Baltimore is buzzing. Investments are being made to the Inner Harbor, downtown, and surrounding neighborhoods. An impressive schedule of special events and conventions is attracting visitors year-round. As the city’s official DMO, Visit Baltimore has invested in sales and marketing initiatives to leverage the changes that are taking place and increase the city’s competitive position. Come learn about these initiatives and allow the spirit of Baltimore’s revitalization to stimulate your company’s innovation and transformation!

“One size fits all” doesn’t apply to marketing. Understanding your sales process and connecting with distribution will help you tailor your message to suit the effective sales practices of your organization. Learn how to create content that interests your client/ prospect and engages the field. Hear how concierge service and a go-to-market plan take a marketing piece from plan to concept to launch — and result in a successful program.

Looking to enhance your current approaches with a new perspective on the emotional whys behind consumer behavior? This session will provide a guide to navigating the exciting and innovative area of neuroscience-based consumer research.

• Learn how to choose the right neuro tool for your research objective.
• Through case studies and practical examples, gain insight into how companies are applying these techniques to better understand the drivers behind consumer behavior and to inform business decisions.

Want to utilize Design Thinking principles in your job but worried you don’t have the time or support to do so? Applying Design Thinking theory in your marketing and research activities can be simpler than it seems. You don’t have to rework your entire department structure or totally transform your processes to do so. Come learn some quick and simple ways to start applying the steps of empathy, definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing in your work today.

Are you seeing an impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on your benefit plans? We want to help answer your questions and show you market trends in ancillary products. We will have a Q&A session where you can ask two experts your questions, and we will touch on three important impacts of ACA on benefits: 1) ACA impact to small group ancillary purchasing, 2) growth of voluntary sales (pros/cons), and 3) private exchanges (pros/cons).

Come discover two approaches to applying predictive analytics in the financial services industry: 

• Learn how LIMRA and the University of Connecticut created a process to collaborate on predictive modeling and forecasting projects. Walk away with a roadmap for how to approach an academic institution, expectations, obstacles, and the benefits of partnering. In addition, be introduced to a project just completed by UConn students in partnership with LIMRA. 
• Hear how LIMRA has been using predictive analytics for over 75 years to make predictions regarding the success potential of candidates for financial services sales positions. We will outline the process involved in developing our predictive assessments and the impact they have had on the industry.

This session picks up where “Connect and Transform your Content Marketing” left off. Now that you can create the best content ever, how do you effectively communicate it to those who sell your products? Learn several tips to help you package your content assets and reach your distributors.

Do you want to reach the most influential American generation? Then it’s time to get into the heads of Millennials. With 80 million in their ranks, Millennials (aka Generation Y) are unlike other generations. Coauthor of a best-selling new book, Marketing to Millennials: Reach the Largest and Most Influential Generation of Consumers Ever, Jeff Fromm, President of FutureCast, and his colleague Greg Vodicka, share new research and best practices in creating engagement with Millennials. FutureCast will cover:

• Major millennial trends and strategies that win with this audience 
• Brands that are winning and losing and why 
• Best practices you can apply to your business When you leave, you will have leading ways to connect with Millennials.

For the leaders of today and tomorrow. What are the “art and science” skills required for team members in today’s world? What are the strategic and tactical skills and training critical for developing your highly successful marketing team for tomorrow? And, as a leader, how will you facilitate this critical growth and development? How can you effectively convey the value of marketing to your stakeholders? Come and find the answers to these questions and more.

Voya Financial’s CMO, Ann Glover, has much to talk about. The company recently completed an enterprise-wide rebranding effort, debuted a new, national advertising campaign, and launched the Voya Born to Save™ program to build consumer awareness of the Voya name. Glover will kick off this year’s Marketing & Research Conference discussing Voya’s “Big Ideas” of 2014, the due diligence, planning and research behind these initiatives, and how the company plans to continue its momentum in 2015.

The National Basketball Association is among the gold standards in the world of professional sports. As its CMO, Pam El knows how research and planning can be used effectively to position this global brand in today’s competitive sports environment. Pam has over 30 years of marketing experience, many of them in financial services, and in her talk she will discuss the strategies she’s developed for successful outcomes. Listen to how her marketing expertise can apply to our industry and help you connect to today’s consumers.

Help your agents connect in innovative ways to transform customer engagement. This session will focus on creating effective content for agent use in social media. Hear two unique perspectives on how to make content development more fun and less painful, including best practices, overcoming issues within your organization, and real-life examples of effective social campaigns.

Customer Experience Measurement continues to be a strategic focal point for the financial services industry. However, limitations in applying existing measures to the life insurance industry are leading many to ask for new approaches. In this session, you will hear not only about the limitations of frequently-used metrics, but more importantly about LIMRA’s approach to measuring the Customer Experience in the life insurance industry.

Fast forward 10 years into the future — you’re the new CMO of ABC Insurance Company. How will you transform the way you engage Gens X, Y, and Z to drive your company’s sales growth? What are the sales concepts producers will utilize that resonate with these consumers, and how will they need to switch from “teacher to triage nurse” while watching many other carriers go direct? Forget the Boomers — how can we all help launch their children and grandchildren into financial well-being?

