	Why ads?

	Riding the Whirlwind
	Strategic Interactive Marketing for the Insurance Industry
Key Points:

Acknowledgements

Thank you to all those who have helped in the creation of this report. Your contributions have been of great value.

Contributors are listed in the Acknowledgements section.

Preface

No doubt those who lived the 1700s, and then again in the 1800s believed they were living though a revolution. Both were periods of rapid change creating new paradigms in economic, political and social life.

We too have been told that we live in a revolution - an information revolution. From its roots in radio and television we have been at the receiving end of powerful mass media information systems. But with limited choice of content, place, and time, we have become the new servants. Only recently has the video recorder freed us from the chattel of programme schedules.

Now new mediums are proliferating. They bring choice to the masses: choice of content, of time, place, and format. They will soon bring additional choices: choice of to whom we speak to and what we speak about. They will give us new ways to express our personal opinions. Consumers are leaving a world of Push marketing and are entering a world of Pull marketing where the supplier becomes the servant.

Eventually it is hoped to place this report on the Internet with hyper-link references to the example web-sites.

(Well here it is! Sections will be added over time - so do come back and see what's new).

Commerce is reacting - note the moves of the media barons. Content is key in a world of Pull marketing. Microsoft is amassing its content through deals with many of the worlds famous libraries and art galleries. Its goal - literally written in stone in the court yard of its Californian HQ - is: A PC in every home. Now even this is perhaps out-of-date; Bill Gates has just bought a Web-TV company for $0.5b and he is talking about toasters running Windows: they remember each family member's preference. This is a new world, in which we interact with technology.

No industry will escape this revolution. All companies process information - for many it's their lifeblood or represents a value-added differentiator. Financial Services are particularly at risk. What next, the Microsoft Internet Bank? Michael Schrage has another definition for this new age: the Relationship Revolution. For in an age of information overload, the value shifts to packaging and bundling information in unexpected ways. The interactive technologies will forge new relationships, and at the same time provide new business opportunities to assist the process.

This report looks at the various new mediums in the context of Relationship Marketing, 1-to-1 Marketing, and Mass Customisation. The first part has an emphasis on the "what" and "why". The pace and direction of change makes it difficult to determine the "when", so the middle part of the report recommends fundamental strategic actions. The final part on implementation, which is more technical, describes some key technologies that will help with the "how".

So turn the pages and learn how to