2018 Insurance Marketing Stresses Trust Message

Earlier in the year, Mintel Comperemedia identified four insurance marketing trends for 2018: courting consumer trust; fighting commoditization by redefining scope and repackaging; building AI savings and speed into underwriting, customer engagement and more; and competition via supplementary service and risk mitigation. AccuList USA's insurance marketing clients will be interested in Mintel's recent update on two of those predictions: trust messaging and expanded product scope. While all types of personal insurance lines showed shifts in messaging to win consumer trust via simplification, education and transparency, Mintel especially notes life insurance efforts to close the financial literacy gap through content marketing. An example is Allstate's launch of an advertising campaign in July 2018 that reminded viewers "truth today is hard to find" and concluded TV ads with "Now that you know the truth, are you in Good Hands?" Likewise, insurers Humana, Gerber Life, Kaiser Permanente, State Farm, John Hancock and Mutual of Omaha revamped direct mail messaging with some form of the line "insurance can be confusing" and then offered simplified language to which consumers could more easily relate. It was the marketing landscape for health insurance that saw major changes in terms of insurance scope this year. For example, the CVS pharmacy acquisition of Aetna opens the door to a one-stop-shop health care experience, including better digital customer service. Similarly, Mintel notes the Amazon acquisition of PillPack and the partnership between Walmart and Anthem as opportunities for established insurance products to expand and redefine the digital-age customer journey. Meanwhile, insurance marketers are watching to see how much the Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Berkshire Hathaway collaboration to offer independent employee health care will shake up the status quo. For the full blog post, see http://www.acculistusa.com/trust-message-takes-center-stage-in-2018-insurance-marketing/

How Paid, Earned & Owned Media Drive Success

When budgets are tight, it's tempting to focus on earned and owned media over paid media promotion. But marketers need to know the growth penalty of that strategy. Brands that use paid media typically grow three times faster than those that rely on owned and earned media alone, according to recent international research from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), as reported by The Drum. At the same time, paid media is more effective when coupled with earned and owned media. IPA research shows that owned media, which includes brand websites, blogs and social media sites, typically increases the effectiveness of a paid ad campaign by 13%. Meanwhile, earned media, which includes online mentions, shares, re-posts and reviews, increases the effectiveness of a paid campaign by a larger 26%. The IPA examination of media marketing further finds that emotion is a vital ingredient to success, and that television advertising continues to be the most powerful in delivering emotional engagement. Researchers report that adding television advertising increases a promotional campaign's effectiveness by 40%, for example. The growing use of video-on-demand and online video has turbocharged video impact: IPA's research shows a 54% increase in the average number of "very large" business effects from adding television and online video together. For more on balancing paid, earned and owned media, as well as brand-building vs. targeted sales promotion, see our post: http://www.acculistusa.com/creating-powerful-synergy-with-paid-owned-earned-media/

2016 Digital Spending Set to Rise; Direct Mail Steady

Online advertising and social media engagement efforts are forecast for the biggest surges in marketing spend this year, while direct mail holds its own, according to the annual Target Marketing magazine "Media Usage Survey." Of surveyed marketers, 54% plan to increase online advertising and 55% plan to boost social media engagement (brand pages, sharing updates, interactions), plus 49% also plan to boost social media ad spending. E-mail rules the roost as the most popular marketing channel, with 97% of respondents planning e-mail campaigns (and 49% planning to increase e-mail budgets). However, marketers sent mixed signals on mobile marketing, despite its supposedly "must-have" status, with the 38% who say they plan to increase outlays balanced by the 33% who don't even plan to use mobile in 2016. Amid the channel ups and downs, direct mail remains a steady choice in the marketing channel mix; although slightly more plan no direct mail (25% compared with 22% last year), most marketers, 69%, say they will either increase spending or hold spending steady. Television is the biggest channel loser for direct marketers, with 79% avoiding any DR TV ads and 76% nixing non-infomercial TV ads, too. For details of trends for all channels: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/2016-channel-spending-trends/

Direct Mail Gains Traction With 2016 Retailers

Direct mail, previously declining in retail use, is finding greater favor with 2016 retailers, according to a Direct Marketing News magazine report on a new AgilOne study.  Although 33% of 150 surveyed bricks-and-clicks retailers still said they would cut direct mail spending this year, that's lower than the 39% who were backing off direct mail in 2015. AgilOne cited better targeting and personalization for reversal of mail's downward retail trend, reports DM News. In contrast, print and TV advertising spends, which fell last year, will keep sliding in 2016 per retailing respondents. Digital--websites and e-mail--continue as priority channels. However, effective "omnichannel" marketing still eludes many merchants, with the 34% claiming a unified customer view across channels offset by the 37% reporting no unified customer view, and more than half admitting lack of a cohesive omnichannel strategy. For the whole story, go to http://www.dmnews.com/direct-mail/survey-retailers-will-stick-with-direct-mail-in-2016/article/467674/

Get Ready for 2016 Ad Rate Rises Across Channels

U.S. advertising rates are set to rise for almost all channels in 2016, according to a MarketingProfs report of forecasting by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and Havas Media. The ad cost bump is partly driven by higher ad demand from presidential elections and the Summer Olympics, per the forecast. So it's not surprising that the biggest jumps are forecast for television ad rates: a 3.8% increase for national broadcast TV, a 5.5% rise for cable TV and a whopping 13% leap for spot TV. The good news is that digital channels, where supply is expected to offset demand, are mostly set for very modest increases in average CPMs: mobile, online video and Internet/display advertising all up just 1%, although paid search rates is expected to show a 3.3% jump. For traditional print, average CPM increases are moderate, with a 2.5% climb for newspaper ad rates and a 3% bump in magazine rates. Network radio is the only channel forecast to drop in cost, down 1%. For a comparison of ad rate trends by channel from 2010 through 2016, see the MarketingProfs article: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2016/29142/2016-advertising-rate-increases-forecast-for-nearly-all-channels

Digital, Mobile Fuel Big 2014 Ad Spend Growth

Mobile advertising is rising with the force of a tidal wave, forecast to reach 67.8% of all U.S. digital ad spending by 2018, according to the latest report from eMarketer. In fact, digital ad growth (including mobile) already is the key factor in doubling total worldwide ad spending this year. Global media ad spending (for print, TV and radio, outdoor and digital) will increase 5.7% in 2014 alone, eMarketer projects, more than double the growth rate of 2.6% from a year ago. The U.S. market takes the lion's share of those ad dollars, with total U.S. ad spending set to surpass $180 billion this year, equal to nearly one-third of the worldwide total. Digital channels are the driving force of advertising growth for 2014 and beyond: eMarketer estimates that global digital ad spending will increase 16.7% this year, totaling $140.15 billion and surpassing 25% of all media ad spending for the first time. And within the digital category, mobile is the catalyst. Advertising on tablets and smartphones will increase 84.7% worldwide in 2014 to reach $32.71 billion this year, or nearly one-quarter of the digital advertising spend globally, eMarketer estimates.Those trends are forecast to continue until digital snags a 32.3% share of global paid ad spending by 2018, with mobile making up over 50% of those worldwide digital ad budgets. For more details of the report, see http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Global-Ad-Spending-Growth-Double-This-Year/1010997