On this episode of Denim Rivet, Gregory talks insurance innovation and insurtech with special guest, Paul Tyler, Chief Marketing Officer of Phoenix Life Insurance Company in Hartford, CT.

Paul has been monitoring the pulse of the insurtech ecosystem and its intersection with innovation and marketing strategy. He’s here today to share his thoughts on the crossroads insurance marketing is in and some of the technologies that will help guide it into the future. But before he entered the insurance industry, Paul started off organizing campaigns in the political sphere. He transitioned to MetLife, where he worked across every part of the retail business sector. When he saw the impact iPhones were going to have on business he decided to found a startup on the side. This creative delve into the tech space undoubtedly has helped Paul develop a sense of how innovation can propel the insurance industry – specifically, in a direction that is able to pinpoint focus on consumers in new and unique ways.

Key Takeaways

User interface (UI) plays a critical role in how consumers interact with content and ultimately purchase. Paul finds that tablets have a unique functionality in this regard. Having a thin touchscreen device that can pair with a keyboard breaks down barriers in a face-to-face environment. The statistics he sees show that the touch functionality of tablets seems to be more accepted by those over the age of 55 than any other device.

In the evolution of user interfaces, we’ve moved from the mouse and keyboard, to touch interfaces, and now voice control or voice experiences. It’s likely within the next five years that the amount of internet connected devices in your home without a keyboard will increase by a factor of six. Voice can be an easier way to engage with a device, but it’s clear people aren’t quite comfortable with that yet. Paul says all you have to do is look at the transcripts of someone interacting with a voice controlled device to see that people aren’t properly educated in how to interact with these technologies.

Paul sees that the state of insurance innovation and marketing in the insurance industry is at a crossroads. Strategies have to have great content and ideas that target small, passionate groups, while having tech savvy plans for distributing the content digitally. The trend has shifted from marketing and sales to marketing and tech. Explaining marketing architecture to a tech team can be difficult, putting more pressure on the tech side to deliver specific solutions.

The second wave of social media is upon us according to Paul. Facebook allows you to target people at critical life stages, whether it's getting married, having a baby or getting a new job. The intricacies of reaching the right consumer at the right time seems to be exponentially increasing. However, Paul sees this as a perfect place for tech to streamline complex campaigns. He uses Denim™ as an example of how this can be done. Consider Denim – the social media based marketing platform that can be consistently launched with the push of a button in just two minutes; this allows social media ads to be delivered for a tremendous number of agents and advisors, leveraging a home office marketing strategy that can help agents compete with online only companies. With access to important agent level analytics, it's more important than ever to know how to review social media metrics.

And what about Paul’s thoughts on the state of the insurtech ecosystem? They can be summed up in three words: “We’re just starting.” The amount of opportunity is enormous. With the amount of passion, creativity, and energy pouring into the ecosystem he believes we’ll see the scene continue to turn out innovative solutions to the industry’s ever evolving needs.

Links

Paul Tyler on Twitter

Paul Tyler on LinkedIn