SEA are currently creating a digital training programme for Zurich's creative and account management staff within their internal communications agency.
SEA has many years' experience across a huge range of marketing and digital strategy projects for Financial Services companies, including Zurich, Bradford and Bingley, HFC Bank, Charcol, and the Co-operative Bank.
By combining that strategic expertise with other knowledge gained through social inclusion and environmental engagement projects, SEA now provides a unique consultancy strand. Helping companies help themselves to increase productivity and reduce waste, through digital mentoring, staff training programmes and enhanced environmental and social responsibility communication - improving corporate culture.
Matthew Connolly, the Digital Marketing Manager for Zurich Life Insurance, has worked with Robert Woolf at SEA on a number of initiatives and says: "He is an excellent consultant and mentor. He thinks laterally and methodically, and works very collaboratively; rather than the usual situation of a consultant feeding information back, we worked together, which was really refreshing and well worth highlighting.
"As a mentor, he's encouraged me to look at my work in a different way; reviewing objectives, unpicking the questions and coming back with a rounded solution. That has really helped me shine." Matthew credits Robert with helping him achieve promotion within Zurich and win a prestigious CIM and Marketing Forum High-flyers competition.
Employee engagement
Among the projects undertaken at Zurich, SEA has created a groundbreaking and very successful employee engagement programme for its UK underwriters. It has changed the business culture for the benefit of all concerned - unlocking individual talent and boosting performance.
The key to its success was SEA's understanding that change would not be achieved through communications alone. It piloted a targeted incentive scheme offering staff the opportunity to earn the right to attend important events and access opportunities. Staff quickly realised that through voluntarily participation, they could become personally involved in the success of a strategy, change or improvement.
Nearly a third of the pool of 680 underwriters embraced the initiative, volunteering for new positive outcomes for themselves and Zurich.
In turn, Zurich was able to identify and nurture the top 20 per cent of ‘emotionally committed' underwriters in its UK operations. This project has since been endorsed at global board level and is now progressively becoming an adopted practice within the company.
Meanwhile, the feedback from SEA's workshops and mentoring sessions speaks for itself...
"Robert was an excellent trainer - very calm and relaxed and a very easy style. He made a novice like me feel very comfortable and I really felt I learned a lot." Dawn Nokes
"The content was incredibly informative. Robert encouraged thinking and invited questions so that we fully understood the terms, concepts, and the key factors when considering digital media and marketing." Jonathan Williams
"SEA's workshop cut through the complexity and pre-conceptions of digital marketing, opening up a world of opportunities for the Zurich brand that I didn't know existed. It was delivered in plain English that was easily grasped and I left refreshed with new ideas and a whole different outlook to digital marketing." Guy Hooper
"This workshop was very informative and really made me sit up in and think about how we should work with our clients - getting out of this traditional ‘pit' that we always find ourselves in." Elaine Gander
