Confused.com is a UK based financial services comparison platform launched in 2001 and specialising in comparison of insurance and financial services, including

car insurance Vehicle insurance (also known as car insurance, motor insurance, or auto insurance) is insurance for automobile, cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Its primary use is to provide financial protection against physical damage or bo ...

home insurance Home insurance, also commonly called homeowner's insurance (often abbreviated in the US real estate industry as HOI), is a type of property insurance that covers a private residence. It is an insurance policy that combines various personal insur ...

energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...

, van insurance and

life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typical ...

. Confused.com's platform includes a website and app.

History

Confused.com launched in 2001, becoming the UK’s first car insurance comparison site. Its offices are based in

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

, Wales. Confused.com was part of the Admiral Group plc until its sale to RVU on 30 May 2021. Confused.com is regulated by the

Financial Conduct Authority The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom. It operates independently of the UK Government and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The FCA regulates financi ...

Management

Confused.com has undergone a high degree of management churn in recent years. At the top level, founding Managing Director Kate Armstrong, an IT consultant originally from Sydney, retired from the business in 2005, following the successful flotation of the Admiral Group. She was succeeded by Deborah Williams who took the reins from 2005 to 2007. The business underwent expansive growth in this period with profit hitting £36 million in 2007. It was with some degree of surprise therefore that the industry received news of Williams' departure to join a relatively unknown insurance broker. Williams was succeeded by Carlton Hood in the newly created position of CEO. The sector was shaken up by the ground breaking Compare the Market campaign in 2009; Confused.com, along with other established competitors, lost market share. Hood resigned abruptly in 2010 and was succeeded by Group FD Kevin Chidwick as an interim measure. Chidwick remained in place until January 2012, and was succeeded by Admiral Group senior manager Nic Weng Kan followed by Martin Coriat. Coriat was MD of Admiral-owned French comparison site LeLynx.fr until he took up the position of Confused.com CEO in October 2013. In August 2012, Joby Russell stepped into the role of Marketing Director. After overseeing the launch of the 'Brian the Robot' campaign and later toy promotions, Russell left the role in May 2015 to take up the role of CMO at online estate agents Purplebricks.com. In late 2015, Paul Troy was appointed the CMO role at Confused.com. Troy had previously worked for Moneysupermarket between 2011 and 2013 where he created the 'You're so money supermarket' campaign. In September 2017, Louise O'Shea was appointed as CEO of Confused.com taking over from Martin Coriat who himself was appointed as chief executive of Admiral-owned French comparison website LeLynx. O'Shea was promoted to the CEO position from her role as finance director at Confused.com. In May 2018, Confused.com announced the appointment of Sam Day as chief marketing officer, replacing Troy. In March 2023, Steve Dukes was appointed as the CEO of Confused.com as Louise O'Shea stepped down from the role after almost 6 years. Dukes joined Confused.com as the company’s first Chief Operating Officer in 2019. Before joining Confused.com, Dukes served in product leadership and general management roles in high growth companies within the financial services and eCommerce sectors. This included serving as CEO at Commuter Club, where he oversaw a period of key transformation within the company.

Advertising

In early years, Confused.com achieved success with a simple, repetitive direct response advertising format, in which a man described what Confused.com was offering, with a slightly different variant being used from 2003 until 2005. This led to the longest running of Confused.com’s campaigns, starting from 2005 until 2008, featuring simple cardboard props on a white background, later with people saying they were "Confused.com" by the depicted marketplace. In later years as competitors

Moneysupermarket.com MONY Group plc, trading as Money Supermarket, is a British company which specialises in technology-led money-saving platforms including several Comparison shopping website, price comparison websites. The company enables consumers to compare pri ...

, Go.Compare and Comparethemarket.com have entered the market, Confused.com has tried numerous different advertising vehicles. None have emulated the success of the initial campaign and Confused.com has slipped from the position of market leader to being the fourth largest car insurance comparison website in the UK. The popularity of the company's slogan 'Confused.com' rose to prominence after the success of the 2002 campaign. A 2002 study by Webster showed that the slogan was the third most used phrase of the year behind 'Hey you' and 'Naughty Soldier'. Later adverts, starting around the year of 2009, contained real life testimonials, featured customers and prolific social media users talking about their experiences while using the website, as well as showcasing the website’s simplicity by explaining how it works. Adverts in early 2010 focused on the concept of regret and featured members of the public lamenting that they could have purchased something they wanted if they had purchased their car insurance through Confused.com. In September 2010, Confused.com introduced the character of "Cara Confused" a wild-haired animated version of the original company

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

that was present on the former Confused.com logo. The inspiration for the creation of Cara came from Kate Armstrong, the

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

and former

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Confused.com. The campaign used the

tagline In entertainment, a tagline (alternatively spelled tag line) is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, so ...

