When ACE European Group, part of the global insurance and reinsurance brand, launched a European magazine and bespoke microsite for clients and prospects, engagement across the continent was vital to its success.

Senior board level individuals within multinationals are an exacting readership, so when ACE European Group launched a client magazine for them it needed careful targeting to meet their needs. In addition, Miles Russell, former European communications director, says: “Within many client companies we have a relationship with a single line of business, so the objective was to raise awareness of the breadth of our offering, our understanding of the issues these companies face, and our position as a truly global organisation.”

The end result, Progress, strikes the right note through carefully conceived content, put together by Grist. Subjects in the first two issues have included managing global programmes, expansion in new territories including Russia and Turkey, and in-depth interviews with Professor Stéphane Garelli of IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland and Marie Gemma Dequae, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School in Belgium.

Beyond communications

The use of subject specialist journalists from across the continent meant their local expertise, in addition to their understanding of risk, brought additional independent authority to the pieces. However, for the magazine to have resonance as truly pan-European, ACE employees from more than 20 offices needed to be involved. This included communications specialists from across Europe contributing to editorial meetings, suggesting topics with European resonance, and local clients for inclusion.

The communications team also had to secure buy-in from the broader business for the project. “The business needed to drive this. It couldn’t just be the communications department, because we need input from the specialists. They are the ones who know the brokers and clients and can encourage the input a magazine like this requires,” Russell says.

Building engagement

Initially this buy-in wasn’t easy to secure. Russell says: “To begin with we had more engagement from colleagues in the UK, which meant it was easier to source internal spokespeople and client involvement in the UK. However, we persevered to achieve a balance in the first issue, and once we had that, it helped people see what we were trying to do, and it has improved participation from across the continent.”

One thing supporting growing engagement across the business has been the success of the first two issues. Russell is planning to conduct formal research into the effectiveness of the magazine after the next issue, but in the interim ad hoc feedback has been strong. He says: “We wanted it to be striking, to reflect the style and nature of ACE and we wanted it to be contemporary and appealing. We are pleased with the end result. We produced the first issue for a high-profile launch at the FERMA conference in Prague, a major industry event, and we had very good feedback.”

Online solutions

The online version of the magazine was vital in offering distribution that seamlessly crosses borders. Grist produced a microsite, with a bespoke online library of all previous issues. It offers interactive links, embedded video and research insights. It also has useful tools allowing readers to ‘rate this article’ to provide feedback on the content, and allowing for individual features to be sent to a colleague in one click. Russell says: “It combines the interactivity of the web with the engagement of a client magazine and is an effective way of building relationships.”

Securing engagement across the business for the project may not have been without its challenges, but in rising to this challenge, Progress is making a significant difference to engagement among ACE clients and prospects across Europe. Kadidja Sinz, sales and distribution manager, says: “Showing our commitment to understand the broad risk management issues, taking a local and global approach at the same time, has been the main ingredient of what we believe has been a successful launch.”