Life Insurance Awareness Month

[Cash]

Any one doing anything for LIAM?

I can say that I have never seen a single thing outside of industry publications about life insurance awareness month. Not in a search result, TV, or radio.

I think that they make some nice advertising stuff but I wonder if it is really worth it.

Then again, North American says on their website that you should rent out a car dealership and do client events so.......

 

[NinjaNic]

Nada..they do a big drive every year but I think it is still in the adoption phase. Nobody is adopting it. We did email drops for LIAM with LIAM messaging and had a lesser results than a traditional marketing piece. It just doesn't work imo. It would be like the TV industry telling consumers it is TVAM and expecting people to flock to buy tvs.

 

[Cash]

Yeah the #LIAM2015 is pretty dead. I put up a tweet today for the hell of it. I may do a few more just for fun.

It shouldn't be Life Insurance Awareness Month. It should be something along the lines of widow and orphan awareness month. That would be way more powerful and news worthy. Maybe I will start a widows and orphans awareness month. There are enough people on this forum to make Widows and Orphan Awareness Month more a success than LIAM.

That being said, Life Happens and Disability Happens do provide good information to agents.

 

[BNTRS]

It's not an awareness campaign intended to get people to buy life insurance. It's an awareness campaign intended to get financial advisors et. al. to talk about life insurance with clients.

 

[DHK]

I wonder if Marv Feldman feels the same way about it. (He did respond earlier to my post about the 'agent resources' from Life Happens.)

For me, I'm sick of 'product awareness' campaigns. I'd rather have a "Life Insurance Agent Awareness" campaign and talk about all the things a properly trained life agent can help you to do.

Then again, the CLU brochure kinda already outlines all that. And not all agents are trained alike either.
http://www.theamericancollege.edu/assets/pdfs/clu-promotional-brochure.pdf

 

[Cash]

It's not an awareness campaign intended to get people to buy life insurance. It's an awareness campaign intended to get financial advisors et. al. to talk about life insurance with clients.

Is that the unofficial reason behind it? If that is the case it is kind of odd that they have Anthony Anderson as the spokesperson rather than a golfer.

But considering what passes as news in industry publications, it is still enough to be written up in the FA magazines and websites.

 

[Brian Anderson]

I think Life Happens does a pretty admirable job with the content they generate out of the resources they have, but it's such an uphill battle to get the general public to pay the cause any attention. My pipe dream would be switching LIAM to February and Life Happens or a big carrier creating some sort of buzz-generating Super Bowl ad a la those emotional Thai Life Insurance ads (link below). Completely unrealistic I know, but something big like that might be enough to actually move the needle in raising public awareness of the need for life insurance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWA2GbcnJU

 

[DHK]

The CFP Board (while they have some issues and practices that I don't agree with), they do some things to promote their designees as competent professionals.

Such as this TV ad:
Can You Tell the Difference? (30-second TV Ad)

At least for their $325 annual dues, CFP's get something produced and marketed to the masses.

The American College has this YouTube video, but not marketed to the masses:
ChFC® advanced financial planning for every person, every need

The IARFC has produced this, but it's also just on YouTube, and not marketed to the masses:
So Why a Designation? - Consumer tool

I'd love to see a 'competing' ad for the life insurance profession - perhaps sponsored by similar companies that sponsor The American College, NAIFA, or other similar associations. A way to uplift the image of the life insurance professional.

Obviously, it would take big bucks, and I believe that membership trends with NAIFA have been slipping. Of course, I do want NAIFA to focus on advocacy as their primary mission and purpose... but having some marketing for the profession overall wouldn't be a bad thing.

 

[scagnt83]

For me, I'm sick of 'product awareness' campaigns. I'd rather have a "Life Insurance Agent Awareness" campaign and talk about all the things a properly trained life agent can help you to do.

I agree. Most people have no clue, or severely undervalue what an agent can help with and do for them.

This isnt life insurance, but a few weeks ago a friend was complaining about dealing with Progressive's customer service center not being able to explain the reasoning for something. I asked her why she didnt just call her agent... the thought had never occurred to her! I told her that is what the agent is there to help with and that the CSRs are basically glorified receptionists reading from a screen. So she called her agent the next day and turns out the CSR was wrong (big surprise), so the agent got it fixed for her that day.

 

[62doddst]

Every month is LIAM!