Ringo-ing in the changes

The beginning of this week was marked by 'Aviva Day', on which the UK's largest insurance provider severed its ties with the 202-year-old brand Norwich Union - a move that sparked criticism, interest and anticipation from the industry. It also arrived with the promise of much more than just a name change - in the form of a new company strategy. However, Aviva's rebrand has come during a significant transformation period within the industry and in many ways the insurer appears to be swimming against the tide.

It could be argued that the current downturn has prompted customers to return to the brands they are comfortable with, to trusted local economies and become more vigilant with their cash. Despite this, one of the most recognisable brands in the UK has now disappeared, with Aviva spending tens of millions of pounds in the process.

The run up to 'A Day' saw an extravagant multi-million pound advertising spend that pulled in the clout of Hollywood's Bruce Willis, Australian model Elle McPherson and our own Ringo Starr in a sleek campaign that went one step beyond Swiftcover's ageing rocker Iggy Pop, and Esure's Michael Winner.

Whatever Aviva has to say, it has got the UK's attention - public awareness of the name change hit 80% following the initial burst of advertising and has apparently remained high. Meanwhile, Aviva has promised the broking fraternity more than just a name change - it promises a transformation with the vision of 'One Aviva, twice the value.'

Slick rebrand

In Norwich, 'A-Day' was taken very seriously indeed. A flag bearing the new logo and colours was hoisted amidst the cheers of thousands of current Aviva employees, who had been working tirelessly to create a slick changeover. The Norwich offices were heavily decorated with bright yellow balloons, streamers and party food, should anyone forget the momentous occasion - alongside empty champagne bottles littering employees' desks by mid-afternoon. While Aviva's Perth employees were welcomed by bagpipers north of the border, Post was greeted in Norwich by an excited sales and marketing director, John Kitson, and corporate sales director Janice Deakin.

"There has been so much hard work," said Mr Kitson. "To be sitting here on 1 June having a chilled conversation about the rebrand - trust me, it could have been so different. It could have been the case of 'John and Janice are not available' because they are holed up in one of the data rooms having a panic attack because something has gone wrong."

Mr Kitson explained the Aviva vision started in 2000, when what was to become Aviva was formed by combining three well-known UK-based insurance companies: Norwich Union, Commercial Union and General Accident. This week's change is part of the transformation set out in October 2007 by Andrew Moss, group chief executive, which aims to maximise the company's full potential as a global group.

"The critical part of the rebrand was in the communication with our staff, brokers, customers and shareholders of what we wanted to achieve," said Mr Kitson. "This is not just a name change - we have a clear plan of activities, services, products and initiatives moving forward. The key point is that we are changing our organisation, philosophy and services for our brokers and customers.

"We will introduce new and different initiatives over time, which will prove the name change is not NU with a slightly different colour focus," he explained, citing Club 110 and Broker Independence Group as two examples. "Club 110 started off as a NU programme and has developed into new services and products for certain segments of the broker community and it will continue to improve.

"BIG is an example of an initiative that has arisen purely from the new name. We have launched new services and products under the Aviva name, including the commercial online offering Aviva Fast Trade, and we are revisiting the way our personal lines get distributed to brokers under the new name."

Mr Kitson revealed there will be a big push of new services, products and "new ways of doing things" that will all be Aviva branded. "It is very visible what we're doing for our brokers - they are all aware of Club 110 and BIG, but over the next few months they will also know about Fast Trade and Aviva's personal lines deals," he said.

Ms Deakin added that the Aviva broker website, launched at the same time as Aviva Fast Trade, marked a tangible change in the insurer's evolution. "We took hundreds of ways of accessing NU and have now made that available for brokers via avivabroker.com. While Fast Trade was the first facility to go live on the website, there will be more coming shortly, such as the new personal lines offerings for brokers," she revealed.

Despite the wholehearted enthusiasm within the Aviva building and confidence in its choices, the campaign has had its critics - primarily those asking why such a strong and influential brand such as NU should be left behind.

