The Driskill Hotel's marble floor features its 'D' logo

Walking in to The Driskill Hotel in Austin for Brand Camp 2010 in October, I admired the high ceilings, the 1880s southwestern architecture and the quick attention from the staff.

And the marble floors.

Like many distinctive hotels, The Driskill spends a lot of money on its floors. They’re marble, distinctly colored, and clean as can be. Placed in the middle of the floor in the center of the hotel’s meeting space is the hotel’s logo (see photo to the right).

The floors and the logo were easy to notice as I was walking from meeting room to lunch and back.

I bet consumers notice these same things about your brand. Except for an insurance agency, the ‘marble floor’ might be something different: Good service; a pleasant working relationship; fast quoting; the ability to diagnose and prescribe insurance prescriptions for risk management.

Do you strategically place your brand identity in the midst of your “marble floor”?

If you do, it’ll give people (prospects and customers) the chance to notice and remember your brand.

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.)

Last week was a great week. I spent three days in Chicago with some of the best people I’ve ever met.

Where was I??? At Brand Camp. What’s that you ask? It was a conference put on by Aartrijk to explore the world of social media and its impact on insurance branding.

Sure, I learned a lot about how social media can be utilized effectively, how to “Tweet” and how important blogging can be. But what really struck me was the energy of the group. The people who attended were really excited about the prospects, willing to learn and energized about their agencies. It’s probably the first time I didn’t get a sense of “quiet desperation” about the future of the independent agent and the power of the direct writers.

• I learned that independent agents have some huge opportunities because their business is based on building and maintaining relationships–a perfect match for social networking.
• I learned that there are some amazing young agents and their staff that have great new ideas to reach “Generation Y,” and that they should be listened to.
• I learned that the agents that adopt this new way of marketing and sales will be the ones to succeed.
• I learned that listening is as important as talking, whether it’s face-to-face or on the Web.
• I learned that being open to new ideas and new ways of doing business is critical to long-term growth.

Yes, we did discuss how to find “fans” on Facebook and “followers” on Twitter. We talked about effective Web site design. We talked about search engine optimization. But they were secondary to the new attitude that was circulating in the room. I wish we could capture that and sell it over the Internet!

– Laurie Donohue, vice president, I-Marketing Management (a partner firm of Aartrijk)

Visit I-Marketing Management: http://www.imarketingmanagement.com.

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

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.

It seems like only last week that the idea for Aartrijk Brand Camp first bubbled up: “Let’s do our own event focused on web and social media—and let’s invite our friends.”

But in no time at all we’ve gone from idea to reality, and we’re now within three months of the big event. The speakers and panelists are lined up, the videos are in production, the sponsors are coming aboard and the registrations are rolling in.

Our opening night party is in a 10-pin bowling alley, and Pete describes the venue—the über-hip Hotel Sax Chicago—as “high tech meets Austin Powers.” So I don’t think this will be like any other insurance meeting I’ve ever been to.

Hope to see you there.

-Maureen Wall Bentley

Excellent questions. I attend many industry conferences so I’m sensitive about offering another one.

I can assure you that Brand Camp won’t be yet another meeting.

This event is the only one designed to put in context the impact of social media/social networking on marketing and branding in insurance and financial services. So if you are responsible for formulating and articulating your brand in our industry—agency, broker, carrier, trade association, services provider—then you should come to Brand Camp.

At most conferences, speakers present in a one-way format. Like social networking itself, Brand Camp will be much more engaging, where attendees truly will get involved. We hope to imagine—even create—some new ways our industry can communicate with customers and prospects. This engagement is a more fun way to learn anyway.

You will return home with a solid plan to introduce or enhance your brand in this new social networking world. Brand Camp will be educational, engaging, entertaining and rewarding for the group as well as for individual participants.

Go on, jump into the fray! Check out the Brand Camp Web page.

– Peter van Aartrijk

Earlier this week I spent some time at Chicago’s Hotel Sax—site of Aartrijk Brand Camp Sept. 28-30, 2009. If you like those Austin Powers movies, you’ll love this place. Cool, smart feel about the place, a bit of old and new mixed. The décor is almost sinfully fun and funky. Great staff. Wine shop on one side; bowling alley on the other; House of Blues 10 yards away. And what’s not to love about Chicago, people?

Also met with blogger extraordinaire Liz Strauss, one of our guest speakers at Brand Camp. (She has 28,000 followers on Twitter.) I can’t wait for our attendees to hear her ideas and interact with our other speakers and attendees—you are sure to come away with an action plan for your marketing and branding!

- Peter van Aartrijk