In 2013, WEA Trust looked for a way to make a splash at our education market’s biggest convention, the Wisconsin State Education Convention. In the wake of recent political events in the state, WEA Trust had been villainized, priced out, and sidelined. We needed to remind our key market we were on their side and offered compassionate service alongside our top-notch products.
My original idea to create positive PR with an award for school teachers who demonstrated passion, vision, and drive in their classrooms eventually expanded into two annual grant programs key to the rebound and success of our sales team. The Forward Together Award reinvigorated our traditional education market, and the Local Spark Award made significant inroads in our emerging municipal market.
To launch the education award, I collaborated with the three organizations hosting the State Education Convention and named it after that year’s theme: Forward Together. The organizations became promotional partners, letting us leverage their trade publications, weekly emails, convention advertising space, and keynote introductions. The leaders of the organizations also sat on my Forward Together Award judging panel. These key endorsements led to more than 80 award entries in the first year and more than 135 in subsequent years. More importantly from a business perspective, it reminded the education market in Wisconsin that WEA Trust supports schools. Our sales team had something other than insurance to talk with school leaders about, and they awarded winners by presenting checks at school board meetings, exciting students during lunch, and surprising teachers in their classrooms. The PR flipped the narrative for our current customers, prospects and broker partners.
Within one year, I duplicated the grant program for our emerging municipal market. I partnered with League of Wisconsin Municipalities to promote the Local Spark Award to their members–and our prospective customers. This gave me and our Sales team visibility in a new market. We presented about the award at League conferences and published promotions in the League’s publications (see below). More than 30 communities throughout Wisconsin applied in the first year, and more than 50 in subsequent years. The excellent relationship I built with the Executive Director and Communications Director during this process led to the League endorsing our new municipal health plan, drawing more than 20 new customers the year we launched.
Mel Grau 