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Reconceptualizing legacy & trust withEthniki Insurance

The first insurance company in Greece, founded in 1891 and leading the national insurance landscape ever since. In 2023, Ethniki Insurance decided on the need for a new website, aspiring to modernize and re-introduce its human-centered solutions and long-established assets to wider and younger audiences. Pivoting the project scope by highlighting the value of a holistic visual and verbal refactoring, 5 months later we presented a radically new solution; a comprehensive brand identity that would address our times, align with the company’s history, and ultimately reflect its core values of trust and integrity with simplicity and transparency.

Reintroducing the insurance landscape with consideration and simplicity

Brand Narrative

What is people’s greatest concern that insurance companies need to address today? 

What holds people back from trusting an insurance company? What is the insurance industry’s primary pain point?

The only way to answer these critical questions that occurred upon our assignment to create a guide for Ethniki Insurance’s new brand language was to ask. Internal discussions, strategy check-ins with the company’s marketing team representatives, and a survey we ran with a hand-picked sample that matched the targeted audiences’ qualities, actually provided us with a significant and interesting load of findings. Yet certain pain points were by far more prominent and thus needed to be addressed and surpassed;  

Fear of the small print, complex terminology, and impersonal treatment at a moment of need.

Certain things don’t fit in the small print. 

Our dreams, our loved ones, our peace of mind, our life, 

should always be in the foreground.  

That’s why we are here,
with simpler and more flexible solutions,
on a single term; your protection. 

So that you can enjoy the big moments with more convenience
and more confidence,
knowing that we’ll be taking care of all the rest, 
the way we’ve always been.

New brand narrative

/ Created for Ethniki Insurance

The brand narrative we composed for Ethniki Insurance begins with the aspiration to tackle those fears. 

Addressing the complexity issue in the insurance field, which ultimately challenges people’s trust and cultivates their hesitance, Ethniki Insurance’s brand promise is to simplify insurance processes, humanize the sector’s terms, and evolve to provide custom and effective solutions based on actual needs.  

To support this turning point in the company’s long history we emphasize the incompatibility between the small size of the insurance contract disclaimers and the great importance of the needs they relate to, positioning Ethniki Insurance as the guarantor of eliminating the first to facilitate the latter.

Ethniki Insurance’s new brand narrative on challenging the fear of small print to promote customer-centric and clear communication

At that point, we needed to identify the factors that would enable the brand to claim the credibility of a guarantor. Considering its over-100-year legacy, Ethniki Insurance is the only Greek insurance company that could support such a claim and be able to verify it based on multiple cases since 1891, proving the actual social contribution and the financial support provided by the company during some of the most critical historical moments of Greece.

The new era of Ethniki Insurance is illuminated by change, communicated through collaboration, openness and reliability, while fortifying the company’s legacy asset.

Tone of Voice

Defining the main pillars of Ethniki Insurance’s new language attributes

Ethniki Insurance’s new tone of voice aligns with the company’s promise to modernize its processes and humanize its communications.

Our solution comprises a compact language guide, outlining the caring, understanding and reassuring new tone of voice of Ethniki Asfalistiki along with a series of human-centered personality attributes to be expressed across communications. At the same time, depending on each communication’s case, goal and context, Ethniki Insurance’s tone of voice is additionally colored by personality attributes of a trustworthy, facilitating and straightforward brand with a strong collective sentiment to reflect the company’s responsible character and actual impact on social progress, environmental sustainability and cultural evolution.

Storytelling & Audiences

Outlining Ethniki Insurance’s audience segments as a crucial step for user-centric and purposeful messaging
Outlining Ethniki Insurance’s audience segments as a crucial step for user-centric and purposeful messaging

Challenged by the multi-aspect presence of Ethniki Insurance, we created a storytelling system with formulas for each communication case. 

Brand-focused communications and ESG campaigns required a more established messaging, that would bridge legacy and evolution and highlight the company’s actual and measurable impact with confidence and stability. However, while curating the content of Ethniki Insurance’s new website, we came across a series of challenges around product-oriented communications that needed our attention and required the formation of a more inclusive and less self-referential language. 

Multiple products covering different needs; from the most sensitive ones, such as life and health protection, to the most practical ones, such as property and investment insurance.

Diverse audiences having different concerns and expectations; from parents, travelers, property owners and retirees to business owners, sectoral entrepreneurs and executive members. 

And most importantly, Ethniki Insurance’s goal to broaden its audience and communicate the value of its products to younger generations.

Example of brand-focused language guide application on ESG communication material
Example of brand-focused language guide application on ESG communication material
Example of B2C-focused language guide application on Life Insurance communication material
Example of B2C-focused language guide application on Life Insurance communication material
Example of B2B-focused language guide application on Special Business Risks communication material
Example of B2B-focused language guide application on Special Business Risks communication material

Taking all the above into consideration, and closely collaborating with the Marketing and Product Sectors teams to dive deeper into both communication needs and product specs, we created a comprehensive communications strategy, extensively flexible to address both B2C and B2B needs and thoroughly supported by example-based documentation of how to address each audience's needs, which values should be represented and which keywords are the most appropriate to convey them.

Setting the framework of Ethniki Insurance’s communications via defining the different aspects and layers of communications and spotlighting meaningful and purposeful ways to approach them, our objective - and final deliverable - was the creation of a holistic and goal-driven verbal language system for intuitive wording, direct phrasing and ultimately caring and trustworthy messaging, ensuring agility and consistency for every case.

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Project Information

Partner

Ethniki Insurance

Company Type

Established

Industry

Insurance

Since

1891

Country

Greece

Services

Logotype Redesign, Identity Design, Brand Language, Custom Typeface Design, Brand Assets Design, Iconography, Website UX/UI Design, Website Copywriting, Website Development, Video Animation

Year

2024

Project Team

Creative Direction 

Odysseas Galinos Paparounis (Lead)

Anthony Kwiatkowski 

Identity Design

Anthony Kwiatkowski (Lead)

Guzmàn Fernandez

Iliana Galazoula

Konstantinos Kazakas

Patricia Cárdenas Mayoral

Olga Mularczyk 

Typeface Design

Anthony Kwiatkowski (Lead)

Olga Mularczyk 

Brand Language & Copywriting

Penny Gerou

Iconography

Anthony Kwiatkowski 

Website UX/UI Design

Odysseas Galinos Paparounis (Lead)

Anthony Kwiatkowski 

Dimitris Papadimitriou 

Website Development

Chris Gotsikas (Lead)

Ronak Baldha

Project Management

Fivos Galinos Paparounis (Lead)

Olivia Melliou

In Collaboration

Video Animation Design

Nick Mavrokefalidis

Video Sound Design 

Maciej Waleszczyk

Editorial Design

Argyris Athanasiades