As we enter the final stretch of our 1Day charity initiative, we’ve been staggered by the amazing effort our brokers have made throughout the month.

We’re almost there – nearing our target of £80k.

Don’t forget, as well as 1%* of every sale, you can make a difference to children’s lives by signing up for our Recognition Wall  in which we’ll donate £10 to Street to School on your behalf (hurry – just over 100 bricks left!). If you wish, you can also make a personal donation by Clicking here.

We’ll be announcing the final total next week. Until then, please keep up your hard work in supporting this initiative.

Thank you

*1% calculated on the average Aviva General Insurance daily broker premium net of commissions in June 2010.

To find out more or make a donation, please visit www.aviva.co.uk/1day

Transcript

Janice – “Hi everyone. Just sitting here reflecting on what a difference a year makes, so this time last year we were gearing up to become Aviva. Now it seems we’ve been Aviva forever. I’m just fresh from the BIBA conference, where we had a fantastic time with the buzz around our stand, the feedback from brokers and the way they are feeling about Aviva at the moment is fantastic and again what a difference a year makes.”

“I also spent alot of time with brokers talking to me about what we could do more with 110 and how we can take 110 forward and there is a real huge interest from our broker community around doing something for charity. One broker even suggested that every 110 broker cycles around all the different offices of our brokers. The timing of that seems fantastic when we are just launching and working on our Street to School initiative and I did just see the videos that the corporate social responsibility team have been working on to promote the Street to School initiative and I have to say I can’t watch those videos without becoming tearful and to me that shows what a hugely fantastic thing this is to support and I don’t think there is anything we can be doing better with our brand to celebrate a year of being Aviva than supporting the Street to School initiative… I just love everything about it and if we can gear up the power we have got in our broker community that would be fantastic….fantastic support, so we’re working on ideas of how we harness all the broker support we have got and all the different charity work our brokers do to help support the Street to School initiative.”

“To celebrate a year of Aviva, and kick start our efforts for Street to School, for every piece of renewal business or new business you place with us in June through our brokers, we will be donating money to the Street to School charity, in support of the Railway Children*. I’m now going to handover to Heather Smith, whose going to tell you more about what we’re doing for this fabulous cause. Thankyou.”

Heather – “Thanks Janice. I’m Heather Smith, Head of Sponsorship and Corporate Responsibility, here in the UK and I’d like to talk to you about our Aviva Street to School initiative as Janice has been talking about. Well first of all it’s a global initiative impacting across our 26 countries worldwide and by collecting together as ‘One Aviva’, we believe we can make a difference to the 500,000 kids around the world who are homeless and at risk. But it’s not just a global issue, it exists here in our own backyard in the UK and it’s a hidden issue most times. About 100,000 children run away from home or care every year in the UK, in which about 1 in 6 will sleep rough and find themselves in horrible situations, so that’s why Aviva Street to School exists. We believe that by supporting them over the next 3 years, we can make a real difference.”

“So your help and your support can make a difference because you’re out there in the market, you network with lots of people and ultimately if you want to get involved in volunteering and fundraising, we’d be delighted and we can help you.”

“So here’s the film to set the scene and really show you what the cause is all about and the difference you can make by being a part of it. Thanks”

<Aviva/Railway Children promotional video plays>

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…Key Partner Conference and 110 Conference were great highlights for me, I just think they, in the toughest of years with our brokers they highlighted the strengths of the relationships are still there and that those relationships are still working for us and that we have come through some really tough times together and those relationships are stronger than ever.

John – Highlight has to be the re-brand obviously we re-branded and if anybody, if anybody watching this blog doesn’t know…we’re Aviva and we changed our name from Norwich Union, well shame on you really! Shame on the audience, if you’re watching audience, shame on you!  And actually I think, you can sense that the whole of the UK population knows we’re Aviva and Norwich Union is packed into the history of insurance companies.

What was the funniest moment of 2009?

Janice – Mine was the ‘Gingergate episode’ at the 110 conference that was my funniest moment of all the things and all the videos.

