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Ny life interview

Kenneth Hittel
Kenneth Hittel

Ken Hittel of New York Life Insurance discusses the company's online marketing strategies. He notes that the percentage of marketing dollars spent online has increased over the years and will continue to do so. Much of their online efforts aim to generate leads for agents by positioning the company as a trusted provider of premium insurance products. Their website, social media presence, and mobile capabilities serve to support agents and provide resources to consumers. While aggregator sites present a challenge, New York Life focuses on conveying their brand attributes of trust and the value of working with a financial professional.

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For New York Life, Guarantees Matter Both Online and Offline AN INTERVIEW WITH: Ken Hittel Vice President, Corporate Internet, New York Life Insurance Company December 06, 2010 Ken Hittel joined New York Life in 1989. In his two decades with the insurance provider, Hittel has spearheaded the development and maintenance of the employee intranet and the public-facing NewYorkLife.com site. He also leads New York Lifes social media and mobility programs. Hittel spoke to eMarketers Lauren McKay about how the company uses online marketing tactics to extend its role as a trusted provider of premium insurance products. eMarketer: At New York Life, how important is the web as a marketing tool? Ken Hittel: It becomes more and more important every year. New York Life has always really believed in the web. We started creating a website back in 1995 and launched in 1996. Weve grown to where my team will have 23 people next year. There has always been support from the executive suite, the previous CEO, Sy Sternberg and our current CEO, Ted Mathas. I report to the senior advisor to the CEO, so there is a very strong recognition within the company of just how important the web is. eMarketer: How is this high level of importance reflected in your overall marketing budget? The relative percentage of marketing dollars spent on online has increased over the years, and will continue to increase.
Hittel: I can fairly confidently state that the relative percentage of marketing dollars spent on online has increased over the years, and will continue to increase. eMarketer: How do you see web-based marketing efforts fitting into your business model? eMarketer: We do not market directly to consumers. We market through our agents. What NewYorkLife.com is trying to sell is an appointment with a New York Life agent. For years, people have assumed, with some justification, that the internet cuts the agent out of the deal. Our strategy has always been to reintermediate, or bring the agent back into the deal. Weve been very successful at that. We are by far the number one sales lead generator within the company. We have a dedicated budget that we get from the CEO to do lead generation online. We have to justify our results each year, especially if we want to ask for more money. Certainly, for the past four years, Ive asked for more money, and Ive been able to justify it based on our lead generation results and agent sales. eMarketer: How does the online channel enable agents to better connect with consumers online? A great deal of what we do online serves as a resource for our agents. Hittel: A great deal of what we do online serves as a resource for our agents, who are always able to point their prospects and clients to our web properties. For instance, New York Life is very successful in what we internally call cultural or ethnic markets. Were usually either number-one or number-two in the Chinese-American, Korean-American, Vietnamese-American and Hispanic markets. We have dedicated in-language sites for those markets. So, our agents who prospect in those segments use those websites to gain credibility and show just how important New York Life thinks those markets are. eMarketer: Are there certain demographic segments with which online tactics resonate more? Hittel: The high-income demographic is very interesting. We sell a product called Guaranteed Lifetime Income that is essentially an income annuity meant for people who are usually quite senior in agethe average age is 70. It is designed to provide a guaranteed income stream for as long as the policyholders live. We have produced more than 250 sales of that product online through our agents with an average premium of $238,000. Offline with no internet involvement, the average sale is $99,000. So, if an agent makes a sale from an internet lead, its likely going to be more than two times the amount of the premium. So there is effectively a market of 70-year-olds using the internet to research financial products. They research long and hard and eventually they come to NewYorkLife.com or respond to one of our pay-per-click campaigns. They give
us their name, their address, their phone number, the best time to calland they end up writing us a fairly substantial check. eMarketer: What is the reason for that? Hittel: This happens with people who understand right off the bat that New York Life is a premium provider. People dont normally come to us looking for the lowest cost term life product. Theyre not going to get it from us. People who come to us know that they want the services of a financial professional. They are usually willing to pay a premium for the brand and theyre happy with that. They trust us. They know that we are safe and secure. From that perspective its not surprising that most of the sales from online leads are for our permanent life insurance products. eMarketer: How have insurance aggregator and price comparison websites affected your online marketing strategy? Hittel: If you do a search for life insurance on Google, you will certainly see New York Life come up in the organic results, but also in the pay-per-click results. You might also see AccuQuote, SelectQuote, IntelliQuote, NetQuote, you name it, in the pay-per-click results. Name your aggregator; theyre pretty much all going to be there. Google may not necessarily be the best search engine, but really its the best reputation management system. All the aggregators can, effectively, buy themselves credibility to appear on the same level as New York Life or Prudential or a MetLife. Thats why its all the more necessary for us to bring our brand attributes and our value proposition of the professional agent experience to the fore. The aggregators have basically framed the life insurance purchase in terms of price. Thats not a battle that we can or even try to win. eMarketer: How has New York Life extended the brand across new channels such as social media? Were not just a gold-domed building on Madison Avenue. Were real people with real personalities. Hittel: We have been most interested in showing the human side of New York Life. Were not just a gold-domed building on Madison Avenue. Were real people with real personalities. When we launched our Twitter channel, we did it in conjunction with our companys promotion of the Big East mens and womens basketball championship. The channel launch wasnt about life insurance. Instead we designed it to showcase the seven New York Life individuals who were at the games, tweeting in their own voices. On our Facebook page, we joined with a company called Educated Investor to offer basic financial education. Consumers can take quizzes and peruse a variety of financial education materials. Its basic information, like how to budget your money. Were not trying to hit people over the head with life insurance.
