American Family Is Pioneering Trackable Advertainment, Proving That It Helps Sell insurance

American Family Insurance has no gecko, but they the company’s marketing pros do have a clue.

According to Ad Age, the brand’s content play, “In Gayle We Trust,” is now entering its second season with an even stronger focus on targeting and tracking new customers. American Family is also bring gaming to the forefront with a new social-simulation game, “I-Am-Fam,” from game developer WildTangent.

“I-Am-Fam,” a new social simulation game from WildTangent, is perhaps the closest American Family Insurance has come to using branded entertainment as a direct-response tool, crafting an entire “Second Life”-esque virtual world game to showcase the role insurance plays in the everyday lives of avatars as they start new families. The game will be distributed in part through Facebook Connect, and will redirect users to an American Family sign-up page to request quotes or an agent.

Telisa Yancy, American Family Insurance’s director of advertising, said last fall’s program led to increased requests to find an agent, as well as a 20% bump in quote starts.