Johnson & AssociatesFinal ReportMay 8, 2013

Organizational/Communication Goals

Build awareness of Johnson & Associates as a home and auto insurance provider in the local area

Increase engagement and leads with GenX and GenY consumers Position Johnson & Associates as the insurance agent that delivers a personal,

customized approach to fulfilling all your insurance needs Develop relationships with other local businesses who also cater to home and auto

consumers

Tactics:

(1) Present a consistent message:

Johnson & Associates utilizes numerous media outlets including a radio show, a blog, a website and Facebook and Twitter pages to reach their target audiences. In order to strengthen the Johnson & Associates brand, it is vital to present a consistent message across all of these platforms. In order to do so, Live Oak Communications created a message map that conveys the personal attention Johnson & Associates delivers to its customers as a one-stop-shop for all insurance needs.

[Include a screen shot of the message map here]

(2) Implement a word-of-mouth campaign:

This semester, Live Oak Communications executed a wallet drop across Alamance County. One hundred wallets were strategically dropped in highly frequented public places in the community during two Saturdays in April. Each wallet contained a dollar, a raffle ticket and a “mock” drivers’ license designed by Live Oak with Mike Johnson’s photo and instructions for entering a Facebook contest. Participants were asked to post their raffle ticket number on the Johnson & Associates Facebook page to be entered into a drawing to receive a one of four free gift cards. The participants could only redeem their prizes by visiting the Johnson & Associates office..

This campaign was supplemented by Facebook advertising to increase engagement and interaction with the page and draw more attention to the wallet drop. Since we aimed to promote the home and auto services that Johnson & Associates provides, the Facebook advertising was targeted toward adults ages 30-50, who most likely have teenaged children and might be adding them to their policy. The tailored message of the advertisement was “Are you adding a teenager to your policy? Get the best deal and save money with us!” The ad would then direct the Facebook user to the Johnson & Associates website.

This campaign served the dual purpose of increasing community awareness of Johnson & Associates and driving people to their Facebook page and website.

(3) Develop New Website Content:

Johnson & Associates had an aesthetically appealing website prior to working with Live Oak Communications. However, we wanted the content on the homepage to emphasize the brand message constructed in the message map in order to maintain consistency. As such, Live Oak Communications wrote new content for the website, and restructured a few items on the site to provide a centralized message and engaging tone.

[Put a screen shot of the part of the website where the new content is]

[Move this up to section (2)]

(4) Establish Partnerships with Local Businesses:

Establishing local relationships allows Johnson & Associates to cross-promote its services with relevant businesses. Live Oak planned for Johnson & Associates to refer clients to local car dealerships and real estate agencies in return for a reciprocated referral.

The two real estate agencies that Live Oak recommended were Whitfield Properties and David Massey Real Estate. These agencies offer personal, localized services to their customers and promote similar values to Johnson & Associates. [Here you should include why you chose these agencies]

The three car dealerships that we recommended were Freeman Motors Automotive Repairs, Service, and Used Car Sales, and Ivey Motorcars. [Here you should include why you chose these dealerships]

Live Oak was intended to assist Johnson & Associates in coordinating meetings with each of the companies to discuss the specific details and parameters of the partnerships. However, due to a busy season, Mike vounteered to contact each agent and dealer individually. Unfortunately, we were not able to move forward with developing the partnerships this semester.

Results

Word of Mouth Campaign:

Although all of the wallets were retrieved, only 10 percent of the raffle ticket numbers were recorded onto the Facebook page. Nonetheless, a direct result the wallets was creating at least 50 new impressions of Johnson & Associates.

The lacking Facebook interaction may have been a result of not having a Facebook account, not understanding the campaign, or not having the time to participate. One participant, however, commented on the Johnson & Associates Facebook page, “[the wallet drop is] the best advertising I have seen in a long time.”

The winners of the wallet drop raffle were Tia Grantham ($100 Target gift card), Kelly Forehand ($20 Target gift card), Samantha Garcia-Cruz ($20 Target gift card), and Barbara Hanke Carlton ($20 Food Lion gift card). We hope to specifically engage these users and their Facebook friends on the Johnson & Associates Facebook page in the future.

Facebook Advertising and New Facebook Content:

The Facebook advertising Johnson & Associates created this semester also yielded productive results. Over the lifespan of the Facebook ad, it produced 52,930 impressions, resulting in 61 clicks and 15 new ‘likes.’ Thanks to fresh Facebook content, we were also able to keep reader’s attention and increased our views of each post by 10%.

Live Oak Communications used the Facebook contest and Facebook advertising to increase Johnson & Associates ‘likes’ by 15 percent, bringing it from 90 to 104.

New Website Content:

The Johnson & Associate website previously featured exclusively pictures of elderly couples on the home page. In order to capture the target audience that we focused on this semester, we placed these images with photos of families and individuals at different stages in life, and moved the social security content to a separate tab on the website.

We were unable to track the results of these website changes since Johnson & Associates does not currently utilize Google Analytics.

Local Partnerships with Real Estate Agents and Auto Dealerships:

The car dealerships and real estate agent building did not follow through. Mike did not have enough time to meet with them and the Live Oak account team realized this too late to be able to plan any meetings for him.

What could be improved on in the future?