John – I do remember that actually…gingergate!

Janice – and that actually…(laughs) Gingergate!

*Clip of Gingergate episode from 110 Conference*

What are your biggest hopes for 2010?

John – My biggest hope for 2010 is that Aviva recovers from my departure

*Janice laughs*

John – and can carry on being the thrusting successful organisation that it has become in the last year since it was re-branded. That’s definitely my hope for 2010.

Janice – My biggest hope for 2010 is that the optimism I feel now, the first week in January, sort of comes to fruition, not just for Aviva but actually for generally in the world outside and the economy and that we start to see some real traction and improvement, because that effects lots of peoples lives and I love this time of year its actually a time of optimism, part of the year where you can be optimistic around the rest of the year so that’s what I’m hoping for and obviously that we recover from Johns departure.

*Janice laughs*

John – because yours was a really serious hope wasn’t it – really quite deep and profound about optimism and world recovery! Mine was a little glib comment about…

Janice interrupts – that’s because I’m staying and you’re going!

John – true true true true.

What can brokers expect from Aviva in 2010?

Janice – it won’t be quite so colourful with John not around but I think pretty much brokers can expect that the most important thing is our relationship and that will just continue, there’s no doubt that 2009 was a tough year, 2010 might be tough as well, but we are in it together and that’s what they will see in 2010. I don’t see that changing I see, more of you know, the same working together to get through the tough times and hopefully that’s what they’ll say they have seen this year.

Janice, what will you miss the most and least about John?

Janice – What I’ll miss most is that fact that he makes me laugh so much when bad days are bad can always have 5 minutes therapy and always make me laugh.

John interrupts – and you have had lots of bad days!

Janice – what I’ll miss least. What will I miss least?

John Interrupts – there isn’t anything can we cut this out!? There won’t be anything to say!

*Janice laughs*

John – I do annoy her when I chase her up on stuff – she hates being chased up..so whoevers..Yeah..She hates being chased up on stuff..”so how you doing with that”?  ”ill tell you when I tell you!!!”..

Janice – mmm I do yeah..its email traffic generation aswell – you generate a lot of traffic…laughs….thanks I don’t sound like that!?

John – no no – a bit deeper!

*Janice Laughs*

John, What will you miss the most about Janice?

John – About Janice? …..*Long pause*

3 hours later

*longer pause…Janice laughs*

John – I think I’ll definitely miss the friendship actually because whilst we work together, I don’t think, we don’t work together as, I tend to be like that anyway but I can be like that more with Janice than anybody else, we tend not to work, although she’s effectively in my team or whatever or as I was the Sales and Marketing… its not like that – it is just as the blog says – its Janice and John

…and what will you miss about the broker world?

John – I’ll miss the gossip and in the insurance world in the broker world I love (as I was new to it in 2006) love the little bits of gossip and you get Insurance Times ringing me up or Post Mag ringing me up for some off the record gossip or I ring them and give them off the record gossip or the press office and individual brokers ring me up and say “have you heard about this?. What about that? What do you think?” I like that stuff…

Janice interrupts – yeah probably more in the broker world than any other world.

John – I do like to. Oh its fantastic in the broker world – its all about personality and individuals so there is always some little tittle tattle thing going on (Janice laughs and agrees) either at me or Janice or Igal or David or Towergate or small broker, big broker or all those things – I’ll miss that..I’ll miss that definitely.

Any New Year’s resolutions?

Janice – No I never make new years resolutions

John interrupts– really don’t you? Why not, need to give you some!

Janice – No never I just find them so repetitive…

John – Hello..I mean look at your appraisal – you have loads of things to be doing!

*Janice laughs*

John – I would always make one or two and they I would always..if I make one I do it otherwise what’s the point? And my central resolution this year is simply make the most of the opportunity in front of me because, I’ve never not worked and I’m not going to work I’m going to write and fish and ‘stuff’ yeah..so just make the most of it – don’t sit in front of the telly watching the Jeremy Kyle show because that is such a waste of a life and I’ll be really angry with myself if that’s what I do…

Anything else you would like to add?