eMarketer: How have agents responded to social networks? Our agents are by nature social networkers. They make their livings by meeting people and building up their social circles. Hittel: Our agents are by nature social networkers. They make their livings by meeting people and building up their social circles. It was no surprise to us that so many of our agents just naturally gravitated toward online social networking. That was the major stimulus behind realizing that, as a corporation, we had to be there, too. eMarketer: Any goals to use social media for more product marketing? Hittel: Without a doubt. But first, in social media youve got to establish who you are. That is what were trying to do at this point. Ultimately, if we can show we are genuine, people will trust us. When the time comes to deal with a life insurance company, if they trust us, theyll be willing to talk to us. eMarketer: What strides has New York Life taken in mobile? Weve instituted click-to-call functionality, so you can call an agent right from the agent locator on your phone. Hittel: We created our first mobile site back in 2007 as a stripped-down version of NewYorkLife.com. Its mostly an action-oriented type of site and has turned into a very effective lead generator. Weve instituted click-to-call functionality, so you can call an agent right from the agent locator on your phone. There are service-oriented capabilities, as well. About two months ago, we launched our Virtual Service Center, which is the mobile version of our online customer self-service. That now is available to all of our policyholders and contract holders. eMarketer: Have you seen an increase in demand from consumers who want to use their mobile devices for quotes and agent information? Hittel: It just keeps growing and growing. In early 2010 we launched a microsite called GuaranteesMatter.com, which was built entirely in Abobe Flash. Because some devices, such as the Apple iPhone, do not support Flash, our content was unable to be viewed on such mobile phones. Frankly, we werent really thinking about mobility when we launched this site. But with our first months traffic report, we noticed that a few hundred people had tried to access the site via mobile, and that number kept growing each month. So, during the summertime, we produced a stripped-down version of the GuaranteesMatter.com site that works on all mobile devices. eMarketer: Guarantees Matter recently hosted a video contest. Can you share details of that campaign?
