Insurance is a heavily advertised sector -- the top five financial services marketers are all insurance companies -- and Lisa Thomsen’s position puts her in the heart of this pitched battle.
As corporate VP, media buying and planning for New York Life, Thomsen is responsible for delivering multichannel campaigns driving customers to the life insurer’s agent force. And with rapid changes in consumer preferences and media consumption, she has driven transformation modernization within that section of the marketing organization that has helped improve the quality of New York Life’s outreach. The company has reported an 18% lift in lead volume and a 10% drop in cost per lead as a result of her work.
Thomsen’s previous stops in her career included American Express and HSBC, but she says that despite insurance’s reputation for lagging these other segments of financial services, there’s more similarities than differences between insurance, banking and credit.
“The fun thing about digital is that it's very similar everywhere,” she says. “It is such a quick, fast paced industry and we're all in it together. And that's what I really love: There is collaboration in the financial services and insurance sector and [we are] able to navigate these changes together, helping each other build and find new solutions.”
The COVID-19 pandemic required the marketing organization to re-evaluate its strategy from messaging to allocation. Thomsen says the challenge was a great opportunity to make the case for upgraded analytics and data capabilities so the company could respond quicker to audience shifts.
“Historically, as media buyers and planners, we've used past trends, we use data lines. Our past data may not be the best to inform what is happening now,” she explains. “What we realized, and what definitely pushed us, was that we had to be nimble. We have to be able to have access to and use real-time analytics for quick decisioning.
“Messages that resonate are ones of trust and devotion,” she continues. “We are a 176 year old company. And I think that that speaks volumes for someone who wants to put something so precious in our hands.”
Outside her day-to-day responsibilities, Thomsen is passionate about the value of mentorship between women in financial services. Her ascendance to New York Life’s organization was the culmination of a longtime relationship with Amy Hu, New York Life’s co-head of marketing who she credits with providing both personal encouragement and professional inspiration.
“[Amy] always was encouraging me to really define where I wanted to be next in my career and then help me understand the skills that I needed to get there, Thomsen says. “Even when we weren't working together, she was always someone to be able to bounce ideas off or kept me learning.”
Now, she says, she’s taking that experience and paying it forward, as she advances in her own career, by establishing similar relationships with other women.
“I recently just had a phone call with a gal that I've known for years and we've kept in contact. Every time she's preparing for a new interview, she's given me a call and that's so rewarding,” Thomsen says.
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Nominating executive: Amy Hu, co-head of marketing
What they said: "Lisa has demonstrated a strong ability to flex her management style towards the unique needs of her direct reports helping each of them develop and grow. Lisa has also demonstrated a strong growth mindset. She demonstrates a willingness to take intelligent risks in order to expand and deepen her expertise in the media space. She pushes herself to learn and get more fluent in areas where she is innately less familiar. She has excelled in enabling her team to function with stronger executional capabilities. Lisa has encouraged her team to think more strategically about how to leverage their channels in a more integrated way."
