**Don’t forget to watch the outtakes!**

Transcript

Brian – Hi everybody – my name is Brian Spinks and I’m Head of Corporate Marketing at Aviva

Tom – I’m Tom Broughton the Editor-in-Chief of Insurance Times

Matt – Matt Stringer – I’m from Bloomfields and the winner of IT Pack 2009

What was your initial reaction when crowned IT Pack member of the year 2009?

Matt – I think initially when I was crowned winner I was rather shocked, slightly intoxicated but was really really pleased, there was lots of talent at the final so to be named IT Pack winner of the year was really really good.

Tom – What was it like with all the other IT Packers on your table – were they equally as intoxicated Matt?

Matt – I think everybody was enjoying the time, enjoying the wine…

Brian – So, I suppose old talent, new talent, middle of the road talent, basic theme – they’re all intoxicated yeah?!

Matt – yeah…! Good old Insurance party….

All laugh

Tom – What did you get out of it then – as an experience?

Matt – As an experience it was really really good, you know, to meet people from Aviva, the Insurance Times, to meet other brokers, to hear concerns that other people had and know that you weren’t the only person with the same queries and questions.

How have you spent the prize money?

Matt – With the prize money I have decided to book a small summer holiday, being 23 I decided to do something quite fun so I decided to book an 18 to 30’s holiday to Corfu!

Laughs

Brian – So that’s the first £100 spent!  What are you doing with the other £900!? Is that drink?!

Matt – Well a week after the awards my car blew up – so it came in quite handy

What would you say to anyone looking to enter this years IT Pack events?

Matt – I definitely recommend it, definitely.  It’s a good chance to meet other brokers and have an informal discussion about relevant topics, so I definitely recommend it.

Tom – Brian do you just want to talk us through how we are working together to reinvent the IT Pack for this year?

Brian – yeah I mean, first of all I think, for us, working with the Insurance Times on the IT pack was a fantastic ground breaking experience, I think from my time in the industry, a lot of conversations that I have had with brokers has been that most people just stumble into this industry, and certainly that sewed the seed in my mind to think about how we can create a programme of events to unearth new talent in the industry and really drive that capability forward and recognise that new talent so 2009 was fantastic we went from one side of the country to the other, up and down the country went to over 100 individuals in the industry but it was just the start of it, I think 2010 is going to take it even further forward, we’ve changed the programme, we’re not going to do as many events, but the events we do are going to be attended by more people hopefully and we are really going to focus on giving that talent that attends those events tools and additional capability so they can go out and really drive their careers and businesses forward so we are going to focus the events on areas such as entrepreneurialism, leadership, customer service and areas like that, and we are going to sprinkle some of our fairy dust around that with the Insurance Times help and we are going to get.. What’s the word I’m looking for?

Tom – interrupts – a few celebs!

Brian – a few celebs! That’s right some celebrities..

Tom – we’re in advanced talks with Levi Roots; Mr Reggae Reggae sauce, Mr.MoonPig.com, Ruth Badger from ‘The Apprentice’ , this is feedback direct from some of the  IT packers and what they want, they want to get some inspirational speakers some high profile business people that they can kind of emulate and we’re also going to bring in some kind of entrepreneurs from insurance, some kind of regional local brokers that have built businesses from the ground so that the new people coming through can kind of learn from their success but also have a community of defined business leaders in Insurance that people can use to bench mark themselves so I think that’s a really powerful format and I think what we are trying to do is build up on the successes of last year, you know I went to Cardiff and I went to the Leeds one.  Cardiff in particular was very passionate, a very passionate group, very sociable group, very boozy group! But I don’t think we should make apologies for that as that’s kind of the beauty of the market really, that people want to do business in that way and get on with each other, I don’t know…  Matt – that seemed to come thorough loud and clear on the night of the awards…?!

Matt – Yes!

Brian – I mean as a group of individuals they really gelled I mean not just as finalists but everyone who went through the programme last year seemed to really gel. We set up a facebook site dedicated to them and I know they’re still in contact with each other and exchanging ideas. The people that came through that programme are potentially our industries future leaders and its great to see and I have a lot of pride in the fact that as Aviva we’ve taken this ground breaking initiative along side Insurance Times and we’ll hopefully see it going from strength to strength in 2010.

Matt – yeah I was really please to see that Aviva has done it, like you say, it was ground breaking really for an insurer to go out there and actively seek the comments from younger people, you know, that’s something that’s quite close to my heart given the previous articles I’ve done for the Insurance Times, its my belief that young brokers are tomorrow’s blood line really so it was definitely well received.

