Corporate America: Tragedy strikes. Are you ready?

With much higher frequency than any of us would like to realize, terrible tragedies claim center stage in the media. Some of them are natural, like Hurricane Sandy and the Oklahoma tornado. Others, like Newtown and Boston are unfortunately man-made. Invariably, these events touch companies in different, and sometimes surprising ways. Maybe employees were harmed or emotionally scarred. Physical locations may have been destroyed or the supply chain disrupted. Odds are that customers’ lives have been upended. How should the social corporation respond?

Following these horrific events, politicians, celebrities, and our national sports teams have proven extremely agile in their powerful support for the impacted areas & communities. We now expect a swift, coordinated response. For Hurricane Sandy, we witnessed our celebrities & politicians jump into action mode with integrity – from Bruce Springsteen and President Carter, Governor Christie & President Obama, plus 100+ celebrities. This list included some that are not typically associated with serious issues, including the Jersey Shore cast and Housewives of New Jersey.  In the aftermath of the Boston tragedy, we witnessed the Red Sox poignant observance play out over multiple games.

We also hear about everyday people – our friends, family, and strangers doing heroic things during/after these events…rescuing a man trapped under the Oklahoma rubble, running towards the carnage in Boston, wrapping a tourniquet that saved a limb and life.  We then watch the victims show remarkable bravery as they come back… how a parent endures life without his/her child or how a dancer plans to dance with a prosthetic leg.

These acts inspire. They reaffirm our belief in the goodness of mankind. They uplift our connection to our communities.

But where are the corporations?  Where is their powerful response?

Too many corporations are surprising silent in some of the most events that clearly begged a response. The words and thoughts don’t flow on social media. The on-the-ground response at local offices or stores fails to materialize.

We know they care.  As consultants & advisors to many senior management teams, we both have spent thousands of hours sitting in conference rooms developing brand strategy and marketing plans.  We know these matter substantively: Brand matters; omni channel marketing matters; community engagement matters.  All of these are intended to make the companies an integral part of the communities in which they do business. And in taking a line for AJ Lafley’s recent return to the helm of P&G, we certainly know that consumers matter.

So why doesn’t the senior leadership of corporate America make their voice firmly heard?  Based on our collective experience, we offer five reasons for unresponsive brand and market reactions:

1. Stuck in shock – Just as the general public gets caught up in the breaking news reports so too does the team senior management team, huddled at headquarters around the big television screen. There’s typically an immediate feeling of distraction at headquarters. But unless the team was directly impacted, within a few days inertia will return the team into business as usual mode.
2. Lack of a real-time community view – The complexity of an event and the speed at which a crisis unfolds may prevent a core management team from fully comprehending the many ways in which key communities and the diversity of stakeholders will be impacted. Without intimate two-way communication with people on the ground, it’s very difficult to truly understand the scope and scale of some of these events.
3. A critical page is missing in the playbook – Traditional scenario planning too often lulls organizations into believing that employees only to break the glass when then alarm goes off.  The magnitude, characteristics, and impact of recent tragedies defy conventional crisis planning processes.
4. Fear of capitalizing on the tragedy – We know that genuine brand efforts prove most impactful.  Management teams are appropriately concerned that a response will be seen as sel-serving and commercial. The logic is that doing “something” might backfire. If a child loses his or her life, should a clothing company say something, do something, or just shut up? If a tornado strikes, should a battery company ship in emergency batteries? Free? For sale?
5. New technology is run by an old organization structure – Communities expect immediate responses. Immediate responses are impossible when five levels of management have to review, edit, reedit, vote on, and then vet a response with outside counsel. People on the front-line need to clearly understand the core values of the company and feel empowered to speak and act on behalf of the organization.

How well did your organization perform during the last disaster? Did the response advance or detract from your brand identity?  In our next story, we’ll provide a list of questions to grade your own response and start to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of your branding crisis management plan.


