Nicolina Mackenzie has been at SEIB Insurance Brokers for over 26 years and, having enjoyed a varied career before she joined the business, including time spent in the music industry and as a veterinary nurse, she is well-placed to identify the best attributes that working in a brokerage can offer. As marketing manager for SEIB, she said, she has seen first-hand how the company reacts swiftly to new opportunities and how it continually reassesses the best way to support its clients.
This has never been on better display than in the recent weeks following the coronavirus outbreak, she said, when SEIB Insurance Brokers Charity Giving Awards ceremony, which was due to held in London on March 20, had to be cancelled. Rather than just accept that the awards could not go ahead, the business undertook the challenge of staging digital awards for the first time in its history.
“We had never attempted anything like this before,” she said. “In addition, it was important that we didn’t create some long-winded and boring awards ceremony that totally failed to engage. So, we decided to randomly present two awards a day, over five days with the aim of increasing interaction and to encourage sharing and interest in SEIB Giving and the shortlisted charities.”
In 2018, the board of SEIB first decided to make a contribution of £50K to one charity, Mackenzie said, and this was when she first became involved with SEIB Giving. It was important, she stated, that the decision on where the funding should go should be a fair process and make as many people happy as possible. When the voting process started, the aim was to let the public share their favourite charities with SEIB, she said, with the decision made early to set the criteria to offer funding only for small to medium-sized charities to allow the grant to make a real difference and to offer an opportunity for capital investment.
“Following due process, a shortlist of good causes was created, and they were invited to put forward their proposed projects for the £50K and these, in turn, were voted on by our clients,” she said. “Although it was decided that the grant would have to be used for a capital investment, this criteria has been lifted for 2020 because of the dire straits that the charitable sector is currently facing.”
The charitable sector is in desperate times, Mackenzie said, as while the general public are unsure of their future they will often not donate to charity, and many of the large fundraisers such as the London Marathon have been put on hold. SEIB aims to promote the chosen charities and give them a presence, she said, and the business has been very pleased to see some of its guests offering to become involved with promoting these awards.
Mackenzie highlighted how the business has added interest in a variety of ways including a random daily pick from Hannah Horton, one of their sponsored riders, with her superstar horse, ‘It’s Lush’. The reception to these awards has been exceptional, she said, and the goodwill it has engendered through the broking industry and the wider public is tangible.
“In the first year we received over 2,000 votes for 200 charities for SEIB Giving and were delighted,” she said, “and in 2020 the response has grown to over 36,000 votes for over 1,300 good causes.”
The coronavirus outbreak and the swift move SEIB was able to make to a digital platform for its awards have emphasised the role of digital platforms in the marketing mix, she said. However, Mackenzie believes that print may be rekindled as a medium during these uncertain times as it offers something tangible in an intangible, solitary world. As a display of this conviction, the programmes for the awards event, which had already been printed when the event was cancelled were sent to the guestlist with an SEIB thermometer and sanitiser.
“I think we need to remember that brokers are in a service industry and we must talk to our clients in the way that is best suited to them,” she said. “We must give our clients access to the best products to meet their needs from the right insurers, at the right price - whether the channel is digital or physical offering the best service must always be our goal.”
She feels it is important for businesses in every sector to be involved with charitable giving and emphasised that SEIB Giving is open to any charity and actively encourages people to nominate their favourite cause. To all those who have been involved with the initiative this year the message from Mackenzie and all the team at SEIB is very clear – “thank you.”
“The support we have had has been uplifting,” she said. “SEIB Giving could have disappeared into oblivion in 2020 which would have been sad for us, but much more serious for the shortlisted charities that need support in these very difficult times. Yes, we could just have sent a cheque to each charity but the publicity for each good cause is so important, we hope that this initiative will create long term supporters for each good cause and that the wider public will learn about these lesser-known charities and the good work that they do.”
