Esurance’s Alan Gellman: We Are ‘Insurance For The Modern World’
Not taking risks is “the biggest risk of all—of being boring, of not connecting to customers,” says Alan Gellman, CMO of Allstate’s online insurance unit.
Many marketers tried to capitalize on the stormy election campaign, but few put their money into it like Esurance. The online insurance unit of Allstate offered a policy for voters who felt they might leave the country if the election didn’t go their way. What started as an April Fools’ joke evolved into a full-blown campaign and sweepstakes.
It’s a typical move for the company, which bills itself as “Insurance for the Modern World,” said CMO Alan Gellman, who joined two years ago from a more traditional financial company, Wells Fargo. The company prides itself on being plugged into the culture and being customer-centric, he said. In the same year it offered election insurance, it also launched a “Don’t catch and drive” effort to prevent Pokemon Go-related accidents.
Gellman, who came to financial services after an early career in packaged goods at General Foods and Kraft, said that background helped him form the mindset of putting customers at the center, even if the technological tools change. He spoke to CMO.com about consumer trust, diversity, and catching the zeitgeist online.
CMO.com: Esurance was a digital native; how has it had to evolve since it started in 1998?
Gellman: There are a lot of companies that started out when we did that didn’t survive. We survived and thrived because we evolved. It’s knowing what you’re in it for, which is a smart, easy way of delivering for customers in the insurance space.
It’s how you bring in new experiences. How many years did we have “the year of mobile” before it actually started to explode?
It’s not about the next widget. It’s about how you create the experience that is relevant, smart, and easy.
CMO.com: How do you factor in emerging technologies, such as AI and blockchain?
Gellman: The center of gravity is, what do our customers want and need? There are all kinds of new technology that we could chase after, all kinds of sexy, shiny objects. Some of them will turn into something really valuable, but we don’t spend huge resources on just what the next possibility is because you could not then be as customer-centric.
For example, we price our homeowners insurance using more data around your roof age because if your roof is younger, if you have a claim, it’s going to cost us less, so it should cost you less to insure it. We incorporate that; that’s about understanding and leveraging data, insights, predictive modeling.
That might not sound as sexy as augmented reality, but it’s actually sexy to the customer because it’s saving them money and making their lives easier. At the same time, we’re bringing in that data and using artificial intelligence in terms of predictive modeling and how do you find coverage that’s right for you.
At the same time, we saw the mobile gaming craze happen. So what do we do? We created “Don’t catch and drive.” We tapped into the zeitgeist; we tapped into the engagement but in a way that was relevant.
CMO.com: Esurance made a big splash with TV and traditional media. Will that continue, or will you move to a more digital strategy, especially as you reach out to Millennials?
Gellman: I don’t see that as traditional, not the way we do it. When we did the Super Bowl, a small fraction of the total impressions we got were from the two ads we bought. We tapped into digital channels, social media, and PR, and we had over 4 billion impressions.
Major League Baseball is a major sponsorship, a big commitment, but not traditional in the least. The vast majority of the engagement we get is in digital properties. We worked with baseball to move them to an all-digital All-Star balloting, so we’re the Esurance All-Star Ballot. By doing so, we’re now engaging across digital channels.
CMO.com: Speaking of zeitgeist, your election insurance campaign was very topical, but wasn’t it a little risky?
Gellman: We’re going to try new things. We’re going to take risks. That’s who we are as a brand. If marketers are not taking risks, they’re taking the biggest risk of all—of being boring, of not connecting to their customers.
We specifically aimed for edgy and cutting-edge in our thinking and approach, while not crossing the line as we saw it. We think we nailed it. We did not take heat from either side. We had engagement from both sides—so much so that everyone thought it was about their side. Everyone thought: “Yeah, you’re with me” because we picked on both.
It not only worked on April Fools’ Day, but so many people actually wanted the product that we brought it back a couple of months later, in time for the DNC and RNC [conventions]. We created a sweepstakes to take another dip in a really good idea.
Yes, you have to take chances because if you don’t, you take the biggest chance of all.
CMO.com: In terms of cultural mindset, how are you addressing diversity challenges in your own organization?
Gellman: I have a personal passion and family ties to diversity. The good news for us and for me personally as a leader is, I joined an organization where diversity is at our core. It makes sense. We’re a new-age company, if you will, formed at the end of the ’90s and engaging in digital ways, talking to a core audience of Millennials.
How do you address that? The starting point is living it. Our population and our employees know we live it. We have groups called Employee Resource Groups—there’s an ePride group, eVETS, eBility group.
Not only is it who we are as a company, leading our people and our associates, but it’s who we are in the marketplace. We were one of the first companies to treat LGBTQ partners as married in states we were allowed to. Last year, before the Supreme Court ruled on marriage quality, we issued a video called “Equal Dreams,” done by Leo Burnett.
That was us leaning into who we already are. We are this company, this is our deep belief, and we want to make sure you all know about. It has a point of view.
Is that risky? You’d better believe it’s risky. But you have to have a point of view.
CMO.com: You came to Esurance from Wells Fargo. Where do you see the consumer going in terms of trust, and what do marketers need to do to meet that challenge?
Gellman: It goes up and down, but that you need to be trustworthy does not go up and down. Yes, there’s heightened awareness right now, and we feel very fortunate because we are a trusted brand.
Consumers will keep expecting that of companies. Things will happen periodically in the marketplace to make them question that, and they should. We all should demand that out of the companies we do business with and recognize that doing business with companies that do good, that care about the world they operate in, matters.
We exist to modernize protection and help people thrive in the modern world. It’s not what we sell; it’s why we exist. When we stay centered on that purpose, we take actions like “Don’t catch and drive.” We build products and services.
CMO.com: What’s next? Will you be back in the Super Bowl in 2017?
Gellman: We’re always trying new and different. In the last four years, we’ve had four approaches to the Super Bowl. You can count on whatever we do will be different than anything we’ve done previously.
What won’t change is “Insurance for the Modern World” is not just a tagline. I tell other marketers I was very fortunate to join a company where the marketing tagline was built because of the DNA of the company, not the other way around.