NEXT to invest US$4mn into small businesses
NEXT Insurance, the leading digital insurtech company transforming small business insurance, today announced its strategic rebrand which will integrate small business owners from across the country into every part of the company's business, culture, and ethos. NEXT's new brand ambition is inspired by the company's mission to help entrepreneurs thrive and is reflected through new creative work, still photography, visual assets, a website refresh, and a commercial campaign to embolden small businesses to "Get Going." Additionally, the company will devote $4 million over the next three years to small businesses.
Commitment to small businesses “deeply ingrained into culture”
"NEXT's commitment to small businesses is more than just a tagline on our website. It's deeply ingrained into our culture," said Melanie Chase, Chief Marketing Officer at NEXT. "Beyond our visual rebrand, we've commissioned small business owners across the U.S. to develop our company apparel and team gifts like sweatshirts, notebooks, sustainable tote bags, and custom patches. We've engaged independent photographers and videographers to help capture real small businesses for new visual brand assets and have worked with independent musicians to create custom on-hold music. Small businesses are more than just our customers - they make up our identity."
A key aspect of NEXT's latest brand is to elevate small businesses and demonstrate the company's support in helping them "Get Going." To bring this to life, NEXT partnered with local black and female-owned small businesses, independent musicians, and other small business owners for activations to support its strategic rebrand. For example, NEXT purchased its corporate apparel from Stuzo Clothing, a woman-owned gender-neutral streetwear brand in Los Angeles, and licensed its "on hold" music directly from independent musicians across the country.
Customers who contact the company's call centre will enjoy songs from independent musicians as well as an exclusive artist introduction to each song. "NEXT's decision to not only use Stuzo as its corporate apparel supplier but to feature our branding directly on the sweatshirts says so much about the company's commitment to small businesses," said Stoney Michelli, founder of Stuzo Clothing. "Very few companies provide this level of support to the small business community and I am excited to have a role in NEXT's latest rebrand.”
Between the ongoing struggle of the legacy insurance industry's one-size-fits-all coverage and the immediate impact COVID-19 had on small businesses, NEXT's rebrand came at a critical time for small business owners. To better align the brand to its company ethos, NEXT partnered with independent strategy and design company COLLINS to bring to life and shape its small business-focused mission through a reimagined brand strategy, visual identity, logo, communications, and website. Additionally, NEXT worked with global creative company BUCK and sound design company Barking Owl to create an animated advertising campaign to launch the new brand.
"At COLLINS, we work to bring out the best in the companies we work with. This was easy to do with NEXT because the company is so tightly aligned to its mission of helping small businesses thrive," said Brian Collins, Chief Creative Officer at COLLINS. "We incorporated small businesses' ambitions into our strategy and every detail of the rebrand and addressed the challenges head-on of traditional business insurance and how NEXT is changing that."
