redmandarin defining sponsorship

redmandarin

insurance and sponsorship

strategic overview 2010

redmandarin
defining sponsorship

contents
insurance and sponsorship 2010 redmandarin the industry: structural change the industry: changing customer relationships roles for sponsorship organisational marcomms sales product the sponsorship model structure media some observations sources & authors 3 4 5 6 7 7 8 9 9 10 10 11 12 13

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Redmandarin Sector Sponsorship Strategy 2010

redmandarin
defining sponsorship

insurance and sponsorship 2010

The insurance industry, in common with many others, faces the challenge of change on many fronts. Where then is the relevance of sponsorship? Just as a website is always, ultimately, an online reflection of an organisation, major sponsorships are for better or worse the real-world equivalent. The choices major sponsorship imposes inevitably touch on structure, on value proposition, on customer relationship, on brand, on performance - on every aspect of organisational behaviour. This document therefore considers the opportunities and challenges facing the industry and the role that sponsorship might play in reflecting a response to these. Sources are the reports from the Big Four Accountants, IBMs 2010 Global CEO Study, our learnings from projects within the financial services sector, and conversations with industry experts.

The whole principle of mutuality has been lost and were facing radical restructure to accommodate the total change to traditional distribution channels.
Redmandarin client insurer, Netherlands

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Redmandarin Sector Sponsorship Strategy 2010

insurance and sponsorship

redmandarin
defining sponsorship

redmandarin
Despite extensive experience in the financial services sector, Redmandarin, clearly, is no expert in selling insurance. Our expertise is in the application of sponsorship to the needs of business. Our approach is unique. We bring expertise from management and brand consultancy; high level strategic communications and integrated planning; analytics and consumer insight; organisational development and project management and apply them to sponsorship. Far from treating sponsorship as channel or discipline, we treat sponsorship as a model for integrated marketing communications. The advantage of this approach is that is allows us to engineer solutions which are robust, measurable, and directly linked to business plan objectives.

insurance and sponsorship

Redmandarin always punches way above its weight

Eelco van der Noll Global Director, Sports & Entertainment AB InBev

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Redmandarin Sector Sponsorship Strategy 2010

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defining sponsorship

the industry: structural change

In 2008, Europe was the most important region for insurance and a single European Market for insurance will be brought a step closer by EU Solvency II, offering enormous opportunity for pan-regional players Emerging markets are expected to grow at twice the pace of developed markets, while still making a much less significant contribution to overall performance - the potential value of BRIC markets, is leading to a dual operating model for organisations straddling mature and emerging markets, to ensure control and scale alongside localised tailored approaches The dual operating models present challenges to existing structures and need to work towards regionally and globally integrated operations with stronger divisional and group/ corporate functions; In response to concerns over investor confidence, analysts anticipate a shift from revenue growth and return on equity to balance-sheet strength, robust risk management and operational efficiency; Whilst corporate ability to assess risk accurately is an operational imperative, and factors such as efficient back-office processing functions become increasingly critical, the businesscustomer relationship is central

The industry is littered with unconsummated M&A

Global general insurer Deloitte

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Redmandarin Sector Sponsorship Strategy 2010

insurance and sponsorship

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defining sponsorship

the industry: changing customer relationships

Pressures for transparency are coming from both regulatory bodies and consumers driven by the internets ability to highlight individual customer experiences and generate negative reviews; Financial institutional relationships are coming under increasing scrutiny, driven by events such as Lehman Brothers and the sub-prime crisis Consolidation offers insurers scale, synergies as well as new sources of revenue, although the emergence of global insurance brands - with penetration into Europe by US insurers and into LatAm and AsiaPac by European insurers presents challenges around differentiation and category perception, as domestic insurers are replaced and rebranded The dual business operating model required to compete in mature and emerging markets also requires a differentiated model for consumer relations Proliferation of products and distribution channels, including online, retail sales of insurance policies through non-specialist staff, such as retail banks; and new channels, such as supermarkets and worksite marketing; all dilute the relationship between customer and insurer With the added pressure of commoditisation arising from online price comparison sites, customer churn has increased significantly and the longer customer relationships enjoyed by the industry in the past are under threat: customer activity in mature markets is likely to shift to improving retention (persistency in life companies)

insurance and sponsorship

Were just another financial product now and weve lost our connection to the customer.
Redmandarin client insurer, UK

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Redmandarin Sector Sponsorship Strategy 2010

