Alexander Jotkowitz y Catherine Hernandez Blades
Throughout the CMO & Diversity Summit at Hispanicize 2018, Aflac, together with its public relations consulting firm Hill+Knowlton Strategies, presented the insurance company’s successful use of storytelling as a superior form of communications and its importance in connecting brands with consumers. Catherine Blades, senior VP and chief brand and communications officer at Aflac, described the latest marketing strategy that has turned the insurance brand into a digital success story. Aflac turned to robotics to bring its beloved quacking duck to life for the first time, as a way of supporting the recovery of children with cancer. On its chest, the robotic Aflac duck has a round sensor and a light that allows children to use a “feelings card” to change the duck’s mood and behavior. “We drifted away from the traditional advertising spot and started to generate in-person connections through a doll known as My Special Aflac Duck. Hernandez-Blades said that years of data were used to develop the quacker’s innovative technology and from there, deliver relevant and authentic messages. “The key is in the variety of stories – we mustn’t depend on a single element,” she said.
