1 Brainshark for Financial Services Introduction Banking, insurance, securities and investment firms face unique business challenges. In this highly regulated and fast changing environment, they must continuously inform and educate diverse constituents, as well as provide accurate reporting to ensure compliance. The organizations that communicate most effectively reduce risk, save money and gain significant competitive advantages. Financial services companies rely on Brainshark as their as easy-to-use video presentation solution that delivers in-depth viewer reporting. As you ll find from the success stories inside, written exclusively by customers, they ve not only solved their training and compliance challenges with Brainshark, but have also improved their marketing results, wholesaler communications, sales effectiveness and internal communications. We hope you enjoy reading Brainshark for Financial Services!
Large Insurance Firm Quickly Responds to New Compliance Regulations Brainshark for Financial Services 2 Associate Compliance Officer, Large Insurance Firm When the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) modeled regulations to require agents who sell annuity products to complete product-specific training, they recognized that tracking those requirements, in today s smaller government environment, would make it difficult for states to add the infrastructure necessary to accomplish that task. Brainshark s reporting tools made this easy. The solution? Require insurers to track this training. Never mind that training requirements have traditionally been tied to insurance licenses, which are tracked by the state issuing the license. This meant that insurers who sell annuities have been scrambling to create a solution that allows them to comply with the new regulations, by tracking the training. My company already uses Brainshark to provide sales information, so using the same platform to provide the required training seemed to be a natural choice. With compliance rules, we needed the ability not only to track who completes the training, but also to quickly access the roster information to verify that an agent has completed the training as soon as we receive an application. Brainshark s reporting tools made this easy - we just downloaded an up-to-date roster of all those who completed the training, saved it as a searchable Adobe file and distributed the file daily to all the employees who needed to verify training completion. Brainshark made it easy to load the presentation, and the quick reporting tools made the process very easy!
3 Brainshark for Financial Services Franklin Templeton Doubles the Reach of Their Marketing Campaign Dan Rhyasen, Marketing Manager, Franklin Templeton Investments Based on a torrent of feedback from these advisors, we created a version they could share with their clients. We have summarized the results of a survey we conducted on investor s perceptions of the market, encouraging advisors and investors to consider equity investments. It supported our firm s primary marketing campaign entitled 2020 Vision: The Case for Equities in the Decade Ahead. It was originally released to our financial advisor customers and had almost 13,000 views. Based on a torrent of feedback from these advisors, we created a version they could share with their clients (mutual fund investors). This second distribution contributed to an additional 15,700 views. Despite our exclusively U.S. distribution list, the presentation has now been seen in 65 countries around the globe (thanks to the View Country reporting function on Brainshark). In addition, we ve made copies of the downloaded presentation for multiple advisors who wanted to play it as part of a seminar. One advisor even has it playing on a TV in the lobby of the bank where they work. Based on the success of this survey and Brainshark, Franklin Templeton is conducting another survey this year, but now we re expanding it to incorporate 12 countries so we can compare results between countries.
GMAC Insurance Improves Email Marketing Results Brainshark for Financial Services 4 Kevin Fuschich, Marketing Specialist, GMAC Insurance My company uses Brainshark all the time as an educational, how-to, and marketing platform. Recently, we created a marketing campaign that integrated email, a Brainshark presentation and a webinar series directed at independent insurance agents and brokers. The emails drove recipients to watch the Brainshark presentation that offered educational information that many agents and brokers may not have been familiar with. We integrated a secret word and asked people to email it to us, capturing email addresses from prospects while gauging the effectiveness of the campaign. At the end, prospects were invited to sign up for a webinar. With a Brainshark url, we were able to integrate the sign-up page directly within the Brainshark presentation itself. That way, viewers could simply fill out their info and sign up for a webinar without ever having to leave the Brainshark module. Essentially, the Brainshark presentation served as a teaser for the webinars we held. By creating a clear and concise email campaign that drove users to the Brainshark video using a thumbnail of the Brainshark presentation with a play button, we saw a 28 percent click-through rate for the Brainshark presentation alone. That s around 8 percent higher than the industry standard for email campaign click-throughs. We saw direct increases in business from those who clicked through to the Brainshark presentation and an even greater increase from those agents and brokers who watched the entire Brainshark presentation from start to finish. Each email recipient could also click directly to the webinar sign-up, but the vast majority of recipients who clicked through, did so to the Brainshark presentation. We saw direct increases in business from those who clicked through to the Brainshark presentation. Creating Brainshark presentations is giving us the capability to create dynamic, revenue-generating marketing campaigns as well as clear educational modules that we use internally and externally to break down the complexities of the industry we re in.
