Generali: How to Turn Agents into Digital Thought Leaders

Established in 1831, Generali has a long history as a leader in the insurance industry. But they wanted to take their leadership online as well. And together with Sociabble, they were able to make their agents leaders in online sales and communication.

As one of the world’s leading insurance and asset management groups, Generali provides protection, investment, and advisory services across more than 50 countries, serving millions of customers.

In recent years, the group has significantly shifted its communication approach, both internally and externally, to meet evolving customer expectations and digital behaviors. Building a strong presence on social media has become essential, especially with a decentralized agent network operating across the globe. Empowering local teams to represent the brand online is now a strategic priority.

We want our agents and employees to be a real part of our digital transformation: visible, connected, and empowered. Social media is a key part of how we build trust and relevance with our audiences.
Michele Poretti, Global Head of Internal Communication, Generali Group

Social media is no longer just a marketing tool for Generali: it’s a business enabler. Supporting goals from business development to employer branding, the group has rolled out a digital transformation strategy combining clear direction, modern platforms, and local empowerment.

Sociabble plays a key role in this initiative. Deployed in 15 countries, it supports both employee advocacy and social selling, enabling thousands of agents and employees to easily find, personalize, and share brand-aligned content across their channels.

“We managed to have 15 countries align with our vision and choose Sociabble as a key component of our digital strategy. That’s a great success achieved for Generali.”

Ignacio Lancuba de Caro – Group Distribution Experience Manager – Generali Group

Among the countries leading this transformation, Generali Portugal stands out. Here’s how the local team turned a group-wide vision into real-world impact.

Generali Portugal: Empowering Local Agents to Lead the Digital Conversation

Generali Portugal, operating under the brand Generali Tranquilidade, stands as a major player in the Portuguese insurance market. As the second largest non-life insurer in the country, the company serves over 2.6 million customers and continues to expand through innovation and strong agent relationships. Generali Portugal’s agents are spread across local agencies throughout the country, with more than 1,100 employees working to serve and advise customers at a regional level.

For more than a decade, Generali Portugal has been a driving force in the world group’s digital transformation strategy. The local company has developed a robust digital ecosystem to support both its customers and its extensive agent network. This includes a diverse suite of platforms tailored to specific needs: from personalized mini websites for agents, to lead management systems, end-to-end policy simulators, and content marketing tools like Industry Dive.

A key part of this strategy is encouraging agents to grow their presence on social media, especially by creating company pages for their local agencies. Sociabble plays a central role in supporting this approach, offering a seamless way to manage and share content across channels.

The Challenge: Strengthening the Online Presence

As part of this multichannel ecosystem, Sociabble plays a unique and essential role: it is the group’s go-to platform for social selling and employee advocacy. Specifically at Generali Portugal, Sociabble equips agents with ready-to-use branded content, empowering 500 of them to strengthen their online presence, build trust with prospects, and ultimately generate qualified leads.

Filipe Nunes, who has led digital communication initiatives at Generali Portugal for over 15 years, emphasizes the platform’s significance: “Our main objective is to provide our agents with regular content that positions them as insurance experts and builds empathy with their audiences. Sociabble helps them be seen, remembered, and considered when the time comes to choose insurance.”

In a sector where competition is fierce and differentiation is subtle, the ability to maintain a strong, humanized, and consistent brand presence across social channels has become a cornerstone of Generali Portugal’s digital strategy.

Before implementing Sociabble, Generali Portugal faced two key challenges in its ambition to empower agents online and modernize its communication approach.

The first one was a lack of centralization for relevant content. Agents had to manually collect and share content from multiple sources: either by downloading company posts one by one from an internal content platform or by navigating the brand’s Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn pages to find content to reshare. This fragmented experience made it difficult to maintain consistency in brand voice, slowed down adoption, and placed a burden on already busy agents.

The second critical challenge was the need to offer content that reflects the full scope of the insurance sector. In a field that touches on so many aspects of daily life (automotive, health, housing, family protection, and financial security) a narrow, product-only communication strategy simply wasn’t enough.

