NORWICH UNION BECAME AVIVA

It’s now been nearly three months since we rebranded Norwich Union to Aviva on 1 June and it really feels part of daily life. The start of the name-change marketing campaign on Boxing Day last year seems like an age ago - though it’s proved to be a massive success. The latest research results show that over 80% of UK customers now recognise Aviva (compared to 10% before the campaign started).

When I think back to A-Day, as it was affectionately nicknamed by those of us who worked on the rebrand programme, there are a couple of things that stand out for me. In the history of our business this was a momentous period for everyone involved but the flag changing in Norwich was particularly significant for everyone. As I stood on Surrey Street with over 1,000 of my colleagues, it was very emotional to witness the occasion.

Norwich Union will always be part of our heritage and we felt it was really important to our customers and employees to take the heritage with us, to celebrate it and take all the good things from Norwich Union forward. If you walk down Surrey Street, you'll still see reference to Norwich Union on the clock, the gates and Marble Hall.

It was also important that we gave everyone a chance to celebrate and I've seen some of the pictures that were taken around the country of our employees singing, juggling, barbecuing and generally embracing their new identity. In fact we've recently announced the winner of our talent competition that was launched on A-Day across the company. I always knew we'd got some talented employees in their day jobs, but I was blown away by the quality of entries that we had from singers to jugglers, comics to magicians; it seemed everyone wanted to get in on the act.

While there was a core team of people involved in making the rebrand happen, it was the 31,000 employees who made it a reality. I was so proud to read the Sunday Times call it the ‘slickest rebrand in corporate history'. A massive achievement when you consider the sheer number of customers who have received letters, revised documents and paperwork.

As if celebrating A-Day wasn't enough, on 2 June we joined colleagues in Aviva offices all over the world on live chats held throughout “Global Day”.

It is not just our employees being motivated by Aviva in Norfolk, our sponsorship of Norwich City Football Club should reassure the residents of Norfolk of our continuing support of both the county and community. It is important for us as Aviva to continue to play that leading role in Norwich life and the loss of the name must not affect that status. Norwich Union has been part of the fabric of life in the city for over two hundred years and here's to Aviva continuing for the next two hundred and beyond.