While most insurance agencies focus on marketing and brandingits identity through social media and community service, theInsurance Office of America(IOA), Longwood, Fla., also uses a different form of marketingthrough a partnership with professional sports teams. As theofficial broker for the Orlando Magic, Oakland Raiders,Jacksonville Jaguars, New Jersey Devils and Michael Waltrip Racing,IOA increases its brand awareness beyond what would be possiblethrough normal means.

Read February's Agency Success story, “New Beginning, Bright Future at Goodman.”

“Partnering with sports teams helps us brand IOA in areas wherewe have offices,” said Heath Ritenour, CEO, IOA. “It has helped usgain notoriety in markets that we haven't been in for many years.For example, we are the official insurance provider of the OaklandRaiders. That has helped our agents in California get somenotoriety that they otherwise wouldn't have since IOA has only beendoing business in California for less than 5 years.” He added, Thetickets aren't bad, either.”

TheOrlando Magic approached Ritenour and his father about 10 years agoto be the basketball team's insurance provider. The relationshipwent so well, IOA decided to expand this program into othercommunities where the brokerage had operations. After finalizingits second sports deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars footballfranchise, other teams began to contact IOA for coverage.

IOA developed an in-house department that specializes inprofessional sports teams. This unit has created a program thatuses top-rated companies and enhanced client services to create anoffering that meets the needs of its professional sports teamclients. The agency also negotiates a branding sponsorship with theteams if it has offices in the area. These sponsorships haveaccelerated the normal pace of brand awareness. What used to takeyears to develop is now accomplished over the course of aseason.

IOA also gives back to the communities it serves and it supportsvarious local and national non-profit organizations through the IOAFoundation. For more than 15 years, IOA has supported the Corporate5K event that benefits Track Shack Foundation, an organization thatpromotes health and fitness by funding youth athletics and sportsprograms. More than $55,000 was donated through race proceeds lastyear.

“We realized a few years ago when the economy took a drasticturn that we had a lot of our own IOA family who were struggling tomake ends meet, so we started the IOA Helping Hands Fund,” Ritenoursaid. “IOA donates to this fund, along with the agent contributionsthat are there when one of our family members is in need.”

The fund provides IOA's employees assistance with financialmatters or basic needs like food, emergency car repairs, electricbills or diapers. An office in the headquarters is used as a pantryfor employees to gather some of these essential items at no cost.These activities are coordinated by the Helping Hands committee,not management, so the employee is able to get the assistance theyneed confidentially.

“Mom and pop” agency

IOA handles more than $1 billion in premium with annual revenuesof about $80 million. Roughly 90 percent of that volume iscommercial lines and 10 percent is personal lines. IOA has 23offices with locations from coast to coast. This size has not comeovernight and for the most part it has been built the hard way, oneagent at a time, one client at a time, Ritenour said.

Heath's parents, John and Valli Ritenour, founded IOA in January1988. The family started the agency with simple principles ofserving clients fairly, providing producers with equity in theirbooks of business and paying a generous commission. The Ritenourshad hopes of being a local success in Orlando, but had no idea thatthese principles would take their agency to the national level ithas achieved today.

Heath Ritenour worked at IOA on summer breaks as a student andbegan his full-time insurance career straight out of college,“Insurance is in my blood, as both of my parents were in thebusiness since their early 20s,” he said.

The agency recruits seasoned producers through a generouscommission split, equity in their books of business and theopportunity to own stock in the company. “Ownership is the firsttool that helps IOA provide a culture of caring and longevityamongst the IOA family,” Ritenour said. IOA's producers earn theright to purchase shares based on production.

About 5 years ago, realizing the agency was heavy with producerson the verge of retirement, IOA management made a consciousdecision to bring in some of the best college-aged agents to ensurea second generation waiting to take over. This influx of new talentwill ensure that IOA will continue to be in a position to provideits clients with the best possible insurance programs forgenerations to come.

Servicing clients

IOA's partnership mentality goes beyond its agents and sportsteams. The agency provides its 645 staff members with the toolsthey need to better service the agency's clients. For example, IOAprovides in-house claim adjusters (not representatives) who workwith its carrier partners on the clients' behalf and has alsodeveloped special programs for specific industries ranging fromcatastrophe exposed property, architects and engineers,manufacturing, construction, aviation and transportation.

IOA also developed services that are not traditionallyassociated with insurance agencies, such as HR software and helplines to many of its clients. This is beneficial because many ofits clients have had to trim HR departments during the recessionand/or have one person juggling multiple tasks. IOA clients can askexperts HR-related questions to ensure they keep theirorganizations in compliance with various rules and regulations.

“We strive to offer value to clients as their trusted advisors,”Ritenour said. “We believe our value proposition is second to nonein the industry, and we are always looking for ways to improve whatwe offer our clients.” As an independent agency, IOA offers itsclients free services and tools that many competitors chargefor.

To deal with the ongoing soft market, IOA works with its partnercarriers to guarantee that it has the best programs for itsclients. Beyond providing insurance, IOA works diligently to makesure that clients acknowledge value in services beyond the salestransaction.

IOA understands that to beat competitors, it has to sellmore—and to sell more, it has to offer value to its clients. Forexample, healthcare clients have access to an array of servicesthrough Hewitt & Assocs. that are typically only available tocompanies with more than 4,000 employees. IOA offers these servicesto clients with more than 25 employees, providing middle-marketclients with some of the same benefits that national companies canoffer.

An example of IOA's ability to provide outstanding customerservice occurred a few years ago when its headquarters were exposedto a chaotic hurricane season. While most other agencies had toshut down, IOA helped with claims and stayed opened due to thediesel generator it has behind the office. The storms created alarge volume of calls, so they were able to reroute calls tooffices that were not affected by the storms. This gave theirclients the ability to talk to someone who could answer theirquestions and process their claims much faster than would have beenpossible otherwise.

“We also will continue to work with our current agent's toimprove the services they can offer their clients,” Ritenoursaid.

Still growing

Even though IOA is the largest privately held independent agencyin Florida and one of the top 10 privately held in the U.S., theagency still has aggressive growth plans. The firm has begun totarget acquisitions in all areas of insurance including property-casualty, benefits and personal lines. IOA has not typically grownthrough acquisition, but Ritenour feels the time is right for thefirm to explore these options.

Ritenour believes that other agencies can find success like IOAif they keep three things in mind: remove greed from the structureof the agency, provide ownership to employees and to offer valueover and above price to customers.