Why Swiss Re Banked on Lumen5 for Social Engagement
ABOUT SWISS RE
A network of 80 global offices
As one of the world's leading providers of reinsurance, insurance, and insurance-based risk transfer, The Swiss Re Group's brand vision is simple — to make the world more resilient. Founded in 1863 and headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, the company operates through a network of 80 global offices with roughly 14,000 employees.
Swiss Re is a thought leader in their industry who actively shares engaging content across multiple channels. They currently publish an average of 10-12 data-driven reports a year on topics, including cyber resilience, societal resilience, natural catastrophes, global partnerships, and corporate sustainability. Swiss Re also maintains two industry-leading publications, sigma research and SONAR.
"Our in-house team covers a huge workload and uses a ticketing system which can create bottlenecks. With the kind of spontaneous content and impromptu requests that define social storytelling, we needed a more compatible system."
Annie Wu, Creative & Digital Assets Manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re
THE CHALLENGE
Video Storytelling: Timelier and Compelling
Four years ago, Wu and her colleagues sought to increase engagement around Swiss Re's thought leadership through more compelling storytelling on social media. Having identified video as the best medium to achieve this, they approached their firm's in-house production team. But there was a problem. Increasing workloads meant it was becoming increasingly difficult for them to create daily short social media videos.
"Our in-house team covers a huge workload and uses a ticketing system which can create bottlenecks. With the kind of spontaneous content and impromptu requests that define social storytelling, we needed a more compatible system," says Annie Wu, Creative & Digital Assets Manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re.
External agencies were not a viable option either. Swiss Re didn’t want to replace their in-house creative team. No. They wanted to empower their own creative teams to produce amazing work without the full reliance of agencies, briefs, and time delays. Wu and her team wanted to remove the content bottleneck so they could excel at social storytelling.
"We work within a very narrow timeframe, typically publishing on the day of production," Wu continues. "If we wait too long, our message loses momentum, meaning less visibility, awareness, and engagement. We recognized very quickly how much time we'd save if we could handle things ourselves — how much we needed to handle things ourselves."
"We saw increasing demand within Communications for an intuitive self-service video production tool and Lumen5 filled the gap."
Annie Wu, Creative & Digital Assets Manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re
THE SOLUTION
Artificial Intelligence Meets Corporate Communications
Wu first discovered Lumen5 through Google while compiling a shortlist of potential solutions. Before finalizing the list, she asked for suggestions from her colleagues in Swiss Re's communications department, where Lumen5 popped up again. Recognizing its potential, she compiled and presented a business case to communications leadership and Swiss Re's IT business partner. And, queue the drumroll… the rest was history!
"Lumen5 was ultimately the best fit for our needs. Other tools were either too complicated or far too limited in scope. Its artificial intelligence and text-to-video features caught the interest of everyone in communications," says Annie Wu, Creative & Digital Assets Manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re.
A powerful, web-based video creation tool, Lumen5 features an intuitive drag-and-drop interface supported by AI and simple workflows. With a comprehensive selection of stock media and library of pre-built templates, the platform makes it easy to create a diverse selection of content.
"Lumen5 lets us create videos in no time," says Wu. "Because it's web-based and subscription-based, we don't need to worry about issues related to cost or digital security."
Lumen5 also supports custom branding and multiple video formats, both major selling points for Swiss Re. Wu and her colleagues can now produce several videos for each topic, including content exclusively for A/B testing! Lumen5 has also not only changed the team's attitude towards content creation to be more spontaneous and creative, but increased their video output optimization to new heights!
"We needed a video creation tool for everything, not just explainers or animations. Lumen5 has it all, and it's so easy to use that we can simply create a video whenever we have a new idea," says Annie Wu, Creative & Digital Assets Manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re.
"Lumen5 was ultimately the best fit for our needs. Other tools were either too complicated or far too limited in scope. Its artificial intelligence and text-to-video features caught the interest of everyone in communications."
Annie Wu, Creative & Digital Assets Manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re
Working Together for Better and Branded Video
Once Lumen5 passed Swiss Re's Digital Governance Framework, setup was smooth thanks to collaboration between Lumen5 and the firm's stakeholders. Ten people currently use the solution, six of whom are on the communications team. Wu continues to champion the platform across the organization, emphasizing its intended use: to create short daily social media videos.
"Lumen5 won't replace our in-house team anytime soon," Wu explains. "We use it to create content for social media. And those videos are very different from the long-form informational content they produce."
