Building on our success.Communicating our future.BGL Group Communications Strategy 2013-2017

More than just a number

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More than just a number

Building on our success.

BGL Group is one of the UK’s most successful diversified personal insurance businesses, with a roster of brands that touches millions of consumers via trusted intermediaries and direct channels. Growth-led since our inception over 20 years ago, our ambitions for future expansion and excellence are as fresh as they are challenging.

Our evolution into a family of B2B and B2C brands across the protection and legal sectors, powered by our own in-house contact centre, has created a diverse array of audiences to reach – with an ever-growing internal audience of staff and stakeholders.

As we power the next phase of our development, it’s never been more important to ensure that stakeholders understand the strategy that lives at the heart of our Group. That colleagues actively see the bigger picture and buy-in to what we are setting out to achieve. And that our entire organisation is aligned and motivated to help us win.

Communicating our future.Our six core communication principles.

A Big Idea at the heart of our communicationsAt the heart of every truly effective communication strategy is a Big Idea, simply expressed. So we’ll take our purpose – to add value and create prosperity – and make it easy to express across our organisation and beyond, as part of a powerful messaging platform. It should be easy to understand, easy to retain and, above all, easy to act upon.

Communicated using the right channels at the right timeWe’ll use the most relevant ways to reach our audiences, boosting interactivity and two-way communications by making better use of all the channels available today. And we’ll never stop being a one-to-one business that prides itself on a human approach - building on the success of our personal touch.

Flexed to all our audiences–We’ll create a dedicated messaging platform to reach all the groups and teams in our business – as well as external stakeholders - speaking with one unified voice which can flex to reflect our many different roles and functions, and make our big idea (as well as our vision and values) tangible to each audience group.

Tracked by real time comms and culture measurementAll the way, we’ll measure the effectiveness of our communications and the health of our brand on a real time ‘dashboard’ that captures the existing Pulse survey and adds new digital initiatives to provide a valuable overview on demand.

Wrapped in a powerful and distinctive visual Group brandA single, strong, modern and recognisable Group brand will unify our Group-wide communications and bring us together as we grow – underpinning our many different operating brands and channels with real clarity and consistency. And enabling us to demonstrate how our separately-branded business activities are all part of one family.

All delivered a highly engaging way–We’re a business that works hard, celebrates success and likes to have fun on the way. So we’ll use the full range of contemporary tools, techniques and messages to build a truly vibrant internal culture that people want to connect with, engage with, belong to... and recommend. It’s the common thread that runs through everything we say and do, in every channel.

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Reaching our audiences.At BGL, we have a diverse group of audiences to reach, motivate and inspire – from our 3000 talented people to our insurers, partners and potential employees. What do we mean to them? And how should our Big Idea resonate with them? No two audiences are exactly alike. From location to motivation and relationship to understanding, each has subtly different expectations of our Group. So it’s vitally important that we understand who they are, how best to reach and engage them, and how to bring our vision and values to life in a way that will truly strike a chord with them.

External Stakeholders

Our internal stakeholders include all the people who make our business tick and turn its potential into future success – our staff. Sometimes we’ll need to talk to them all, together as one Group, with one powerful and unified motivational message. There are other occasions when we’ll make our Group comms live and breathe on a more personal level. We’ll talk to our people in targeted groups to translate our overarching Group messages – from strategy to our values – into tailored pieces of communication. We’ll also deliver our Leadership Behaviours in a more relevant and thought-provoking way.

Our external stakeholders live outside our Group structure, but many are vital players in our ‘extended family’ of insurers and suppliers. All need to know who we are, what we do – and of the vital role we play in the market on a B2B and B2C level. Prospective employees need to feel inspired by our culture and understand that we’re a rewarding place to build a career. All need to form a constructive view of us: a growing, ambitious Group with a positive contribution to make in the wider community.

Regulators, Shareholders and SuppliersOut of scope

Internal Stakeholders

- All Employees- Call Centre Staff (Fusion)- Managers- Senior Managers- Directors

- Potential Employees- Insurers and Partners- Community (including media, opinion formers and our charity/CSR partners)

A big idea at the core of our communications.

Adding Value, Creating Prosperity.

Every successful brand has a Big Idea at its heart. One that captures the attention, crystallises the brand purpose and communicates it clearly and simply.

To bring our Group brand to life, we say that we’re

Our idea describes what we what do in nutshell. It communicates our essence: entrepreneurial, innovative, competitive and enduring. It reflects the values we stand for. It underpins what we’re committed to doing now – and will continue to do in the future: Adding value for customers and shareholders. Creating prosperity for employees, partners and our wider community.

By consistently putting this idea at the core of what we say and do, we’ll ensure that we develop one integrated Group brand for all our audiences: cohesive, aligned and focused on the future.

A messaging platform relevant to all our audiences.To enable us to deliver more targeted messages to our diverse internal and external audiences, we have developed a powerful but flexible messaging platform that’s driven by our Big Idea and also embraces our vision, values and leadership behaviours - all delivered in our direct and dynamic tone of voice.

Our platform works on a number of different levels. And by applying the right message in the most appropriate channels at the right time, we’ll be better able to connect with and motivate as part of one integrated Group – and we’ll always make clear that ‘Adding Value, Creating Prosperity’ is the DNA that’s woven through our entire organisation.

Messaging platform.