Hittel: Our CEO had the idea for a video contest on the Guarantees Matter site. Just before launching the microsite, he said, Wouldnt it be neat if we could produce a YouTube video that would show the difference between promises people make and very casually throw out, and the guarantees that New York Life makes and keeps? We decided to crowdsource a video and we are committed to pay $7,500 for the winning entry. We also retained the rights to buy any of the other videos that we like. We wrote a creative brief with Poptent with the goal of producing a commercial that will live within the social media worldto drive people to Guarantees Matter. eMarketer: What new metrics have you added to keep on top of the changing online landscape? A lot of the old metrics still are valuable. Hittel: I wish I could say that were just replacing old metrics with new ones, but a lot of the old metrics still are valuable. We still want to know how many people visit our Facebook page. How many page views do we get on an average visit? Those old statistics still remain relevant. But now, on Facebook for instance, were looking at engagement metrics. What are people doing on our Facebook page? Because if theyre not doing anything on the page, then theyre not likely to come back, and theyre certainly not likely to form any sort of attachment to us. How many people Like us, as a company? How many people Like particular posts that we put up on our wall? How many people are sharing those posts? How many people are commenting on those posts? On Twitter, its mostly the same. Youre looking at how many people are willing to follow you. Retweets have become an important statistic. We also are at the beginning of instituting social media monitoring tools from Radian6 and Nielsen BuzzMetrics. We want to monitor and know, for example, where we should be reaching influencers. 息2011 eMarketer Inc. All rights reserved. www.emarketer.com

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Ny life interview

  • 1. For New York Life, Guarantees Matter Both Online and Offline AN INTERVIEW WITH: Ken Hittel Vice President, Corporate Internet, New York Life Insurance Company December 06, 2010 Ken Hittel joined New York Life in 1989. In his two decades with the insurance provider, Hittel has spearheaded the development and maintenance of the employee intranet and the public-facing NewYorkLife.com site. He also leads New York Lifes social media and mobility programs. Hittel spoke to eMarketers Lauren McKay about how the company uses online marketing tactics to extend its role as a trusted provider of premium insurance products. eMarketer: At New York Life, how important is the web as a marketing tool? Ken Hittel: It becomes more and more important every year. New York Life has always really believed in the web. We started creating a website back in 1995 and launched in 1996. Weve grown to where my team will have 23 people next year. There has always been support from the executive suite, the previous CEO, Sy Sternberg and our current CEO, Ted Mathas. I report to the senior advisor to the CEO, so there is a very strong recognition within the company of just how important the web is. eMarketer: How is this high level of importance reflected in your overall marketing budget? The relative percentage of marketing dollars spent on online has increased over the years, and will continue to increase.
  • 2. Hittel: I can fairly confidently state that the relative percentage of marketing dollars spent on online has increased over the years, and will continue to increase. eMarketer: How do you see web-based marketing efforts fitting into your business model? eMarketer: We do not market directly to consumers. We market through our agents. What NewYorkLife.com is trying to sell is an appointment with a New York Life agent. For years, people have assumed, with some justification, that the internet cuts the agent out of the deal. Our strategy has always been to reintermediate, or bring the agent back into the deal. Weve been very successful at that. We are by far the number one sales lead generator within the company. We have a dedicated budget that we get from the CEO to do lead generation online. We have to justify our results each year, especially if we want to ask for more money. Certainly, for the past four years, Ive asked for more money, and Ive been able to justify it based on our lead generation results and agent sales. eMarketer: How does the online channel enable agents to better connect with consumers online? A great deal of what we do online serves as a resource for our agents. Hittel: A great deal of what we do online serves as a resource for our agents, who are always able to point their prospects and clients to our web properties. For instance, New York Life is very successful in what we internally call cultural or ethnic markets. Were usually either number-one or number-two in the Chinese-American, Korean-American, Vietnamese-American and Hispanic markets. We have dedicated in-language sites for those markets. So, our agents who prospect in those segments use those websites to gain credibility and show just how important New York Life thinks those markets are. eMarketer: Are there certain demographic segments with which online tactics resonate more? Hittel: The high-income demographic is very interesting. We sell a product called Guaranteed Lifetime Income that is essentially an income annuity meant for people who are usually quite senior in agethe average age is 70. It is designed to provide a guaranteed income stream for as long as the policyholders live. We have produced more than 250 sales of that product online through our agents with an average premium of $238,000. Offline with no internet involvement, the average sale is $99,000. So, if an agent makes a sale from an internet lead, its likely going to be more than two times the amount of the premium. So there is effectively a market of 70-year-olds using the internet to research financial products. They research long and hard and eventually they come to NewYorkLife.com or respond to one of our pay-per-click campaigns. They give
  • 3. us their name, their address, their phone number, the best time to calland they end up writing us a fairly substantial check. eMarketer: What is the reason for that? Hittel: This happens with people who understand right off the bat that New York Life is a premium provider. People dont normally come to us looking for the lowest cost term life product. Theyre not going to get it from us. People who come to us know that they want the services of a financial professional. They are usually willing to pay a premium for the brand and theyre happy with that. They trust us. They know that we are safe and secure. From that perspective its not surprising that most of the sales from online leads are for our permanent life insurance products. eMarketer: How have insurance aggregator and price comparison websites affected your online marketing strategy? Hittel: If you do a search for life insurance on Google, you will certainly see New York Life come up in the organic results, but also in the pay-per-click results. You might also see AccuQuote, SelectQuote, IntelliQuote, NetQuote, you name it, in the pay-per-click results. Name your aggregator; theyre pretty much all going to be there. Google may not necessarily be the best search engine, but really its the best reputation management system. All the aggregators can, effectively, buy themselves credibility to appear on the same level as New York Life or Prudential or a MetLife. Thats why its all the more necessary for us to bring our brand attributes and our value proposition of the professional agent experience to the fore. The aggregators have basically framed the life insurance purchase in terms of price. Thats not a battle that we can or even try to win. eMarketer: How has New York Life extended the brand across new channels such as social media? Were not just a gold-domed building on Madison Avenue. Were real people with real personalities. Hittel: We have been most interested in showing the human side of New York Life. Were not just a gold-domed building on Madison Avenue. Were real people with real personalities. When we launched our Twitter channel, we did it in conjunction with our companys promotion of the Big East mens and womens basketball championship. The channel launch wasnt about life insurance. Instead we designed it to showcase the seven New York Life individuals who were at the games, tweeting in their own voices. On our Facebook page, we joined with a company called Educated Investor to offer basic financial education. Consumers can take quizzes and peruse a variety of financial education materials. Its basic information, like how to budget your money. Were not trying to hit people over the head with life insurance.
