2013 Highly Commended: RSA, Marketing Leadership - case study

In 2011, it became clear that RSA’s marketing structure (with a large Group Corporate Centre Marketing function) was not delivering the desired results. The Group Marketing team struggled to serve and support our 33 global markets and the local businesses operated in silos, very independently, limiting opportunities for scalable capability development, best practice sharing and efficiency.
Our objectives were to:

• Add business value globally – improving financial performance and increasing efficiencies
• Leverage our existing pockets of marketing excellence to “raise the bar” across the board
• Improve working relationships and best practice sharing across global markets.

SCALE OF TASK

To achieve these objectives, the Group Marketing function was disbanded, and replaced with the global Marketing Centre of Excellence (MCoE). This group is comprised of leading marketers from the UK and leverages experts from across the globe. The team’s role is to help build skills globally by shaping and sharing best practices, and enabling cross-market dialogue. Dedicated MCoE consultants provide on-the-ground support to ensure it all gets put into practice. To date, they have delivered on 73 marketing programmes.

To achieve success, we needed to engage marketers and leaders from our 33 markets, to really understand their needs and regain trust. We put in place channels to uplift capability, support dialogue, and celebrate success. These include a blended learning programme –the RSA Marketing Academy – building skills through face-to-face and virtual learning, a newsletter and webinar programme, and an annual in-person conference.

KEY RESULTS

• Improved financial performance with marketing as a new key growth driver – helped deliver record Group results 2010 to 2011 – net written premium up 9%, underwriting result up 58% and improved Combined Operating Ratio of 94.9%
• Cost savings of £3 million achieved in Year 1
• Dedicated consultants delivered more than £2.8m of value in project results and consultancy value - target £1million
• Record employee engagement scores (UK 4.37 out of 5, up from 4.01 in 2010)

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