What’s your name and position within the organisation?
My name is Caroline Topps and I am the Brand & Sponsorship Manager at AIG Life.
I’ve worked in marketing roles across a variety of industries including; insurance, healthcare, heritage and publishing. I currently lead on all things brand and sponsorship for AIG Life including activation of our rugby, golf and charity partnerships.
Give us a brief overview of AIG as a company in general and your approach to sponsorship and partnerships specifically?
AIG Life is the UK life insurance arm of AIG, a leading international organisation serving over 88 million customers in more than 80 countries.
We’re experts in protection. We look after over 1.2 million people and we specialise in life insurance, income protection, critical illness cover and more. For us, protection products are about more than financial security. We help our customers and their families to live their healthiest lives, supporting them when they need us most. This is reflected in our culture – we believe that the best things we do in life, we do for others.
Here in the UK, we have access to fantastic globally managed partnerships which include; New Zealand Rugby’s All Blacks teams, Women’s Open golf tournament and the PGA golf tournament. All of these reflect our shared values of diversity and inclusion. With the All Blacks particularly reflecting our culture here at AIG Life of innovation, leadership and team.
What approach makes AIG’s sponsorship strategy unique? What is your USP/differentiator?
AIG Life has been active in the UK since 2016 selling protection products via financial advisers. Prior to 2018, we had not fully accessed the global partnerships – this was a key opportunity to unlock, and with it help grow our brand with consumers.
Our initial approach was simple – use the available assets with all UK audiences. We used talent as keynote speakers for industry events, gave away merchandise to employees and extended hospitality at match days to customers. We established sponsorship as a key marketing channel at AIG Life and made a strategic decision in 2019, pre the Rugby World Cup, to launch a sponsorship-led campaign aimed at consumers, over-heard by financial advisers called, This is for Them.
This is for Them turned fierce warriors into brothers and told a shared story of selflessness. AIG offers the one form of insurance that is about looking after others. Our products protect a customer’s future, family and finances and we know the best things in life we do others. The All Black’s mission ‘to leave the jersey in a better place’, made them the perfect storytellers for our campaign. Using a powerful partnership as inspiration we developed real, emotional content to reinvigorate the industry – and make AIG Life different to others.
What sporting teams and organisations does AIG partner with, and how do you go about deciding where to direct your sponsorships?
We have three major global partnerships:
- New Zealand Rugby – six All Black teams (official sponsor since 2012)
- Women’s Open – annual golf tournament hosted in the UK (official sponsor since 2019)
- PGA – official insurance partner of the PGA (since 2019)
AIG sponsors organisations that seek to build and secure a better future. We selectively sponsor organisations that share our values of diversity and inclusion.
How do you activate these partnerships? Has the emphasis of your activations changed in recent times?
We’re a rugby loving nation and the All Blacks are revered the world over, so engagement with our sponsorship of the team is strong.
Recent activations include – London Sevens match day box for customers, international match day tickets for employees, Sean Fitzpatrick and Sir Clive Woodward as keynote speakers at our annual awards. A highlight for me was extending the sponsorship to our children’s bereavement charity partner Winston’s Wish – children enjoyed an afternoon playing rugby with the Harlequins coaches and a surprise visit from All Blacks legend Richie McCaw. At all activations we capture content, maximising the value of the initiative and using the content on all our owned digital channels.
How has your sponsorship approach adapted to COVID-19 – have you launched any new initiatives to navigate this period?
We need to bridge between three continents – we’re the UK arm of an American business who sponsor a team in New Zealand. To maximize our assets, we must continue to find ways to engage with our local market.
This year, it was necessary to adapt what we had planned. One solution was to host an exclusive and live ‘Breakfast with the All Blacks’ webinar for 400 customers – including new captain Sam Cane. This was a great way to engage fans and to test virtual activation of the sponsorship assets. We continue to use social channels to share exclusive content, including the Women’s Open, which was played at Royal Troon this year without spectators – but enjoyed via televised coverage and digital content.
How do you measure marketing effectiveness? What metrics do you use – and how is your approach to this evolving?
We set metrics against our activations, and monitor our brand and sponsorship health with ongoing brand tracking amongst consumer and advisers.
This is for Them was Highly Commended at the 2020 Performance Marketing Awards, recognition of an effective and results-based delivery.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Whilst AIG is a huge and established global insurer, AIG Life is relatively new to the sponsorship market. I hugely value all the support and information I have been able to access through AIG global sponsorship teams and our industry partners such as Octagon, Caytoo and ESA.
