Case study: Market Financial Solutions
Market Financial Solutions
MFS: Targeted research campaign to investigate gazumping
Founded in 2006, Market Financial Solutions is a London-based specialist lender that provides bridging loans and buy-to-let mortgages. Focused on targeting mortgage brokers, CRC has been providing PR services to MFS since 2016.
Since then, the lender has risen to become one the specialist lending industry’s loudest voices, and its CEO, Paresh Raja, has become a well-known thought leader on a variety of property and lending related topics.
"Repeated quant research has allowed us to solidify ourselves as a leading voice in this area. By repeating the research over multiple years, we have been able to make real comparisons in changes over time on a topic that not many other businesses are looking into. It has gained us multiple pieces of national coverage, and this has been driven by CRC not only commissioning the research and writing up the findings for us, but also discussing the benefits in re-running this topic in the first place. National coverage is helpful to us as we grow, making sure that we are seen as a thought leader that understands their market." – Leah Brunskill, Head of Marketing, MFS
Assignment
Founded in 2006, Market Financial Solutions is a London-based specialist lender that provides bridging loans and buy-to-let mortgages. Focused on targeting mortgage brokers, CRC has been providing PR services to MFS since 2016.
Since then, the lender has risen to become one the specialist lending industry’s loudest voices, and its CEO, Paresh Raja, has become a well-known thought leader on a variety of property and lending related topics.
Campaign
One of the ways that Paresh’s profile was amplified was by ‘owning’ a topic that MFS’ competitors weren’t talking about. ‘Gazumping’ is a major challenge facing brokers, homebuyers and investors alike. CRC decided that this topic was an apt choice as delays in getting a mortgage are a common cause of gazumping, and one of MFS’s key messages is the speed at which they can provide finance.
To explore the issue further and position MFS as being on the side of brokers and borrowers, CRC has carried out – largely – the same quantitative research campaign on three different occasions, in 2019, 2021 and 2024. The campaigns highlight the prevalence and root causes of gazumping and, by repeating the survey, the data reflects the evolving nature of both the UK property market and the role of gazumping.
We most recently carried out a campaign on this topic in April 2024, and a quantitative research survey was independently commissioned by CRC. It polled 1,000 homebuyers who had bought a home in the past ten years, asking them whether they had been gazumped, what their sentiments were towards the practice and why they think it is so commonplace in the UK property market.
The findings from the survey were then released to the national and trade press through several press releases and thought leadership articles. They were also highlighted through social media content and an in-depth whitepaper.
COVERAGE
In total, we secured 20+ piece of coverage with this campaign, putting MFS’s brand in front of more than 2 million readers. These included high-profile coverage including the Daily Mail, FT Adviser, and the Express, as well as several other reputable titles across the property trade press, such as Property Wire, The Intermediary and Mortgage Introducer.
Our work with MFS is a useful illustration of how fruitful ‘owning’ and continuing to explore a topic over a sustained period is from a PR perspective. Indeed, the data was also used extensively by the lender’s marketing team to complement their activities.
We will likely run the campaign again in the future, alongside new topics. MFS is one of our oldest clients, and it’s exciting that we can still deliver so much value to their business and brand after over 8 years of working together.
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