This blog post is collaborative effort of Nancy Ross and Paul Tyler

Nancy Ross – Founder and CEO of C-Suite, a brand and marketing strategy firm working with leading global corporations

Paul Tyler – SVP of strategy and brand management for Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance.  Opinions in this piece reflect his own, not those of the company.

Takeaways from a Trip to Twitter

Will Google Glasses Put Insurance in Focus?  IUL?  FIA?

I recently had the privilege of participating on a trip to the San Francisco corporate offices of Twitter and Google with a small group organized by LIMRA. There’s no substitute for actually visiting firms like this in person and having a free form discussion. Clearly, we all had very defined motives. We wanted to learn how to more effectively use their platforms for insurance marketing and sales. They wanted to sell us more ads in the future. Here are my five takeaways from a 12-hour day in the bay area:

1) Get on Google+. Even though the potential audience may be small, it’s imperative for a businesses to have a Google+ presence and link back to the corporate website. Google didn’t tell us that cross-linking improved search. But it’s clear that the Internet company’s long term strategy will benefit those who have linked their content through a Google+ as well as other platforms.

2) Don’t give up on Twitter. Twitter may be one of the most intimidating social media platforms for our insurance business. However, it also holds the most promise. The ability to openly start discussions with deeply passionate groups in the insurance community has yet to be tapped. Twitter also offers us the means to target micro-segments in ways we never have before – by geography, by profile, by interests, by device. 

3) Google may take a long time to adapt for us. Google+ still does not have the APIs in place to make archiving easy by third party vendors. The company now clearly understands why we want them. But priorities will be set by the needs of the consumer market, not our insurance community. For now, build your strategy assuming that you will only have the same tools at your disposal as a regular Google+ account holder.

4) Twitter is betting on long-term success in insurance. Twitter has built an astonishingly deep subject matter expertise in our industry and is focused on commercial application in our market. I was
pleasantly surprised as to how much a startup really understands our needs.
Their team could take insurance by storm in the not to distant future.

5) Network, network, network. Given the rapid change in technology, marketing strategy, and regulation, it’s critical for like-minded individuals in insurance business to share best practices. This is
the only way we can keep insurance relevant for the next generation of agents and consumers.

LIMRA, the industry association, deserves enormous credit for getting us actively in front of the social media wave. In particular, Jim Kerley, Steve Selby and Jim Huffman deserve a round of thanks for pushing us all out of our comfort zones. The dividends for the industry will be enormous
in the coming years.

Betting on Mobile without Betting the Farm

In a recent study, LIMRA found that in just four years, producers’ ownership of mobile devices with Internet access grew from 22% in 2008 to 62% in 2012.* Ownership is highest among the most important demographic group of our industry -- younger producers.  So what's the best way to make a bet on mobile technology in your firm without running the risk of banking on the wrong platform. 

1. Encourage your employees and agents to bring their own devices to work.  IT departments bristled just a few years ago about the idea of employees wanting to take “random” technology to work and then hoping to link to the network.  Yes, opening your doors to a range of devices can drive up costs and create security concerns. If done thoughtfully, though, it will lead you to email, networking, and storage solutions that are independent of this year’s hot device and probably give you an unexpectedly better disaster recovery plan. You will also end up with a more mobile-savvy workforce that will be bring you new ideas on how to leverage mobile for new business opportunities.
2. Make your all of your websites mobile-friendly. Most of the time, we’re just happy when our website looks good on a desktop and we stop there.  We all need to recognize that it’s more and more common for people to access sites from either tablets or phones. Many of the most popular website hosting and content management systems will offer mobile-specific renditions of your site. I’d actually recommend, though, that you first start by simplifying the menu options on your website and streamlining the content. Do you really need seven navigation buttons at the top of your page?
3. Treat your marketing materials like portable assets. In today’s content-hungry world, your ideas are worth their weight in gold.  But the collateral needs to be designed so it’s accessible in a variety of ways.  When you introduce a new prospecting idea or a better way to present a retirement funding plan, don’t just stop with a PowerPoint. Think about how you take the idea and convert into a video, a podcast, a blog, 10 tweets, and a graphic. Don’t just put it on your website, put it on web applications like SlideShare that people can access on LinkedIn. This way, you can react quickly to changing platforms when content is independent of systems.
4. Find good partners who can share in the development expenses. Don’t walk the mobile path alone if you don’t have to. Reach out to your carriers to see what they are doing in the space and how you can leverage it. Many companies are piloting beta projects and would like to find partners who are eager to try new technology and give active feedback.
5. Talk to your clients and see what they expect.  When it comes to technology, consumers historically haven’t been good predictors of future demand for devices and technology they haven’t seen.  However, this wave of technology has been driven truly by them, not us. Do a quick online poll and ask them what mobile services and feature they will expect from an insurance professional in the coming years. Then listen closely and act quickly.