Word of Mouth Campaign:

The word of mouth campaign had a small success rate. Out of the 100 wallets we dropped between the two Saturdays, seven raffle ticket numbers were posted on the Facebook wall. While overall the campaign succeeded in spreading awareness of the Johnson & Associates brand, improvements could have certainly been made. From our research we learned that 50% of Facebook users are over the age of 35. The Johnson & Associates team believed that this demographic group would pick up wallets and post the accompanying raffle ticket number on the Johnson & Associate’s Facebook page. All of the wallets appeared to have been picked up, unfortunately, only six people post their raffle ticket numbers, with one person posting two numbers. From this campaign, the team learned several things and was able to improve certain aspects of the campaign between the first Saturday drop and the second Saturday drop.

The team noticed that the wallets provided little incentive for an individual to pick them up; they did not appear to be a wallet from first glance and were rather plain. Therefore the Johnson & Associates team created small slips that read “pick me up!” to be featured in the front of the wallet, in order to catch the eye of an individual. The team also altered the ID card format. Initially, the team printed text heavy cards, forcing the font to become minute. The team realized that people will pick up the wallet, but quickly become disinterested with all the text and not participate in the raffle drawing. Therefore, the team made the text more concise and included the Facebook logo so people knew it incorporated the social media function. Finally the team feels that a better understanding of the target audience would have been beneficial. The target audience of 40 year olds and older may have lacked interest and incentive to post online. People in our target age group may not be as smart phone savvy, might forget to post the number when they get home, or might not want their information to be made public to this company or have their activity on this page be public on Facebook. In the future, Live Oak Communications should direct them to the website, or give them an email address to send their raffle ticket number.

Facebook Content:

The Johnson & Associates team developed a Facebook content calendar, which was to begin postings at the end of March. After the content calendar received approval it was sent to the social media manager of Johnson & Associates to use when posting new content on Facebook. We contacted Johnson & Associates about creating a HootSuite, but since they have a social media manager purely for social media postings, they felt she could post the content herself. By mid-April, new content was not being published on Facebook. As such, the Live Oak team assumed the responsibility of posting the new content. Through this situation, the team learned that they will need to create a HootSuite to simplify the process for the client to have automatic social media content posted.

Facebook Advertising:

Facebook advertising proved to be fairly successful. The advertising produced about 50,000 people who saw the advertisement from the Burlington area. The team aimed to make it speak to Facebook users, so we had it read, “Are you adding an inexperienced driver to your policy? Get the best deal and save money with us!” The team found that by tailoring the message to parents, it will be more successful considering they are the ones more likely to be purchasing new car insurance for their teenager. Improvements can be made by creating other tailored advertisements speaking to the Facebook users. Rather than casting a wide net, it would be more impactful to reach out to a smaller more segmented audience.

Local Partnerships with Real Estate Agents and Auto Dealerships:

In the future, for this goal, we will need to have a more concrete plan for how we will approach the agents and dealers and ensure that there is a schedule and actual implementation of the plan.

Summary:

The Johnson & Associates account team aimed to build a stronger presence within the Burlington community. Johnson & Associates needed to distinguish themselves from larger more familiar insurance agencies, as well as broaden their current consumer base to reach GenX and GenY consumers. With these challenges, the account team researched competitors and identified differentiators between the competition and Johnson & Associates.

The team drafted a message map that highlighted the strengths of Johnson & Associates; they provide personal, customized, and affordable approach to all the consumer’s insurance need. Due to the size of the agency, Johnson & Associates is able to provide a more in depth and personal approach to all insurance needs. With this message in mind, the account team devised a plan to become more effective at reaching the target audience.

Over the course of the semester the team produced new content and reconstructed the agency’s website, provided a centralized message across social media outlets as well as provided a content calendar for those outlets, utilized Facebook advertising to target segmented audiences, and produced a communitywide word-of-mouth campaign to spread awareness about Johnson & Associates, as well as to bolster their image as a company invested in the Burlington community.

The Johnson & Associates old website featured a video informing visitors about retirement planning. Below the digital fold there was a paragraph informing visitors about Johnson & Associates. However, the account team felt that this gave the perception to visitors that the agency only dealt with retirement planning. Therefore, new engaging content was produced for the homepage, which addressed the benefits of Johnson & Associates. The video was moved to the Retirement Planning page on the site and the

new content was shifted above the digital fold so it was easily accessible for the viewer.

After extensive research on competition’s social media presence it was clear that the account team needed to revamp the messages being sent out out through a variety of social media outlets. The messages featured in the message map needed to come across through Johnson & Associates’ postings, while also being engaging and interesting for the viewer. With that in mind, the team drafted a content calendar that aimed to engage viewers and provide easy access to any insurance questions. The team also utilized social media through advertising. Facebook advertising enabled the account team to provide a tailored message to a specific segmented audience. The results of Facebook Advertising are posted.

The word-of-mouth campaign was the largest project undertaken by the account team. The campaign entailed dropping 50 wallets across the Burlington community on two consecutive Saturdays, with the wallets containing information about Johnson & Associates as well as a raffle ticket. Those who found a wallet could enter the number on the raffle ticket on the Johnson & Associates Facebook page and be entered to win one of five prizes. Although nearly all the wallets were collected, only five numbers were entered onto Facebook. While ideally the campaign would have incited more online participation, approximately 100 individuals collected the wallets and learned about Johnson & Associates. It created a stronger connection between the community and the agency, and also will bring people to the office to collect their winnings.

In the future, Johnson & Associates can benefit from buiding relationships with car dealerships and real estate agents.

Overall, it has been a busy semester for the Johnson & Associates account team. This semester, Live Oak produced a strong, centralized message and viable outputs for the client that in the long run will build stronger bonds with the community and enable Johnson & Associates to communicate more effectively with their target audiences.