Beagle Street
Beagle Street is an online life insurance company underwritten by Scottish Friendly. It is part of the BGL Group, one of the UK's largest consumer insurance groups that also owns comparethemarket.com. Beagle Street started trading in 2012 and is designed to allow people who have experienced a major life moment such as buying a house, getting married or having a baby to get affordable life insurance quickly.
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Finance and insurance |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Headquarters | Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom |
| Products | Financial services |
| Website | www |
History
Beagle Street started trading after Managing Director Matthew Gledhill went through a six-week ordeal trying to get life insurance and thought there must be a simpler, quicker way. The website was designed to let customers take out life insurance in just ten minutes, bypassing the regular meetings, medicals and middlemen often associated with traditional life insurance providers. It launched with an advertising campaign that featured two opposing characters illustrating the nightmare of traditional life insurance and the simple, affordable alternative that Beagle Street provides. The characters featured in a series of TV spots before being discontinued in mid 2015. In its first year, the company worked with acclaimed filmmaker Gary Tarn to release a film starring some of the UK's oldest married couples talking about their happiest moments in life and encouraging the younger generation to enjoy life.
Campaigns
Happy For Life
Starting from November 2014 Beagle Street partnered with The Guardian on the Happy for Life project to emphasise how getting life insurance lets people enjoy life now knowing that their future is secure. The partnership involved the creation of a number of different editorial pieces including articles, features and videos. The psychotherapist and author Philippa Perry contributed to the campaign by dedicating a total of 6 videos from her series "What's Troubling You" to the Happy for Life project.[1]
Release the Pounds
One of the most popular PR campaigns in 2015 was titled "Release the Pounds" and saw Beagle Street release hundreds of origami dogs made from £10 notes across London and Bristol, enforcing its status of putting pounds in people's pockets with 30% cheaper life insurance.[2]
Happy Homes
In July 2015 Beagle Street carried out a survey to find out more about priorities for mortgage life insurance and about what people enjoy about where they live.[3] The results from the survey were used to populate an interactive map on the site with the title of Happy Homes.
National Life Insurance Day
On 18 June 2015 Beagle Street joined with Jasmine Birtles to call for a national Life Insurance Day, with the date marking the anniversary of the first life insurance policy taken out in the UK on 18 June 1583.