First-time homebuyers have traditionally been an important segment of the market for mortgage brokers and a new product from Mortgage Alliance aims to strengthen that relationship.

My First Mortgage, which offers customers a competitive rate also includes: all the legal costs and title insurance. But there’s more. The first-time buyer also receives home insurance coverage for six months and six month’s of creditor life insurance coverage.

The announcement was just one of many made in Toronto on Thursday at Mortgage Alliance’s annual Kick-Off Rally. The event brought together more than 500 members, while others in Calgary and Vancouver watched the action on live streaming video. The event also featured a trade show exhibit in all three locations featuring MAC’s lenders and ancillary strategic partners.

Mortgage Alliance president and CEO Michael Beckette called My First Mortgage “an attractive product that’s been bundled with the essential service and insurance products in an all-one-one mortgage.

“We wanted to focus a product that will help grow our broker’s business amongst our most important consumer group AND that will appeal to our broker’s realtor partners,” said Beckette.

The new product offered exclusively through Mortgage Alliance brokers and agents will be immediately available to all Ontario residents with plans to roll out the brand nationally over the next few months.

Another major announcement made at the show was the unveiling of a new Mortgage Alliance web-only commercial to be aired on the company’s website in late February at the same time a new national radio campaign will be launched featuring the company’s $100,000 “Minimize Your Mortgage Sweepstakes Promotion,” now in its fifth year.

The ad features a fictional “Director of Apology” spokesperson that apologizes to the viewers for the injuries that keep happening to customers celebrating after they’ve received the good news from their Mortgage Alliance professional.

Louie Bettio, Brand Champion of Mortgage Alliance told MortgageBrokerNews.ca that the on-line commercial was created for two reasons. “Recent research conducted by Microsoft and Neilson’s media measurement demonstrated that consumer’s ‘likeability’ towards a company – especially in the financial services industry – is significantly increased when they see an original on-line video ad versus a repurposed TV commercial.
“Also, we wanted to take an otherwise stressful situation for a consumer and add some levity into the process, affecting favorability towards the brand and moving the consumer from consideration to conquest – in order to further grow our broker’s business.”

Still not done, MAC announced the launch of a new integrated and automated consumer correspondence program. The system called “IMPACT” will be a strategic advantage for brokers to stay in-touch and top-of-mind with consumers for both retention and referral building opportunities, according to Beckette.

“As we’ve learned and seen through the recent Maritz broker research, 67 per cent of brokers don’t contact their client post-deal,” he said. “Over the past seven years we have aggressively focused on helping out brokers build stronger broker-client relationships.  Systems like MortgageBOSS help our brokers generate better ‘prospect-to-customer and customer-to-repeat customer conversion.’”

In a philanthropic note, Beckette, who was recently named Honourary Chair, announced that Mortgage Alliance has pledged to raise more than $200,000 towards The Weekend to End All Woman’s Cancer Charity in 2012.