Twitter

• @Allstate – 4,206 Followers & 5,060 Tweets
• @GHCommunity – 1,913 Followers & 1,747 Tweets

I was not impressed with Allstate’s Twitter pages due to the lack of interesting topics to follow.  The corporate page is standard, but the Good Hands Community needs some work.  I understand Allstate goes after an older demographic, but its tweets come off as boring to someone of my demographic. Family safety, saving money, and preparing for what’s next are the main themes on its page. All are important topics, but here is an obvious lack pop culture tweets on both sites.  How about hot topics, ideas, perspectives, and attitudes that are currently relevant? 

State Farm has set the bar with its State Farm Nation, and unfortunately GHCommunity just doesn’t compare. There are important issues discussed, however, there is nothing that sets Allstate above the competition.

Twitter Grade: D+

Facebook

• Mayhem – 1,035,830 “Likes” 
• X the TXT – 122,914 “Likes”
• Save 11 – 100,821 “Likes”
• Soy La Mala Suerte – 53,878 “Likes”
• Allstate – 34,979 “Likes” 

Allstate runs multiple Facebook pages, with the most popular being Mayhem and a corporate page.  The Mayhem personality is more popular, which has seen constant growth with updated commercial stream.   Mayhem recently joined State Farm Nation, Flo The Progressive Girl, and Farmers as the only insurance pages to surpass the 1 million fan mark.  Many fans comment on actor, Dean Winters, who has become a popular fictional character in the insurance. Fans are even able to post their own personal “mayhem” videos.

 The corporate page is currently running an EA Sports sweepstakes, with the chance to win NCAA 2012 every day until September 30^th. Allstate has done a good job of incorporating its traditional “Good Hands” embedded within the net in-between the goal post.

 X the Text and Save 11 support great causes by promoting awareness of texting while driving and Graduated Driver Licensing laws. X the Text page lacks depth, however, Save 11 engages individuals by encouraging them to write to congress in support of Graduated Driver Licensing laws.  The number 11 reflects the average number of teens that are killed in car crashes every day, totaling 4,000 deaths per year. 

Companies are beginning to build Spanish based pages for Latino customers, with Allstate and State Farm leading the way by recruiting fans at a fast rate.

Overall, Allstate seems to have relevant content and entertaining media, which has kept its audience engaged. Farmers and State Farm have exceeded the 1 million mark, without the popular figures such as Flo and Mayhem. Think of what Allstate and Progressive could be if they took its other pages to the next level.   

Facebook Grade:  A-

YouTube

• Allstate Insurance Channel – 5,309 Subscribers & 12,736,697 Million Uploads
• Allstate News Channel – 20,940 Uploads

The main focus on Allstate’s YouTube cannel centers on the Mayhem commercial series. In my opinion, this series of commercials are some of my favorite on television.  With nearly 13 million uploads, it’s apparent that I’m not the only one who feels this way.  13 million uploads crushes progressive’s 4 million; however, it’s a long way from GEICO’s 34 million. Though Allstate airs other commercials featuring, Denis Haysberg, Mayhem driving the traffic.  Allstate News touches on different safety issues, but the site has not received a lot of traffic. 

Mayhem alone puts Allstate near the top of the YouTube insurance community.

YouTube Grade:  A-

Overall Grade

Allstate has road the momentum that Mayhem has brought them since the end of last year. This alone puts them near the top of the social networking insurance communities.  Twitter needs work and there is still room to growth, but Allstate will need to go beyond traditional models and think outside of the box.  So far so good…

Social Media Grade:  B

Twitter

• @FarmersGroup – 4,782 Followers & 1,050 Tweets

I was somewhat impressed with Farmers’ attempt on Twitter due to its mix of topics, which included themes of both business and pleasure.  There were tweets of complaints on service; however, Famers had various positive tweets on promotions for the March of Dimes, its Food Truck Event, a Farmers Jingle Contest, and a Rascal Flats Concert for Agents. They also did a nice job of incorporating product promotion without overwhelming its audience.  One noticeable flaw was seen in tweets posted by Farmers, which included dead, outdated, and incorrect links to other twitter sites.

