Hiscox celebrates people who turned side hustles into full-time startups

Specialists insurer Hiscox took an innovative approach to a campaign designed to attract entrepreneurs to its business: focusing on those businesspeople who used their side hustles (while still working full-time) as platforms for launching their small businesses. The campaign has earned the top prize in the “Finance or Utilities Campaign” category of the PR Daily Awards.

The campaign was designed to give these small-business owners a voice, allowing others to learn from their experiences. The content marketing approach taken by Hiscox included a research study, a 10-episode podcast, a documentary-style video series, an email campaign, social media infographics and blog content focused on side hustles.

The survey of 400 U.S. small-business owners produced sharable findings on issues like how to replace lost income and hiring your first employee. The podcast, hosted by Hiscox’s head of communications, featured the stories of people who took their first steps as entrepreneurs while still working a full-time job in their own words. 

The videos went behind the scenes with a select group of side hustlers while media outreach (supported by a bylined article in Entrepreneur magazine) produced articles in Forbes, Yahoo! Finance, CNBC and other outlets. Blog posts on side hustles were amplified with posts across social media.

The landing page for the campaign attracted more than 85,000 visits and 31,000 social media shares, with the survey as the focus of much of the media coverage. The podcast was ranked among the top 100 business podcasts on Apple podcasts, a singular feat.

Congratulations to Lou Casale, Hiscox’s head of communications, Gyawu Mahama, Senior Communications Manager, Hiscox, and all the members of the Hiscox USA Marketing team..