Marsh: Overcoming Scandal to Become a Thought Leader
Challenge: Marsh Inc., the world's leading insurance broker and risk advisor, faced two major issues. Following a bid-rigging scandal and settlement with former New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, the company was shattered and the brand tarnished. Nearly every news story about Marsh included the phrase "Marsh, which recently settled a lawsuit by Elliot Spitzer for $850 million...." At the same time, Marsh's core insurance brokerage business was becoming commoditized and the company needed to grow its risk advisory services.
Strategy & Execution: Marsh retained Peppercom to help it leave the scandal behind and position the firm as a thought leader on emerging risks. Peppercom created the Marsh Center for Risk Insights, an international working forum for experts to identify, debate and tackle the most critical business risks. The program included an online resource center for the media and an advisory council of high-profile experts who served as spokespeople for the media and provided guidance on emerging risk threats. The Marsh Center was launched via a webinar using a problem/solution approach. Peppercom commissioned leading pollsters Public Opinion Strategies to survey more than a hundred C-level executives on their risk awareness, then leveraged the results of the survey to illustrate that senior business leaders were either unaware of or in denial about critical risks, such as climate change, fresh-water access and a potential housing market collapse.
Result: Results of the launch included profile pieces in Dow Jones News Service, US News & World Report and The Financial Times. All the coverage highlighted how the Center could help businesses better understand looming threats and clearly positioned Marsh as a thought leader. And not one story mentioned Spitzer.
© 2010, All Rights Reserved.