John – yes I think that this is the last time that I’m going to be doing a blog anymore, I wont be doing the next video blog and I think it’s the apt time to handover the legacy…laughs..the apt time to say the baton has changed from me to Janice

*John hands Janice a notebook…*

Janice – Thank you *laughs*

John – There’s nothing in it!

Janice – I know! I’m used to that

John – There’s no wise words of wisdom

Janice – I wasn’t expecting any!

John – It just says in there its bloody hard work! So good luck

Janice – Thanks – So that’s it for now – this is the last time that John and I will be doing the first and last video blog together and if you have got any questions/comments – you liked it/hated it – then you know drop us a line or give us a call.

John – I liked it actually, I liked it..

Janice – you liked what?

John – I liked it, thought it was very good

Janice – right. *laughs*

John – that’s my comment! *laughs*

Janice – thanks…forever he has to get the last word!

John – Cheerio…bye bye *laughs*

Janice – Bye *laughs*

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

As the world departs for its annual hols you’re stuck with me again, sorry! John is off for a few weeks, and so are many others, and I’m planning to enjoy the peace and quiet.

There’s a reason I always work through August (other than the fact that John and Igal go on hols), it’s easier to park at the train station, the trains and roads are less busy, emails quieten down a bit, and I generally get more done and have a bit more time to think and reflect. The one downside is braving the streets at lunchtime to buy a sandwich and encountering all those normally at school!

This August I have much to ponder. I find it scary that time just goes too quickly, it doesn’t seem like 5 minutes since I was saying the same thing last August as I waved them all off on their hols. I’m amazed just how much things change from one year to the next and how much things stay the same.

For example this time last year we were Norwich Union, soon to be Aviva.

This time the year before that, we were Norwich Union, an Aviva company.

This time 9 years ago we were, Norwich Union, part of CGNU.

And this time 200 years ago (before my time I might add, just in case there’s any doubt) we were Norwich Union Fire Society writing general insurance business.

So why am I pondering this now, none of which is new news?

Well as I shared my news about our forthcoming TV ads last week, the feedback was great and I revelled in it, but one broker got me thinking….

‘Great job on the rebrand Janice ……but don’t forget your roots……more importantly make sure your customers know about your roots’.

And this broker could be right. We are proud of the rebrand, proud of the new things we’re starting to deliver, knowing that we’ve only just started and have some big promises to live up to.

We’re also proud of more than 200 years of heritage, years and years of experience, thousands of long term relationships that have made us number 1 insurer in the UK, and proud of our deep, deep roots.

On 1 June, we became Aviva – the new name for Norwich Union, and that last bit is something we don’t want to forget. June already seems like ages ago, but it was the start not the end of becoming Aviva, and we know that we’ll be judged on what we do, every day, with every broker and every customer, and that’s what will make the Aviva brand something to be proud of.

We are Aviva, the new name for Norwich Union, hugely proud of our heritage, and aspiring to create an even better one.

It’s mid year appraisal time, as you can imagine appraisals with John are a bit different, mine went something like this

John: Looking back on the last 6 months what are the headlines

Me: Well relationships with consolidators seem to be a continued  theme, have we fallen out with them, are we making friends with them, even when nothing’s happening it’s forever in the headlines……

John: Mmmm, wasn’t quite what I meant by headlines but as we’re on that theme, we got good some good coverage on the rebrand

Me: We did and 110 club and our launch of broker independence group made a splash…. anything that has the words Aviva, love and brokers in it will always get my vote

John: You have to take the rough with the smooth though, a few weeks ago ‘Kitson slams claims farming’ was a tad over zealous

Me: Yeah but I quite liked ‘the Awakening Giant’, do you think we’d be classed as wide awake by now?

John: Don’t get carried away with you’re own PR love, but if we’re reminiscing I did like me and you being described as ‘Strike Force’

Me: Yeah but some might say more like ‘left back in the dressing room’

John: Very funny!  There’s always the question about who we love the most big, small, BIG who happen to be small!

