Global insurer, MetLife, recently acquired PetFirst, a pet health insurance company founded in 2004. With 135.2 million dogs and cats owned by Americans, and only 3.9 million U.S. pets insured, MetLife saw a significant opportunity to grow the pet insurance division, and so Sabrina Sebastian, PetFirst’s former CFO and now MetLife’s AVP for Pet Insurance Marketing, was tasked with making this a reality.
Sebastian recognised the need for a new approach to marketing - one which was faster, more responsive and agile, and so MetLife shifted from a traditional marketing workflow to an agile marketing framework. Agile marketing, which has its roots in software development, is a way for marketers to respond rapidly to customer needs and drive successful business outcomes, and is done through a team-based approach using collaborative practices.
In order to facilitate this, MetLife sought executive sponsorship from the Global CMO and other senior leaders, and put together a multidisciplinary team of marketing, content strategy, data and analytics, technology and IT, and infrastructure teams. The team was taken through an on-site training to make sure that everybody understood the foundations and principles of agile marketing, and to help them get to know each other.
Rather than a single manager or leader, agile marketing has product owners who help facilitate communication and keep people connected, and teams are self-governing and self-functioning. MetLife’s agile approach is focused on outcomes and adding value rather than just being busy, and ties marketing activities to those outcomes that add value to the business.
The results have been impressive, with MetLife selling more policies than ever before, and year-on-year growth in double digits. The direct connection with the consumer is also a major benefit, with MetLife being able to meet pet parents wherever they are.
MetLife’s agile marketing approach has set the foundation for other agile pods within the company and demonstrates the value of agile marketing in unlocking the power of self-governing teams, driving business growth and connecting with customers.
Originally reported by Martech: https://martech.org/metlife-uses-agile-marketing-to-unleash-pet-insurance-sales/
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