Interbrand GmbH - The Allianz Brand Learning Program

Company: Interbrand GmbH, Köln, NRW
Company Description: Interbrand has been the world’s leading brand consultancy, for over 40 years - having pioneered iconic work and forged many of the brand building tools that are now commonplace. In collaboration with many of the world’s leading brands, our global team of thinkers and makers are pioneering the future of brand building.
Nomination Category: Kategorie für Neue Produkte und Produktmanagement Awards
Nomination Sub Category: Business Technology Solution - Lösungen für Organisationsinternes Lernen- / Mitarbeiterschulungen

Nomination Title: Building a powerful network of expertise, knowledge & ideas: The Allianz Brand Learning Program

Sie haben die Möglichkeit für Ihre Nominierung in dieser Kategorie ENTWEDER ein bis zu fünf (5) Minuten langes Video über die Leistungen des nominierten Produkts oder Service seit dem 1. Juli 2018 einzureichen ODER eine ebensolche Beschreibung von bis zu 650 Wörtern über die Leistungen des nominierten Produkts oder Service. Bitte wählen Sie eine Möglichkeit aus: Eine Beschreibung/Fallstudie von bis zu 650 Wörtern

One of the biggest challenges companies face today? Staying relevant for customers and creating true desire for their products and services.

Allianz understands, that instead of just pushing offers to customers, they need to create real value, engage with people and accompany them throughout their lives. Meaning to move from a push to a pull business model.

This is the challenge we helped Allianz to master, because we know that this can only be achieved with a strong brand. And a strong brand starts from within. Because only if everyone within a company lives its brand every day, customers will connect to it. In short, a brand is only as strong as the community behind it.

To build such a powerful community of expertise knowledge and ideas, we set up the Allianz Brand Learning Program.

We conceptualized the program jointly with the client creating three different learning journeys. From brand fundamentalsfor every employee to specific brand & marketing skillsfor people working more extensively with the brand. Every journey is a holistic learning experience. It combines self-driven online formats with interactive on-site sessions.

The heart and soul of the Brand Learning Program is a digital platformwhere all content comes together. Every new participant is first encouraged by a sponsor, a member of the brand management team, to start his or her individual learning journey. The journey continues with an “E-Bite”, a teaser video, that serves as an introduction to a topic. Then, participants can deeper explore each topic through an engaging storytelling in a Virtual Classroom. To enforce learnings and track progress participant take a quiz after each chapter.

An integral part of the learning journey is the participation in a Brand Induction Day. Here, members of the learning community from all over the world come together to combine theory with practice from their respective markets. This exchange fosters mutual learning and creates a community of true brand excellence.

At the end of the learning journey the participants are certified as “Brand Ambassadors”.

The program has been a great success and the community was highly engaged, as shown by the following quotes of participants:

“This brand learning program is one of the bestI have enrolled in.”
“The structure is clear, and the modules all look ‘bite size’”
“A great way to better illustrate and motivate on the topic”

The first two Induction Days gained over 90% NPS score from the nearly 50 graduated Brand Ambassadors.

In order to create further scale for the program, new formats, such as podcasts, train the trainer sessions, and inspirational content are continuously launched. Through these the community stays engaged and dialog around relevant brand topics is created. Additionally, the program was promoted throughout the entire brand and marketing community as well as wide parts of the entire organization.

Summarizing, in order to work towards achieving the goal of moving from a push to a pull business model, Allianz needed to start from within. The Brand Learning Program walked the talk. It created engaging learning experiences for the employeesinstead of just pushing knowledge to them. Through this, Allianz built the foundation to create a strong culture of brand excellence. Because every brand is only as strong as the community behind it.