Trust, relevance and distinctive positioning are becoming increasingly important drivers of business value, particularly in insurance, where products, services and benefits can often be difficult for customers to distinguish.
In the 2026 Brand Finance South Africa 100 ranking, Hollard has recorded one of the most significant improvements of any South African brand, climbing 47 places from 69th to 22nd overall and securing third place among South Africa’s insurance brands.
Hollard’s Group Chief Marketing Officer, Hazel Chimhandamba attributes its improvement to a long-term, insight-led strategy that combines customer experience, broker and partner relationships, reputation management and the insurer’s ability to purposefully impact society.
According to Chimhandamba, the result reflects a sustained investment in trust, relevance and human-centred challenger brand strategy focused on creating meaningful connections with customers, brokers and partners.
“Trust is not a soft metric. It is a business asset. In insurance, customers are buying a promise that may only be tested months or years later. The strength of that promise depends on whether people believe the insurer understands their needs, will act fairly and will be there when it matters most,” says Chimhandamba
Building value through delivery
Hollard’s movement in the ranking is not attributed to a single campaign. Chimhandamba says it reflects a sustained effort to reconsider how insurance is communicated and delivered, particularly as customers expect greater transparency, accessibility and relevance.
“Our focus over the past two years has been on making insurance more relevant and easier to connect with,” she says. “Insurance should be simple, help people understand and navigate risk without making them feel overwhelmed.”
Hollard has deliberately adopted a challenger-brand approach that questions traditional insurance conventions. Rather than relying on the conventional communication approach centred on doom and gloom, it has focused on the positive outcomes that insurance can deliver, simplifying the insurance experience and helping customers navigate uncertainty with greater confidence.
This approach is reflected in Hollard’s Insure Your Unsure brand campaign which launched in 2024, reframing insurance around helping people to navigate uncertainty rather than focusing only on what could go wrong.
The strategy is supported by customer insights, broker relationships, partnerships, employee engagement and interventions designed to help communities and businesses manage risk more proactively.
Chimhandamba says the commercial and social outcomes of these programmes provide tangible evidence of brand impact as a growth lever.
Impact
Chimhandamba highlights that, the result is also a reflection of the way its Shared Value approach has been embedded into the business. For Hollard, Shared Value is purpose in action, it recognises that sustainable business success and positive social impact are interconnected. It’s focused on driving profit through purpose and contributing towards improving society and creating a win-win-win outcome for the business, the broker, and the customer. This also means that brand building is not treated as a communications exercise, but as the outcome of business choices that create value across stakeholders.
Why trust matters
Extending the role of insurance, Hollard is also applying this approach to wider risks, including renewable-energy development, wildfires and crime. The insurer was recently recognised at the Tokio Marine Good Company Awards and at the African Insurance Exchange Summit for the Quick Reaction Force (QRF) fire prevention initiative. This also bears testament to Hollard’s partnership-based philosophy. Hollard’s broad impact initiatives span social, environmental and economic spheres.
The Brand Finance result highlights the importance of trust and relevance in a category where customers may struggle to distinguish between competing products and benefits.
“A trusted brand can support customer retention, strengthen broker and partner confidence, encourage advocacy and give a business greater permission to introduce new propositions. It can also help attract new customers, strengthen employee advocacy and support expansion into new markets or areas of growth. Brand building is therefore not a fly-by-night tactic, it is a sustainable, long-term business growth driver,” says Chimhandamba.
“The ranking is a useful indicator of what consistent brand building can achieve, but it is not an end destination and should not be viewed in isolation,” adds Chimhandamba. “Brand value ultimately depends on the quality of the customer, broker and partner experience, as well as the relationship a business has with its stakeholders. We must keep our ear on the ground and heed to the voice of the customer, broker and the partner.”
According to Hollard, the same approach is being applied across the 10 African countries through Hollard International (HINT) in which it operates, with insurance solutions adapted to local economic and social conditions for transformative impact.
Hollard intends to build on the recognition as it enters its next phase of growth.
Chimhandamba says Hollard’s rise from 69th to 22nd shows that its brand strategy is gaining traction, while increasing the need to ensure that the brand’s external promises are consistently reflected in its customer experiences and business conduct.