Professional Insurance Marketing Association 2011 MidYear Meeting and Tradeshow

Following are a few sound bites and images I heard and saw. What did YOU hear and see??? Please Share thoughts in the Comments section below. I’d like to hear from you. Subsequent readers would as well. What were your top one or two take-aways? I REALLY want to know. Thanks in advance for taking a few minutes…

Most important items from my notes:

“This is the essence of affinity marketing – connections and relationships.” -David Zach (Pics)

“Multi-channel marketing will make for a much happier client as well.” -Deb Gustafson (Pics)

Paralympic video with Wounded Warrior: 6k to 105k Likes on Facebook in one month! -Hartford Life

“Don’t over engineer it, make it so complicated, get raked over for the ROI. Don’t be afraid to take baby steps. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on advertising.” -John Steber (Pics)

“Data is going to be the make-or-break-thing for the insurance industry. It’s all about guardrails, not rigid prescriptions.” -Ellen Carney

“My tweets opened up a dialog with a strategic industry contact that my PR agency couldn’t crack.” -Sam Fleet

“Social networks are a big deal. Mobile and apps are a huge deal.” -Brian Sullivan (Pics)

“Best conference I’ve been at in a long time.” Bunch of people

Ignite – excellent way to communicate a lot of information in a short amount of time. Reminded me of the power of viral video’s – rapidly changing visuals with voice overs. Props to Derrek Barfield for cheerfully going first, Stephanie D’Amico for best presenter (IMHO), Kathie Kinde for best content (IMHO), and Bill Suneson for the anchor leg and a great product. All presenters made a great effort in the midst of hectic schedules – not to be taken lightly. Sherri and David did just phenomenal jobs on the intro’s – an important key. (Pics)

Props to Sherri Lagana and David Schaeffer, two of the most energetic, positive, funny, and savvy people I’ve worked with (to take nothing away from others I’ve worked with (FH, KK)). BIG props to Bill Tyson for helping with the Multi-channel Marketing presentation – a BIG challenge on several levels. More props to Denise Friday and Mona Buckley for orchestrating and facilitating, encouraging, reminding, and smiling all the way.

On a personal note, I greatly appreciated the chance to dine with Affinitas Partners and Quicken Loans as well as with Sherri Lagana and Liberty Mutual. Nice to be included as a Business Partner and hope I added value. Oh, and thanks to the peeps that stopped by the Cabana and made it fun. Hope you find the contents of the USB drive useful. Here’s a link to download the content for anyone else that missed or would like a raft of Social Tech resources.

WebWisedom Social Tech Sales and Marketing Resources PIMA MY2011

Finally, thanks to all the speakers, the engaged audience, the Business Partners that contributed so many of the moving parts, and the spouses that support the whole thing, especially, Diane Wise, without whom NONE of this would be possible. Mad Love and Respect.

Business-wise, I’m encouraged. The Broadmoor suits me right down to my toes – terrific people, location, and amenities. Phenomenal.

PS. A lot of people need a lot of help understanding how Linkedin works and how to leverage it on several levels. I’ve got a seminar on that. (And so much more…)

See you in Florida if not sooner!

As you’ll hear in this most recent podcast, at the 2011 PIMA Annual Meeting, I thought it might be interesting to get a few comments at the closing reception from attendees. The theme of the conference was “Innovation”. Perhaps like no other time in the history of the association, Innovation is critically needed. In general, “tried and true” best practices for insurance direct marketing through associations and affinity have been showing declining results over the past 5 years. Marketing strategies are shifting even further to “Multi-channel”. Social Media Marketing has emerged as a legit channel, but few are using it. Mobile, QR Codes, video, and other technology-based marketing tactics seem to be ‘the future’.

But there are barriers. Listen in to the comments. What patterns to you hear. Any surprises? This was by no means a scientific and thorough survey – more of a conversation with a few people I happened to see immediately and in a short period of time. What barriers would you add to the list? Were you there? What take-aways to you leave with? It’s been 6 months now. Have you implemented any of them? Care to share a story? Comment here on this blog or back in the Linkedin Group for PIMA. We MUST all learn from each other to keep our industry strong and adapting well to the new technologies and cultures ahead of us.

