What a great term—Digital Darwinism—to describe the fear many agencies and carriers feel as they struggle at make sense of the many challenges they face in today’s rapidly evolving environment.

Mobile, cloud, and social technologies are evolving faster than ever. These technologies are also transforming our society and giving rise to a new empowered and connected consumer. The reference to Darwin suggests that failure to adapt eventually will lead to the demise of the business of insurance, as we know it.

I believe that the challenge facing our industry is not just about making sure agents have blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and are using Pinterest to curate relevant business information. Yes, it is important to learn how to effectively use new technology.

But it is critical to pay close attention to the evolution of consumer behavior and ultimately understand how to engage with the new connected consumer.

The technologies that are fueling all the disruption can, when effectively used, provide a window into the psyche of the consumer and provide the means to connect and engage. But real success will require an organization to change its work and evolve its brand. That is, become a social business. For example, engaging in social technologies must become more than a marketing department project. Today, consumers are demanding that their business partners be transparent, accessible, open, socially responsible, and honest. They want to feel that they know their favorite brands on a personal or personalized level. These traits become woven into the fabric of the agency—and every employee plays a part.

Keeping up and adapting to new technology and the changing demands of customers and prospects has always been a challenge. What is different today is that advancements in technology and changes in consumer behavior are happening “scary” fast.

Future success isn’t just about the latest technology. Rather, it’s about cultural transformation and market disruption. How an organization recognizes and adapts to new opportunities will determine its future viability. How are you learning to adapt?

That’s an excerpt from Dave’s birthday message to fans a few years back, in which he announced the “Sixteen things it took me 50 years to learn”. There are some other real gems in there.

I agree with Mr. Barry on meetings, so why in the world would Aartrijk pile on with yet another meeting—our Brand Camp? Don’t insurance and financial services pros meet enough? Of course, and that’s why we’re aiming to alter and improve the very essence of what we call a “meeting,” or for that matter, a conference, seminar, workshop, speech, etc.

If Aartrijk can contribute to changing the rules of the game, perhaps we can show how the future of face-to-face meetings could be in our industry. Because, let’s admit it, as human beings we need to meet—and we like to meet, especially if it’s fun.

So, we just announced the third Aartrijk Brand Camp at the beautiful Hotel Boulderado in beautiful Boulder, Colorado on May 7-9, 2012. We believe this is the “anti-meeting,” the sort of event that can inspire people. I know it inspires us.

I love our theme, “Anatomy of a Brand.” Talk about fertile soil to explore business challenges and opportunities! We’ll be telling you more about that in the months ahead; for now, think of your firm’s brand (any type, any size) as you would yourself. It, and you, is an individual, a human being—and you need to keep in shape.

Some more things to know about Brand Camp:

• Don’t think of a classroom-style conference or a series of speeches from the podium. That’s not what we’re trying to accomplish.
• Do think on an informal, fun, comfy, coffeehouse setting where you relax, chat, sip a beverage, and even multitask—no one is going to yell at you for peeking at your iPhone.
• Don’t think of a one-way conversation, as so many gatherings are structured. This is not “one to many,” where a smart speaker talks for an hour to a thousand people. It’s many-to-many.
• Do think of an interactive setting where you can learn and share with 100 or 120 other brilliant folks just like you.
• Finally, note that isn’t an annual event—again, we don’t want this all to get stale. We move locations and times of the year, and we never want to hold a Camp unless we feel we have something to talk about. That is our promise to the late Aartrijk staffer Maureen Wall Bentley, who conceived of the idea of Brand Camp in 2007.

If this sounds like an event for you, well, then, we hope to see you in Boulder on May 7. Onward!

Since that post, much of the East Coast has suffered significant flooding from both Irene and Tropical Storm Lee—and the companies mentioned in my earlier post along with many other firms continued to make effective use of social networking to stay in touch with their customers.

They used everything from e-newsletter and blogs to Twitter and YouTube to post information on how to contact carriers, storm updates, emergency shelters locations, road closings, office hours, FEMA info, tips on cleaning, preparing a disaster supply kit, storm surge maps, “thank you’s” to emergency responders, photos of local flooding, and insurance policy coverage information.

