An 8 week end to end Innovation process to design, test and prototype a new home insurance proposition with sustainability ‘baked’ into it.

The Challenge

Aviva are developing new green propositions to embed in their consumer products and services. Building portfolio of products like this will build brand awareness around Aviva's sustainable agenda, inspire change across a much wider population and ultimately help to deliver on their 2040 net zero promise.

Their initial focus was the Home Insurance product given its wide use, the risks climate change poses to properties, and the emotional connection with consumers. The intent was not for sustainability to stay as a CSR exercise but become truly embedded in the brand and their products. This means the sustainability solutions need to be part of the core range and not a giveaway, and crucially any new product we created for them needed to be commercially viable.

The Approach

We can’t say too much about the idea as it’s due to be launched in early 2023. But in the meantime we can talk about the approach we took and where we got to at the end of each stage. 

The outcomes from phase 1 a project team and set of senior stakeholders aligned on what we were aiming to achieve, why and how. We'd also defined what was in or out of scope in terms of the ideas they wanted to develop, and translated that into a simple criteria that we'd use to prioritise down the leading ideas in the upcoming stages. 

The outcomes from phase 2 new insight about their customer's wants and needs, coupled with examples and inspiration from within and outside the financial services sector. And last but not least, we interviewed impact experts from the climate space to help us ensure we create something with real impact potential, and avoid any risk of greenwashing.

The outcomes from phase 3 a pipeline of 30+ new ideas, which we prioritised down to the leading idea using the criteria from phase 1.

At the end of phase 4 we’d built a digital prototype of the idea which we tested in the real world through a smokescreen test to prove demand from customers and help build the business case for taking the idea to market.

The Potential Impact

Internal - by engaging a wide range of individuals and teams across the business in our process, it gave staff an opportunity to play an active role in turning Aviva’s purpose strategy into action and impact.

The insurance industry - Aviva believes the idea we’ve developed for them has the potential to inspire the wider insurance industry to equip and empower their customers to play a role in delivering their sustainability ambitions. And, to think beyond the obvious ‘buy a policy - we’ll plant a tree’ type idea, towards solutions that deliver impact at scale. 

People and Planet - households contribute 26% of the UK’s total emissions in the UK. Considering the amount of people who take out Aviva’s home insurance in the UK, even if a small percentage of those adopted the new idea it has the potential to make a real dent in UK emissions.