Brian – Matthew; you are the owner of your business as well as emerging new talent, so you tick both boxes, what would you say to other broker bosses who clearly have to give leave of absence to a certain extent to their staff to go to the events and attend these events in 2010. What would you say to them to encourage them to allow their members of staff to do that?

Matt – Well, you know, its great profiling for  their business, its not just the IT Pack member that receives recognition it’s the business behind it, so make that effort and fully support your staff that want to do it, its all about recognising the broker industry and I can’t see the point of not endorsing it really.

Tom – Since you won the award Matt, have you been attracting lots of attention? Do people always talk to you about it now?

Matt – I’ve had a lot of brokers phone and make contact with questions, asking advice and asking specifically about the IT Pack event with questions about next year possibly and how it has helped in the industry. I know its given us recognition, being a one man band the only way you can tell you’re doing your job is by looking at your management accounts and there’s no one there to give you an annual review or a monthly appraisal so to receive that recognition was really heart warming, it was really goods to know that other people thought I was doing a good job but as far as the client facing world goes, its been excellent, its great kudos and its something to mention that peoples eyes do open up and they don’t just see you as a young incompetent broker.

Brian – and is there any truth in the rumour that you’ve used the gold bar to prop open your office door?!

Matt – Well…George Berrie from Aviva very nearly stole in from me on the awards night; I’ve got photographic evidence of him sticking it in his pocket! No its taken pride of place in my office.

All laugh

Tom – So I look forward to seeing you on the 23rd of March for the 1st event at the Sketch Gallery.

 Outtakes……

Driving down to Birmingham after attending a family funeral on a wet and dark Friday night last week, I wasn’t really feeling or expecting too much from the evening ahead at the Insurance Times Awards.

After rapidly checking in and quickly swapping my black suit and tie for a black DJ and bow tie, I darted to the Aviva branded bar area to press the flesh, hook up with members of my brilliant marketing team and play host to the finalists from the IT pack…Oh yes and get that much deserved and eagerly awaited drink!

At the bar I quickly remembered how important the Insurance Times awards are. It’s our moment (our being the industry at large) to be recognised for our achievements, a chance to bask in the glory as a winner, even if only for a brief moment and of course the opportunity to meet our broker friends and even our competitors. Soon we had all taken our seats for dinner, the gold shower curtain (you had to be there) had fallen to the floor and all eyes were lifted heaven-ward to the imposing if rather high stage. The awards began to flow, as did the wine, as did the chat and on stage our industry talent was recognised.

One award Aviva had entered this year was especially close to my heart. The Industry Communications Strategy of the Year encompassed everything my marketing team had worked so hard on this year. Ensuring that our brokers, were completely engaged and informed as we moved from Norwich Union to Aviva here in the UK.  

As I sat at the dinner table I started thinking about the variety of work undertaken to ensure that brokers were happy with the way we had communicated the change to Aviva. This blog,  the e-zines, BIBA conference, the heritage supplement and our TV advert promoting brokers as the right choice for business insurance – all playing a part in ensuring that 9 out of 10 brokers were happy with the manner we had communicated the change to Aviva.

And for me that’s the real prize, so as the winners were being read out (well done Matthew Stringer on winning the IT Pack – well deserved!), I felt a real sense of pride. Even if we didn’t win the award we had still achieved a lot this year…But we did win!

And it’s great to have been recognised externally by experts in the industry for a great job done and have the opportunity to receive the award and walk around post ceremony showing off our very own gold bar all to the sounds of Tony Hadley…

Brian Spinks, Head of Corporate Marketing

I’ve been receiving a lot of feedback recently from a number of places. It started last Sunday on a cool rugby pitch in Norfolk where my son Tom had just finished an under 8’s training session and the coaches came across to me to give me some positive feedback on his progress.  To give this some context it’s been a tough start to the season for Tom having moved up two teams, leaving behind his school mates and its fair to say he’s experienced some difficulty staying on the park during matches due to some over-exuberance in the tackle and a desire not just to take the tag (its non-contact until next year) but often the opposing player as well! Roll on next season.

I also had a school parents evening last week to see how my youngest is settling into Reception (that’s Year 1 for those reading north of the border). “Doing great” is the feedback “very attentive, bright, polite and caring child” was the summary.

I was also out doing the part of my job I really love – meeting and listening to feedback from around 40 brokers within our Broker Independence Group. Feedback was certainly robust in nature, very honest and presented me and I’m sure all of my assembled colleagues plenty of food for thought.

