Why Swiss Re Banked on Lumen5 for Social Engagement
Annie Wu, Creative & Digital Assets Manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re
Graduate of Sydney College of the Arts Visual Arts Program with comprehensive expertise in digital communications and design. Has worked on multiple creative projects and spent six years as a freelance digital designer. As the Creative & Digital Assets Manager for Swiss Re's Corporate Voice, she is in charge of creating digital assets for content managers that highlight the company's thought leadership for a B2B audience that includes brokers, insurance companies, think tanks, and institutions in both the public and private sector.
ABOUT SWISS RE
A network of 80 global offices
As one of the world's leading providers of reinsurance, insurance, and insurance-based risk transfer, The Swiss Re Group's brand vision is simple — to make the world more resilient. Founded in 1863 and headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, the company operates through a network of 80 global offices with roughly 14,000 employees.
Swiss Re is a thought leader in their industry who actively shares engaging content across multiple channels. They currently publish an average of 10-12 data-driven reports a year on topics, including cyber resilience, societal resilience, natural catastrophes, global partnerships, and corporate sustainability. Swiss Re also maintains two industry-leading publications, sigma research and SONAR.
THE CHALLENGE
Video Storytelling: Timelier and Compelling
Four years ago, Wu and her colleagues sought to increase engagement around Swiss Re's thought leadership through more compelling storytelling on social media. Having identified video as the best medium to achieve this, they approached their firm's in-house production team. But there was a problem. Increasing workloads meant it was becoming increasingly difficult for them to create daily short social media videos.
"Our in-house team covers a huge workload and uses a ticketing system which can create bottlenecks. With the kind of spontaneous content and impromptu requests that define social storytelling, we needed a more compatible system," says Annie Wu, Creative & Digital Assets Manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re.
External agencies were not a viable option either. Swiss Re didn’t want to replace their in-house creative team. No. They wanted to empower their own creative teams to produce amazing work without the full reliance of agencies, briefs, and time delays. Wu and her team wanted to remove the content bottleneck so they could excel at social storytelling.
"We work within a very narrow timeframe, typically publishing on the day of production," Wu continues. "If we wait too long, our message loses momentum, meaning less visibility, awareness, and engagement. We recognized very quickly how much time we'd save if we could handle things ourselves — how much we needed to handle things ourselves."
Our in-house team covers a huge workload and uses a ticketing system which can create bottlenecks. With the kind of spontaneous content and impromptu requests that define social storytelling, we needed a more compatible system.
Feature-Rich? Check. Easy to Setup and Use? Check.
Swiss Re's Corporate Voice team needed an all-in-one tool that was easy to understand and use. With Wu’s creative and design eye, support for custom branding and imagery was a must, along with the capacity to quickly swap between video formats for each platform. Because of Swiss Re's strict security requirements, the team also needed software that required neither installation nor implementation.
"We saw increasing demand within Communications for an intuitive self-service video production tool and Lumen5 filled the gap," says Annie Wu, Creative & Digital Assets Manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re
We saw increasing demand within Communications for an intuitive self-service video production tool and Lumen5 filled the gap.
THE SOLUTION
Artificial Intelligence Meets Corporate Communications
Wu first discovered Lumen5 through Google while compiling a shortlist of potential solutions. Before finalizing the list, she asked for suggestions from her colleagues in Swiss Re's communications department, where Lumen5 popped up again. Recognizing its potential, she compiled and presented a business case to communications leadership and Swiss Re's IT business partner. And, queue the drumroll… the rest was history!
"Lumen5 was ultimately the best fit for our needs. Other tools were either too complicated or far too limited in scope. Its artificial intelligence and text-to-video features caught the interest of everyone in communications," says Annie Wu, Creative & Digital Assets Manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re.
A powerful, web-based video creation tool, Lumen5 features an intuitive drag-and-drop interface supported by AI and simple workflows. With a comprehensive selection of stock media and library of pre-built templates, the platform makes it easy to create a diverse selection of content.
"Lumen5 lets us create videos in no time," says Wu. "Because it's web-based and subscription-based, we don't need to worry about issues related to cost or digital security."
Lumen5 also supports custom branding and multiple video formats, both major selling points for Swiss Re. Wu and her colleagues can now produce several videos for each topic, including content exclusively for A/B testing! Lumen5 has also not only changed the team's attitude towards content creation to be more spontaneous and creative, but increased their video output optimization to new heights!
"We needed a video creation tool for everything, not just explainers or animations. Lumen5 has it all, and it's so easy to use that we can simply create a video whenever we have a new idea," says Annie Wu, Creative & Digital Assets Manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re.
Lumen5 was ultimately the best fit for our needs. Other tools were either too complicated or far too limited in scope. Its artificial intelligence and text-to-video features caught the interest of everyone in communications.
Working Together for Better and Branded Video
Once Lumen5 passed Swiss Re's Digital Governance Framework, setup was smooth thanks to collaboration between Lumen5 and the firm's stakeholders. Ten people currently use the solution, six of whom are on the communications team. Wu continues to champion the platform across the organization, emphasizing its intended use: to create short daily social media videos.
"Lumen5 won't replace our in-house team anytime soon," Wu explains. "We use it to create content for social media. And those videos are very different from the long-form informational content they produce."
Swiss Re's current process for social video starts with a script sent to Wu and her team. After digesting the lines and brainstorming, they form a general idea of how the final video should look and feel. Finally, Lumen5 makes their vision come to life in a branded ready-to-use template.
"Once you've got an idea, concept, and script, it doesn't take long to create a video and target it to a specific niche and region, regardless of whether it's organic or sponsored content. Adding things like infographics and icons also helps us keep things fresh and engaging," says Annie Wu, Creative & Digital Assets Manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re.
Once you've got an idea, concept, and script, it doesn't take long to create a video and target it to a specific niche and region.
THE RESULT
Thought Leadership, Brand Awareness, and Social Engagement
30 Minutes
Average video creation time
551 Videos
Created in a single year
400 Videos
Produced by a single user
4 Years
Using Lumen5
Lumen5 gives Swiss Re's communications team more time to be creative with their social marketing, requiring an average of 30 minutes for even complex videos. Consequently, they've considerably ramped up video production, creating two or more videos per topic. Content is mainly knowledge-based and client-facing, when being published on LinkedIn to promote the firm's reports.
"Because of what Lumen5 can do, we have a lot of time to think about the best way to leverage its capabilities," says Wu. "Although our initial scope involved short teaser videos for our reports and campaigns, we've also used it for internal communications and how-to videos. At this point, if one of us has an idea, we can immediately create a video to explore it."
"For what we need and how often we need it, Lumen5 is an excellent tool”, Wu concludes. "It just works and the team behind it helps a great deal, too — both with customer service and their commitment to evolve the solution."
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