  • 4. eMarketer: How have agents responded to social networks? Our agents are by nature social networkers. They make their livings by meeting people and building up their social circles. Hittel: Our agents are by nature social networkers. They make their livings by meeting people and building up their social circles. It was no surprise to us that so many of our agents just naturally gravitated toward online social networking. That was the major stimulus behind realizing that, as a corporation, we had to be there, too. eMarketer: Any goals to use social media for more product marketing? Hittel: Without a doubt. But first, in social media youve got to establish who you are. That is what were trying to do at this point. Ultimately, if we can show we are genuine, people will trust us. When the time comes to deal with a life insurance company, if they trust us, theyll be willing to talk to us. eMarketer: What strides has New York Life taken in mobile? Weve instituted click-to-call functionality, so you can call an agent right from the agent locator on your phone. Hittel: We created our first mobile site back in 2007 as a stripped-down version of NewYorkLife.com. Its mostly an action-oriented type of site and has turned into a very effective lead generator. Weve instituted click-to-call functionality, so you can call an agent right from the agent locator on your phone. There are service-oriented capabilities, as well. About two months ago, we launched our Virtual Service Center, which is the mobile version of our online customer self-service. That now is available to all of our policyholders and contract holders. eMarketer: Have you seen an increase in demand from consumers who want to use their mobile devices for quotes and agent information? Hittel: It just keeps growing and growing. In early 2010 we launched a microsite called GuaranteesMatter.com, which was built entirely in Abobe Flash. Because some devices, such as the Apple iPhone, do not support Flash, our content was unable to be viewed on such mobile phones. Frankly, we werent really thinking about mobility when we launched this site. But with our first months traffic report, we noticed that a few hundred people had tried to access the site via mobile, and that number kept growing each month. So, during the summertime, we produced a stripped-down version of the GuaranteesMatter.com site that works on all mobile devices. eMarketer: Guarantees Matter recently hosted a video contest. Can you share details of that campaign?
  • 5. Hittel: Our CEO had the idea for a video contest on the Guarantees Matter site. Just before launching the microsite, he said, Wouldnt it be neat if we could produce a YouTube video that would show the difference between promises people make and very casually throw out, and the guarantees that New York Life makes and keeps? We decided to crowdsource a video and we are committed to pay $7,500 for the winning entry. We also retained the rights to buy any of the other videos that we like. We wrote a creative brief with Poptent with the goal of producing a commercial that will live within the social media worldto drive people to Guarantees Matter. eMarketer: What new metrics have you added to keep on top of the changing online landscape? A lot of the old metrics still are valuable. Hittel: I wish I could say that were just replacing old metrics with new ones, but a lot of the old metrics still are valuable. We still want to know how many people visit our Facebook page. How many page views do we get on an average visit? Those old statistics still remain relevant. But now, on Facebook for instance, were looking at engagement metrics. What are people doing on our Facebook page? Because if theyre not doing anything on the page, then theyre not likely to come back, and theyre certainly not likely to form any sort of attachment to us. How many people Like us, as a company? How many people Like particular posts that we put up on our wall? How many people are sharing those posts? How many people are commenting on those posts? On Twitter, its mostly the same. Youre looking at how many people are willing to follow you. Retweets have become an important statistic. We also are at the beginning of instituting social media monitoring tools from Radian6 and Nielsen BuzzMetrics. We want to monitor and know, for example, where we should be reaching influencers. 息2011 eMarketer Inc. All rights reserved. www.emarketer.com