Secret Weapon

The word prompts a visceral response from independent insurance agents. With consumers bombarded every day with recognizable characters touting the benefits of the captive and direct channels, independent agents often lament: “If consumers really understood their choices, they would choose me.”

Jean McLaren, president of the Chicago office of advertising firm MARC USA, agrees with you. And she thinks a new, heavily researched advertising campaign will help consumers ditch the Gecko and seek out independent agents.

After an exhaustive search, Trusted Choice® chose MARC USA as its new advertising agency last year. The freedom campaign is the result of the firm’s extensive research on how to promote the value of independent agents to consumers.

IA asked McLaren to take agents through the process.

IA: How does MARC go about assessing the needs of a new client? How did that apply to Trusted Choice?

McLaren: Our research people dig into every available data source on the category. We already had a number of people on our team who worked on insurance before. They walked in with a base of knowledge on the business. In addition, we were given freedom to talk with some agents and representatives from state associations. That was very helpful because we were able to look at things not only from an objective, third-party perspective, but actually hear from people first-hand about what they felt their challenges were.

We obviously look at competitor websites and how they are presenting themselves, but we also do a search of all of the commentary that consumers are making in the social space. That’s often incredibly enlightening—to see the Achilles heels of your competitors and the common themes consumers are sharing on either their frustrations or what they really love about a service.

How did you develop the new Trusted Choice advertising campaign, “Free to do what’s right for you”?

There’s been an explosion of information that has come to light on how people make decisions—and frankly how irrational that often is. For example, why do people drive five miles to save a penny on a gallon of gas? There are some principles starting to emerge in the field of behavioral economics. So now when we are in the position of helping a brand move forward, we ask: What are the potentially irrational barriers that are getting in peoples’ way that make them feel like they don’t need a product—when in fact it would actually be very useful for them?

We know there are a lot of emotions wrapped up in insurance; fundamentally, it’s a leap of faith. So when we looked at everything in the marketplace, the beauty of this brand was that it was crystal clear right from the beginning that we didn’t have to fabricate some kind of point of difference or advantage. There is a very clear advantage and a very good reason why consumers should go to an independent insurance agent. The opportunity for us was to figure out what emotional triggers we can push to make that rational difference compelling and real for them.

One of the things we did before we even started working on the Trusted Choice campaign was take a hard look at the creative that was already in the category. The irony is that everyone thinks insurance is so dull and boring, but the fact is that the best advertising done in the industry today is being done in the insurance category. The bar was very high.

One of the principles of brain science as it relates to marketing is that consumers react first emotionally. Then they react rationally and either embrace or reject what is being said. You have to hit them first on an emotional level. So we knew we needed to find something that would really drive home the point visually and quickly—and frankly, kind of aggressively. So this idea of freedom—or rather, the lack of freedom that the current captive insurance agent has—is a very powerful image. And the minute we saw that come together, we knew we had something.

How did the campaign test with consumers and agents?

Our first goal in the research was to first and foremost make sure the ads were communicating what we intended. A pitfall that marketers find themselves running into is that they ask consumers to tell them how good they think the advertising is. And that’s not what we’re interested in. We want to know first if the ad is communicating what we intended. And then you ask: “Do you understand it? Does it speak to you?”

I have been in this business for 34 years and the scores that this advertising received from consumers, truthfully, I have never seen in my career. This advertising is breaking through and speaking to them in a way that I find quite remarkable. We had 86% of people say they liked the advertising—if you get above 50%, you are doing well.

84% agreed an independent agent was better suited to meet their insurance needs. This is pretty incredible to me because we have get to customers to disrupt their faith in their current solution and think about whether there’s a better option. And that is very contrary to how people behave. So to have 84% of the people agree after seeing the ads that an independent agent would be better suited to meet their needs is truly remarkable.

Lastly, 78% of the people said they would be more likely to use or reach out to an independent agent. We’ve completed the loop. We got them to like the advertising, it connected with them and it communicated the very powerful message that Trusted Choice agents are better suited to meet their needs. And then, we actually got more than three-quarters of them to say they would reach out to a Trusted Choice agent. What we saw in the agent research is that when the agent had the benefit of seeing the consumer results, all of their reactions were positive.

How can agents best leverage this campaign?

Making sure their own materials are correctly branded is job one. We think it’s really important to not just use the Trusted Choice eagle, but to also use the independent insurance agent language beneath. That’s step one.

Next, if they are going to do promotion, use the templates we are providing. One of the challenges is to make sure that consumers actually see the campaign. So take whatever marketing tactic you are using now and making sure it matches up creatively with what we are doing. The third thing is take part—invest more money in joint advertising programs.

Agents have seen campaigns come and go over the years. What makes this one different?

I think there is such a great confluence of what is going on in the insurance category and what is going on in consumer trends in general. The idea of personalization and customization is a really powerful consumer trend that is cutting across a lot of categories. Being free to create something that is right for the consumer is a very timely idea that’s right for now. It may or may not have been right in the past when it was explored, but it is absolutely right for now.

There’s strength in numbers. If everyone participated in the campaign, it wouldn’t take a lot to have a big impact.

Katie Butler is IA editor in chief.

SIDEBAR: TrustedChoice.com: Your Agency Storefront

TrustedChoice.com was enhanced last summer as an e-business platform for agents. It receives nearly 100,000 visits each month from consumers seeking local agents and personal lines insurance quotes. And it enables a one-stop online insurance shopping experience for consumers.

What’s new?

• Consumers can get real-time personal lines rate quotes from multiple insurance carriers—a first for insurance consumers
• Site design incorporates elements of the new freedom campaign
• Consumers can connect with a local independent agent for sales and service
• Variable content based on consumer interests and location
• Functionality is integrated with the Big “I” website for agent security and ease of use

The TrustedChoice.com basic subscription—which includes the agency name, location and contact information, and enables agents to appear in results when consumers search to “find an agent”—is free to all Big “I” member agencies at projectcapmarketing.com. The Advantage plan, available for a monthly subscription fee, includes additional features:

• Agency appears in results when consumers “get a quote”
• Expanded agency profile, including logo, description, carriers represented, agency services and social media links