To keep their agents top-of-mind and relevant in the eyes of consumers, Generali Portugal needed to go further by offering lifestyle advice, prevention tips, and educational content. This editorial richness helps agents engage their audiences with content that resonates emotionally and contextually, while still reinforcing the brand’s expertise and trustworthiness. 

“If agents only publish sales content, followers will lose interest. We aim to help them build trust by mixing prevention, lifestyle, and educational posts, not just offers.”

Filipe Nunes, Marketing – Channel Management Department, Generali Tranquilidade

Sociabble has helped Generali Portugal overcome both challenges. Let’s take a closer look at how the platform delivered, starting with the content strategy.

Content Strategy and Editorial Value

One of Sociabble’s greatest strengths lies in its ability to deliver a wide variety of high-quality content tailored to the many dimensions of the insurance business. Generali Portugal uses Sociabble to centralize and distribute posts that go far beyond traditional product messaging.

Agents have access to a regularly updated content library that includes not only commercial offers but also prevention advice, lifestyle tips, blog articles, seasonal campaigns, and educational content. These posts are curated to support different lines of business such as automotive, health, and home insurance, while also allowing agents to stay relevant and approachable in their digital interactions.

This editorial diversity is key to building long-term visibility and trust. By mixing informative and human-centered content with business-oriented messages, agents can engage their audiences more naturally, increase credibility, and create a stronger presence in their local markets.

“We always tell our agents: don’t just sell. Use prevention, lifestyle, and educational content to build trust. That’s how you stay relevant and visible in the long run.”

Filipe Nunes, Marketing – Channel Management Department, Generali Tranquilidade

Agents can choose to share content not only on their personal profiles but also on an official company page of their own, helping them reach a targeted regional audience while maintaining brand consistency. With the “Post as your own” option, agents can customize the message that accompanies each share, giving them the freedom to speak in their own voice while staying aligned with brand content.

Launch and Adoption

To ensure a successful rollout of Sociabble, Generali Portugal placed a strong emphasis on agent onboarding and engagement.

The launch phase included a national training tour across Portugal, where selected high-performing agents were invited to in-person sessions. These trainings focused on demonstrating the platform’s features, showing the benefits of using social media for business, and encouraging a shift toward more strategic digital practices. A detailed user manual and live demonstrations were also provided to facilitate independent usage afterward.

This hands-on, personalized approach helped build trust and ensured that agents (especially those less familiar with digital marketing) felt supported from day one. The internal buy-in from the commercial team was essential in creating momentum during the early adoption phase, laying a strong foundation for long-term engagement.

Mobile Engagement

To support agents in the field and make participation even more accessible, Generali Portugal relies heavily on the Sociabble mobile app. Agents can search, preview, personalize, and share content directly from their smartphones, giving them full control and reactivity, wherever they are. The intuitive interface ensures that content is always at their fingertips, whether they’re in the office or on the move.

Engagement Tactics and Gamification

To drive sustained engagement after the launch, Generali Portugal put in place a range of actions to build momentum on the platform. These included regular campaigns featuring pinned content, must-read posts, and targeted newsletters to guide agents toward key messages. A real-time leaderboard highlights top performers, turning content sharing into a friendly competition. To further motivate participation, Generali also introduced tailored incentives such as gift vouchers, event invitations, and tickets to national football matches.

Gamification remains a strategic lever for engagement. The team is now exploring ways to refine the leaderboard logic to reward not just frequency of sharing, but the quality of engagement, such as content relevance and click-through performance. With Sociabble’s analytics, the team can easily track which agents meet activity targets (like sharing at least four posts per month) and adjust communications or incentives accordingly. “The more we support and recognize our agents, the more engaged they become. Sociabble gives us the means to do this in a structured, motivating way”, says Filipe Nunes.

Targeting and Personalization

To keep agents connected and engaged, Generali Portugal uses Sociabble’s targeting features to deliver relevant content to the right people. Instead of sending the same material to all users, the team segments outreach based on agent activity levels.

Weekly newsletters include personalized content recommendations, helping agents receive posts that match their social media habits and performance. Less active users receive targeted follow-ups (such as campaign-specific post suggestions or reminders tied to leaderboard standings) to re-engage them.

