National Conversation Drive: Liberty Mutual and ITNAmerica
Priding itself on being an insurance company committed to helping people live safer lives through life’s many phases, Liberty Mutual took on a sensitive topic: senior driving. With drivers age 65+ projected to grow to 71 million as baby boomers mature, Liberty Mutual felt it important to create healthy, responsible conversations between seniors and their adult children.
The National Conversation Drive took both an educational an experiential approach to this challenging conversation. Working closely with leaders in the industry, they created talking tips, advice and guidelines on the best way to initiate these conversations in a productive and empathetic manner.
The solution to help participants truly empathize with family members who may be suffering from age-related ailments was dubbed The Senior Simulator Suit™. Participants wearing the Suit experienced the symptoms of common senior ailments, such as arthritis, stiff joints and cataracts via restrictions and limitations to the body and vision.
While experiencing these common ailments, individuals would be put through a variety of every day tasks like driving a car, shopping and visiting a gas station, so that they may experience first-hand what their parents may be feeling.
To further incentivize people to have these conversations, Liberty Mutual pledged to donate up to $100,000 to their non-profit partner, Independent Transportation Network® (ITNAmerica), which went towards safe alternative transportation for seniors across America.
The National Conversation Drive included a web portal for people to pledge conversations with their parents and aging relatives after perusing tips, tools and resources for how best to initiate this dialogue. Guests had an opportunity to share their experience online and even record their story in a private confessional booth, which was later used to encourage subsequent conversations.
In additional to national media attention the National Conversation Drive touched over 1,000 consumers who attended the event, tried on the Senior Simulator Suit™ and pledged to have the conversation.
Judges felt Liberty Mutual was well positioned to drive this important conversation into the homes of families with aging seniors in such an experiential way. Although small in scale, judges gave kudos to the thoughtful execution of the campaign and saw potential for growth and expansion into the golden years ahead.
