The Life Insurance Conference* is right around the corner. We are only 5 days away from the start of the conference, which runs from April 15-17 in New Orleans.
This blog has had a number of posts in recent weeks that have been centered around the themes of the conference. For a quick recap, I’ve listed our specific posts below.
- The Low Interest Rate Dilemma
- Solving The Low Interest Rate Dilemma
- No Debate: A Need to Innovate & Differentiate
Social media will be touched upon some of the presentations at the show, including “E-Processing: From Application to Issue” and “Social Media is Mardi Gras Marketing”.
There is a lot that we have written about social media marketing in this space, and we will continue to be writing about it. I like the parallel between social media marketing and Mardi Gras. The conference brochure states that “The Mardi Gras mantra of social media communication of tweets, blogs, and articles must include entertainment value.”
Certainly that statement makes sense. Below is how I interpret that idea, which is slightly different. I place more value on the concept of fun over entertainment value.
Many people perceive Mardi Gras as a fun, festive environment. There’s a reason it draws huge crowds year after year. Meanwhile, social media can be known to be fun & festive if done correctly.
I’m a big believer that marketing should be fun. Last month, I wrote “Can Distributed Marketing Management Brands Have Fun With Their Ads?“. There were some examples of organizations in highly regulated industries taking the time to have fun with their ads. But every brand should find a way to have a fun component of their brand. Some product categories make it easier to define themselves as fun than others. For example, a brand of volleyballs could use imagery of a great day playing sand volleyball, and it is easier for them to be tied to fun than a life insurer. However, in a concerted effort, mostly every brand can find fun within their essence.
For those readers who are attending this conference, we look forward to seeing you there.
*-The Life Insurance Conference is supported by organizations like LIMRA, LOMA, SOA & ACLI.