Aviva / Norwich Union
Project title: Repositioning Norwich Union
The brief
Norwich Union is the consumer brand of Aviva Group in the UK and the product of the merger of CGU and Norwich Union. We were appointed shortly after the merger, tasked with creating a new value set which encouraged both parts of the organisation to disconnect with the past and connect with the future. We also had to sensitively handle Norwich Union’s misconception that by continuing to use the Norwich Union brand name, the cultural issues would cease to exist.
The solution
Our approach was to generate an answer that worked from the inside out. We started the process with a series of internal gatekeeper and staff workshops to map out our end goal and identify the major issues that might impede our progress. These sessions involved staff from diverse disciplines, at all levels of both organisations.
Having engaged them at the outset it also became much easier to involve them later in the process to shape and validate our initial thinking. The end deliverable of our work was a value set and brand positioning that was used to brief the incumbent advertising agency and inform internal communications.
The results
Our work provided the foundations for the ‘Together we are stronger’ strap line and the subsequent advertising and communications programme. The organisation has now successfully merged culturally and a wealth of internal brand collateral was created, which was positively received by all staff.