Yesterday, NRMA Insurance announced its new brand positioning, “A Help Company.” As you’d expect, there was a big hero film, striking new digital and out-of-home (OOH) assets and a no-brainer partnership with Channel Nine’s Olympics coverage to make sure that the word gets to every single person in the country.
But there’s plenty more to NRMA Insurance’s new brand positioning than meets the eye. In fact, it’s one of a series of strategic moves by chief customer and marketing officer Michelle Klein and the rest of the company, rethinking how it approaches marketing as a function and the traditional CMO role.
That process started back in 2021, when Julie Batch, after some 15 years with the company was appointed CEO. When Klein was appointed chief customer and marketing officer in June last year, NRMA Insurance took another step on the journey, bringing her 10-year experience in Silicon Valley with Meta with her. In March, it took another big step when Bear Meets Eagle on Fire was replaced with Accenture Song as its lead creative agency.
“If I go back to why I joined her [Batch’s] vision is to have customer and marketing together and that will influence a whole set of experiences that are more meaningful for customers,” she explained to B&T.
“She was the champion, ultimately, to enable this way of working to come to life.”
NRMA Insurance is not positioning itself as “A Help Company” to consumers, either. Klein said that there was “a lot of internal excitement” about the new positioning as its staff, whether they’re in sales, complaints or her own team, have “a single question that they can ask themselves”.
“It’s quite a galvanising internal idea, as well as it having a net-positive benefit for our customers if everyone is thinking that way,” she continued.
What is perhaps more impressive, though, is the process of arriving at “A Help Company” and its filtration through the strata of a company the size of NRMA Insurance took just four months.
“When we met and saw the idea, it didn’t start with the ad. In fact, we didn’t see it until quite late in the process. It started with a universal platform, experiences, interfaces, technology and physical ideas. That is what they brought to us when we met with David Droga, Nick Law, Neil Heymann, Mark Green and Barbara Humphries. If I go back to my time in Silicon Valley, we used to say that you build your ideas customer-first and that means not necessarily the TV ad,” she said.
“That was really refreshing.”
Those experiences include exploring new technology to help customers with tricky tasks such as checking the condition of their roof. And, according to Klein, that isn’t a stunt, that seemingly flash experience is based on customer insights. Similarly, its policy snapshot experience provides helpful information on its policies.
But being “A Help Company” extends beyond offering new ways for punters to check in on the condition of their assets — according to Klein, it involves being active in politics and broader society.
Earlier this year, she described the approach she was looking to transform IAG’s (parent company of NRMA Insurance) marketing with “acts, not ads” and the various brands are starting to follow through on that promise.
“If you think about the work we did in partnership with the Courier Mail in Queensland to advocate for fixing the Bruce Highway, that was a wonderful demonstration of help and an extension of the idea. Together with News Corp, we pulled focus onto a major problem that Australians face,” said Klein.
“We saw an amazing and immediate response from the government in terms of the funding that they put forward as a result of that campaign.”
This approach, Klein said, takes a broader look at the problems that customers face — not just unintelligible policy documents but problems that the business alone cannot solve. Whether that will see them dive head-first into political hot potatoes such as the causes of climate change — particularly with an election looming — remains to be seen.
Until then, however, NRMA Insurance needs to get the word out. And what better way to do that than with a major Olympics and Paralympics partnership with Channel Nine?
“It’s a great way for us to be able to leverage the focus and attention of all Australians in a sporting, universal moment. There is so much diversity and all these wonderful new sports being broadcast,” explained Klein.
NRMA Insurance’s new big spot will air during the Opening Ceremony coverage on Nine before flowing on from there with “high-leverage opportunities to get as many eyeballs as possible” on the campaign, such as the Hour of Power that airs from 7-8pm every night.
Now that certainly is helpful.
