• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, April 10, 2015

Life insurance is a good deal once you die, but John Hancock is rolling out a new insurance product offering perks for people who are still on the green side of the grass. In partnership with Vitality, the plan gives policyholders a free Fitbit when they sign up.

They also take a real-age health assessment, which generates wellness suggestions. The healthier they get, the more rewards they can earn, including deals from Hyatt, Amazon and REI, as well as discounts on their policy premiums. And it’s teaming up with Chris O’Donnell, star of the hit drama “NCIS: Los Angeles,” to introduce the new concept.

A campaign from Hill Holliday includes print and online ads, which have just kicked off, and TV, scheduled to break May 1. And Hancock — a longtime sponsor of the Boston Marathon — is previewing the plan at the Marathon Expo. The Expo, where runners in the elite race have to go to pick up their bibs, is a major event for Hancock, as well as Adidas and other sponsors.

A spokesperson for Hill Holliday says the insurer plans a “social activation, in which they will ask people to participate in a digital time capsule, and folks share images video celebrating the last 30 years of the marathon.” A separate booth for the Vitality product offers its Vitality Age Calculator, and will show a buzz video about the product on monitors.

The concept of better rates for good behavior in life insurance is new in the U.S., but well established in other markets, and many U.S. health insurers base rates on health habits. It’s also a growing area of interest for auto insurance companies: Progressive offers a Snapshot, a device that tracks the way policyholders drive, earning them discounts.

For now, the offer is limited to term and universal life, says the spokesperson, but additional products are planned.

In New York, it previewed the product with the John Hancock Vitality Village at Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal, offering boot camp classes, nutrition demos and massages, as well as the age test. (On average, it reports Americans are, on average, five years older than their real age, based on such lifestyle variables as nutrition, exercise intensity and mental health.)