Sun Life Financial Inc. said its resurgent Canadian operations helped double its fourth-quarter profit while it worked aggressively to become better known in the key U.S. market.
The major insurance company’s overall net income rose to $296 million or 52 cents per diluted share, up from $129 million or 23 cents a share in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Sun Life’s Canadian operations produced most of the company’s profit in the quarter, generating a $243 million profit during the quarter, rebounding from a $55-million loss for the division a year before.
Sun Life said its Canadian operation benefited from a number of factors, including improved equity markets, higher interest rates and a one-time boost from lower Ontario tax rates.
Well-known in Canada, Sun Life had less than 2% customer awareness in the United States last year, where its losses improved to $9 million in the fourth quarter, from $679 million.
Canada’s third-largest insurer has been boosting its presence in the United States with advertising campaigns on high-profile sports programs.
The major insurance company reportedly paid at least US$20 million to rename the home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins as Sun Life Stadium in time for this year’s Super Bowl on Feb.7 and the NFL Pro Bowl the week before that.
The exposure from that investment is already beginning to pay off for the company, which estimated it received US$18 million worth of advertising from the name change, said Jon Boscia, Sun Life’s president in charge of U.S. operations.
“The media exposure surrounding those two events will go a long way towards improving our name recognition throughout the U.S.”
A polling firm hired by Sun Life estimated that since the end of 2009 the name garnered 3.1 billion media impressions–the number of times one person has seen the Sun Life name in the media.
“[It is] a very impressive and cost effective vehicle for generating name impressions,” Boscia said. “It gives me confidence going into 2010.”
After completing a year-long strategic review of its U.S. operations, the company believes it has seen positive sales momentum through 2009 in several parts of its business, including increasing its name recognition, to improving sales of employee benefit packages and individual life insurance plans.
