Sam Friedman recently generated a lot of controversy in NUP and on his blog (http://nusamsoapbox.com/2009/05/27/time-for-some-tough-love-on-industrys-image/) about the insurance industry’s traditionally lousy image and what can be done about it (even Bob Hunter weighed in — I’m jealous!).

On the same topic, I’d like to comment on the recent State Farm ads (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PMwTwY7SUs) now airing on TV. I almost never watch commercials since the advent of TiVo, but the latest one grabbed me and didn’t let go.

To the strains of the Jackson Five classic “I’ll Be There,” the 90-second spot shows real (albeit staged) images of what insurance is all about: hurricane victims crying in front of home wreckage, women on a breast cancer walk, a female soldier returning home to her young son, a Habitat for Humanity group raising a house, old folks caring for one another. It ends with the simple words on the screen, “Nothing’s more important than being there.”

Apparently I’m not alone: read some of the comments under the YouTube clip to see that along with the usual cynicism, many people were actually moved by this piece of advertising.

I know the insurance industry’s image revolves around a lot more than paid advertising — and that direct writers are the the Great Satan — but this ad campaign speaks to what insurance is really about, underplaying the price issue and playing up the importance of a real, live agent who’s on the scene when you need them.

I’ve always maintained that catastrophes are the true proving ground for agents to not only justify their existence, but to establish some bragging rights about the important work they do for their customers.

Hurricane season is coming up. Image enhancement, anyone?

As I’m writing this from drizzly and overcast Chicago, Hurricane Ike is bearing down on the Texas panhandle, predicted to strike late tonight and Saturday morning. In Galveston, which is at the epicenter of the approaching storm, half the island is already under water.

Garry Kaufman, president of Galveston Insurance Associates, took a moment to speak with me this morning about what his firm is doing to get out of harm’s way and prepare for the influx of claims (the agency is about evenly split between commercial property/casualty insurance and commercial lines).

 ”The office is secure, the employees are gone, and management and staff have gone 100 miles inland to set up shop,” he said.

Garry closed up his office yesterday and as of about noon, the agency had all its servers and computers on a trailer headed to College Station, Tex., 130 miles north of Galveston. “We rent server space at a housing facility, where we have 10 work stations and our management staff checked into a hotel there.” This means that the agency’s phones and Internet service will be working when his customers start calling with claims.

Garry himself plans to ride out the storm from his home 30 miles north of the city, where he will be able to process claims manually if needed. “I was going to stay on the island, but as bad as it’s flooding now, I didn’t want to get stranded,” he said. However, his office is ready with generators so the agency will be able to service its clients whether or not power is out.

Although the severity of the situation is similar to 2005, when Hurricane Rita struck, the area seems better prepared to handle evacuations this time. ”For Rita, I stayed in  Galveston, but my folks evacuated, and it was a nightmare,” he recalls. “This time, Galveston and Houston have done a great job and the highways are wide open.”

Garry’s agency has had a solid disaster plan in place for a long time, subscribing to Agility Recovery Solutions,  a nationwide company specializing in disaster recovery. The service can provide them with a double-wide trailer with 40 workstations if the office is destroyed, or assistance with generators and computers if damage is less severe.

Garry has nothing but praise for Fidelity National Insurance Co. and the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, both of which do an excellent job in handling claims and having adjusters on the ground quickly after disaster strikes. “I wish I could say something nice about the big carriers, but they’ve all stopped writing windstorm and flood coverage in my area,” he adds.

When I compliment him on his disaster preparedness, Garry shrugs it off. “We can’t afford to be complacent. If our customers didn’t count on us, we could be, but we’ve got too many folks depending on us. We’ve been around since 1892, and we know we’ve got to do everything we can to help our customers. Most residents will have a flood claim, and our phone will start ringing the minute this is over.”

When catastrophe strikes, agents who respond quickly to their stricken customers get a chance to look like heroes. But when it’s the agency that’s been hit, who can an agent look to for a hero? 

In Louisiana, a good candidate is David Bulloch — better known as  “Moose” — a territorial manager for Bankers Insurance.

Based in Covington, La., 40 miles north of New Orleans, Moose has relationships with 105 agents throughout Louisiana — from jumbo brokerages to mom-and-pop operations. Like all insurer reps, his typical day consists of talking to his agents about marketing, what the competitors are up to, and how to sell more coverage. But when a cat strikes, Moose’s days are anything but typical.

Since Hurricane Gustav made landfall, almost all of Moose’s time has been split between helping about 20 agents in hard-hit areas like Baton Rouge, Houma and Thibodeau. These agents have lost “their buildings, homes and roofs,” he said.

A typical day for Moose now involves stocking up his car with fuel for generators, food, water, office supplies, changes of clothes, or whatever else they might need. ”I just went to the grocery store and bought ham, cheese and bread, and I’m waiting on a shipment of wireless cards to give to agents who don’t have power,” he said.

Of course, these agents have customers with problems of their own, and claims that need to be processed. Many areas still don’t have power, so they’re doing their jobs however they can, with generators, cell phones and laptops, putting in 15-hour days. Moose helps out by filing customer claims himself, if the agency is operating in survival mode.

Since he’s been at this for more than 10 years, Moose has seen it all. Many of his agents were wiped out in Katrina. Other agents in the area who escaped heavy damage let the agent use their offices to contact clients, hook up a computer and do business. For this agent and others struck by Katrina, things didn’t get back to normal for at least six months afterward.

And with Hurricane Ike and other storms still lurking in the wings, Moose knows he could still have a lot of non-typical work ahead of him. ”I never evacuate, just stay with friends and wait for the storm to pass through,” he said. “I have two suitcases packed — one with business clothes in case I have a meeting, the other with T-shirts and stuff that can get dirty.”

It’s all a part of doing business in Louisiana.