Axa UK

The company was formerly known as Sun Life & Provincial Holdings and changed its name to Axa UK in September 2000. The company was incorporated in 1994 and is based in London, United Kingdom. Axa UK operates as a subsidiary of Axa Group.

Paul Evans was appointed as chief executive officer in October 2010.[2] He became chairman of the Association of British Insurers in October 2014.[3][4]

Axa UK's main activities are the provision of general insurance, life insurance, health insurance, life insurance and wealth management.

Swiftcover was an Internet-based UK insurance company formed in 2005 by a group of former Churchill Insurance executives. In 2007 Swiftcover was acquired by Axa and it is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Axa UK. It operates call centres in Tunbridge Wells, Kent and in Teesside. Customers can manage their policy (including changes to policies) online and any contact can be done via email.

In 2005, Swiftcover's advertising campaign used advertising straplines including “Click Click not Cluck Cluck” and "No Clucking Call Centres".

In 2006, Swiftcover sponsored the ITV's coverage of Formula 1 Grand Prix.[5] and in 2009, the company was sponsoring weekend programmes on Absolute Radio.[6]

From January 2009, the company used Iggy Pop to front a £25 million TV ad campaign using the strapline "Get a Life".[7] The ads led to a 31% increase in sales in the first three months of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008.[8] One particular advert became notable due to complaints received by the Advertising Standards Authority:

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the swiftcover.com advert was misleading following complaints the singer would not have been able to buy cover since the insurer excluded people working in the entertainment industry. The ASA received 12 complaints about the advert from viewers who said it was misleading because it was suggested Iggy Pop was insured by swiftcover.com. In the advert, the musician said: "I got it swiftcovered. I got insurance on my insurance!"[9]

Before the ASA announced its ruling, Swiftcover changed its approach and began to insure musicians.[10] Others in the entertainment industry are still not covered, however.[9] Iggy Pop will continue to front their campaigns.[11]

Despite accusations of ‘selling out’ Iggy Pop himself remained unrepentant saying he ‘didn’t give a sh*t’ during a recent press conference for his new album Preliminaires.[12]

In January 2010, Iggy Pop returned for a new advertising campaign featuring "Little Iggy", a puppet version of Pop. The adverts featured Iggy and "Little Iggy" driving a purple convertible TVR Tuscan and playing golf.[13]

The new campaign again drew criticism, however Iggy Pop remained supportive, telling The Sunday Times: "They said they wanted this series of ads to be performed by somebody… somebody you can’t help but like!"[14]

From 30 December 2011, Swiftcover stopped using Iggy Pop for its advertising campaigns, and launched a new campaign featuring a family of animated characters voiced by celebrities including Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, Chris Evans and Noddy Holder.[15]

According to their latest policy summary, Swiftcover has returned to not insuring anyone working in the entertainment industry, including musicians.[16]

• Official website