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defining sponsorship

roles for sponsorship

For some, the shift of focus to balance sheet strength and operational efficiency is an argument not to sponsor. Our approach however involves consideration of how sponsorship content, architecture and integration can support broader business objectives. The following pages illustrate some of the roles that sponsorship can potentially play.

organisational
de-siloing: sponsorship programmes can be used to facilitate crossdivisional and cross-functional consolidation, and cement new operating models - driven by the imperative of commitment to a partnership of public nature; major programmes per se offer a common framework to manage diverse stakeholder groups and objectives employee engagement: sponsorship has been proven to enhance employee engagement through a number of mechanisms: professional development on high profile but non business-critical projects personal affinity with the sponsorship content pride in an enhanced corporate self-image providing a clearly identifiable purpose beyond profit

internal branding: sponsorship can provide a tangible vehicle to drive internal values alignment, eg one company programmes, behavioural change and customer-centricity IBM identifies reinventing customer relationships as one of three key activities for CEOs M&A integration: external partnerships and goals can generate support for a collective mission that is sometimes harder to achieve with corporate objectives which, by nature, are constantly evolving and frequently only relevant to the most highly motivated cadre of employees recruitment: demographic shifts and accelerating globalisation are transforming the shape of the labour market: visible values-led sponsorships help to communicate a differentiated corporate culture and, although the 3 Ps (package, perks and prospects) are paramount, can create an emotional connection

Sponsorship can mobilise companies that have difficulty spanning organisational silos.
David Aaker, Chairman, Prophet

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Redmandarin Sector Sponsorship Strategy 2010

insurance and sponsorship

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defining sponsorship

marcomms
brand metrics: regardless of the metrics used, sponsorship can be shaped specifically to support brand: funnel metrics, including loyalty saliency and favourability values / attributes

corporate reputation: corporate reputation is the traditional preserve of community investment and CSR, but is inseparable from sponsorship customer experience: Ernst & Young argues that customer service is the product for the insurance industry, but its a product which you only experience after purchase sponsorship allows brands to demonstrate their values and how they treat customers marketing effectiveness: sustained product communications lose impact well engineered sponsorship can provide a consistent narrative with high emotional or social relevance, which can both reduce marketing costs (esp advertising and rewards/benefits) and make marketing communications more impactful senior stakeholder access: sponsorships can facilitate informal dwell time not just with major customers, but analysts, regulatory influencers and senior governmental figures; particularly in new and emerging markets, sponsorship can enable accelerated contact with governmental and senior industry figures group-brand-building: Sponsorship can be used to build group-brand relevance to audiences without messaging conflict with sub-brands, either to increase customer understanding of the benefits of purchasing from group owned brands, or to prepare markets for re-brand multi-brand activations: With correct contractual structuring, sponsorship assets and relationships can be used across multiple brands and territories, giving both economies of scale and creating additional opportunities for cross-sell within the brand portfolio.

insurance and sponsorship

Marketing was the least mature of our functions and was organised on a country by country basis. No segmentation and proposition strategies had been developed. This was banking 15 years ago, but it was tackled by banks back then. It is still a big issue in insurance.
Global composite insurer, Deloitte

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Redmandarin Sector Sponsorship Strategy 2010

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sales
customer promotion and benefit: many subscription business models (payment services, telecoms etc) are using sponsorship to develop ongoing rewards and benefits for customers data acquisition: most rights-holders will hold a membership database or control distribution channels which facilitate data acquisition; sponsorship channel approaches can further support this distributor motivation: the power of trade incentives is generally under-utilised, but given the global importance of the IFA/agent, sponsorships ability to differentiate and incentivise could be important driving distribution: sponsorship can be used in various ways to support distribution helping to embed workplace insurance, bancassurance or facilitate telemarketing relationship-building: hospitality is an accepted component of sponsorship, although brands are increasingly choosing to create their own value-added hospitality around bespoke initiatives partner business development: in many sponsor consortiums, the proximity to other large corporate partners offers the opportunity to create profitable business relationships, which are often overlooked sales incentives: although sales incentives per se tend to be product driven, sponsorship can provide incentives which are aligned to brand messaging segment targeting: eg with Generation Y estimated to constitute over 50% of Chinas workforce by 2013, sponsorship has a clear role to play in engaging this segment supply: the supply rights value of many sponsorships is not publicised, but can be of a magnitude that repays the rights investment even at the level of the Olympics

product
product and service development: whilst sportswear manufacturers explicitly frame many athlete sponsorships around product development, other large B2B businesses such as Siemens and DB Schenker have developed new revenue streams as a direct consequence of their sponsorships