Swiss Re's current process for social video starts with a script sent to Wu and her team. After digesting the lines and brainstorming, they form a general idea of how the final video should look and feel. Finally, Lumen5 makes their vision come to life in a branded ready-to-use template.
"Once you've got an idea, concept, and script, it doesn't take long to create a video and target it to a specific niche and region, regardless of whether it's organic or sponsored content. Adding things like infographics and icons also helps us keep things fresh and engaging," says Annie Wu, Creative & Digital Assets Manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re.
"Once you've got an idea, concept, and script, it doesn't take long to create a video and target it to a specific niche and region."
Annie Wu, Creative & Digital Assets Manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re
THE RESULTS
Thought Leadership, Brand Awareness, and Social Engagement
30 Minutes Average video creation time
551 Videos Created in a single year
400 Videos Produced by a single user
4 Years Using Lumen5
Lumen5 gives Swiss Re's communications team more time to be creative with their social marketing, requiring an average of 30 minutes for even complex videos. Consequently, they've considerably ramped up video production, creating two or more videos per topic. Content is mainly knowledge-based and client-facing, when being published on LinkedIn to promote the firm's reports.
"Because of what Lumen5 can do, we have a lot of time to think about the best way to leverage its capabilities," says Wu. "Although our initial scope involved short teaser videos for our reports and campaigns, we've also used it for internal communications and how-to videos. At this point, if one of us has an idea, we can immediately create a video to explore it."
"For what we need and how often we need it, Lumen5 is an excellent tool”, Wu concludes. "It just works and the team behind it helps a great deal, too — both with customer service and their commitment to evolve the solution."
“With the traditional agency, the time is usually about one week. But with Lumen5, it’s cut down from weeks to hours.”
Visual content director at Siemens AG
“Lumen5 is especially helpful for business people who don't have the technical experience to make their own videos.”
Media relations and content manager
“Thanks to Lumen5, we have been able to cut down on the time and costs related to video making.”
Global advertising and sponsorships
“We’re able to create a video quickly with a turnaround of five minutes versus trying to coordinate with an agency and see if they have time to fit you in. With Lumen5, you could just get it right then and there.”
Social & digital content manager
“The best part about Lumen5 is that it's not time-consuming. It's really easy and you only need a couple of minutes to create a video because everything is included.”
Senior online marketing manager
“We have scaled Lumen5's use across our marketing organization, realizing benefits across many team layers. As company communicators, this agile tool enhances each customer's experience and engagement.”
Director of global integrated marketing, Emerson
“We saw increasing demand within Communications for an intuitive self-service video production tool and Lumen5 filled the gap.”
Creative & digital assets manager, Corporate Voice, Swiss Re
Swiss Re needed a way to create timely social videos without relying on an overloaded in-house production team or external agencies. Lumen5 offered a fast, intuitive, AI-powered platform that made it possible for communications teams to produce daily social content in minutes. This eliminated bottlenecks and enabled Swiss Re to publish on the same day ideas emerged, which is essential in a thought leadership driven organization.
Swiss Re required a web-based solution with no installation or implementation, along with strong security alignment. Lumen5 passed Swiss Re’s Digital Governance Framework and offered custom brand templates, consistent visual identity controls, and secure browser-based access. This ensured all content met brand guidelines while protecting sensitive data across global teams.
Swiss Re relies heavily on Lumen5 features such as AI script support, text-to-video, drag-and-drop editing, format flexibility, and an extensive stock library. These tools enable the team to turn scripts and ideas into polished videos in about 30 minutes. The result is a high volume of on-brand, engaging content for social media, LinkedIn reports, campaigns, and even internal communications.
Before Lumen5, Swiss Re struggled to create fast, spontaneous content due to ticketing delays and limited production resources. Lumen5 allowed the Corporate Voice team to produce short, visually compelling videos for each report or topic. They now publish multiple variations for A/B testing and can respond quickly to emerging trends, ensuring content remains timely and engaging for brokers, insurance partners, and industry audiences.
No. Lumen5 complements Swiss Re’s creative team by handling fast-turnaround social videos that differ from the long-form content produced internally. The in-house team focuses on larger productions, while Lumen5 empowers communicators to independently create daily short videos. This division of work eliminates bottlenecks and increases overall output without adding headcount.
Ten team members across communications use Lumen5 to create scripts, brainstorm visual directions, and apply brand templates that unify the final video. Once the idea and script are ready, the platform makes it easy to add infographics, icons, and multiple format versions. This collaborative process turns ideas into publish-ready videos quickly, supporting both organic and paid campaigns across regions.