Carol Reese, CIC, CRM, from the Henry D. Young Insurance Agency, sums up much of the rational behind the use of social networking under this type of circumstance: “I feel that social media is a great way to get information out to many people immediately to help them deal with disasters and their aftermath. It also shows the community that we care about what may be happening to them and are here to help them get through the claim process and disaster recovery.”

Yes, these firms provided a valuable service to their customers. Yet, I think we can—really, must—do more. I would like to see our industry develop a single resource, or clearinghouse of up-to-date information, as well as, a comprehensive industry-wide social media response plan.

In the recent East Coast disasters, most agents had to come up with their own content and find relevant resources. Without sacrificing the significance of local community information, I think there would be great value in our industry creating a single and centralized repository of information. Not only would this give agents access to event relevant content but populate the social space with a strong unified and consistent message. For example, if IIABA or a carrier created a video about disaster planning, agents across the country could access, share, and link to that resource.

The communication plan would be designed to enable our industry to deliver a cohesive message and leverage the local presence of the 25,000 independent agents. Thus, the plan would define and model the process of moving a timely communication from the national association level to a local agency.

In my opinion, creating a single resource and communication plan would allow us to take control of our message and offset the typical popular media stories about increased premiums and uncovered losses. Implementation of this model would give us the means to demonstrate the value of the Independent Agency System. What do you think?

So, I guess I shouldn’t have been all that surprised when he asked me the other night: “Why are the most creative TV commercials for insurance?”

Having worked in the insurance marketing space for many years now, I admit that I’ve seen more than my fair share of very, very bad advertising. But he was right: Much of the good ad creative now on television is related to our industry.

Why? Probably because every point of market share within the U.S. property-casualty sector represents about $4.6 billion in premium. Of that, more than one-third is personal auto, and the biggest opportunity for personal auto writers are buyers new to the industry—consumers under the age of 30 who have not yet formed a strong brand loyalty.

So, there is a very big incentive to create clever, witty ads that appeal to a younger generation (my 40-something husband notwithstanding) who want personal lines.  And, if the preliminary numbers from A.M. Best Co. are any indication, those spots are working. Although total personal lines premiums were up just 0.8% from 2008 to 2009 (with national independent agency carriers down by 3.2% and regional IA companies flat), direct writers grew premiums by a staggering 8.6%. And while exclusive writers saw a small uptick in that time—0.3%—their 2010 creative clearly is striking out at those 15-minute consultations: As Mayhem explains, “If you’ve got cut-rate insurance, you could be dealing with this mess yourself.”

All this makes me eager for a bigger presence for independent agents in this space—a brand that will drive consumers of all ages to independent agents, where they will get the choice of markets, claims advocacy and customization we know they need (but too often they don’t know are available to them).

Ten years ago, I was heavily involved with the launch of Trusted Choice, which was created by the Big “I” with that very purpose in mind—differentiating independent agents and building market share. A decade later, the brand is on the verge of some initiatives that could deliver on that promise.

But there needs to be a vigorous effort from more than just Trusted Choice. Agents themselves need to become more versed in what brand is and is not. To grasp that a brand is something you earn, not something you get. To pursue Generation Next as customers, employees and partners. To accept that social media and Web positioning are not fads they can ignore, but vital strategic vehicles for engaging customers, prospects and the community at large.

Companies can help by imparting their branding knowledge to their field staff, who engage with agents far more often than does the VP of marketing. They need to create and distribute tools, and emphasize the importance of a strong agency brand.

Here within the independent agency channel, I often hear grumbling about the “damn gecko.” But railing at the lizard isn’t the answer. Rising to the challenge is.

We invite you to follow Brand Camp updates on LinkedIn, Aartrijk’s Facebook page, Twitter (@Aartrijk) using hashtag #ABC2010, and Aartrijk’s blog.

Monday October 25, 2010

First up are the “Do It Now” sessions at 3:30 pm Central Daylight Time (CDT). Bring your problems, dreams, aspirations (large or small). Brand Campers, Counselors, and outside speakers will help you, on the spot. It’s a chance to create or fix key items for your brand. Then comes the welcome reception.

Tuesday, October 26

The first full day of Brand Camp (Tuesday, Oct. 26) kicks off with a cold-eyed look at the financial Value of Brand by Hales & Co., focusing on research on independent insurance agencies. Then the interactive part of Brand Camp kicks off in earnest (to continue for the rest of camp).

