Launching AIG Life’s health and wellbeing service Smart Health and masterminding Aviva’s TV advertising campaign for life insurance starring comedian Paul Whitehouse feature among the standout achievements of Sue Helmont’s 35 year career, she told Health & Protection.
As the industry becomes more diverse also Helmont hopes that her profile will encourage more women into a sector they may not have previously considered.
And she highlighted the sometimes life-saving impact that insurance and its benefits can have on more people than just the policyholder, particularly families and their children.
Following her retirement at the end of last month, Helmont (pictured) spoke to Health & Protection reflecting on her years working in the insurance sector.
In a quirk of fate Helmont noted she started off her career as a filing clerk at Norwich Union on Fenchurch Street and ended it at AIG Life just a couple of doors further down the road.
She revealed that one of the achievements she was most proud of was the launch of Smart Health – a proposition launched and developed under her leadership.
“I’m proud that it really has changed the landscape of value added services,” Helmont said.
“I said this in my leaving speech at the end of last week, that we helped over 9,000 children because it’s available to families. We’ve helped over 9,000 children before they’re even old enough to know what insurance is.
“It’s even been credited with saving people’s lives.”
Helmont explained that one of the people the product had helped was a third party supplier to AIG and when she told him of her retirememt, he responded by saying that without Smart Health, his partner might not be here.
“That’s rare in the world of marketing that somebody will credit you with that degree of credit. That’s pretty special,” Helmont added.
‘Big risk professionally’
Another achievement Helmont points to was a bold advertising campaign she worked on when at Aviva as the insurer’s head of advertising.
“I was responsible of creating the advert with Paul Whitehouse called Dead Dad,” she continued.
“It was critically acclaimed at the time in the industry as an emotional one which got people to think about the need for protection cover, for mums and dads to think about taking out life insurance.
“That was a big risk at the time for me professionally and for the brand to step out, to do something very different to what was typical for financial services.
“So that was something to look back on and think as a result of that more people may have taken out life insurance. I’m very proud of that.”
Helmont said she was also pleased with the Critical Illness Choices product launched under her watch and added she was equally proud of all her marketing team.
Leadership and diversity
Helmont has also been encouraged by the increasing diversity of the industry and hoped that she could prove an inspiration for more young women entering the sector.
“You hope that you’re a role model for younger women coming through,” Helmont continued.
“I think back to where I have been and where I am now. I hope that one day some of those guys will equally reach the pinnacle of their career, what I wish for is that they might look back and say ‘I had a really good boss once’ – that would be something to be proud of as well.
“One of the things I particularly noted from my early days is that the employees of the sector have got more diverse – this is particularly true of gender diversity.
“Whenever I walk through the City, I’m pleased to see more women than back in the day when I first started.”
“I’m sure we’ve still got a long way to go attracting people from different minorities but it is a much more diverse environment than 35 years where I called my boss Mr and he certainly didn’t know me by my first name at all.
“I’m pleased to see things have changed radically in terms of employment across the financial services generally.”