Me: True but the headlines won’t determine whether brokers feel loved or not, that’s more about what we do everyday

John: That’s true, so if you could choose a headline that marks the next 6 months what would it be?

Me: If only I got to choose the headlines! What about ‘Aviva loves brokers of all shapes and sizes’

John: Well I like it but it’s not really controversial enough to make the headlines

Me: How about ‘John and Janice’ what a couple

John: A couple of what?

Me: You’ve got an answer for everything, seriously though if I could really choose a headline that marks the next 6 months it would be what I said to the team last week.

John: What was that then?

Me: I told them that ‘July will be the month that the competition gets worried about Aviva’.

John: Great headline, what’s the story?

Me: We’ve been making lives a bit too easy for the first half of the year, not anymore.

John: Here’s to writing your own headlines!

I joined the company that was last week rechristened Aviva 9 years and 2 months ago, 6 weeks after the CGU, NU merger was announced. You could say I never really belonged to a “legacy company”. As my colleagues swore allegiance to General Accident, CU, NU and L&E, it was really clear to me that people form allegiances to brands over many years and real passion and loyalty underpins these allegiance.

I’ve been reflecting on this over the past week, in which we became a global one under the Aviva brand…

Now those of you who know me will know that I can be a bit emotional, laugh a lot and shed the odd tear or two or three or four. I don’t mind saying that out loud, or even writing it down, even in an industry maybe not always renowned for its emotion.

In Aviva last week, emotion was everywhere you looked.

There was emotion when the Aviva flag was raised above the building in Surrey Street in Norwich.

I had a tear in my eye, not because of the lovely yellow flag, the gust of wind that lifted it at just the right point on a very still day, or even because of Igal’s poignant words shared through a loudhailer. The tears were because of the thousand or more people who stood on Surrey Street in the sunshine, cheering and whooping as the Aviva flag went up. And I know this emotion was shared all around the UK, as the teams in Perth were welcomed into the building by pipers and as individual teams around the UK did things that were personal to them to mark the occasion.

There was emotion last week from the broker who wrote to John and I and said…

“…although the world has got used to big name changes over recent years, I think your style has been extraordinary… thank you for what you are doing to support the “local” broker.  It continues to be such a pleasure dealing with your local people here, supported by your HQ”.

There was emotion last week all around at the many celebrations that went on around the company.

I was invited to join an after work “Aviva day” celebration with one of my teams. The passion and laughter was palpable. To say they had embraced Aviva day was an understatement.  I was asked to judge a contest to determine who was wearing the most unique yellow item to celebrate Aviva day, the winner I chose wore custard……

The buzz around our teams last week was phenomenal, the passion, allegiance and loyalties transferring to a new brand, seemingly, almost impossibly stronger than before. This hasn’t happened by accident, we’ve worked so hard to make this the case, and I so know it’s the start of the journey not the end. The challenge now is keeping the spirit of 1 June alive, and living up to our promises to our people, because if our staff feel this good about Aviva then our customers, brokers and partners who they deal with everyday will feel it too.

Janice xxx

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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 ………

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The yellow and green party poppers will have long been swept into the bin…………
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The Norwich Union creased flags and rusty signs will be gathering dust…………
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The Norwich Union headed paper will have long been recycled alongside thousands and thousands of brochures………
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The Norwich Union Antiques Roadshow will have long finished its tour and the 1857 policy wording and the 1935 lollipop will be lovingly stored in the vaults………………………
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The Norwich Union adverts in the press will be no more………
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The Norwich Union “Quote me happy” advertising will be consigned to the history books ……………………
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The Norwich Union email addresses will take you to nowhere………………………
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The great things about Norwich Union have to live on………………
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And the great new things that rise out of Aviva have to breathe new life into us ………
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Today, as Aviva in the UK jumps officially over the starting line ………
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………………its a new day………its a new dawn……its a new life ………for us ……
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……………………………………and we’re feeling good …………

It’s 7 weeks since I wrote my first ever blog, it hasn’t turned me into a blog addict, a ‘Twitterer’ or a ‘Facebook’ regular. I like talking too much to ever do all my communications via virtual means, any of you who’ve met me will know that to be the case.