This approach allows the team to stay responsive and ensure each communication feels timely and relevant, positioning Sociabble as more than just a content hub, but a smart engagement tool.

“We’re not just pushing content. We’re guiding agents to use the right posts at the right time, depending on their goals and activity.”

Filipe Nunes, Marketing – Channel Management Department, Generali Tranquilidade

This blend of automated delivery and tailored follow-ups helps maintain consistent platform engagement while supporting a diverse network of agents with varying levels of digital maturity.

Alignment and Internal Workflows

A key strength of Generali Portugal’s approach is its ability to align teams around shared communication goals. Marketing, commercial, and performance departments collaborate to ensure Sociabble supports both brand messaging and field-level needs.

This coordination ensures that campaigns, commercial priorities, and broader national activations are consistently reflected on the platform. Agents are also guided to share content in line with the brand’s tone and values, with best practices shared during onboarding and reinforced throughout the year. The result is a network of agents who share more—and with greater consistency and professionalism.

Quantifying Success

The impact of Sociabble at Generali Portugal is twofold: strong platform engagement and its contribution to broader digital marketing performance.

“We see Sociabble as a key amplifier. It helps us turn great content into measurable reach and reinforces everything we do across digital channels.”

Filipe Nunes, Marketing – Channel Management Department, Generali Tranquilidade

In 2024, out of a total of 1,100 employees, around 500 agents were active on the platform, with 450 of them sharing at least four posts per month. Their activity generated over 73,000 shares and 57,000 clicks, representing an estimated €98,000 in saved paid media costs thanks to increased organic reach.

These platform successes also translated into international recognition. Generali Portugal has twice won the Sociabble-hosted Social World Championship. It is a global competition across the Generali Group that measures each country’s ability to mobilize its network. This achievement reflects not only strong engagement metrics, but also effective internal coordination, widespread buy-in from commercial teams, and a shared commitment to recognizing top contributors.

In parallel, Generali Portugal’s digital marketing ecosystem generated over 6,000 qualified leads in 2024, converting at a rate of 62.56% and generating more than €1.2 million in premiums. While these results come from various sources (including paid media, email marketing, and agent tools) Sociabble plays a key supporting role. By encouraging agents to include website and simulator links in their posts, the platform bridges visibility and lead generation.

Thus, Sociabble is recognized internally as a meaningful driver of visibility, traffic, and long-term digital success.

What Made It Work: Key Success Factors

Generali Portugal’s success with Sociabble can be attributed to a set of deliberate strategic decisions:

• Strategic integration: The platform was introduced as part of a broader social selling initiative, not as a stand-alone tool. It ensured full buy-in from internal stakeholders, including marketing, commercial, and performance teams.
• Rich, relatable content: The content strategy went far beyond product promotion, incorporating lifestyle, prevention, and educational themes that helped agents connect more meaningfully with their audiences.
• Inclusive onboarding and training: Support was designed for agents of all digital maturity levels, with in-person sessions, user guides, and ongoing guidance to build confidence and autonomy.
• Gamification and motivation: Friendly competition, recognition, and localized incentives created long-term engagement and reinforced the value of consistent participation.

Together, these factors transformed Sociabble into a daily habit for many agents and a central pillar of the company’s agent communication strategy.

Final Takeaway: a Local Initiative that sets an Example Across the Group

More than a platform, Sociabble is now seen as an engine of transformation. In Portugal and beyond, it helps Generali not only modernize its communication strategy, but also redefine how it supports, motivates, and elevates its agent network. It empowers agents to be more visible, trusted, and connected with their audiences. By giving them the tools to share the right content at the right time, aligned with both brand and personal goals, Sociabble bridges local presence with digital scale.

As the initiative continues to expand across new markets, the Generali Portugal success story stands as a powerful proof point: with the right tools and internal alignment, local teams can become a driving force in the group’s digital strategy, fueling both visibility and business growth.

Want to empower your local teams like Generali? Discover how Sociabble can help you activate employee advocacy and social selling at scale.