Today's article is from our "Crazy Ideas" series, plain and simple. You have been warned!

It's no secret that Millennials think the insurance industry is a boring place to work at, too conservative. Even as customers, they perceive our products to be outdated, boring and too expensive. A few days ago, I was driving around San Francisco and saw a billboard from Apploving that used a viral meme image and text-speak to encourage Millennials to apply to work there. Even though I'm not much of a meme guy, and I don't use text-speak, it made me immediately feel an affinity towards the company.

That's when it hit me. Why don't we try this in insurance? Let's talk to the Millennials in their own language, both when it comes to recruiting them to work here and to get them to become our customers.

Since an image is worth a thousand words I'll just show you what I mean.

To Attract them as customers:

To attract them to work in the industry:









I know they're extreme examples, but it would absolutely get Millennials to turn notice our industry and maybe even start wondering if they might have been wrong about us after all. Comments always appreciated!

This article was written by Tony Canas, RVP of the West Coast at InsNerds.com while Carly Burnham, RVP of the East Coast at InsNerds.com slept after her first and exhausting day at the CPCU Society Leadership Summit, and probably had nightmares that Tony would run an article full of memes the next morning!

Tony Canas is a young insurance nerd and speaker. He has worked in claims, underwriting, finance and sales at three different insurance carriers, five cities and four states. Currently he’s the Territory Sales Manager for Northern California at American Modern Insurance, a part of Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance company. Tony is also the Vice President of the Golden Gate CPCU Society and a member of the New Designee Committee at the National CPCU Society. Tony is passionate about insurance, technology, innovation and about engaging Millennials in the insurance industry.

Carly Burnham is the other half of the dynamic duo. She’s currently a Commercial Lines Underwriter at Erie Insurance. Carly is also a Director at the Presque Isle CPCU Society and a member of the New Designee Committee at the National CPCU Society. As a co-founder at InsNerds.com she has the difficult task of being Tony’s co-author, keeping his constant flow of crazy ideas focused and helping fleshing them out into useful articles.

Tony and Carly are both CPCUs and have MBAs from Iowa State and they met while running Nationwide’s Gen Y Associate Resource Group.

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