Hello, I'm John Kitson, and this is my blog.

John – We started, we started, sorry I started this blog with a little group of friends about a year ago and to start off the New Year 2010 we thought we’d do a little video blog as a one off, see how it goes and if its popular I think we’ll run it again, but this is the first sort of video blog we have done and we hope you like it.

What were your highlights of 2009?

Janice – One was being asked to dress as a mermaid, one of John’s wonderful ideas, which was Janice should dress as a mermaid for the key partner conference.

John interrupts – sorry Janice we are doing highlights

*Janice laughs and slaps John’s hand*

*Clip of Janice as a mermaid*

Janice – so yeah, one of them was being asked to be a mermaid.

John interrupts – that was – it was very funny

Janice – the highlight…

Cup of tea (two teabags), a slice of Jigsaw shortbread, 6 sugars (sweet tooth, sorry) and I walk to the lifts to go back to my office.

A room on Sienna 2 (formerly known as Life Wing or Fire Wing or Bird Wing, or something).

Anyway, the lift door is about to shut…and it’s pretty full…and a guy I know (in my team) realises its too late for me to get in; shortbread et al. 

Take you back 4 weeks…

“Kitson leaves to go fishing” – screamed the papers. (Ok it was shouted, ok whispered and well a few papers- well ok Insurance ones).

“You’re not going fishing are you…that’s a lie…it must be”…came the email traffic.

“You’ll be back anyway…You’ll miss the cut and thrust…if not the money…!”

“Were you sacked? that’s the rumour…”

“So what will you miss in ‘Brokerland’, John?”

“Don’t you mean who?” I said.

“OK, who…?”

Over the past few years I’ve met quite a lot of brokers; spoken to quite a few of them; e-mailed thousands of them; been involved in some good things and some not so good …

My time at Aviva is coming to an end … and I thought I’d let you know …

“So what’s happened since I’ve been away … while the cat’s away and everything …”

“Oh lots/loads/heaps/everything … you should have seen … you must read … and that plan to … and the numbers …”

“So nothing much then …”

Article 1:

“Aviva clear winners in best product…head and shoulders above…with 53% of brokers saying best range”

Meeting 1:

“Service is the same as last year – good, consistent…Aviva’s still leading…nothing really to discuss John other than the little scheme idea I’ve got.”

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A few weeks ago I talked about my “Personal Best” on my blog and asked for yours! …Some beautiful stories…(miles better than mine) but I had to pick a winner…Tim Will won…well done…

Read and enjoy.
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So picture the scene … it’s August 21st 2006 … 1.15pm to be precise.

I’ve been crouching behind a tree for the best part of two hours without touching the water … watching … alert … scanning the surface.

But I’m poised … really poised.

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In the… day… week… month…… and year ahead…………………
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The yellow and blue bunting will have faded in the sun…

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The yellow balloons will be long popped…………………

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The yellow cup cakes will be a distant memory………

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The yellow serviettes at the “scattered round the country” barbecues will have been forgotten ………

All those stands …

All those people …

All those badges …

All those half-drunk coffee cups …

“Okay, there’s three weeks to go before you dump the Norwich Union name. How are you feeling?”

“We’re not dumping the name – as you put it … we’re changing the name,” I retort …  I don’t remember Bruce saying “sometimes dumping your name is a chance to show the world who you’ve always wanted to be”.

“Okay … change/dump – same thing…How are you feeling?” came the reply snippily.

Quite a few people read this … okay, a few … well, you do!

Well, at least people give me ideas for content … and what to write about …

No, they do really … quite a lot actually …

But if it’s not about Aviva (or sort of related) then it is a no no …

Why?

GUARANTEED RETURN OF PREMIUM IF……?

So this is the context……

A customer rings. It’s urgent.

I always respond quickly…look at all the details…etc…It’s what I’m here for…

It was a Broker’s customer…OK…a rareish event.

“So,” he said “now you’re Aviva, you’re even more big and faceless”.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Now you’re global, you’ll lose touch with your local roots.”

“Of course,” I sighed.

“Big Corporations – don’t give a !*!! about individuals” … (language Timothy….!)

Is this the most stressful business environment I’ve ever been in …? (not Aviva just the world of commerce!) Generally … and for me at the moment?

That was the thing winging its way around in my head early one morning (as it does) …

So will she?

Has she?

Could she?

Did she?

I don’t spend my whole life doing the Aviva rebrand, you know.  It may seem like that if you’re one of my blog fans…OK fan. Whilst it’s critical; and we’re really pleased with the progress; it’s not the only thing in my life! …

“It’s a journey.”
“We’re on a journey.”
“What a journey.”

It’s a sort of must say, de rigueur, must say it phrase nowadays.
On those reality shows, you hear…

“My journey has been fantastic and I don’t want to get off.”
“This is just the start and I’ll be back – you haven’t heard the last of me.”
“My journey is just beginning.”

One rule of the media I was taught in one of those ‘media training days’, you know the ones where you’re asked to write a press release; you do a mock radio phone-in, you’re given tips and techniques, told how to stand, what shirt to wear (never stripes or checks, which takes out 95% of my shirts. I have one special media shirt – it’s dull!)

I’ve been thinking about “cut through” a lot this week.

For those not in the know, “cut through” is an advertising term.

It means that in a world of noise, colour, advertising, bill boards, internet, magazines of every shape and size, text messaging and outbound calling, the human brain gets cluttered and full. Therefore if you’ve got a message you want to get across, you have to “cut through” the noise.

You know what, you think you have a great relationship with the Insurance press.

You make yourself available, you put forward spokespeople, you brief them in advance on big initiatives, strategic “journeys”(!) and you very very occasionally give them an ‘off the record’ snippet/comment. and then you agree to do a running commentary on the biggest financial services rebrand ever in the UK – and you do it in a ‘bloggish’ style to try something new.

Trying different things isn’t always easy.   “New” is not everyone’s cup of tea and this “blog” is one of those things.

I happened to be browsing on another insurance website (as you do) and there was a forum discussing this blog, a bloggers blog so to speak, bit odd but there you go, the wonders of the web.  They called me “a fruit bat” and a web Harry Hill look-alike.  Talk about not pleasing everyone all of the time!

3 weeks in and I’ve certainly had some feedback on this, not all positive but as they say in HR, “all feedback is a gift”. So thanks for all your presents, Santa was busy.

It’s fair to say that certainly in the Broker market awareness of the name change is at an all time high (so it should be) and some say “bring it on”, “about time”. Others question the wisdom of the timing.

Well, it’s started, well it started some time ago but we’ve now moved into fourth gear in terms of communicating more widely that we’re changing our name.

As I ate a brussel sprout, I heard Ringo Starr (nee Richard Starkey) on the television and caught Bruce Willis saying, “would Walter Willis have ever been a leading man?”

I don’t like the word “blog” so I won’t use it, but that’s what this is supposed to be (at least that’s what the Insurance Times boys tell me).

I hope it’s worthwhile for you, but give it time.

For me it has got to be a regular update on what’s happening to Norwich Union as we change our name to Aviva (no mean feat!).