• by Bill Duggan , October 16, 2024

Sherina Smith, CMO of American Family Insurance, and Chris Crawford, founder and CEO of Elite Media, American Family's agency partner, will be co-presenting at the ANA Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference, which will be held November 18-20 in Las Vegas, where they will discuss how targeting key growth segments has become a business imperative.

Ahead of the conference, which will be held November 18-20 in Las Vegas, Smith and Crawford were interviewed by Group Executive Vice President of the ANA Bill Duggan.

Bill Duggan: American Family is putting “the new general market” at the center of its marketing strategy, agency relationships, and go-to-market approach. How did that change come about? 

Sherina Smith: We have followed the Census data in shifting demographics. Targeting key growth audiences like Hispanic and African Americans is not a choice -- it’s a business imperative.

If we are to lean into our vision to be the most trusted and valued customer-driven insurance company, we must keep all customers at the core of our brand.  That has been at the center of what we do across our entire marketing team. Having a roster of partners as diverse as our customers is critical to our success.

Crawford: This strategy was born out of the brand’s courage to pursue the data that points them to the audiences that will fuel their growth.

We think of the “new general market” as comprising America’s growth audiences and we know that U.S. population growth is driven almost entirely by multicultural audiences.

And while the Census and other data have been telling us this for a long time, it can still take courage for brands to innovate based on what that data entails.

That’s because effectively pursuing these growth audiences can mean choosing a different kind of agency partner -- for example, an independent multicultural agency like Elite Media. But American Family Insurance is fearless -- courageous enough to innovate, hungry about driving growth and always looking to honor and deeply understand the audiences whose business they look to secure. 

Duggan: Your "Life's Better" campaign won an EFFIE – congrats. How does it speak authentically and simultaneously to not only multicultural audiences but also to a broad audience?

Smith: Our brand positioning and platform is anchored in dreams: “Insure Carefully, Dream Fearlessly.” This EFFIE builds on our firm brand foundation.

It is a full-circle moment for us, as the Dreams campaign won an EFFIE when we launched it a decade ago.  Knowing that our brand platform is timeless and able to evolve and speak to different audiences is extremely validating.

We see it in the results. The ad linkage, brand linkage and relevance scores are strong across what is traditionally called general market and multicultural audiences.

We are committed to inspiring, protecting and restoring dreams for everyone.

Our mission is not just helping us to differentiate in the marketplace with our communications, but is also driving the business forward and gives us permission as a brand to double down and go bigger.

Crawford: The brand’s positioning allows us to tap into a shared ground between the general market and multicultural audiences that is based in humanity.

That shared, humane ground is the desire to pursue your dreams and a need to feel safe, secure, and protected while doing so.

At its best, this product should provide that–insurance is not a laughing matter, and American Family Insurance has demonstrated that they have understood this for years.

In addition, we know that work with a unique and culturally nuanced point of view can resonate beyond one specific audience.

When we can uplift that cultural nuance from an authentic point of view while also speaking to a broader human insight, we unearth rich territory that allows for work that is always culturally and contextually relevant. It’s this kind of work that wins over the hearts and minds of consumers.

Duggan: Are you able to share business results?

Smith: The Dreams campaign and recent timely re-launch with “Life’s Better,” has proven to be the most effective campaigns for our brand.

We have had steady growth in key metrics around awareness, relevance, and differentiation.  That’s certainly been a contributing factor to continually driving our annual business goals -- and of course, raising the bar for the business and customers accordingly.

Duggan: Sherina, you are chief marketing officer of American Family. Telisa Yancy formerly held that role, and she is now enterprise president. How has Telisa influenced you and the CMO position, specifically?

Smith: Telisa has influenced not just the marketing department, but the organization tremendously. She has blazed the path to exhibit how a marketer can influence the full value chain of the business. She has been instrumental in elevating the role of the customer and marketing as a growth driver within the organization.

What is so refreshing is to hear dreams come to life across the company and the commitment to being customer driven -- from agents to product teams, claims teams, and everyone in between.

That is a key testament to Telisa and the American Family total leadership team. Our enterprise vision to be the most valued, and trusted, customer driven insurance company has become a galvanizing force at the company.

That is no small feat, and it enables the entire organization to dream bigger and meaningfully live into our purpose to inspire, protect and restore dreams.