Learn how we turned murder and mayhem into one of the most entertaining and successful sales contests in the insurance industry

2. Sales Promotion What happens when a marketer with an overactive imagination meets a supportive boss and a big budget? Murder, of course.

3. Creative Challenge In 1987, E. F. Hutton Life faced one of its biggest challenges: It had been sold to a virtually unknown holding company in Los Angeles and would soon be going through a major rebranding. Would the more than 10,000 Hutton brokers and independent insurance agents who cherished the Hutton brand stay loyal during the year of transition? Or would they abandon ship, taking their sales with them?

4. Making a Killing in the Insurance Business My creative solution: turning our year-long sales convention into a 12-installment interactive mystery game, with the solution playing out on location in the lovely Swiss town of Montreux, on Lake Geneva. Targeted as much at the sales force’s spouses as at themselves, the murderous campaign turned into a major success, helping to boost sales by 30 percent and encouraging agent and broker retention during a tumultuous time. Here’s how I made a killing in the insurance business.

5. Elements of the initial sales kit sent to sales force . . .

6. Needless to say, promotion was inventive . . .

7. The contest rules explained . . .

8. Monthly evidence “caches” kept the story unfolding with installments of clues, including correspondence, police documents, photos and press clippings . . .

10. Press You’d expect murder to make headlines, right? And that’s exactly what happened, with Murder in Montreux garnering positive new coverage both within the U.S. and internationally in publications ranging from daily newspapers to trade publications, even in-flight magazines. The impact of this publicity went well beyond the puffed up egos of the creative team. It helped increase brand awareness of the newly christened company, First Capital Life, and paved the way for future success in agent recruitment and consumer sales.

12. Awards Best in Show, Sales Promotion Life Communicators Association Award of Excellence International Association of Business Communicators Award of Excellence American Marketing Association

13. The Creative Team Creative Director, Program Designer, and Copywriter Cathy Chaney Marketing Communications Director E. F. Hutton Life, La Jolla, California Design Scott Briedenthal Briedenthal Design, Del Mar, California Photography David Friend San Diego, California