The CIO perspective and adoption of social media by French insurers

On the 19th of May, Celent has organized an event in Paris whose objective was to discuss about the French insurers CIO perspectives for 2011 and adoption of social media. As the first speaker I presented the results of our 2011 French CIO report. Interestingly, almost one-third of French insurers are considering investment in social networks. Even though French insurers still need to sort out how they can leverage social networks, this is a clear sign demonstrating that value can be generated from data gathering from and customer interactions through social networks.

Generali France confirmed interests from French insurers in social media in the frame of a presentation underlining various initiatives launched recently. Among others, Generali France is tightly engaged in www.generation-responsable.com, an internet website based on the social network model to federate initiatives. In addition, Generali has created and been maintaining its own Twitter account for a while now and developed a very interesting social network concept called Kontsurnous. Finally, Generali France also explained how they’ve nurtured a culture of innovation within their company leveraging a LinkedIn group dedicated to Generali employees.

In the frame of the third presentation Google France explained their view on what they call the new consumer and its consequences for French insurers’ marketing strategy. Without surprise, mobility, participation, collaboration, openness represent important elements insurers need to consider when implementing new customer communication strategies.

The last part of the event was a panel discussion and a Q&A session around the different topics discussed. Plenty of ideas and interesting thoughts emerged from the panel discussion and I am already looking forward to discovering future initiatives from French insurance companies. If you want to know more about the event you can Craig Beattie’s Twitter account.