Great-West Financial

What began as a project to redesign Great-West Financial’s TED-Talk-style presentations, grew into a renewed strategic and visual direction for how the company marketed annuities. From presentations to white papers and brochures, Great-West Financial was now getting noticed at insurance conferences across the U.S.

Annuities are complicated. As an insurance product they are hard for wholesalers to sell and even harder for consumers to grasp. On average people are living longer and annuities provide a guaranteed income to people in and through retirement. Great-West Financial needed a new approach to this narrative and a visual language that would stand out in the “sea-of-sameness” insurance industry.

Using the base of the Great-West Financial brand guidelines, I created an evolved visual direction beginning with these presentations. The goal was to more simply explain the benefits of annuities making them easier for insurance professionals to sell in the marketplace. Overall, the client wanted the presentations to feel positive and approachable—a little lighter than your typical insurance company fare.

This presentation won “Best Presentation” at the Digiday Conference in 2016 and received tons of positive feedback.

This work, and the relationship we fostered with the client, lead to the creation of several digital products to further help sell annuities in the market.

A project that grew off the momentum of the new approach is the Your Guide to Making Great Referrals brochure. Working with a copywriter we created a fun, easy-to-use brochure that encourages bank tellers to make referrals to bank financial advisors in their everyday interactions with customers.