Disaster Communications: We Can Do More with Social Media
October 4, 2011 by Rick Morgan · Leave a Comment
This post is a follow-up to the #Irene #Insurance blog I wrote on August 30. That post was written during Hurricane Irene and I talked about how agents, carriers and associations were leveraging social tools to effectively connect with their customers and communicate valuable information.
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. Read more
It CAN Hurt to Ask
June 13, 2011 by Maureen Wall Bentley · 2 Comments
Recently I underwent surgery in a large hospital in Baltimore. On the sixth of my eight days there, I received a visit from a supervisor, clipboard in-hand, who wanted to know about my experience with the nursing staff.
Now, I had been blessed with a nursing squad that was really fantastic—empathetic, knowledgeable, tenacious about patient care—and I told her so. But I did have some issues with the nursing assistants or “techs,” as well as an intercom system that was beyond useless—and I told her about those as well.
“Show me,” she said, and handed me the intercom so she could see how it was—or was not—working. “They hate when I do this,” she mused about her team, who clearly were used to her little spot inspections.
As I expected, the intercom was unintelligible and the tech who got the page was unresponsive (until she realized her boss was on the line).
“I’ll get someone to fix the intercom this afternoon, and I’ll talk to the staff,” she promised. Read more
Marketing Mayhem
November 23, 2010 by Maureen Wall Bentley · Leave a Comment
My husband laughs out loud every time Allstate’s new “Mayhem” commercials air. It’s a bit of a toss-up whether he likes “Flag” or “Jogger” best, but the whole campaign gets his attention—and a chuckle. We have been known to replay the new spots when they appear the first time. Mark also has a bit of a thing for Progressive’s Flo, and he has weighed in on Geico’s “Cavemen” vs. “Gecko” vs. “Rod Serling” (we both hate the weird dollar bills with eyes).
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. Read more
What Agents Want
June 10, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
By Kevin Jenné
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.