* From Connected to Mobile: Producer Use of Technology by Mary M. Art; Norah Denley, 8/17/2012

5 steps for getting started with business video

With more mobile devices and faster Internet speeds available all the time, video on the Internet is exploding, not only for personal use, but business use as well. In 2010, people uploaded 24 hours worth of video on YouTube every minute. By 2012, it increased to over 72 hours per minute.* 

So how do you learn how to make video a compelling part of your insurance marketing efforts? Here is a five-step exercise that will give you good practice and a good video bio to share with colleagues, customers or prospects. All you will need is a smart phone, tablet, or a laptop with a built-in camera or microphone. 

1. Script your story. Write out a short, quality introduction about who you are and what you do. Short means no more than 200 words, or three short paragraphs featuring concise sentences. The passage should tell two stories: what you do for people and how you came to find your passion for the business. What makes you excited about insurance? Write it. Read it out loud. Whittle it down. Read it again. Edit it again. Don’t stop until you read it at a normal pace in less than two minutes. 

2. Record your story in audio format. Every smartphone has an app that will allow you to record a voice memo. Use the function to record yourself reading your story from the script. Pick one word in every sentence to emphasize. Listen to the recording. Repeat at least three times. 

3. Start the video camera. First, find a high place to position the camera that is close to, if not slightly higher than, eye level. If you are using a smartphone you should ideally use a traditional tripod with a clip that will hold it in place. If not, or if you are using a tablet or laptop, get creative. Build a platform with books or boxes that will put the camera high above the desk or table where you are sitting. Turn on the basic, built-in video recording software and follow step two; but this time, pay close attention to both your audio and visual cues. Do your hand movements drive home the right points, or just distract the viewer? Do you smile at the right times? Does the background complement or detract from the message? Just because you use the computer in your study doesn’t mean you need to record there. Try shooting it on your porch or in your living room, a setting where you might actually meet with a client. Record, watch, listen, re-record. 

4.Turn on the lights. Good lighting makes a tremendous difference in the quality of the video. Remember this fundamental rule: “camera high, lights low.” Overhead fluorescent or tungsten lights usually won’t cut it. Ideally, find two lights you can put on the desk in front of you on either side of the camera. If you draw an imaginary clock around your chair, face the camera at 12:00. The two light sources should be at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Turn the camera on and experiment with the optimal positioning of the light. If it seems too bright, either move both lights back two feet or turn one of the lights off. Record, watch, listen and re-record again. 

5. Go (semi) public. Go to YouTube and create a free personal channel with your Gmail account. Upload the best video you have created and set the privacy setting on the video to “unlisted.” This way, only people to whom you send the link will be able to view the video. Send the link to a lot of trusted friends and associates and learn from what they say. 

Effectively telling your story on video will be a required marketing skill within the next two years for every agent. Only through repeated practice will you develop this ability. Once you have posted a video, send me a link and I will be happy to give you my thoughts and suggestions. 

*YouTube Statistics