The Internet holds a wealth of information — more and more each day — but it’s not always easy to find the right information. If done correctly, searching can be effective, but often we are left sifting through piles of results, wondering if sources are reputable and feeling overwhelmed. This workshop will examine how to make the most of your Internet searches, review results effectively, and create valuable end deliverables.

Understanding how to positively transform your customer’s journey involves many moving parts. Customers have different needs, preferences, and behaviors, and it is critical that we understand how they make decisions and interact with us. In this session, we will: 

• Identify best practices for defining customer segments 
• Review the channels and approaches insurers take to impact customer experience, including digital 
• Explore challenges insurers face when attempting to transform customer experience

Attend this session to learn how to use key social media metrics to enhance and direct your communications to your targeted audiences. You will walk away with ideas to help you determine which metrics may be most beneficial to your company, how to measure success with social media, and how to make adjustments based on the metrics.

Do you find yourself using the same methodologies time and time again? Discover innovative methodologies — Gamification and Facial Coding — and their practical application. 

• Explore these nontraditional research techniques infrequently used within the insurance space; and 
• Learn about the potential for different insights gained from utilizing these uncommon methodologies.

Did you know that 14 percent of Millennials like getting text messages from brands? Or that when asked about factors that impact a child’s well being, Gen X and Baby Boomer moms are more likely to list finances as a concern than younger moms? Join Mintel Comperemedia as we explore how brands are communicating with consumers at different stages of life, how attitudes differ between consumer groups, and how companies market to them.

Now that you have a CRM and marketing platform in place, how will you generate an ROI? In this session, you will receive invaluable insight from managers who recently implemented a successful marketing platform. You will walk away with: 

• Insight from marketing and sales managers regarding platform selection, implementation, and utilization 
• The keys to generating ROI from a marketing platform 
• Handouts include suggested performance measures and a “must-do items” checklist

Is the motivation to shop for life insurance the result of careful deliberation of the pros and cons and a rational consideration of risk? The field of behavioral economics suggests otherwise. Instead, like most human behavior, consumer receptivity to life insurance is likely driven by quick, automatic responses. Come hear the results of new research in which LIMRA turned to the subconscious for some answers: 

• How do consumers really feel about life insurance ownership? 
• What emotional benefits do people want from life insurance? 
• What type of messaging might increase their likelihood to purchase the product?

How are companies designing websites with today’s consumer in mind? How do they leverage social media to drive traffic to their public site? Learn the top trends to drive consumers to your website. We will review design elements and content of leading companies.

Infographics are a great way to make data digestible for audiences by simplifying the story. Despite their simplicity, creating successful infographics is far from a simple task. This session will cover all aspects of infographics, including case studies (what works, what doesn’t), how to build them (tools and techniques), and best (and worst!) practices for using infographics to tell your story and connect the dots for your audience.

Most professionals are very good at what they do, but struggle to explain what they do — especially through PowerPoint communications. Mary’s mission is to rid the business world of buzzword-filled presentations and aimless meetings. She will show you a time-saving method to transform your talks into communication that will advance your ideas, engage your audience, keep your bosses’ attention, and build your personal brand.

What better way to network with your fellow conference attendees than to dine at a local restaurant without the bother of making the reservations? LIMRA will manage the reservations for small groups. Restaurant sign-up sheets will be posted near the conference registration area.

Our agent panel talks about how they’re making social media a core part of their marketing activities — making connections, building awareness, and finding sales opportunities. You’ll hear what works, what doesn’t, and what producers need from you to make it all happen.

Over the years, many have studied the military strategies employed by the Union and Confederate armies in the days leading up to, during, and following Gettysburg. What can marketers and market researchers learn from this storied event? We will explore such lessons as: 

• What is strategy, and how can a better understanding of strategy lead to more-insightful research results? 
• How can military strategies be applied to the battle for the hearts and minds of customers?

This session will offer a compassionate-yet-frank discussion around the widening gap between consumer perceptions and the industry’s intentions, and how the roles of marketing and research are critical in transforming the way we think about closing it. As a former insurance marketing executive, turned innovator, Maria will discuss how the consumer demand for a great experience drives the need for better insight, innovative solutions, and new measurements. This includes: 

• The role of authenticity 
• Maintaining true differentiation 
• Recasting your relationship with legal and compliance 
• Reimagining your marketing dashboard 
• A relevant case study For those in marketing roles, this session is intended to inspire a redefinition of purpose and impact. 

For those in research roles, this session will help you design new metrics that unify teams around what’s most important.

Marketing and research are critical to long-term growth and success. And both of these areas are transforming due to changing consumer needs and evolving technology. Come to this session to understand how insights from other disciplines like journalism, politics, and even neuroscience — a multidisciplinary field comprising subjects as diverse as biology, psychology, medicine, physics, and linguistics — can help improve marketing and research strategies in our industry.