No question that Farmers has touched on some important causes, but my concern is the significance of the tweets on @FarmersGroup to your average Tweeter. Unlike @StateFarmNation, the relevance of these promotions pertains to only a small portion of followers. This opinion may differ depending on the eye of the beholder, but it just doesn’t do it for me.

Twitter Grade: C+

Facebook

• Farmers Insurance – 2,248,247 “Likes”

Farmers has been the center of attention in the world of Facebook over the past couple of months. Last year, Farmers had a partnership with the social game, Farmville, which increased the number of fans by over 100,000. In June 2011, Farmers added 2.1 million fans, as they entered a new partnership with Farmville and concurrently ran an airship ride promotion on agencies Facebook pages.    Farmers now has the second largest Facebook following for an auto insurer, with Flo, The Progressive Girl fan page ranking first with over 3 million fans.

Farmers is currently promoting a Las Vegas Getaway with the opportunity to spend two nights at Bugsy Siegel’s recently renovated Flamingo Hotel, dinner at Sinatra at the Wynn, tickets to the Las Vegas Mob Experience and a fun-packed “The Rat Pack is Back” show.

Facebook Grade:  A+

YouTube

• Farmers Insurance Channel – 347 Subscribers & 459,504 Million Uploads

The main focus on Famers’ YouTube cannel centers around the University of Farmers commercial series, which stars Professor Nathaniel Burke. I do find these commercials entertaining on television and there are a number of them on the Farmers Insurance Channel that I have never seen live. Where the channel lacks is in other relevant content. There seems to be a high focus on the University of Farmers, but there are very few other helpful or intriguing topics.  So it comes down to whether or not I find the commercials amusing enough to subscribe to the channel? As of now, I think not. 

YouTube Grade:  C

Overall Grade

Farmers has done a tremendous job with its Facebook partnerships and contest, however, they have only been average on Twitter and YouTube. If their other social media platforms step up their game, Farmers can compete with State Farm Nation, which is currently number 1 in my rankings.

Social Media Grade:  B-

After attending a handful of insurance conferences over the past year, there is a ton of buzz surrounding social media and how companies can maximize marketing efforts through these channels. I am having a hard time figuring out why companies think this is the future of marketing. I for one have no interest in tweeting and/or facebooking about my insurance experiences, unless, it’s to complain. YouTube on the other hand is somewhat intriguing with comical commercials from Allstate’s Mayhem and the assortment of GEICO characters.

Progressive, State Farm, GEICO, and Allstate are leaders not only in the insurance industry, but all are innovators in the marketing world. With developing characters like Flo, Mayham, Gecko’s, Cavemen, and LeBron, all four of these carriers have been active on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

As I embark on my 5th year of competitive intelligence analysis and consulting in the insurance industry, I have watched these channels develop, and though I am only one opinion, my demographic is the intended audience of such marketing efforts.

I plan on digging into some of these major P&C insurer’s social media pages/channels and giving my two cents. Are these channels affective? Is the content relevant? Do people follow these companies? What are consumers saying? These are some of the questions I would like to address.
First up…Progressive

Recorded and OnDemand TV shows have made watching television more satisfying, but being an avid sports enthusiast , I am forced to watch commercials during live broadcasts. For the most part it’s the same old commercial on repeat…A car commercial followed by a jewelry store advertisement next to a P&C insurance plug finally rounded out with the stations primetime show promotion. Although some of these I suffer through, I do get a kick out of most P&C insurance commercials – working in the insurance industry definitely makes my eyes and ears pay a little more attention than the norm.

With all of the competitiveness circulating around the insurance sector, companies are always trying to outwit and out-market their competitors. So here is my attempt to breakdown and rate some of the more popular P&C commercials that are currently circulating the homes of insurance consumers.

Even before my days in the insurance field, I noticed GEICO’s edgy advertisements. GEICO has always been in the forefront of humorous commercials by introducing us to the Gecko, Cavemen and Googly Eyes. Progressive entered the comedic commercial scene with their quirky insurance specialist Flo, while Allstate remained professional with spokesman Dennis Haysbert’s trusting persona.

