Alltrust Insurance Branding Project

One of our most favorite branding projects was an insurance company branding project that has stood the test of time. We rebranded an employee benefits firm, Alltrust Insurance, over 5 years ago and the new brand is still uber-relevant.

The project included brand positioning, a new brand visual direction, a logo redesign, a new website design. The rebrand also entailed the creation of brand support to include a stationery package, social media graphics, employee attire, promotional products. Finally, we created a brand launch strategy that would engage the team with the new brand, and ensure that every Alltrust Insurance employee understood the significance of the new brand.

INSURANCE COMPANY BRANDING PROJECT KICKOFF

Our team was hired by Alltrust Insurance and charged with creating a new brand for the company that better represented the already robust culture of the firm. They’d been rebranded before and had never been able to capture their unique take on employee benefits. You see, the previous agencies that had worked on the company failed to start with Foundational Branding. Therefore, the resulting brand image was not a true representation of the company. 

We started with Foundational Branding, which is where every successful rebrand or branding project should begin. There’s no way to properly create brand assets without first assessing positioning and visual direction.

Nice Branding Agency kicks off Foundational Branding with a discovery session designed to uncover exactly who the company is and why it exists. Additionally, during this session, we work to better understand the target market, the company’s goals, the employees’ perception of the company, key differentiators, challenges, and opportunities.

We met with key stakeholders, as well as existing Alltrust Insurance clients, vendors, and various team members. We interviewed people and uncovered what might not have been easily conveyed by the company’s top leadership. An outside perspective on perception is often necessary to create a brand that is an accurate representation of a company.

VISUAL BRAND DIRECTION

During our sessions, there were terms that we heard over and over. We started to wrangle these terms and process them. All of our notes were taken back to our team, where we dove into additional research and strategy in order to deliver the Foundational Branding presentation. This presentation consisted of a brand positioning statement, a set of defined brand attributes, and three options for visual direction.

Each of the options for visual direction aligned with the positioning statement and attributes. However, the options provided the client with an opportunity for selection in terms of the visual direction of the brand. 

Alltrust Insurance selected a brand board that was comprised of bright, modern colors, ample negative space for breathing room within the graphics, and black and white imagery that would unify all team members under the brand when images were utilized in collateral. The selected brand image incorporated modern, bold sans serif fonts to separate the company from the stuffy benefits firms existing in their competitive landscape.

INSURANCE COMPANY BRANDING: LOGO DEVELOPMENT

With the brand foundation in place, we moved on to the next step in the insurance company branding project, which was the creation of one of the most important aspects of brand support: the logo design. While your logo is not your brand, it is a key piece of brand support, and often the first memorable aspect of the brand that people encounter.

We worked to create options for the logo design for Alltrust Insurance that would align with the visual direction and weave meaning into the mark. 

The Nice Branding Agency logo design team determined that they would create a logo that would tie in the impact that people make in the Alltrust Insurance brand. This would nod to the people of Alltrust, their clients, and their clients’ employees, who are the ones receiving the actual benefits. The tagline: People. Our People. Your People. was crafted to further convey this message verbally.

 The final logo implemented bright, vibrant colors to show off the fun, unique culture of the people who make up Alltrust Insurance. Color also represented the different divisions of Alltrust, which were their value-added services which were what set them apart. As an agency, the price of benefits from one insurance company to the next is the same. Alltrust differentiated themselves through their value-added divisions which the brand represented by colors. 

We chose a professional, yet approachable type and implemented it in all lowercase letters. This allowed the focus to remain on the icon. The logo icon was comprised of fingerprints in various colors. This represented the many people who work together, often overlapping, to create the culture of the company. It also shows that many people at Alltrust Insurance work together to serve the many people at their clients’ companies.

Finally, the logo icon provides a more understated reference as well. The shape of the fingerprints together represents the top of a tree. The treetop showcases Alltrust Insurance’s top-level knowledge of employee benefits, as well as it’s deep roots in the industry. The treetop shelters it’s clients and is indicative of quiet strength.

SITEMAP PRESENTATION

At this time, we also began preparing for the website design and website development portion of the insurance rebranding project. We worked with Alltrust Insurance to understand the scope of the website, including the pages needed. We then created a basic website sitemap listing out the necessary website pages and their hierarchy.