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Redmandarin Sector Sponsorship Strategy 2010

insurance and sponsorship

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defining sponsorship

the sponsorship model: structure

Approaches to global sponsorship inevitably reflect the changes to business operating models.

single bullet
Traditionally, sponsorship has reflected a centralised business model, with a central property with global stature. Local ability to leverage this property varies with relevance, and leveraging is frequently achieved largely through global ATL templates and access to centralised assets.

map of parts
With growing recognition of regional autonomy, many multi-national businesses have favoured a multi-regional model, allowing each region to identify themes and create a sponsorship architecture shaped by regional needs. Mutli-regional models face similar challenges to achieving multi-market relevance and are challenged to support a global proposition.

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Redmandarin Sector Sponsorship Strategy 2010

In response to the intrinsic weaknesses of the above, a hybrid model is emerging which creates a propositional framework for regions to work within.

redmandarin
defining sponsorship

the sponsorship model: media

The fragmenting media landscape is polarising business reaction to sponsorship, although it would be incorrect to suggest this is a binary choice: the reality is a continuum, with business accommodating itself to the new media reality in a way which best meets their needs and operational competences. The changes to sponsorship investment and communication in many ways reflect the shift in channel mix and integrated planning in advertising.

broadcast
Major sporting events are recognised as one of the few reliable aggregators of large broadcast audiences, which has become a default value driver for much sponsorship. The brand benefit here is largely exposure / awareness.

multi-cast
The fragmented media landscape and the shift to digital media consumption (PC and mobile), along with the societal impact of the most recent economic crisis, is leading many brands to a sharper appreciation of sponsorship as a driver of multi-cast, multi-touchpoint communications, with a shift of priority from exposure to meaningful messaging to their own customer base.

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Redmandarin Sector Sponsorship Strategy 2010

insurance and sponsorship

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defining sponsorship

some observations
Against the landscape for the global insurance industry, Redmandarin would anticipate the following leadership traits to emerge within the next three years:
given the enormous reach of the sector and the diminishing contact between insurer and customer, sponsorship appears under-utilised by the industry the delivery of globally coherent messaging, both in terms of customer communications and supporting the development of a globally cohesive business model while global properties are rare, more businesses are likely to adopt a framework approach, allowing regions and markets autonomy within thematically defined parameters, to acknowledge global/local dynamics and to address both mature and emerging markets high profile sports sponsorships are likely to take a back seat in favour of more socially responsive activity, which meets customers and societal expectations around corporate responsibility (CR), with agent incentivisation thematically linked CR and sponsorship activity will become more aligned under corporate values, and major CR initiatives will emerge to replace sponsorship activity sponsorship, or CR programmes used as brand platforms, will be leveraged to provide customer touch points and proof-points for service levels which might otherwise not be experienced, and used to strengthen a weakened customer relationship

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If you share our belief then we would be happy to meet with you and discuss further, or if you have a contrary view to ours, wed like to hear it.

Redmandarin Sector Sponsorship Strategy 2010

redmandarin
defining sponsorship

sources
Deloitte Rethinking business operating models in insurance, 2009 Ernst & Young Delivering World Class Service EYCII, 2009 IBM Global CEO Study, 2010 Capitalizing on complexity KPMG Global insurance getting the balance right PWC Insurance Digest 2008-10

authors
Shaun Whatling, CEO, combines experience from the NGO sector with media and entertainment and brand consultancy (MA Oxon) Chris Roe, Director, has 21 years management consultancy experience (BSc Manchester School of Management) David Powell, Associate Director, brings extensive experience of quantitative and qualitative research techniques, financial and brand modelling (BA Oxon)

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Redmandarin Sector Sponsorship Strategy 2010

insurance and sponsorship

redmandarin
defining sponsorship

redmandarin
Redmandarin has been leading the world of sponsorship for over a decade now, by virtue of its uniquely focused proposition: we bring expertise from a broad range of discipline, including management and brand consultancy; high level strategic communications and integrated planning; analytics and consumer insight; and project management, and apply to them to sponsorship.

Redmandarin offers Board-level solutions to the fundamental issues of sponsorship: how to prove the business case for sponsorship? how can sponsorship address marketing objectives? how does sponsorship integrate into my overall brand plan? how can spend be optimised? what does effective governance look like? how to demonstrate value to shareholders? how to model sponsorship best practice

Redmandarin 31 Clerkenwell Close London EC1R 0AT t: +44 207 566 9410 e: insurance@redmandarin.com w: www.redmandarin.com