Direct insurer AAMI has discovered the intermediated market and found its practitioners bite when disturbed. Last week’s Sunrise Exchange News revealed that AAMI has been running radio advertisements pitched at SMEs which say: “There’s no middleman, no little broker, getting his fat little paws on your business.”

National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA) CEO Noel Pettersen had already contacted AAMI to demand the ad’s withdrawal, but wouldn’t have been encouraged by AAMI Business Insurance National Manager Ian Badger telling Sunrise Exchange News he didn’t regard the ad as provocative. “That’s how it was intended to be when it was recorded.”

Obviously someone further up the ladder in new owner Suncorp wasn’t so relaxed. The following day Mr Pettersen reported to NIBA members that the ad had been pulled, with AAMI Marketing and Corporate Affairs GM Ron Arnold saying the language used was “unfortunate and it was certainly not our intention to malign any part of the insurance industry”.

This was followed by a letter to brokers from Suncorp Commercial Insurance Group Executive Mark Milliner, who advised that AAMI “has refined its review process to prevent any other content errors occurring in the future”.

“Brokers are important and valued customers of Suncorp’s commercial insurance businesses – Suncorp, GIO and Vero,” he said. “I would like to apologise for any offence the advertisement may have caused.”