Over the past year, I noticed a few changes and/or additions to some of the major insurance carriers’ ads. The most prominent addition was from Allstate. I worked for Allstate when “Project Mayhem” was introduced earlier this year and since my departure I have noticed many more variations of “Mayhem,” all of which make me crack up and say “I’ve seen/done that before.” This year Farmers introduced us to The University of Farmers with the witty Professor Burke and Esurance went from comic book characters to real life actors. Another notable change was with State Farm. State Farm is promoting the value of an agent, but this time with a twist…fictional customer wishes are being granted after the saying “like a good neighbor, state farm is there.”

I understand that my demographics may be targeted by certain companies and others may not, but when critiquing, I try to keep an open mind to who these commercials are targeted too. Some commercials have me laughing out loud, however, some become annoyingly repetitive. I have more to come on this topic, so please stay tuned and don’t change the channel.

Recently in this blog, I mentioned I was in the market for an auto insurance product that features a ”pay as you drive” premium rating factor. With the buzz circulating in California around “pay as your drive” auto insurance, I thought that this would be an easy task…I thought wrong. It turns out that paying for insurance based on driving usage and habits is fairly new to the marketplace and is only available in a handful of states by a handful of insurance providers.

On Thursday 12/02/10, State Farm was approved for pay as you drive auto coverage in California. Other companies are expected to launch verified mileage based insurance programs throughout the state within the next 12 months. One minor detail is that I don’t live in Cali or plan on moving to the west coast anytime in the near future. It is nice to see that insurance companies are willing to assess the risk of such programs in a state as large as California, but for the short term this doesn’t help my situation.
Upon further digging, outside of the state of California, only GMAC, Progressive, and a new insurance company called MileMeter provide discounts and/or coverage based on mileage driven and driving habits. So I called all three companies to inquire further.
Progressive offers a coverage called Snapshot, which obtains information on your driving habits through an on-board telemetric device (small device you plug into your car). Kind of weird that my insurance company would be able to see my every move, but if it can lower my insurance cost, I’d be willing to give it a try. Illinois does not have this program available, but it is currently available in Alabama, Colorado, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Maryland, New Jersey and Oregon. Strike One! See Lily’s blog for more information on Snapshot: http://www.comperemedia.com/blog/2011/01/take-a-drive-with-flo/

GMAC offers a program called Pay As You Go, which is an opt-in program available for OnStar subscribers that can save customers up to 54% on auto insurance. 54% off has a nice ring to it. Driving habits and scenarios are tracked via OnStar, but therein lies the problem…my Jeep is not equipped with OnStar. Strike Two!

Mile-Meter, launched in 2007, offers Pay-By-The-Mile auto insurance, but is only available in Texas. Strike Three!

Until companies can prove to be profitable through these pilot initiatives, it looks like I’ll be forced to overpay for parking and auto insurance. Or dare I say it…do I sell my car?!

For the past three months, I have begun to walk, bike, bus, and train my way to the office. So far so good, considering I spent three hours a day in the car commuting to and from my former job. The transition wasn’t easy considering I was completely dependent on my car for the past three years. But, I can now say I am officially reliant on other means of transportation.

Because of this, my Jeep has stood still for 5 weeks and counting. So I ask myself…why should I be paying for parking and auto insurance if I don’t even use my car?

The Jeep is paid off, but between a monthly parking fee of $150 and a monthly auto insurance cost of $100, I am pushing $3,000 a year on car expenses. With minimal options for parking in Chicago, parking companies have the ability to charge outrageous prices for monthly parking. So that brings me to auto insurance…Is there a way I can cut my cost without cutting my insurance coverage?

Before my research began, I contacted my current auto insurance provider to see if they could help answer some of my questions. My current auto policy has a short mileage rating factor calculated into my premium, but every policy holder that drives under 30 miles a day is given this rate reduction. What about somebody like myself who drives once a month? A person with my driving frequency and habits has a much lower risk of a claim, so why isn’t this reflected in my auto premium?