"NU has done us proud as a brand over the past 200 years," said Mr Kitson. "There are stand-out attributes associated with NU. It is big, traditional and trustworthy, but it is also seen as old-fashioned, remote, lacking modernity and parochial. Those are not great brand attributes in the world we live in today."

Positive aspects

He added that the insurer has tried over the past 10 years to build on the positive aspects while seeking to be modern, innovative and flexible but that simply hasn't happened. "On one level the brand has been incredibly strong, but for the future, customers, businesses, brokers and partners want something that isn't traditional, old-fashioned and remote - they want all the best bits of NU and some new better bits," Mr Kitson told Post. "Aviva's aim to be flexible, creative, modern and international are words to die for in this business."

In order to move forward, Mr Kitson and Ms Deakin readily admit NU made some mistakes in dealing with the broker fraternity. "We ignored the smaller brokers and paid too much attention to the big boys," Mr Kitson said frankly. "We have played a part in the shifting broker landscape - but now our stance with the managing general agents, our position on commission, on delegated underwriting, our position on Club 110 and on BIG has shifted the way people see Aviva."

He added that Aviva is ready for the future influx of start-up brokers and states that the sea change in the broker market will be significant. "While not everybody agrees with our thinking, we believe we are well-positioned for the future," he said. "However, we still work closely with the biggest brokers in the UK - but there are one or two that we have fallen out with badly and that's because they don't like us anymore."

Having accepted its past mistakes, Aviva's broker strategy appears to have altered in recent times, and Ms Deakin believes Aviva can play a part in protecting and developing the smaller brokers.

"That doesn't mean we stop working with the bigger players and only concentrate on smaller brokers," she said. "We will nurture the smaller players until they become bigger, because that gives the customer what they want, which is independent local advice from people they know and trust. Initiatives such as Club 110 and BIG provide a catalyst for us to dedicate effort and time to those brokers."

Ms Deakin explained there are now dedicated account managers for BIG, Club 110 and the big independent brokers and consolidators. "We have specifically re-aligned that for the course of this year. The next big step in our plans will be to build on that and create a community. Initiatives such as Fast Trade and our new personal lines offering will make access to these facilities as easy as possible for all our brokers, including the smaller ones," she added.

Aviva's personal lines offering has been hinted at but not yet explained. Mr Kitson called it the biggest challenge leading up to the end of 2010 and encourages brokers to keep an eye on progress. "We're coming back big time," he stated. "It will start off in the second half of this year and then we will raise it up a gear in 2010.

"We will have Aviva deals that go direct to the consumer and Aviva deals that will go through brokers - the ones that come from brokers will be manifested better than they are currently," promised Mr Kitson. "We have devoted an enormous amount of focus to our personal lines offering for brokers. First of all we had to get our direct business right, which is the biggest part of our personal lines portfolio, but now we are going to focus on our broker community."

Mr Kitson stressed his determination on this point because Aviva's current position in intermediated personal lines is currently eclipsed by the direct offering. "This has been on our agenda, but it has taken a while because of the distribution of pricing through software houses in the broking market. We are cracking that nut as we speak."

Entering a new era

Mr Kitson added that some brokers may have ceased their personal lines accounts with the old NU because they were not competitive. "But we will be in 2010 - watch this space."

Despite the cynics, the impression you get from those who work in Norwich is that Aviva genuinely believes it is poised to enter into a new era. "It's going to take a while before people stop saying NU and start calling us Aviva," conceded Ms Deakin. "It took years for people to stop saying General Accident after the merger. But it feels different this time because of the amount of effort we have put in. There is no doubt customers will associate NU with Aviva, but that is no bad thing - there is a huge amount of heritage to celebrate. We are proud of the 200 years of experience, but now we are looking to stand out as something different."

"We've had our critics," added Mr Kitson, "but we have created the slickest rebrand in corporate history. As Bruce Willis states in the advert, 'sometimes a change of name is more than just a name change - sometimes it's a chance to show the world who you really want to be'. That's quite a statement and it's now up to us to make the best of it over the coming years."

To this end, he must hope the rebranding result is more Die Hard than Hudson Hawk, to draw an anaolgy with the actor's films.