Swordfish to run online Direct Debit PR push

by Ian Hall, PR Week UK 18-Apr-03

The organisation behind the Direct Debit payment scheme is to launch an online PR drive aimed at encouraging consumers to use that method to pay their bills.

BACS - the Bankers' Automated Clearing Service - has hired Swordfish to work alongside retained incumbent agency Manning Selvage & Lee, which handles Direct Debit's offline PR.

Swordfish - which has handled direct marketing work for BACS to promote Direct Debit for around four years - won a two-way pitch for the PR contract, which will initially run on a trial basis.

Swordfish MD Mark Whitmore, who leads a three-strong team reporting to BACS campaigns manager Jayne Stewart on the brief, said direct debits saved time and money, and meant that 'people don't forget to pay their bills'.

Whitmore said the campaign would target 'anyone who pays bills', including a focus on young people who, he said, find themselves paying more bills than in the past because of the growth in activities such as mobile-phone use and gym membership.

Whitmore said Swordfish would seek to get positive stories about the benefits of Direct Debit on major portals such as MSN and Yahoo!.

The agency will also target 'sites that relate to changes in life-stages, such as moving house, as that's often when people change their method of bill payment', plus student and 'general lifestyle' sites.

Swordfish will also strive to encourage consumers to request application forms to change their bills to Direct Debit from the website.

MS&L has handled business campaigns for BACS's Direct Credit scheme since 1997 and began working on offline PR for Direct Debit in December last year, an account that it inherited from Bell Pottinger Public Relations.

BACS estimates that more than two-thirds of adults in the UK have at least one Direct Debit.