Thanks in advance. No Lurking, please. Leave a note for other readers to consider as well. Thanks again.

Btw, here’s a direct link to the pictures I shot at the conference.. I’ll be adding more next week at the MidYear Meeting & Trade Show. Greatly looking forward to it. Tell you what, I’m hosting a Cabana Social Hour by the pool at the Broadmoor on Saturday afternoon from 3-4pm. Anyone that Comments on this post and then comes by the Cabana, while supplies last, will get a free 1G USB Drive with a bunch of useful Social Media Marketing stuff. Sound good? Please Comment below. Thanks again.

Our spirits were high as we piled into our Gold 1970 Ford Van and left Jaffrey, NH on our way to the 1972 All-American Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio. Two weeks later, we were in France. So much had happened.

For a couple summers before, my Dad, Dick Wise (1933-1988), and I had built cars to race in the Cub Scout Cubmobile Derby in Jaffrey. The Cubmobile Derby was a local race with a bunch of buddies all about 9 or 10, driving poorly built, hastily made cars down a really steep hill, most of which ended in frightening (but relatively harmless) crashes into bushes and hay bales. [Of course this was in the days before injury lawyers dominated the landscape and took the adventure out of most everything like this.]

So in the fall of 71/72, Dad and I decided to take it up a notch and build a real Soap Box Derby car. Dad, who was 6’9” and an NBA-drafted college basketball player – so… VERY big – “hired” a couple roustabouts from the town who he caught sitting on his car outside his office, and built a really nice basement workshop. He then bought the official Soap Box Derby car blueprint and we started in on building the car.

The key ingredient with the Soap Box Derby construction is that the boy has to physically “do” all the work. So with Dad’s guidance, several nights a week through the winter and spring, down to the basement we would go. First we crafted the wood skeleton – floor and ribs. Then came the mechanical parts – axles, steering, and brakes. (This is where the 1973 and quite likely the 1972 race winners inserted their electro-magnets to cheat their way to victory – see the story in wikipedia.) Lastly was the fiberglass and epoxy. That’s a smell I will NEVER forget – yuck.

By the beginning of summer we had the car ready for sanding and painting. A local body shop in Jaffrey helped with the compound I spread over the fiberglass and taught me how to hand-sand it smooth. Dad made it very clear that the car needed to be super-smooth. Any defects could cost us the race. That was a lot of work, lemme tell ya. Finally the car was ready for painting at Walt’s Signs in Jaffrey.

Race day was in June in Claremont, NH. We showed up with this fantastic car. A quick scan around the rest of the field showed our car was best-in-class to the eye. The race organizers really wanted a local boy to win, so believe it or not, they made us change the wheels on the car. Now mind you, during the winter, Dad had searched nationwide for the best wheels he could find. The wheels were absolutely critical. And we had worked on two sets of wheels to make them as fast as possible. Good thing because the wheels the race organizers forced us to take had been literally hit with a blunt object and damaged.

Dad, with tremendous foresight, had the extra set of wheels in the back of the van. So he took the damaged wheels, with great ferocity (feigned), and while the race official turned his back for a moment, switched them with our back-up wheels. Yep, I witnessed my Dad ‘cheat’… but we were ‘cheated’ on first. To this day, I still don’t quite know how to process those 60 seconds.

WE WON! After several heats, we ended up narrowly winning the City Championship over a nice kid named Brian who Dad invited to go with us to Akron. Off to Akron, Ohio for the National Championship.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Mom and Dad had announced to the family that we would be moving to France in the fall of 1972. FRANCE! Why? Just for the adventure, the culture, and to learn French! So the plan was to sell the Slade House and take the proceeds and move to Tours, France for three years. Dad had a job lined up, so… Cool! We’re going to France! In fact, the entire month of July was spent at the School for International Training in Putney, VT. Everyday, all day, we took French class. We stayed in this fantastic Swiss Chalet dorm for families. I learned how to play really good ping-pong with Asian and Arab guys. Dad was horrible with pronunciation causing the rest of us to laugh until we cried. And my brother, Richard, and I had a great four weeks bunking up in the attic, complete with a fantastic porch overlooking the Connecticut River – and bats!