I’ve seen advertisements promoting “name your price” auto insurance, but as I said, I don’t want to be underinsured. Are there any other discounts or options in the marketplace that reward lower risk consumers by minimizing their insurance cost?

I begin my quest, and will follow up with my findings…

Do you ever wonder where insurance companies come up with their premium costs? And how they can evaluate your risk of getting into an accident compared to your neighbor’s? Can they really tell that much about you just by knowing what kind of car your drive, where you live and how old you are?

Progressive’s new Snapshot Discount program offers savings while giving consumers a feeling of greater personalization and perhaps control over their auto insurance premium. This new strategy from Progressive goes beyond simply entering your information into the system and hoping the pre-determined metrics come up with some savings for you. According to Progressive’s website, Snapshot Discount is “a personalized car insurance discount you earn by driving less, in safer ways and during safer times of day. The better you drive, the more you can save.”With promises of up to 30%savings in 30 days, I was more than a little curious to research this innovative tactic.

Snapshot is currently available to Progressive customers in more than 25 states. If you sign up for Snapshot Discount, you will receive a device that plugs into the on-board diagnostic (OBD) port of your car. This little gadget can track how often you drive, when you drive and it can even asses your driving skills. This device will actually tell Progressive if you are an aggressive driver or if you frequently slam on the breaks. Talk about a back seat driver, well front seat, I guess!

For 30 days you drive around with this device plugged in, after which time Progressive will analyze your driving habits in order to determine what discounts, if any, can be applied to your policy. With a promise of up to 30% in savings, driving around with this little device seems totally worthwhile.

If you’re worried about privacy, it might help to know that this Snapshot device does not have a GPS, so while Progressive might be able to track your mileage and habits, they can’t see where you are.

So, are you ready to let your insurance company in the car with you?

I’ve blogged quite a bit recently about social networking news, so when I read an article in USAToday about Facebook’s new facial recognition feature, I just had to comment. This latest update to the social networking behemoth’s repertoire has me intrigued, nervous and a little insulted all at the same time.

According to the article in USAToday, Facebook is scheduled to release a new feature called Tag Suggestions before the end of December. Tag Suggestions, as its name quite accurately describes, will use Facebook’s own facial recognition technology to match photos not yet tagged, to similar faces in your network of friends and automatically suggest the friend you should tag in that photo. The biggest concern most users will have is the issue of privacy. Supposedly, this new feature will also include an opt-out option if you don’t want your name to show up as a possible suggestion on someone else’s photo.

I’m intrigued by this new feature mostly because it sounds like something that you see in all those legal dramas like CSI and Law and Order. I’ll be anxious to see if the technology is as accurate as what the FBI uses to catch criminals and whether Facebook will be able to identify everyone dancing the Hora in my wedding photos.

What makes me nervous is the issue of privacy. Yes, Facebook give users the ability to opt-out, but for those who don’t, what does it mean? Perhaps retailers and online marketers can hone in on a similar technology that will make their brand name pop up anytime a user sends a chat with specific key words in it. Or what if someone’s face in recognized in a photo taken in front of their car? Will auto insurance companies with Facebook pages be able to target those users? Where will Facebook draw the line?
The insult comes from the sheer fact that I take this to mean that Facebook thinks it knows my friends better than I do. In my mind, if I want to tag a friend in a photo, I would simply enter their name into the clearly labeled box.

So what do you think about the Facebook feature? Is this a privacy issue or an opportunity to ramp up connections in your social network?

While I follow the insurance direct marketing industry, I can’t help but feel a little envious of what I’m seeing on television. At least in the Chicago area, where I sit between the two largest auto insurers Allstate and State Farm, I seem to be seeing more auto insurance commercials.

Earlier this year, Advertising Age reported that in 2009, GEICO out-spent the next highest auto insurance advertiser, Progressive, by more than 60 percent. Both State Farm and Allstate, who spend on parity with each other, spent less than half that of GEICO.