Then we launch full force into the tools, tactics, and topics relevant right now for insurance branding with a panel discussion Your Brand Transformed, featuring Aartrijk’s team of Brand Camp Counselors. We’ll poke and prod about what is happening in the marketplace of brands, using experience and observations from inside and outside the insurance industry.

Next up is Brand Audit: The Big ‘A-Ha Moment.’ This session presents what a brand audit entails and why it’s a plus for moving a brand forward. Counselors Aaron Moore and Andrea Campbell describe what a brand audit entails and how it helps move a brand forward. Counselors Aaron Moore and Andrea Campbell focus on the image assessment portion of the brand audit, show a case study and take questions.

The big event at Brand Camp is The Integrated Marketing Challenge. It’s experiential learning, especially for Brand Campers who are dealing with insurance branding issues everyday. Attendee teams compete à la The Apprentice in this hands-on exercise. The Integrated Marketing Challenge engages Campers as teams to develop a strategy to resolve a specific marketing problem or opportunity.

On Monday afternoon, Campers switch gears to look ahead for a panel discussion called What’s Next? This focuses on mobile applications, geolocation, video blogging and other new and emerging trends.

Let’s Get This Straight: Internal Brand Alignment looks at how brands work inside an organization. How do you achieve internal brand alignment with leaders, employees and other stakeholders (including the cynics)?

Brand Camp requires fun, good food and enjoyment. That tradition begun in 2009 continues with a day-ending Networking Event: Do the (Max’s Wine) Dive.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Day 2 of Brand Camp kicks off with a special session featuring agent branding. Social Networking: Now What? covers: Bringing in new business, B2B vs. B2C, strategies to make it work, blogging vis a vis Web site vis a vis Facebook/LinkedIn. Panelists are noted bloggers Chris Jordan, Atlanta Insurance Live, and Ryan Hanley, Albany Insurance Professional.

Brand Camp teams make their Interactive Marketing Challenge Presentations. While the winning team takes home a special prize, everyone takes home more knowledge and experience to make their brands more productive.

(After Brand, by invitation only, a luncheon event is open to Assurex Global attendees.)

Movie lovers may remember Mel Gibson’s gaining the ability to read women’s minds in “What Women Want.” And we market researchers sometimes wish for this kind of direct insight. Living in the real world, when we want to know what people want, we turn to our research tools: surveys, interviews and focus groups.

And in a recent survey of 1,498 independent insurance agents, we validated what many industry leaders already know: among all the important factors that agents consider when choosing their “go-to” carriers for personal lines, claims service quality matters most. Not technology, not their own agency compensation – but the service their clients get from insurance carriers.

But carriers want to know what “great claims service quality” means. So we asked more detailed questions.

We found that the speed of the first call to the insured matters more than anything else – even more than getting the claim paid quickly. Carriers can use this information to prioritize their efforts to improve so that they deliver on what agents really want.

You can read more about a few initial findings in “Agents’ Top Rated Carriers Make Fast Claims Adjuster Contacts,” an  article in the Insurance Journal, which sponsored the research study. The full report of this survey, conducted by Channel Harvest, is available as of early June.

For more information on purchasing the survey report, contact Peter van Aartrijk at peter@Aartrijk.com.

At a time when people are skittish on the economy, it’s great to hang out with folks who are bullish.

One of my favorites is Charlie McShane, and his company is State Auto, based out of Columbus, Ohio.

Recently Maureen Wall Bentley, our executive vice president of brand strategy, and I attended Charlie’s grand opening of State Auto’s new Hunt Valley, Maryland offices, just north of Baltimore. Charlie is the company’s eastern regional president—he actually founded the region for State Auto and was the only employee there a few years ago. (In case you don’t recognize Charlie, he’s the big man on campus in the center of the photo.)

Charlie and staff were joined at the opening by State Auto’s senior leadership team, including CEO Bob Restrepo. The firm is an Aartrijk client, and this beautiful new office is yet another sign of how this super-regional company is optimistically positioning for growth.