WEBSITE HOSTING

We also determined where the website would be hosted. Our team hosts with the fastest and best WordPress host available. We also provide monthly, ongoing website maintenance for our hosted websites. This ensures that there is minimal downtime, daily backups, and regular updates of the platform and plugins.

Alltrust Insurance decided to host the website with us, and this meant that our team would take the website live on launch day.

STATIONERY PACKAGE

With the website underway, we worked to implement the brand look and feel into the stationery package. The stationery package for Alltrust Insurance would include a business card design, a letterhead design, an envelope design, and a message card design.

We presented the client with a couple of options for the business card, which would be the basis for the design of the rest of the stationery package. 

They selected a square business card design that included the full-color logo on a white background on one side, and a speech bubble design against a flood of color on the reverse. The oversized speech bubble paralleled the importance of communication between Alltrust and their clients. The colors reiterated the fun and vibrant culture. The reverse side of the card would be available in all brand colors, to provide individuality to the business cards that aligns with the culture of the company. 

The remainder of the stationery package was created to align with the business card design. We incorporated a large watermark of a single fingerprint into the letterhead and envelope design to create further personalization; another hallmark of the Alltrust Insurance brand.

BRAND SUPPORT

As we moved further into brand support, our team created a brand launch strategy that included an unveiling of the new brand to the Alltrust Insurance clients. The launch of the brand would happen at a celebratory event for the Alltrust Insurance team. 

Here, employees were sent a customized stamp pad and asked to bring it to the event. They then used the stamp pad to create their own fingerprint upon arrival on a branded environmental graphic. 

Additionally, an animated video was shown to create excitement about the brand and further cement its meaning into the minds of the team. 

Every aspect of the event was an extension of the brand, right down to the AllTini cocktails that were served in brand colors. 

All printed collateral was then aligned with the new brand, to include a corporate book, print advertisements, and more.

THE WEBSITE WIREFRAME

While the brand support was being created, our website design team was diligently mapping out the website user experience. The wireframe was created to demonstrate the layout of the website pages and to showcase the user journey through the website.

We start by incorporating the positioning statement into the homepage to help the user understand within 3 seconds what the company does, and why they should care.

Then, the pages were mapped to ultimately highlight the different divisions of Alltrust Insurance and lead users to the primary goal. We implemented text, images, and clear calls-to-action to nudge the user closer and closer to taking the intended action.

The website wireframe was presented to the client, and upon approval, we moved into website design.

WEBSITE DESIGN

Using the wireframe as a guide, our website user interface design team set to work weaving the brand through the website. The website is a major brand element, and often the first piece of the brand that a client will interact with as they start to learn about your company.

Our website design process includes the implementation of brand imagery, fonts, and colors in a strategic manner that guides the user’s eye through the website. Additionally, we create all of the website copy, which allows us to infuse the brand attributes and position through the verbiage.

The website design was presented to the client and approved. At this point, we progressed into website development.

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

The website was developed on WordPress. WordPress is our Content Management System of choice, as it allows our developer the freedom to bring our design to life exactly as intended. Additionally, WordPress is simple for our clients to navigate. This means that our clients can make key content changes from within the walls of their office, saving time and resources.

When the website was developed, we implemented a rigorous testing phase that allowed us to ensure that all pages aligned with the design and that all buttons, links, and forms were operating as intended.

We presented a link to the website to our client for review, and upon approval, we coordinated the launch of the new website, which would replace the existing website on their domain.

 WEBSITE LAUNCH

With the website approved, we coordinated to launch the website on the client’s domain. With the launch complete, the website underwent a final check to ensure that the migration didn’t post any problems to the design or functionality. With the website live, our team supplied the Alltrust Insurance team with a training video that equipped them with the knowledge necessary to make key content updates.

PROJECT CLOSEOUT

To close out the insurance company branding project, we provided our client with a complete set of logo files, including a full-color, all black, and all-white logo in PDF, EPS, JPEG, and PNG. We also provided a guidelines sheet detailing logo fonts and logo colors. 

All brand support final files were provided to the client as well, along with a backup of the website and the website training materials.

This project was a huge success for our firm and our client’s company. By taking the time to dive deep into the organization and deliver a positioning statement, attributes, and visual direction, we were able to guide the creation of brand support in a manner that had meaning.

If you’re looking to rebrand your company to provide deeper meaning for your team and clients, consider giving us all your trust. We promise you won’t regret it. Reach out today.