, "it pays to be Confused.com". In February 2011 an advert started featuring Cara (voiced by West End star

Louise Dearman Louise Dearman (born 13 March 1979) is a British actress and singer, perhaps best known for playing Glinda and Elphaba in the West End production of the musical '' Wicked.'' Notably, she is the only actress to have played both witches in any pr ...

) singing the

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Known as the "Queen of Motown Records", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown#Major divisions, Motown's most suc ...

track "

Chain Reaction A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events. Chain reactions are one way that sys ...

". Marketing Director Mike Hoban claimed that this campaign gained Confused.com 2 million customers since launch. On 1 June 2013, a campaign launched featuring a robot named Brian, depicted as being on a mission to help people to "save pounds". On 24 December 2014, an advert was launched where scrap dealers kidnap Brian. Instead of melting him down straight away, they leave him hanging through the night on a magnet. However, his robot friends at headquarters receive his distress call and go to help him. A couple of weeks later the succeeding advert shows the same five co-robots, known as the Herberts (Chief Herbert, Miss Herbert, Stunt Herbert, Clever Herbert and Baby Herbert), go to help Brian. They stop the incinerator at the last moment, saving Brian and continuing the 'Brian' advertising campaigns after they repair him in March 2015. In August 2015, an advert was launched featuring Brian and the Herberts dancing to " Jump on It!" promoting the then brand new Brian toy available by buying insurance through Confused.com. In early 2016, two more toys were launched, Miss Herbert and Stunt Herbert, with a corresponding campaign showing both characters competing with each other to promote their respective toys. On 1 August 2016, the adverts featuring the Robots were scrapped in favour of a new advertisement featuring

James Corden James Kimberley Corden (born 22 August 1978) is an English comedian, actor, writer, producer, singer, and television host. In the United Kingdom, he is best known for co-writing and starring in the critically acclaimed BBC sitcom '' Gavin & S ...

. On 17 August 2018, following a run of five adverts, James Corden was replaced in favour of a new direction and new frontman Timothy Murphy. The advert features Murphy driving a car through a busy mass of confusing messaging and advertising before ending with Murphy driving down a clear road. This advert and all subsequent adverts featured

Link Wray Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr. (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who became popular in the late 1950s. His 1958 Instrumental rock, instrumental single "Rumble (instrumental), Rumble", reached the ...

's Rumble. The ads parody the songs like " Y.M.C.A." by

Village People Village People is an American disco group known for its on-stage costumes and suggestive lyrics in their music. The group was originally formed by French producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo and lead singer Victor Willis following the re ...

and " Chained Reaction" by

Sponsorship

Confused.com has sponsored programmes on ITV such as ''

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (WWTBAM) is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Televis ...

'' (including the drama series ''

Quiz A quiz is a form of mind sport in which people attempt to answer questions correctly on one or several topics. Quizzes can be used as a brief Educational assessment, assessment in education and similar fields to measure growth in knowledge, abil ...

'', due to its association with ''Millionaire''), ''

Ninja Warrior UK ''Ninja Warrior UK'' (also known as ''Ninja Warrior UK: Race for Glory'') is a British physical obstacle assault course game show, created for ITV (TV network), ITV that ran from 2015 to 2022. The show is based upon the format of the Japanese ga ...

'', ''

Sunday Night at the Palladium ''Tonight at the London Palladium'' is a British television variety show that is hosted from the London Palladium theatre in the West End. Originally produced by ATV for the ITV network from 1955 to 1969, it went by its original name ''Sunday ...

'', '' Celebrity Squares'', ''

Catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

'' and ''

Emmerdale ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British television soap opera that is broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a List of fictional towns and villages, fict ...

'', and ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'' on Sky Showcase (formerly Sky One & Sky 1). It also previously sponsored the ITV National Weather. In 2019, along with

Land Rover Land Rover is a brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by British multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR builds Land Rovers in Brazil ...

, they were a sponsor of ITV's coverage of the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup () was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening matc ...

References

External links