Back to the Soap Box Derby. As I said, probably 10 of us piled into the Van and drove to Akron, Ohio. So exciting, so nervous. The car was shipped separately under a very controlled process to prevent cheating. When we got there, the car was issued new, gold, “Championship” wheels. Everyone got the exact same wheels, brand new, so luck of the draw whose wheels would prove to be the “fastest”. All the cars were in a building at the top of the hill up on saw-horses. 250 cars filled the room from all over the world, including Puerto Rico, Guam, even a car from Germany as the race was trying to expand internationally, I think.

The pre-race festivities included a couple days at a local camp for the racers – really fun. There were TV stars present including Thurston Howell (Jim Backus from Cleveland) and Mike Brady (Robert Reed), some pro basketball players doing a clinic, and lots of kids’ games – great fun. But I just wanted to race.

Unfortunately, the night before the race, doing our final check on the cars, I decided to climb in the car to visualize the race. Dad had taught me the importance of visualization. So while the car was still on the saw-horses, I climbed in.

What happened next is one of my life’s greatest regrets.  It took me several months of thinking about the sequence of events before I figured out the mechanics of the incident and what happened. To net it out, in trying to ‘steer’ the car in my visualization, the steering wheel wouldn’t move. So I pulled on it really hard. I heard a noise like a door creak, but the wheel moved. Satisfied that all was well, I climbed out and waited for the race.

The problem immediately surfaced during the hustle and bustle of race day. The car refused to roll straight. All the way down the hill, as I walked along side heading to the starting ramps and a volunteer held the car from behind with a long, metal handle, each time we stopped for a new heat to load and launch, I continuously had to pick up the nose of the car and move it back to center. I knew something was wrong, but I was in panic shock and didn’t know what to do.

Inevitably it was my turn. The men lifted the car onto the starting block. I climbed in hoping for something to change with the steering. The gate went down. Sure enough, I went hard left. I slammed on the brake before hitting my competitor as he went on by. I climbed out of the car a few feet from the ramp.

What happened from there was kind of a blur – it happened fast and was packed with emotion. I remember speaking with my Dad at the race fence, trying to explain what happened. The race officials joined us, asked a few questions, and debated briefly if I could fix the car and re-do the heat. But when asked, I wasn’t sure what exactly the problem was. So they just said, “No, sorry kid. It would be too much to redo one heat.” I was done. Ughhh – an extremely bitter blend of frustration, shame, loss, anguish, regret, sorry for my dad, sorry for my Grampa, returning home in defeat – just an awful feeling. The “Dream” had become a nightmare.

But the good news was, the very next week, we were off to France. The Soap Box Derby episode was over and a new, even greater adventure lay ahead. And what an incredible 8 or 9 months is would be, starting with the newspapers guys yelling in the street below our hotel room the very first morning in Tours, “ATTENCION! ATTENCION! ATTENCION!” as the news broke of the Munich Olympics Israeli/Palestinian hostage and murder crisis.

So why am I writing all this? Tonight is the Akron, OH World Premier of the movie “25 Hill“, a movie by Corben Bernsen about the Soap Box Derby. The hope is to raise money for the race. So I thought I’d buy tickets, go and reminisce a bit. Definitely will be a bitter sweet moment when I will think about my Dad a lot. But that’s life, right?

Interested in your thoughts after reading the story. Thanks for sharing.

