused offering – Naked has launched a series of fun video clips and social posts to ‘#StopHoldMusic‘. The campaign imagines an alternative universe where hold music is the new rock ‘n’ roll, and fans get excited about:

  • Hold Fest  — The world’s only music festival where the DJs only play call centre hold music.
  • Now That’s What I Call Hold Music  — A 200-disc box set of call centre hold music hits.
  • Hold FM — The only radio station playing call centre hold music all day, every day.

“This campaign will resonate if you’ve held on for an agent for hours while listening to the same song on loop,” says North. “The good news is that efficient digital channels are rapidly becoming the norm.”

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