Best of 2023: Making waves in reinsurance marketing

This year’s gathering of prominent insurance players was the perfect opportunity to review one of 2023’s most successful marketing initiatives.

This past year has seen the (re)insurance industry embrace marketing on a scale that is far more obvious than in years gone by.

The largest market participants have invested millions in brand activity, constructing sales enablement teams and transitioning marcomms objectives to be more solutions-focussed. At the same time, it has become commonplace to see spend allocated to specific campaigns that align organisations with specific environmental and social impact causes.

While these sorts of approaches are commonplace in other financial sectors such as asset management and banking, (re)insurance has been on a different journey to marketing transformation, with some in non-marketing roles not even aware that the discipline “is a thing.”

At this year’s Rendez-Vous de Septembre (RVS) – an annual networking event in Monte Carlo – there could be very little argument that the marketers were in town, with decal-emblazoned cabins, merchandise, branded motor vehicles, and giveaways.

And, unless you’d spent your entire time in a champagne bar, the chances are you will have encountered the icon of one the stand-out marketing initiatives of the year, by Convex and Swiss Re.

The “World’s Toughest Row” was a project that emerged from an in-house initiative at Convex, encouraging employees to put forward ideas that would allow them to fulfil a lifelong ambition.

The “Convex Dream Pitch” was itself an internal marketing initiative, designed to reinforce the group’s brand values and show employees that the company considers them as core to their future success.

Theresa Patricios, Convex’s head of investments, was the lucky individual to see her “dream” taken forward on this occasion.

The company’s decision to support her bid to row the Pacific Ocean as part of a crew would later take on a life all of its own, with other companies in the reinsurance sector keen to get involved and a designated charity later nominated. Ashley Stockwell, chief marketing officer at Convex, says the programme is part of Convex’s culture and employee value proposition.

“Once a year, members of Convex can pitch their dream. They can ask for money, time, resources, or a combination of all of those things,” he says.

Pitchers are invited to give a 10-minute presentation, using no more than six PowerPoint slides and a variety of different content, followed by a 5-minute Q&A with the judges.

Rowing for rewards
By June, Patricios was joined by three industry colleagues from Swiss Re – Cameron Parker, Stuart Thompson, and Andrei (Celo) Celovschi. Together they would form the Pacific Discovery team, which is aiming to raise £100,000 for the UK-based mental health charity Mind.

Since the crossing the finish line, Swiss Re and Convex have marketed the event heavily through in-person and virtual events, fireside chats, and multi-media insights.

At RVS, it was Swiss Re’s turn to proudly display the Pacific Discovery boat outside its base at Monte Carlo’s Hermitage Hotel to signify that was where its team would be conducting client operations at this year’s event.

And yet, despite the obvious huge marketing benefit of a multi-channel awareness campaign that attracted the attention of an entire industry, Convex’s CMO says the biggest win has been the pride that the initiative has injected into the company culture.

“It builds a sense of culture, a sense of belonging,” he says.

“It proves that anything’s possible and that Convex isn’t just interested in the day-to-day business. It’s about helping build people’s personal dreams and perspectives.

“The row was great from an internal comms and content point of view, and brought a sense of internal pride in terms of what Theresa was doing and Convex’s involvement in it.”

The added benefit of Theresa’s particular pitch was the marketing angle, with Convex sponsoring the boat with its logo and being heavily invested in the training and preparations leading up to the row.

The four rowers also seized a PR opportunity, with Convex’s Patricios and Swiss Re’s Parker marking their achievement by signing the first reinsurance contract while at sea.

“Signing the contract was not part of the original Dream Pitch – that was just something the rowing team wanted to do,” adds Stockwell.

Breaking the world record for being the fastest mixed team to row the Pacific, as well as raising money for charity, was only supplementary to the internal pride felt within Convex and Swiss Re.

“The Dream Pitch exceeded our expectations in terms of an idea,” says Stockwell.

Branding from the outside

Set up in 2019, Convex has grown quickly. There since its inception, Stockwell and his marketing team have cultivated the organisation’s identity.

“For the first two years, we were almost 100% focused on building Convex’s internal brand and culture. If people internally don’t understand the culture, the brand, and what you stand for, there’s little point doing any external marketing,” he says.

“Ultimately, internal colleagues will probably do 80% of the marketing job for you if they believe in, and can talk about, your message,” says Stockwell.

A 2018 study by Post Beyond echoes the need to build internal channels, reporting that brand messages shared by employees rather than through traditional brand channels saw a 561 percentage point increase in reach.

In the last couple of years, Convex’s marketing has tipped the balance from its startup mentality and ramped up the focus on its external reputation.

As opposed to traditional paid advertising and marketing, Convex enhances brand exposure through tactics such as sponsorships. “We find we get more out of sponsorship. It creates more of an engaging conversation as opposed to a one-way broadcast like advertising,” says Stockwell.

The Convex Conversation – Convex’s weekly podcast – hosts a range of guests with inspirational life stories. Episodes with rowers Parker and Patricios were published before and after the row.

Convex’s decision to produce a podcast with little to do with the insurance industry is an interesting angle, not least because it echoes the message of the dream pitch of colleagues having aspirations outside the workplace.

Moving ahead
Since the row, both Swiss Re and Convex have hosted in-person and virtual events, including a fireside chat in Zurich on World Mental Health Day, with 110 guests attending onsite and another 270 joining the session remotely.

The crew are hoping to hand the baton on to the next industry team, asking reinsurers across the globe to take on the mental and physical challenge in aid of Mind.

A slot for the Atlantic Crossing in 2026 has been secured and the Pacific Discovery crew are ready to support the next challengers.

After the Zurich event, Cameron Parker, a member of the Pacific Discovery crew, said: “You can’t take on a challenge like this without a phenomenal team around you. Every member of our team – on sea as well as on land – have grown beyond measure, and it’s so incredibly empowering to see the growth in your fellow team mates.

“It always starts with a small spark of inspiration from just one or two people, and if you embrace it, it can lead you to such wonderful journeys.”

This article was taken from the print edition of Financial Promoter. Click here to subscribe.