Well-known insurance firm embraces digital-first strategy, including $300K production studio

One of the largest insurance companies in the region spent part of the summer in camp — video and digital production camp.

The company, Lakewood Ranch-based FCCI Insurance Group, recently built a state-of-art audio/video production facility, the FCCI Studio, inside its expansive campus. It was an investment of $200,000 to $300,000, says FCCI President and CEO Cina Welch. Then, starting June 1, FCCI began to release a series of videos about the company, its mission, its customers and more. The effort is part of a digital-first initiative underway for about three months, Welch says.

Welch acknowledges that the insurance industry, and FCCI itself, founded in 1959, isn’t necessarily top-of-mind when it comes to producing viral videos. But digital-first is also an acknowledgment that the next generation of customers, employees, vendors and insurance brokers are, for the most part, digital-first natives. “As an industry we can lag behind some others,” Welch says. “But for a regional insurance company like us, I think these are some really big steps,”

The idea to go heavy on digital, while maintaining FCCI’s traditional model and its mantra — “doing what we say we’re going to do” — stems from an officer off-site meeting last year, Welch says. Several FCCI officials said not having much of a video presence was “like an elephant in the room.” So the company, with $952.1 million in direct written premium, brainstormed an overall strategy that was broken down into small pieces.

One big factor among several that drove the push: industry research shows that a business is at least 50% more likely to show up first on a Google search if there is a video embedded in its website.

The FCCI Studio, following those meetings, opened June 23. Welch, on a recent tour of the studio, boasted it could rival any in the area to produce high-quality content, from videos to town halls to one-on-ones with company leaders. The facility includes high definition cameras, teleprompters, editing systems, audio engineering and mixers for sound, special lighting, computer equipment, microphones and lavaliers, backdrops, stage and a green screen. “The look in feel of this is amazing,” Welch says.

The first video highlighted FCCI’s stability and values, and the company’s why. Other videos are about handling claims, including after a tornado; risk management; a business owner’s perspective on why he choose FCCI; and recruitment.

With algorithms, SEO and more, Welch and FCCI’s digital-first team realize the videos are going to be the company’s front door going forward — high stakes they relish. “This is really the way the world has evolved, and we need to evolve,” Welch says. “I think it’s more important than ever to show what a company stands for and your values.”