TRUSTED CHOICE® TO KICK OFF 2006 ADVERTISING
Campaign gets underway in February
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 3, 2006—The Trusted Choice® agency brand program is revving up its nationwide advertising activities for 2006, which kicks off Feb. 8 with a national Internet ad campaign on www.homestore.com and includes the return of the successful Trusted Choice® Month promotional campaign in May.
“This advertising campaign will help establish Trusted Choice® in the eye of consumers as the national brand identity for independent agencies,” says Ronald A. Smith, CPCU, brand program board chairman and president of Smith, Sawyer & Smith, Inc., a Rochester, Ind.-based Trusted Choice® agency. “Through this advertising, millions of consumers will be educated on the value and benefits of using a Trusted Choice® agency—choice of companies, customization of policies and advocacy support.”
“Trusted Choice® is employing several mediums to ensure its message is communicated to its target audience,” says Trusted Choice® Executive Director Jeffrey A. Myers. “Through TV, Internet, and targeted business-to-business print advertising, we will convey that Trusted Choice® is the best choice for the insurance needs of individual consumers and business owners in our target audience. The cable networks we selected do an excellent job connecting with our target audience’s passions, which are their homes, traveling, food, sports, and news programming.”
Highlights this year are two nationwide cable TV ad flights in March and May; Internet ad flights in February, May into June, and July; targeted business-to-business advertising; and a metro Washington, D.C.-area ad flight timed with the Big “I” National Legislative Conference & Convention in late April. Additional advertising activities for September to the end of the year will be announced this summer.
May is Trusted Choice® Month, a month-long campaign to spotlight Trusted Choice® agencies. This heightened promotional campaign, the centerpiece of which is a $600,000 ad flight, will include nearly 250 nationwide television ads during a two-week period, as well as an Internet ad campaign that will further drive consumer awareness of the brand and its participating agencies.
The Trusted Choice® Month ad flight, running from May 1-14, will feature ads on Fox News, CNN, ESPN, Fine Living Channel, Food Network, Home & Garden TV (HGTV) and the Travel Channel. Click here to view the May ad schedule.
The first Trusted Choice® TV ad flight will air from March 13-26 and will include more than 50 spots on ESPN, Fox News and HGTV. Click here to view the March ad schedule
The February www.homestore.com campaign will reach consumers as they are making home-buying decisions related to insurance. Homestore.com is the Internet’s most-visited real estate Web site, drawing more than 7.5 million unique visitors monthly and 7 percent of the monthly Internet traffic.
Last year’s five-week ad campaign on the Web site generated significant consumer exposure of the Trusted Choice® brand and its participating agencies by reaching nearly 81 million consumers and generating more than 74,000 clicks to www.TrustedChoice.com, where more than 16,000 consumers clicked on the Trusted Choice® Agency Locator.
Individual Trusted Choice® agencies can tie their advertising plans into each of these nationwide ad activities by downloading tag-able TV, print and radio ads from www.TrustedChoice.com and running them in their local area.
Ten national insurers are Trusted Choice® company partners: Encompass Insurance, Markel Insurance Company, MetLife Auto & Home, Ohio Casualty Insurance, Drive Insurance from Progressive, Rain and Hail Insurance Service, Safeco Insurance and three Unitrin, Inc. divisions: Kemper Auto and Home, Unitrin Business Insurance and Unitrin Specialty.
A total of 21 regional or single-state domiciled insurers are Trusted Choice® company partners: Allied Insurance, America First Insurance, Capital Insurance Group, Central Insurance Companies, Colorado Casualty, Consumers Insurance, GoAmerica Auto Insurance, Golden Eagle Insurance, Hawkeye-Security Insurance, Harleysville Insurance, Indiana Insurance, Liberty Northwest Insurance Corp., The Main Street America Group, Maine Mutual Group, Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance, Montgomery Insurance, National Security Fire & Casualty, Peerless Insurance, Selective Insurance Group, Summit Insurance (R.I.) and Upland Mutual Insurance. InsurBanc, a federal thrift bank created by the Big “I,” is a Trusted Choice® strategic partner.
The Trusted Choice® brand is promoted nationally through a combination of national, state and local-agency advertising; company partner ingredient branding; public relations activities; member agency marketing; and Internet communications. A recent public relations campaign on personal insurance issues has garnered significant coverage in national consumer media outlets.
All media direct consumers to www.TrustedChoice.com, where they can use the Trusted Choice® Agency Locator to find a local agency and helpful information on relevant personal and commercial lines insurance topics.
Trusted Choice® is the consumer marketing identity for more than 5,400 independent insurance agencies and brokerage firms and their branch locations. These businesses offer individual and business consumers a choice of insurance companies and policies, customization of policy coverage and advocacy support. Web address: www.TrustedChoice.com.
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