First American Financial, the premier title insurance, property and mortgage-solutions company, was in the midst of a breakthrough digital transformation. Perceived by many as a legacy title insurer, First American’s digital evolution required clear messaging about its advancement, product offerings and leadership vision to shift audience perceptions and redefine its reputation in the market.
Our strategy was to underscore First American’s transformation of title insurance, delivering unparalleled results in the industry, through a robust integrated thought leadership program that extended across its residential and commercial real estate divisions. With a focus on technological innovation combined with personal service, they are in a class of their own.
We partnered with First American’s newly appointed Chief Innovation Officer Paul Hurst to articulate First American’s innovation positioning through a structured message map. Leveraging findings and insights from in-depth interviews, we developed a strategic communications plan to bring First American’s messaging to life. With the launch of the company’s venture capital group Parker89 in 2022, our thought leadership program positioned Paul Hurst as an expert source on innovation and new business models in the real estate industry with a focus on proptech.
Leveraging data-driven insights on critical issues impacting the company’s stakeholders, RF|Binder saw the post-COVID housing boom and subsequent action by the Federal Reserve as an opportunity to deepen engagement with the growing First American economist team through an always-on media program. This meant regularly interacting with reporters and providing commentary and proprietary models of research to top-tier and trade media. Through white papers and market commentary, the team was well positioned to reinforce First American’s expertise and repository of real estate data.
First American’s National Commercial Services division (NCS) asked us to refresh their brand strategy and redesign their visual identity to reflect their innovative, people-powered approach to delivering next-generation solutions. With a nod to First American’s heritage, like the flight pattern graphic that was inspired from the original First American eagle logo, we created a modern and energetic system applied at every touch point of the brand, from internal communications to event collateral to a brand new website.