Our core objective is to ensure people understand us and are motivated to help us win. There are 3 streams of communications needed to make this happen:

Educate & Explain: tell people who we areTell people what ‘adding value, creating prosperity’ means to us, and what that means for them.

Collaborate: help people play their partCreating content and training which makes it clear to everyone what their role is in supporting our vision.

Motivate and reward: inspire them to get involved Encouraging people to engage at an individual level with ‘adding value, creating prosperity’.

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Audit.BGL_BRAND AUDIT

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BGL_BRAND AUDITHR COMMSINDUCTION BOARDS

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Audit.BGL_BRAND AUDIT

HR COMMSINDUCTION BOARDS

HEALTH COMMS

BENEFITS

INTERNAL DIGITAL

INTRANET

PRINTED COLLATERAL PROMOTIONS EVENTS

CSR

THE WIRE

CONNECT

DESKTOP WALLPAPERS

DIGITAL BANNERS

FUN DAYSPOSTER SITES ANNUAL AWARDS BALL OTHER EVENTS

ANNUAL REPORTENVIRONMENT EXTERNAL DIGITAL

WEBSITE

EMAILS

BGL_BRAND AUDITHR COMMSINDUCTION BOARDS

HEALTH COMMS

BENEFITS

INTERNAL DIGITAL

INTRANET

PRINTED COLLATERAL PROMOTIONS EVENTS

CSR

THE WIRE

CONNECT

DESKTOP WALLPAPERS

DIGITAL BANNERS

FUN DAYSPOSTER SITES ANNUAL AWARDS BALL OTHER EVENTS

ANNUAL REPORTENVIRONMENT EXTERNAL DIGITAL

WEBSITE

EMAILS

Audit.BGL_BRAND AUDIT

HR COMMSINDUCTION BOARDS

HEALTH COMMS

BENEFITS

INTERNAL DIGITAL

INTRANET

PRINTED COLLATERAL PROMOTIONS EVENTS

CSR

THE WIRE

CONNECT

DESKTOP WALLPAPERS

DIGITAL BANNERS

FUN DAYSPOSTER SITES ANNUAL AWARDS BALL OTHER EVENTS

ANNUAL REPORTENVIRONMENT EXTERNAL DIGITAL

WEBSITE

EMAILS

Creative.

Creative.

The channels we’ll use to deliver our message.Our leaders Our senior leadership team play a valuable and high profile role inside our organisation – and it’s one that should be intensified in the future. From face-to-face welcome meetings with new joiners to being a physical presence whenever we celebrate our successes, they are key to engendering a positive, growth-driven culture across our organisation – and helping unify and align our different businesses.

InternetOur public internet channel is key to our external digital communications – and is our Group brand ‘cheerleader’ - so it needs a strong voice. As a Group, we need to make a definitive statement of who we are and what we stand for, as well as reflecting our incredible story of growth and innovation over the last 20 years. And because we have something valuable to say, we will develop engaging new content to truly bring our brand together online.

IntranetOur staff intranet should be more than an internal information resource. We will make the most of its potential to reach into all corners of our organisation and unite our teams by becoming a content-rich destination and directory, complete with social spaces, collaboration tools and a constantly updated Group brand hub.

EmailOur email channel has the potential to impactful, interactive and immediate, but it competes with all the other email communications that colleagues handle on a daily basis – so it needs to stand out.Carefully targeting and segmenting our audience groups, we will use email when we have something timely and relevant to say, when we’re looking to build dialogue, or where an immediate response is needed.

MobileOur audiences are increasingly choosing mobile as their channel of choice – so we will be there in depth, optimising our internet and intranet content to seamlessly work in a mobile world, and working harder to reach and engage audiences who don’t have conventional desk-based roles.

Social channelsLike today’s best connected organisations, we will develop a more positive and robust presence in social channels, from Twitter to LinkedIn, with timely and relevant messages that stimulate dialogue with our audiences and build better relationships.

PrintWe’ll continue to use the print channel by developing innovative new ways to engage our audiences, and new formats to surprise and delight. We will work to develop eye-catching pieces like brand books with a premium, quality finish that clearly communicates that we are investing in our brand, as well as a range of contemporary internal comms materials that are crafted with all the care and attention of our ATL advertising.

EventsWe’ll use events – both in our owned spaces and at inspiring external venues – to help raise the bar in our communications. Themed around our Big Idea and our vision and values, we will invite high profile guest speakers to embed a culture of team building and thought leadership.

We will also work closely with HR to develop a range of brand workshops to engage and inform internal audiences – ensuring that they have the knowledge and tools they need to become passionate brand advocates.

Interior environmentsOur interiors should be more than bland office spaces – they are blank canvases waiting to become motivational brand spaces. So we’ll brand our meeting rooms as well as high footfall areas (such as kitchens, canteens and reception areas) with thought-provoking messages that drive a sense of greater belonging.

Brand ChampionsOur best people are our greatest resource, so we’ll put them to work on behalf of our brand. We’ll appoint dozens of ‘Brand Champions’ from across our organisation and give them the tools and training they need to become our powerful internal advocates, helping manage our brand implementation, running workshops and energising local teams.

Communication channel matrix.

Delivering the strategy

A final thought.

Imagine if we could take our Big Idea and translate it into everyday, conversational language. How would it sound? How might it feel?

We think there’s a different way of saying it that’s clearer, simpler and more emotive. And it will help us to connect with and engage our audiences in a more human way.

We could say that we’re dedicated to...

Making people better off.