The Actuaries Institute is the peak body for the actuarial profession in Australia. With strong roots in insurance, actuaries have been broadening their contribution into fields like big data, social policy and mapping climate risk.
Actuaries bring a deep sense of integrity and holistic thinking to their work. But the profession struggles to describe what they do. Solving that is key for recruiting and attracting clients. The Actuaries Institute came to us with a business goal to increase advocacy amongst existing associates and drive recruitment.
The challenge
Our research revealed a real positioning challenge for the profession. Data analytics showed people were searching for actuaries and data scientists in almost equal volumes. There’s a clear actuarial skill set, but it’s not ‘one size fits all’. It’s a diverse profession and people identify with different aspects.
The three distinct challenges that we needed to address were:
- Striking a chord with different types of actuaries
- Factoring in what the clients were already attached to
- The content can be very technical and dry
Our approach
We wanted to capture how actuaries thought about themselves and their work, in their own words. But we knew from working with other clients that it’s easy to get trapped in a research loop. There’s a knack for drawing a line on research and getting it out there and testing it. By exposing our proposed framework to immediate stakeholders early in the process, we discovered different people resonated with different aspects of it. And that shaped our solution.
We reviewed existing research, including focus groups and survey data, and expanded it, knowing it mattered to the client that our approach was comprehensive and robust. We reviewed their website and comparator sites, keywords, job ads, forums and social media, and interviewed Actuaries Institute members, surveyed board members and held a discovery workshop with staff.
Exploring how actuaries are perceived now and how they would like to be perceived in future, we looked at how others talk about actuaries, here and in Canada and identified common pitfalls in actuary messaging.
Addressing the challenges
Challenge 1: Striking a chord with different types of actuaries
As we spoke to actuaries, what emerged was that we should think about the different domains of actuarial practice. Blanket statements about the profession as a whole wouldn’t cut it.
We aimed for congruence and coherence over conformity in our messaging. It was more important to us that the message made sense and had impact as a whole than was tied in a neat little bow, which is typically the goal of mission and vision statements. Human communication doesn’t follow a script. We needed to create flexibility in the way actuaries talk about the profession, while offering a clear framework tied to an overarching theme.
We found actuaries’ sense of professional identity is split. Compelling them to identify with one type of practice risks alienating the profession. We defined three key domains: the C-suite, public policy and the data lab. We road tested the validity of this structure with actuaries themselves, then tailored content for these specific contexts, with the result that each type of actuary felt seen.
Domain diagram
Challenge 2: Factoring in what the clients were already attached to
We wanted to understand where the client is now and what solution they were ready for. If we knew what they were attached to, we could bring that messaging into the mix. That way, we weren’t focusing just on research and data. We entered a conversation with the client about how we make sense of this for them in a way that’s respectful of their current viewpoint and outlook.
Out of this conversation, we developed a source of truth, or a touchstone: that actuaries use data for good. It’s a key message the client can return to as they use it to align future communications.
We learnt that when we go deep into the research, without ego, partnering with the client, it’s not just ‘creative work’ – coming up with an idea of our own and presenting it. It’s uncovering something that already exists. Surfacing that truth in a way that deeply resonates with them and their audience.
Challenge 3: The content can be very technical and dry
Instead of focusing on information delivery, we asked what the client wanted people to know or feel. That opened a different line of enquiry. It led us to choose more emotive, engaging language, reflecting what we heard in interviews.
Those collaborative conversations formed the basis for promotional collateral. Research informed implementation but using interviewees’ words gave us more ROI on the effort we put into the discussions, resulting in rich, resonant artefacts.
The result
The client asked us to develop mission and vision statements. We saw an opportunity to go beyond that: less of a single static statement and more of a messaging architecture. A resource that reflects the nuances between different types of actuaries and resonates more deeply with more people.
We developed a messaging architecture that answered three key questions:
- Why become an actuary?
- Why do you need an actuary?
- What value does the Actuaries Institute provide?
The messaging architecture not only gave the client clarity but became deeply moving. It was intellectually rigorous and emotionally resonant. Some expressed a sense of being ‘seen’ for the first time in their career.
Far beyond a constrained mission and vision statement, our solution challenged the client to consider their professional identities, to own their value and to articulate and communicate it with confidence, interest and flair.
Messaging architecture