5 Brainshark for Financial Services Securities America Drives Sales and Marketing Effectiveness Cory Peters, Sr. Specialist, Marketing Design, Securities America, Inc. Brainshark has been an invaluable tool in supporting my company s growth efforts. Securities America is an independent Broker/Dealer, and the product we sell is ourselves. Our target audience is financial advisors; our goal is recruiting them to utilize us as their Broker/Dealer. Due to the competitive nature of our industry, a personal connection with our target audience helps make the sale. With Brainshark, I ve been able to create customizable follow-up messaging that my sales team can use with prospects. When they are talking on the phone, ultimately there will be one or two particular items of importance for the prospective financial advisor hot buttons if you will. The library of topic-specific messages can be used by our salesperson to send each prospect a thanks for your time email with one or more links to presentations targeting the content that is of interest to each individual prospect. It then allows the sales person to track the open/view stats, which in turn gives them a barometer of interest. Brainshark enables me to save time and money by concentrating marketing efforts in the right areas. I ve also created a large library of product demonstrations that prospects can view via a link on our website. Brainshark enables me to track user views of these demonstrations so that I can determine which products are of interest and which are not, enabling me to save time and money by concentrating marketing efforts in the right areas. I would also like to praise Brainshark s Help/Support team. On multiple occasions I ve been able to conveniently utilize the online chat function, which has been invaluable. Easy, quick and effective, this type of tech support has allowed me to better understand the parameters of what I m able to accomplish; when I ve hit a snag, they ve provided workaround ideas and links to educational documents. I am so pleased with the support they provide. Thanks Brainshark!
Protective Life Insurance Provides Customizable Marketing Campaigns for Their Wholesalers Brainshark for Financial Services 6 Erin Brown, Marketing Consultant, Protective Life Insurance Company My company uses Brainshark presentations in several ways, but one of the easiest, most effective ways we use them is for our new wholesalers to introduce themselves to their territory via email. It s a great way for our wholesalers to add a personal touch that will resonate with the advisor, more so than just a generic introductory video. In our industry, this is so important because a good wholesaler-advisor relationship is essential to doing business. To do this, we set up a template, have the wholesaler call in to record their audio, and then send their link in an email. In one example, a wholesaler experienced over a 30% open rate and 10% click-through rate on the email stats that are much higher than what we see on average for our other email communications. In working for a highly regulated industry and with many financial services companies behind the curve on some electronic initiatives, this has been an easy and cost-effective way for us to introduce multimedia presentations to our distribution and help legitimize our brand. We re often working limited resources and with a lean staff to execute campaigns, and Brainshark has given us the tools to create multi-media presentations without involving an expensive outside vendor. This has been an easy and cost-effective way for us to introduce multimedia presentations to our distribution and help legitimize our brand.
7 Brainshark for Financial Services Bostonian Group Makes it Easy for Clients to Communicate Benefit Information Robert Daley, Vice President of Sales, Bostonian Group My company, Bostonian Group, added Brainshark to our toolbox late last year. Like lots of other shiny new toys that are dusted off and introduced to our company, many that never gain traction or deliver what is promised, Brainshark was met with a healthy dose of skepticism. So our new present sat in its box like an ill-conceived fitness product or a new fangled vacuum purchased in the wee hours while watching an infomercial. Fortunately, we had the Brainshark team leaning on us to get trained in using our new asset, so we became more and more comfortable with the technology. We started to imagine scenarios that would benefit our customers and we started talking to them about those solutions. And suddenly a funny thing happened on the way to the market, our clients not only liked the Brainshark idea but they WANTED it! Some clients used key executives to voice the presentations allowing for the presentations to take on the look, feel, and fabric of the organization. Brainshark presentations allowed our customers to communicate their benefit platforms to their employees in a customized fashion. Some of our innovative and creative clients used key executives to voice the presentations allowing for the presentations to take on the look, feel, and fabric of the organization. Further, one of the best facets of our presentations was that they could be shared with spouses and significant others so that nothing was lost in translation regarding changes that may have occurred in each firm s employee benefit platform. Clients with multiple locations now had a simple method to create and share information. The bottom line is that our new tool Brainshark proved to be a tremendous asset throughout the course of the year. The more we use it, the more ways we find to make it a more valuable part of our service delivery model. As someone whose responsibility it is to sell our services to new and existing clients, I find this tool a game changer! It turns the burden of communicating to employees into a welcome opportunity. The presentations are easily created and modified to meet differing subject matters. I can t imagine life without it!
BNY Mellon s HR Programs Gain Impact and Reach Brainshark for Financial Services 8 Nicole Young, Webmaster, BNY Mellon Using Brainshark has enabled us to reach a wider audience in a more sophisticated manner. Brainshark has assisted us with revitalizing one of our internal recognition programs. To acknowledge the teamwork and effort that go into winning new business, we create a Brainshark presentation. A senior manager, the relationship officer, and product manager involved in the deal tell the story and recognize other team members. The Brainshark link is distributed throughout our department. The majority of viewers also appreciated putting a face with names of fellow employees that they have not met in person. Previously, the recognition was handled by hanging posters on the wall. Using Brainshark has enabled us to reach a wider audience in a more sophisticated manner. Every year our department hosts several children for Take Your Sons & Daughters to Work Day. For the last two years, we ve used Brainshark as an interactive activity. We teach the children how Brainshark works and briefly interview each child individually. The children get to experience using real-world technology that their parents use and the parents receive a link at the end of the day which includes the kids comments.
9 Brainshark for Financial Services For more information: www.brainshark.com Toll Free: 866-276-7427 Brainshark, Inc. 130 Turner Street Building 1, Suite 100 Waltham, MA 02453 (781) 370-8000 2012, Brainshark, Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks belong to their respective companies