Over the last many, many weeks of our rebrand, regular readers of this blog will have heard it all…..the biggest and best rebrand ever, how much we are or aren’t spending, the TV ads, the things we’re excited about doing differently like Fast Trade, I could go on and on. So rather than wax lyrical about the next big thing we’re doing, I thought I’d share a story from my holiday.

Last week, me and my long-suffering hubby took my Mum and my in-laws away to Sardinia for a few days (brave I know). My father-in-law is a lovely man, we get on really well, he’s never short of an opinion and neither am I. The sun shone, we all relaxed and one night after dinner and a few glasses of wine, as so often is the case with friends and family these days, he brought up the subject of the rebrand, and specifically the TV ads. The conversation went something like this:

Him: Those ads are really good, you did well to get all those famous people.

Me: They’ve certainly made an impact, everyone you speak to mentions them.

Him: Yeah, pity you couldn’t get the real Bruce Willis though.

Me: What do you mean we couldn’t get the real Bruce Willis?

Him: Well he’s obviously a look-alike.

Me: Of course he’s not a look-alike, he’s the real Bruce Willis!

Him: No he’s not, he doesn’t even look like Bruce Willis, and he certainly doesn’t sound like him.

Me: It is Bruce Willis, we wouldn’t go to all that trouble and get a look-alike!

Him: No it’s not, whoever made those ads is having you on!

…and so it went on.

The conversation lasted for about ten minutes, the one thing you should know about my father-in-law is he’s never wrong. In all the conversations, opinions, jokes, challenges and stuff that I’ve heard about the rebrand this one is my most memorable, I was even doubting myself by the end of it, started to doubt whether we really had the real Bruce Willis in our ads, and to top it all I was on my holidays trying to escape all this.

There is a moral to this story for me, though I struggled to find it for a while. That is love it or hate it very few people haven’t heard about the Aviva rebrand, there is no escape even on your holidays.

So what profound learning did I take from all this? Well never argue with my father-in-law when he’s had a few, for one.

The other thought I had is that the hard work is nearly done but the really hard work is only just beginning. Why? Well there is no doubt that awareness and recognition of the rebrand is high. And as the memory of Bruce and his look-alike fades, the real test of the rebrand begins. Now is when we need to prove that we are different. That Fast Trade really is the best small business package offer in the market. That our new personal lines offer for brokers will really knock your socks off. That our people really see and live the new brand and you feel it when you deal with them. That our life blood is our relationships with brokers of all shapes and sizes and that we listen and respond to what you need as individual brokers.

So if I sum it all up, we aspire to be more than just a look-alike and now is the time to prove it.

Janice Deakin is Corporate Sales Director of Norwich Union

“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.
“Change and dump are not the same…in anyone’s language…and language is very important…”

“Okay, okay, calm down…it’s only a name change…”

“Only a name change…ONLY A NAME CHANGE…! It’s one of the biggest Financial Services rebrands ever undertaken…and I quote from “The Times”…(not the “Norwich Times” but “The Times” – an icon, a paragon of intellectually sharp journalism)…They said, “the slickest corporate rebrand in history”…Yes, history… not this year…not this century…but forever…that is not just a name change…!”

It got a bit more heated…more snippy…it happens…comes with the territory…when you stick your neck out etc.

Jibes …digs …snippy comments…not always grasping the big picture…not always understanding the global jigsaw puzzle that I have in front of me …not knowing the strategising that goes on…not knowing the effort and energy that’s gone into getting that “slickest in history” comment.

But hey…she calmed down and apologised if her comments had been misinterpreted as a dig…we smiled…we were off for lunch. That’s married life for you …

“Sensitive … moi”