Why Allianz’s first repositioning in a decade is focused on ‘warmth’ not price

With its first campaign and repositioning for the UK market in over a decade, global insurer Allianz is on a mission to drive brand trust by showing a sense of “warmth”.

The ‘All’ brand repositioning – with the strapline of ‘All the experts you need. All together. Because it takes an Alliance to thrive’ – is aimed at a UK consumer market known for low levels of trust. This is a pivot for the insurer after years of focusing on a broker audience and commercial customers.

Allianz UK brand director, Carolyn Rich, explains the team is going through “a period of brand building” and tackling lower consideration in the UK, which meant localising the approach felt like the way forward.

“There’s global positioning that we have as Allianz as a brand, but we really wanted to make that resonate with the UK audience. So, we wanted to localise it while still being true to the brand,” says Rich.

Allianz new marketing role highlights ‘passion’ for brand

On her appointment to the newly created brand director last year – after more than 11 years with the business – Rich told Marketing Week her goal was “to do more to reach” consumers, which is what the ‘All the experts’ creative is hoping to achieve. At the start of last year the company introduced a series of new products, marketing and brand initiatives to establish itself in the UK personal insurance market.

“We’ve been on a bit of a journey,” she explains. “Coming back into the personal lines market under the Allianz brand was a key point for us, a turning point for us as an organisation. What we’ve seen are jumps in our brand health and our brand metrics since we started focusing on it.”

Allianz found consumers were feeling “vulnerable” in the age of cybercrime and high inflation, leading to trust in financial services falling to “the lowest” among any sector. This insight underscored the importance of seeking to “increase trust” in Allianz and the wider category.

“We reframe the role of insurer from policy seller to proactive partner and All the experts is offering a network of experts that will help consumers restore confidence and control,” says Rich.

Positioning ourselves as experts, and this group of people who can stand around the customer and protect them, is different.

Carolyn Rich, Allianz

The first phase of the campaign is aimed at raising awareness of Allianz as a car and home insurer, while the next phase will focus on its pet business.

The campaign accompanying the repositioning, developed by Edelman, includes a TV advert and wider activity stretching across the marketing mix.

“It’s not just putting our logo on things, but actually starting to show people what they can experience when they interact with Allianz,” Rich states.

She explains the targeting is “slightly different”, as the team looks to use a wider variety of TV programmes and ad breaks. The advert itself was designed with a view to cutting through in a “highly commoditised” insurance market and dialling up “the warmth around the Allianz brand”. According to Rich, the creative pre-tested “incredibly well” with a sample of 1,500 consumers.

When it comes to standing out in the wider market, Rich says the “warmth of the ad” and its storytelling will “add depth to the platform and all the advertising”, going against typical financial services marketing.

“We’re not just talking about price. A lot of adverts use the worst case scenario type thing where a claim happens, but us positioning ourselves as experts, and this group of people who can stand around the customer and protect them, is different,” she claims.

‘Add more depth’

A strategic goal is attracting consumers aged 30 to 50 to Allianz, which is a shift given the firm’s LV brand, for example, currently skews towards consumers aged 50 plus.

“We are looking at a younger audience with the Allianz brand and we know that it’s a brand that really resonates with the younger audience as well. So all of our tracking shows a much higher awareness and consideration in the 30 to 50 audience,” says Rich.

The team intend to use social media to reach this younger demographic. Organic content will be used to “start to tell the story”. Experts from within the company will also be profiled, while colleagues have been recruited internally to push employee-generated content.

“We’ve been using employees for a while in that way, because we think they’re some of our best advocates,” says Rich.

There’s global positioning that we have as Allianz as a brand, but we really wanted to make that resonate with the UK audience.

Carolyn Rich, Allianz

Alongside the new campaign, Allianz’s brand building journey spans multiple partnerships. The insurer’s partnership with the Rugby Football Union led to Twickenham being renamed the Allianz Stadium in September 2024. The brand is also an official supporter of the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, which concludes later this month (27 September).

Within audio, a recent partnership with Spotify allowed people to download a playlist at the right beats per minute to make them safe drivers.

Allianz is looking to measure awareness through reach and earned coverage, attitude via the Edelman Trust Barometer and consideration through consumer action. Consumer research is also “absolutely central”, according to Rich, who argues marketing has become “a lot more scientific” thanks to increased volumes of data.

“That’s just brilliant because it allows us to be really precise with our marketing, but it also allows us to optimise constantly,” she adds.

As data comes back from the first campaign rollout, Allianz plans to adapt the media mix to “add more depth” to the stories.