Berkeley Alexander
About spotlight
Spotlight Consulting is a specialist insurance PR agency. For more than 20 years it has been wholly dedicated to the insurance industry, providing senior counsel and managing the communications and PR for a broad range of insurance companies, big and small. Clients have included Sterling Insurance, TEn Insurance, Jackson Lee Underwriting, Hyperion, AXA Commercial, Bexhill, Aventum, Movo Partnership and Berkeley Alexander, to name a few. It is a full service agency offering strategic communications planning, implementation including media relations, measurement and evaluation, PR coaching and perception audits.
The Issues
Spotlight Consulting managed the PR and communications for Berkeley Alexander, a wholesale general insurance provider and part of the Ardonagh Group, for just over a decade.
The objective was to support the general insurance sales and marketing effort to raise its profile primarily amongst the mortgage broker market through a combination of media relations and, more recently, comprehensive social media outreach.
Key objectives were to:
- Position Berkeley Alexander as a leading provider of GI to the intermediary mortgage market through targeted message delivery in press coverage
- Raise the profile of the Chairman, Geoff Hall, as an expert in GI through media commentary
- Raise the profile of Berkeley Alexander through increased and ongoing presence in the main trade publications and social media
- Support the sales and marketing to contribute to sales uplift
- Protect and maintain Berkeley Alexander’s positive reputation through proactive PR, and responsive monitoring of external channels
- Prove ROI and maintain continuous improvement through monthly social media analytics and annual evaluation of press coverage
The Solution
Spotlight developed a strategic communications plan closely aligned to Berkeley Alexander’s business objectives. All tactical activity was plotted into a pipeline, clearly indicating the news, views and media engagement planned every month. In addition to planning and implementing the pipeline, Spotlight also successfully secured and maintained monthly columns for the Chairman Geoff Hall, in all three of the leading mortgage intermediary magazines. Spotlight generated the ideas and drafted the copy for these columns every month.
Spotlight is a specialist insurance PR agency, but the target publications involved have meant that it has also over the years developed a specialist knowledge of the mortgage market press – particularly in relation to general insurance. We know the journalists and the key publications, and we understand the media agenda.
Spotlight created standout social media campaigns for Berkeley Alexander from scratch, building its Twitter and LinkedIn platform profiles, providing plans, content, scheduling, implementation and measurement. It integrated the social media activity with the PR and marketing activity for a fully integrated campaign.
The Results
The programme and its results clearly demonstrate ongoing innovation and creativity to identify fresh angles every month, to write compelling content that delivers real value. Results also show expertise in PR to maintain key media relationships and retain the regular monthly columns; specialist knowledge of the GI sector; tireless service and tangible evidence of success, both in the resulting press coverage, and in its contribution to the ongoing financial success of Berkeley Alexander.
The Metrics
PR value from media relations can be measured in various ways, through perception audits and surveys through to the more traditional press coverage measurements such as target audience reach, message delivery and volume. Social media has additional metrics that can be tracked to demonstrate increased awareness and profile including the engagement rate, numbers of followers, likes and shares or retweets for example.