Office openings are a milestone, sure. But for me, this one is more about people than real estate. I’ve known Charlie for 20 years. He has moved around in that time as P-C carriers consolidated and evolved. When I first met him, he evoked the quintessential “company field man,” working with independent agents on their local level. As I got to know him, I saw all his qualities—honesty, professionalism, knowledgeable, caring, and a great sense of humor—are why folks such as Charlie are not only incredibly valuable in leadership roles, they are rare people, period.

On behalf of Aartrijk, I’d like to extend my congratulations and best wishes to my friend Charlie, the folks working in the new eastern regional offices, and all our friends at State Auto. Good luck, guys!

Peter van Aartrijk

Well, according to respected M&A consultants Hales & Company, having a strong brand can make that kind of difference in valuing your firm—not just putting smoother icing on the cake, but actually giving you a bigger, better cake.

It is because of this importance of brand—and Aartrijk’s dedication to it—that Hales has asked us to participate in its agency valuation seminar series, co-hosted by National Underwriter. This respected series—held in four cities around the country this spring—provides a full day of hands-on workshops on topics related to your agency’s value, including:

• Sell and Buy Side Mergers & Acquisitions
• Organic Growth
• Organizational & Compensation
• Prospecting & Telemarketing
• Branding & Marketing
• Legal & Regulatory
• Future Employee Benefit Business Model
• Compliance Certainty

Three Aartrijkers—Peter van Aartrijk, Laurie Donohue and I—will be taking turns teaching the branding segment at these events, scheduled for the following dates:

• April 13 – NYC, Westin NY Times Square
• April 22 – Chicago, Hyatt Regency
• May 12 – Dallas, Marriott Quorum by the Galleria
• May 19 – San Francisco, Grand Hyatt.

For more information or to register, go to www.mergerandacquisitionsseminar.com.

We hope to see you there!

We at Aartrijk have been working on our client’s Web sites—using the very new and very cool social networking and site-building tools available. So we thought it was high time we brought a fresh look to our site. Please let me know what you think about it (peter@Aartrijk.com).

As we pause to celebrate 11 years in the branding business, I’d like to say, “Thank you.” It has been an enjoyable ride—even in this stormy sea of an economy. If you don’t know me well, I’m a glass-half-full kinda guy.

I love the Allstate TV ad with the comment, “Is this the Great Recession, or has the recession made us great?”

I believe the recession has made us great. When money is tight, you’re likely to question what truly brings value. In my mind, relationships pay the highest dividends—but like going to the bank without anything in the account, you can’t remove funds. You must invest wisely. So now is the time to build up equity—you must communicate with your prospects and clients!

We know our Web site is our most important office, so we hope it reflects how we love working with our insurance, financial services and trade association friends.

Here’s to a super 2010 for your business.

We had pre-surveyed attendees at Aartrijk Brand Camp. These were agents, brokers, carriers, association executives, media reps, and business partners such as technology firms.

In sum, you have genuine concerns and questions around the impact and application of social media. You are being cautious about stepping into fray.

Here are some top issues you are having with all the excitement behind Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, etc.:

Social media appears to be a time vampire. How do you manage the time you and your people spend with it?

How do you show a return on the effort? One survey respondent said: “While time spent on informing/communicating with fans helps build relationships, does that turn into referrals?” And sales?

We don’t know where or how to start with social media. We need a plan and a budget and somebody in charge—who is that going to be?

The internal battles are brutal. How do we get our management on board? And our legal beagles are putting the kybosh on us branding folks—the IT department isn’t helpful either. One of you said, “The current rule is to run all printed copy past the marketing and legal departments. Social [media] requires a more relaxed, conversational tone to be authentic and trustworthy…[But] it is viewed as more of a risk than an opportunity.”

We’re not sure when we should start! One of you said: “Maybe it’s better not to put a toe in the water until this new frontier matures.”

Who in insurance has gone before us? What are the best practices around building brand awareness with social media? “We need success stories.”

Who is this for? Is social media best for business-to-business? Business-to-consumer? Both? Neither?

Finally, do insurance and financial services play a role at all in social media? Do consumers care about us? We’re not worthy! We’re just not cool enough!

Ah, yes, great questions. Stay tuned for some solutions offered up by Brand Camp attendees.

– Peter van Aartrijk

Follow Aartrijk on Twitter: @Aartrijk. Follow Brand Camp conversation on Twitter using hashtag #ABC09.