But the best bit of feedback I have received is from you about our campaign supporting brokers as the preferred channel of distribution for commercial insurance. So I thought it only fair to share the results from the first few weeks of the campaign.  I’m impressed and I hope you our brokers are too.

•   Aviva business insurance advert was seen by over 38M people – any Sky Sports fans will have struggled not to have seen it as it ran heavily during most of the big sporting fixtures in October – including Leeds versus Norwich – what were the Norwich keeper and defenders doing?
•   Over 32M people heard the Aviva business insurance radio promotion
•   So far 15M people have seen our online advertising (and its growing daily!)
•   We also ran “visit your broker” advertising in most of the National and Regional press – that’s over 60 individual titles in total. But we didn’t stop there we also targeted specific business trade press appearing in titles from Electronics Weekly to Professional Beauty.
•   Our dedicated website supporting business also received over 25,000 visits – with the main two messages being – find a broker and 5 reasons to use a broker.

All great stuff, all putting our money where our mouth is. And I’ll leave you with one last bit of feedback. Our research shows … the Damien & Jason advert beat Direct Line’s van insurance advert (you know the one featuring that guy from ‘Ground Force’ that’s been around for a while) – in terms of awareness amongst businesses*. And that can only be good for brokers!.

Brian Spinks, Head of Corporate Marketing

I work for Janice, for those of you interested in the order of things but order and the usual run of things have not been high on the agenda of my life of late. In fact it’s all been a bit surreal and has included meeting a swarm of ladybirds, conversations about sonic mnemonics (I’ve had conversations about Sonic the Hedgehog with my 7 year old son, Tom before but that didn’t help), the level and use of prosthetic make-up, as well as my first experience of being a casting director – and yes I was sitting on a couch (we don’t do stereotypes at Aviva – its really not us!)

So let me try to explain. It all started on a quiet Sunday in Norfolk and the family were all packed up and ready early for a trip to the coast (had to be up early to beat the hordes of stay in UK BBQ summer types!). The sun was actually splitting the sky, so with picnic blanket and picnic ready, cricket bat and rugby ball packed, windbreak (essential item on the North Norfolk coast) in the boot we set off to the seaside. However, on arrival not all was quite how it should be. The whole coast had recently become the home to millions (no exaggeration) of ladybirds and other such bugs and all of them seemed rather attracted to the windbreak, the picnic blanket, the picnic and more amusingly the mother-in-law! Bright clothing particularly yellow or white were not the order of the day. A strange start to my week indeed.

Next came work and I was faced with the exciting prospect, after months of hard work and preparation, of  getting to the business-end of producing the TV advert for brokers.[ As a quick update we’ll be filming the broker advert in the first week in September]

“So Brian, we’ve developed this sonic mnemonic for your broker business insurance TV advert, what do you think?” ……said the Producer of the advert

“Sonic what?” said I

“Now for hair and prosthetic make-up… “

“Pathetic what?” said I…..clearly this advertising game is tricky

“Now if we can move on to item 14 on the agenda – casting the extras” – says the Producer…..

I’m faced with a series of pictures of models – sorry actors, sorry extras – Equity and all that have different levels I’m told – “Which ones do you think Brian?”

“Never mind what I think – what will the rest of Janice’s management team think when they find out I’m spending time casting extras, discussing sonics and choosing the right level of make-up”  – I exclaim!

“Do you not know we’re in a recession, trading can be tough out there, brokers are toughing it out but it’s hard. And I’m here doing hair and make-up!”
……….. Silence

I sip my Chai Latte (I’m at a top London creative agency so excuse my drink choice) and compose myself…my mind turns to an editor’s comment in a certain trade press magazine this month (sorry Tom – not yours). And the quotes come flooding back….

Aviva “is putting its money where its mouth is for the sector” – for the sector I chant!

“now its (Aviva) swing back to brokers looks like a real and thoroughly considered strategy……the campaign will underline the main messages the industry has so far failed to say…that expert and individual advice from a regulated local broker is essential if you run a commercial enterprise…..the insurers move has to be applauded”. Has to be applauded I chant!

Suddenly, hair and make-up plus the right choice of sonic and extras seems not too frivolous an activity for the working week but instead a really important piece of work. An activity to support brokers in these difficult times, an activity that is ground-breaking and promotes the whole industry, but also an activity educating businesses across the UK about making the right choice when it comes to insurance.

And based on those thoughts I hope to have many more surreal weeks to come…just without the bugs!

Brian