Michelle Klein took the reins as chief customer and marketing officer of insurance group IAG just over a year ago and set out to reinvent what is so “magical” about help.
She said the team focused on its commitment to making things simpler and more efficient for customers.
“Our goal is to keep Australians feeling safe and help protect what really matters to them,” she told AdNews.
“When the worst happens we want people to get back on their feet as quickly as possible. We want to be the first in and last to leave.
“Brands are very good at saying what they stand for in their advertising, but it's harder to actually industrialise and manifest that.”
The company appointed creative agency Accenture Song as its end-to-end partner for NRMA Insurance.
“The new ‘help’ platform was a big part of my first year… and that helps us set up where we want to go in the future,” Klein said.
“We hired the best of the local Accenture song team, but we also went global because my view is that there's some great talent out there and good ideas can come from anywhere.
“We have an amazing community of talented people in this country, but there are also people outside in different parts of the Song family who could add to our ambition of being a brand that can really transcend the customer experience.
“A couple of the creatives and design people who live in the US happen to be Australian and we pulled them in to help us with specific issues like simple communication or design.”
Klein said it's important for everyone from the CEO to the frontline to be empathetic, vulnerable and supportive.
“You can't ask a customer what they need because they won't know but at the same time you don't go too far,” she said
“So it's about striking that balance between making sure you're climbing the expectations escalator and bringing new news that the next generation is feeling excited about.”
Roy Morgan named NRMA Insurance as Australia's most trusted insurance brand for the third year in a row.
Klein said the company is going from strength to strength as it approaches its 100th birthday.
“It’s great because a little company in Australia is really capturing the zeitgeist of the global narrative around insurance and the work that we're doing,” she said.
She said technology has moved swiftly post-pandemic, and so have customer expectations, meaning brands need to be continually evolving in order to keep up.
“The original predictions pre-pandemic was that it would take society around a decade to fully adopt some of the new technology,” she said.
“We were forced into an environment where we had no other way of connecting and for businesses to stay afloat.
Klein said her first 16 months in the role were full on but hopefully part of her lasting legacy.
She said NRMA Insurance’s partnership with Nine as the tier one broadcast partner for the Olympic and Paralympic Games has been key to her “year of transformation”.
“Advertising cannot alone change your business,” Klein said.
“You can be a big organisation that runs on tech and is really automated, but if your house has burnt down and you have nothing left, you need a human on the other side to help you through that.”
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