Nationwide: A Legacy Client Targets Another Market

Nationwide Pet Insurance and Access have been partners since 2011. During this time, Nationwide’s exhibits have become a must-see destination for attendees at veterinary medical shows.

However, Nationwide Pet Insurance also targets another market: human resource/benefit managers. As the workforce evolves, employees are seeking new options to address their insurance needs. And one of those solutions is pet insurance. Nationwide is at the forefront of filling that piece in the typical benefits package. To continue the opportunity to promote itself in this market, Nationwide exhibited at the annual meeting of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

At a show where attendees are concerned with issues like labor regulations, workplace safety, DEI initiatives, immigration, and employee rights, Nationwide’s exhibit not only was helpful but also brought an element of fun to the show floor.

The Experience

The attendees’ journey began with catering—street tacos, reflecting the event’s city—which gave the salespeople great opportunities to engage with the visitors. Two check-in desks provided visitors with a place to ask questions or be directed to an activity or rep conversation. There were various giveaways like collapsible water bowls and battery-powered fans, depending on the activity.

To promote further engagement, we designed a “Give Your Dog A Bone” game played with a Wii remote. People had three tries to “throw” the bone on the screen, where a “dog” had three tries to catch it. After that, the dog would scratch, bark, drink water, and be playful. The “prize” was a Kong bone to relate to the game being played.

There was a central dog bone tower for storage, and it featured two fun images of dogs playing on each side.

Thanks to hydraulics, the roof panels of the mini doghouse opened and stayed open as necessary. Additionally, there were two swinging door panels, making this mini structure a great storage resource for the game giveaway items.

On both sides of the doghouse was a lenticular graphic that featured a dog looking directly at and then visually following the visitor as they continued their journey.

Our metrics indicated that Nationwide had a very high awareness score (100), and the average visitor stayed for twenty minutes, since learning about a new benefits offering generated implementation questions. Fifty-five percent of the walk-in traffic stayed for a more in-depth engagement.

We also found that using exhibit elements familiar to the veterinary audience obviously transitioned very well to the human resources market.