Insurance Blog was gazing through some very old travel guides when we noticed that Insurance Marketing has come a long way since the start of Insurance….
This old advertisement for The London Assurance Company from the turn of 19th century suggests that insurance was something that you didn’t talk about in public – like money!
Good at what? Deal with What?
“Good Day Mister. I’m from London Assurance. We’ll deal with it for you! (Cockney Accent required)
An interesting thing about the advert is the Firemark in the centre depicting the coat of arms of the Corporation of the City of London, The George Cross.
Also notice the EC4 address which is still very much an Insurance area of the City.
For those of you who don’t know what a fire mark is, a Firemark was a plaque that was placed on the exterior of a property in full public view to indicate to the privately owned fire brigades that the house was covered by home insurance and was worth saving.
If you didn’t have a firemark on your wall and your house caught fire – then it burnt!
Fortunately the days of proving you’ve got home insurance before the Fire Brigade will start putting out the fire, are long gone. Fire Marks though now very collectable, were the very first form of Insurance Marketing and advertising.
By the 1920′s advertising for Home Insurance and property insurance had moved on with the emphasis on courtesy, service and prompt settlement as this fascinating advert from the still existing Eagle Star Company, now part of the Zurich group demonstrates.
I wonder how many of those words prompt settlement and service, you’ll see on price driven television insurance adverts or the Internet insurance marketing campaigns of today!
Source: www.insuranceblog.co.uk
