Hazel Chimhandamba: Brand value must be earned

In insurance, trust is not something a brand can simply communicate. It has to be earned through every interaction, every claim and every promise kept.

That is why Hollard’s performance in the 2026 Brand Finance South Africa 100 ranking matters to me. We climbed 47 places, from 69th to 22nd overall, and ranked third among South Africa’s insurance brands. While recognition is encouraging, I see it less as a destination and more as evidence that a long-term strategy built around trust, relevance and human connection is gaining traction.

The real question is not how quickly a brand can climb a ranking. It is whether customers, brokers, partners and employees experience the same values that the brand promises.

Building value through delivery

Our progress has not been driven by a single campaign. It reflects years of deliberately reconsidering how insurance should be communicated and experienced.

Insurance can be complex and intimidating. Our responsibility is to make it easier for people to understand and navigate risk without making them feel overwhelmed.

That thinking informed our Insure Your Unsure campaign, launched in 2024. Instead of framing insurance primarily around fear and everything that could go wrong, we chose to focus on helping people navigate uncertainty with greater confidence.

But a campaign can only go so far. Brand value is ultimately created when communications are matched by delivery.

That means listening to customers, strengthening broker relationships, building meaningful partnerships and ensuring employees understand and live the brand promise. These are not separate brand-building activities. Together, they shape how a business is experienced.

Impact

For us, brand building is inseparable from our Shared Value approach. Purpose is not a communications layer placed on top of the business; it is about making choices that create value for the business, our brokers, our customers and society.

That is why we focus on interventions that help communities and businesses manage risk more proactively. Commercial performance and social impact should not be competing objectives. Done properly, they reinforce each other.

Our work around renewable energy, wildfires and crime reflects this belief. The Quick Reaction Force (QRF) fire prevention initiative, recently recognised at the Tokio Marine Good Company Awards and the African Insurance Exchange Summit, is one example of how insurance can move beyond simply paying for loss towards helping prevent it.

Why trust matters

Trust is particularly powerful in insurance because customers are buying a promise that may only be tested months or years later. They need confidence that we understand their needs, will act fairly and will be there when it matters most.

A trusted brand can strengthen retention, broker and partner confidence, advocacy and employee engagement. It can also create the permission to innovate, introduce new propositions and enter new areas of growth.

That is why I do not see brand as a short-term communications tactic. It is a long-term business asset.

The Brand Finance ranking is a useful signal, but it is not the objective. Our real measure is the quality of the relationships we build and the experiences we deliver.

As we expand across the 10 African countries served through Hollard International, that principle becomes even more important. Local markets require local understanding, and relevance means adapting our solutions to different economic and social realities.

Our rise from 69th to 22nd tells us we are moving in the right direction. But it also raises the bar. The challenge now is to ensure that every customer, broker and partner interaction continues to reinforce the trust we have worked so hard to build.

Brand value is not created by what we say about ourselves. It is created by what people experience when they deal with.

Hazel Chimhandamba is the Chief Marketing Officer at Hollard

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