Progressive
Progressive’s concept of an insurance company as a consumer package goods superstore is continuing with Pickles, the dog, teaming up with Flo to provide a comparative quote. You can’t go wrong featuring a cute animal. Flo is now playing second banana and providing a voiceover as the commercials end with a shot of Pickles in charge.

GEICO
The Gecko has a long history with GEICO and his new commercials take advantage of his steady development as a spokesperson. No longer is he casually talking about pie and chips to a real gecko, as he did in one of his first commercials. Now he is talking in front of conference audiences with all the giveaways branded in his likeness. Like Progressive’s Flo, GEICO is capitalizing on a developed brand image.

Esurance
Still working to develop an image, Esurance seems to have placed secret agent Erin into deep cover as they now use a small group of dedicated employees who talk about their interactions with Esurance customers. Whether it’s The Saver or the Coverage Counselor, this cast of spokespersons grabs attention by playing out short stories on the experiences of being an Esurance customer.

Both of today’s leading auto insurers stick with the real life spokesperson format. Together, State Farm and Allstate challenge Progressive and GEICO’s messages of saving money and fast quotes.

State Farm
State Farm has developed its spokesman into the customer’s friend who reminds them to check whether their friends and family are one of 40 million State Farm customers. Then he one-ups the competition by telling the audience that State Farm is larger than Progressive and GEICO combined.

Allstate
Similarly, Allstate continues to rely on Denis Haysbert as the spokesperson for most of their commercials. In a new campaign he supports Dean Winters, portraying Mayhem, in a series depicting causes of accidents. Allstate, like State Farm, challenges GEICO’s message by asking if a fifteen minute call could provide the service you get from your personal agent.

It’s clear that these five companies are spending a lot on the development of new brand images. Apparently the money is coming from their print advertising since Adweek recently reported that the auto insurance industry reduced its print spending by 26 percent in 2009. Some of that decrease may include direct mail, which Comperemedia reports as having decreased five percent last year from 2008.

These five companies can be split into two groups when it comes to direct mail strategy. Both Progressive and Esurance have nearly stopped mailing. Of the others, GEICO is still the largest mailer, not segmenting who receives a solicitation, while Allstate and State Farm maintain strong mail levels and utilize their agents to guide the segments on address labels.

When I look at auto insurance direct mail, I’m surprised how different the pieces are from the companies’ commercials. There’s a dysfunctional integrated marketing strategy, a direct marketing channel disconnect. The images these companies are investing in and creating on television are not being leveraged in their direct mail solicitations.

I would think it would be an advantage to incorporate the TV brand images into mail campaigns as a reminder of the company’s brand values. After all, the advantage of advertising is it builds the brand through repetition of a message.

I’m concerned about the recent delay in setting rules for the medical loss ratio (MLR) provision of health reform. With the implementation set for January 1, 2011 there is not much time for health insurers to develop their plans for next year.

Under the health reform rules, insurers are required to spend 85 percent on medical care for every premium dollar received from group plans, and 80 percent for premiums received from small group and individual plans. HHS (US Department of Health and Human Services) is charged with managing the development of the rules and guidelines. It has asked NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) for their recommendations on how to calculate and implement the MLR requirement. They have missed their target of June 30, 2010 to have rules in place. In their defense, it is complicated.

Because of the delay, a political fight is developing over the issue. Senator Al Franken is calling for vigilance to make sure the insurance industry doesn’t define medical expense as everything that is not profit. He has cited the recent announcement by Wellpoint to reclassify $500 million in administrative expenses such as health and wellness, nurse hotline, smoking cessation and weight loss programs as medical.

I’ve noticed in Comperemedia a recent letter to Assurant producers notifying them that, because of the uncertainty of the MLR rules, Assurant will reserve the right to change commissions for next year and is placing a temporary limit on first year commissions. With this uncertainty stretching well into next year’s planning cycle, I’m wondering if it is more than simply constraining planning or if it is having a material affect? More importantly, has the concern about MLR’s impact on commissions caused policy sales to slow?