Insurance PR Case Study: SchemeServe
“Spotlight is an absolute pleasure to deal with. Nothing is too much trouble and most importantly, S-J and her team have revolutionised the amount of PR we are receiving. Their knowledge and contacts within the insurance industry are second to none and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Spotlight.” Ed Halsey, Head of Sales & Marketing, SchemeServe
The client
SchemeServe is an Insurtech company providing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), marketing support and consultancy to underwriting agencies, brokers and insurers. Specialising in launching, managing and growing specialist insurance products, its cloud-based platform is the home of hundreds of insurance schemes worldwide.
The brief
SchemeServe approached Spotlight Consulting in August 2015. At the time they had minimal external profile with no strategic PR programme. On an aggressive growth path, generating profile by issuing news and showcasing thought leadership would be essential to establishing and broadcasting its credibility and raising the profile of both the business and its senior management team.
The brief was therefore to raise the profile of the company and its senior management team, within specific trade and business publications with the ultimate objective of facilitating SchemeServe’s growth plans.
The plan
Starting with the basics we got to work on putting into place SchemeServe’s PR toolkit; key messages, press materials and forming stories which tied into key topics press would be covering over the coming months. In addition, we utilised our wide ranging knowledge of the market and the insurance trade publications to develop thought leadership angles that would not only hijack the news agenda but resonate with potential customers and be suitable for the different editorial appetites of target trade publications and social media.
All activity was plotted into a live 6-12 month pipeline for complete transparency, so that month by month we could track activity to make sure we delivered results, stayed strategic and within budget.
Next Spotlight utilised its relationships with trade media to begin the ongoing process of introducing key members of the SchemeServe team to the press.
In line with the month by month strategic pipeline we developed news stories to issue from SchemeServe and responded to the news agenda at every opportunity. In addition, we have sought out opportunities for commentary slots and feature contributions that demonstrate thought leadership and position SchemeServe as experts in the field.
As well as media relations, Spotlight provided strategic guidance to SchemeServe in the story development and submission of entries to key industry awards, as well as supporting their presence at trade shows such as BIBA.
Results
In the first three months alone Spotlight had generated 14 pieces of coverage for SchemeServe, with story placement resulting in coverage across all key trade media titles including Post Magazine, Insurance Times, Insurance Age and Insurance Business. They were on their way.
Coverage has grown year-on-year ever since with 2017 achieving 26 stand-alone items of news coverage (click here for sample). We also secured further coverage through proactive feature and quote placement resulting in 8 thought leadership pieces across key titles (click here for sample). All of this was underpinned by ongoing social media commentary to broaden the reach of the press coverage to maximise the PR benefit from traditional media.
Our award entry support also paid dividends with SchemeServe achieving finalist nominations for both the Insurance Times Technology Awards and Post Magazine Digital and InsurTech awards, a fantastic achievement for a business operating in a highly competitive sector of the market with no press profile until 2016.
PR success however cannot be measured in column inches alone but also on its impact to the organisation. In the last two years SchemeServe has realised its growth plans and the PR has helped it to stand out from the crowd and to take market share in the race by the industry to embrace Insurtech. Its leading cloud based schemes software has grown to operate more than 200 schemes and £100m of gross written premium. Spotlight Consulting is delighted to have played a part in this success.