Postlude:

Really great movie on several levels. Won’t spoil it for you – just go see it. Or buy/watch it in future years. Will be interested to know what you think. Notice what the key was to raising the funds to save the Derby. Btw, Kelle and I got interviewed after the movie (see it here). Kelle’s wearing my City Champion jacket! Knew it would come in handy some day! Many thanks to Corbin Bernsen for seeing this through. Great work!!! Oh, and yeah, my eyes are indeed red. I’ll admit it – the film had me weeping in the first 5 minutes… and took me deep into the above story several times. Yep. Bitter sweet for sure.

A couple weeks ago, I had a terrific opportunity to attend Scott Klososky’s Enterprise Social Tech Bootcamp in Chicago. Great to catch up with Scott once again. Readers will remember some work I’ve done with Scott in the past, including writing the Chapter on Sales for Scott’s Crowdsourced book, Enterprise Social Technology, a phenomenal book on why Social is more than Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.

As a special extra, I was able to travel with a rising star on the Social Tech scene, Shane Fraser. Shane won a $5,000 bounty Scott put out for promoting the book via crowdsourcing. Check it out – very, very cool. See Shane’s new Blog as well.

[Shameless plug: If you need a deep dive in this stuff for your team, I've got Scott's endorsement, all the original Enterprise Social Technology content, and can do any kind of preso or consulting best suited for your situation. Contact me here.]

A few of the podcast highlights to listen for:

• Barriers of Social Tech in the B2B space
• How Socially Facilitated Selling will influence B2B prosperity. Yup.
• Three Key Social Tech Trends: Social CRM, ORM, Crowdsourcing

Listen in to Scott’s insights here:

Scott Klososky EST Bootcamp Podcast June 2011

Next EST Bootcamp: Dallas, October 2011. Stay tuned.

A few action pics from the Bootcamp:

I’m publishing this post from inside the all-day Executive Management Session at the DAIAB Conference at Rehoboth Beach, DE. The session lays out like this:

Morning – Baseline understanding on Social Technologies

• 90 minutes: What it means and how to leverage it
• 90 minutes: Web sites, Blogs and Twitter

Afternoon – Tactical How-to’s on Primary Business Social Tech

• Measuring Results
• Linkedin
• Facebook
• FourSquare
• Mobile
• Viral Media and Video

Bonus, time-permitting: RSS, Alerts, Analytics

This group is focused on the Property & Casualty side of the insurance space. The Association members are regional and local agencies selling both commercial and personal lines products. Several niche insurance companies provide the products. And of course several business partners support the environment with various business operation and marketing services. Good people working hard to provide valuable risk-management services to the business community. An example: insurance products specifically designed for the coastal environment – flood, hurricane, that kind of thing. Always fun meeting new people, learning about new applications and products, and seeing how Social fits in.

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A few learnings to share from a recent all-day Social Media Marketing strategy session with an insurance company and two pilot participants:

1. Doing a Social Media Marketing pilot is always a great way to “test before you INvest”.
2. Extremely helpful on several levels for the insurance company marketing folks to invite the compliance folks into the session. Why? That’s a subject for another post.
3. Insurance marketing partners are chomping at the bit to start using Social.
4. Our “Ideation Session” turned up several really solid Social Media Marketing opportunities to chose from.
5. Good decision for the company to use marketing dollars already in the budget to fund the pilot. Takes the issue of money right off the table. Pretty small investment in the grand scheme of things.
6. A lot of the technologies needed for the pilots are already in place and can be reused, for example on Facebook pages, with minor variations.
7. Many others but confidentiality prevails.

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Next week: Another all-day Social Media Marketing strategy session with a large insurance agency.

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I’m also attending Scott Klososky’s Social Tech Bootcamp in Chicago. Can’t wait to see all the new Social Tech stuff he’s been working on.

Btw, if you’d like to collaborate on a Social Tech Bootcamp for your company or for your clients or prospects, reach out to me. I can guarantee it to be an extremely effective use of time any way you skin it.

A few recent pics:

Sunrise at the Gifford Pinchot State Park after visiting Gettysburg

A coiled-up Delaware Black Snake glaring back from the marsh

My golfing partner grabbed the thing – amazing to see.

Coming right at the camera! Yikes!