“Image and branding” continues to be the key risk concern for business in Aon’s annual risk management benchmark survey.

It has been the key concern for the past four years, and Aon says image is now being recognised as a critical asset to any organisation – big or small.

National GM for Corporate Risk Solutions Paul Venning says that prior to 2006, brand and image wasn’t even considered as an asset.

But now businesses are growing increasingly concerned with social media trends which have the ability to damage their brand or reputation.

“As we recover from the financial and economic downturn, organisations are seeing the importance of maintaining the value of their brand,” Mr Venning told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

A key change in the 2011 survey is business interruption risk dropping to number nine in the rankings – a surprising result considering the number of catastrophe events in the first quarter.

However, Mr Venning says the survey was conducted in October last year, and the result would have been different if it had been undertaken during January.

The other big mover in the survey was a jump in the risk of regulatory impacts, climbing five places to be ranked at number 11.

But Mr Venning says this reflects growing business uncertainty around such issues as the mining super-tax and carbon pricing.

Aon says the average total cost of insurable risk also dropped across all organisations by 8% from 2009, decreasing from $4.56 per $1000 of revenue compared to $5.20.