"These were real stories, raw with emotion, about real people. Not made up marketing avatars, but people with lives and dreams and ambitions."
My talk included a story about a family who’d claimed on a critical illness policy. An emotional story, it resonated with the audience of financial advisers.
I also remember standing on that stage and declaring that I was passionate about protection.
In the pub afterward, Duncan congratulated me on my telling of the sad tale. He also said, “But what you said about being passionate about protection was total rubbish.” In fact, he used a stronger word than rubbish. Beginning with “B”.
He said, “Your story showed how your company helps people. That’s what you’re passionate about. Helping people. Don’t be passionate about insurance. Be passionate about helping people. And keep telling stories like that.”
This week the ABI put out a news release showing that sales of income protection had risen for the first time since 2007. They mentioned industry initiatives with the Money Advice Service, but also the 7 Families Campaign. It reminded me of the chat with Duncan. Because the 7 Families Campaign was all about stories too.
7 video stories about families affected by sickness and accident. Their financial existence under threat and saved by an income protection policy. These were real stories, raw with emotion, about real people. Not made up marketing avatars, but people with lives and dreams and ambitions. Most important, they were engaging and compelling stories.
It’s likely that these stories were directly responsible for the increase in income protection sales. A clear lesson for the protection industry, we need more marketing like this. But 7 is not enough. We need 70. No, let’s be ambitious. We need 700 or 7000 stories.
The good news is everyone can tell stories so much easier now. Even five years ago on that speaking tour with Duncan Bannatyne producing videos, or audio programmes or online content was expensive.
Today we all carry a TV studio around in our pockets. It’s also a portable radio station. And a virtual assistant who’ll take dictation and turn our words into copy for online articles.
Everyone can now turn stories into content. Not just large product providers with deep pockets and limitless marketing budgets. Small firms. One man bands. SMEs. Everyone with an iPhone or Android device is a potential storytelling content producer.
The key to future growth in the protection market could be such storytelling. As Duncan said, if we’re passionate about helping people, let’s become passionate about telling stories, whether on video, audio or the written word. Then in years to come, the ABI will have more increases in sales to report.
