While attending the Chicago Rock 'N' Roll HalfMarathon in July, I noticed that several insurance companies hadexhibits at the runner's expo held before the race. The expos arelike little conventions where you can check out all kinds ofrunning gear and supplies, but the insurers were on hand mainly toraise their own brand awareness. Humana did it by sponsoring therun itself—a good move, since healthy runners are an ideal book ofbusiness for any self-respecting health insurer. Transamerica wasalso in the house, another solid move since what goes for healthinsurers also goes for life insurers: The longer you live, thehappier they tend to be.

GEICO was also exhibiting, and it had on hand a fellow dressedin a big mascot suit as the GEICO gecko. The problem with this isthat the animated gecko you see on TV has a weird kind ofexpressiveness to him that humanizes him. The guy in the gecko suithad two massive, grey-alien style orbs for eyes, and all it did wascreep my kids out. When the gecko playfully put his hands over theeyes of my 13-year-old daughter, she came close to showing Mr.Gecko exactly why she is only a few classes away from earning hermixed martial arts black belt. I felt kind of bad for the Gecko,though, since just two years before, my kids were at a differentRock 'N' Roll running expo and Brooks shoes had a guy dressed as aJesus lizard, who was running back and forth across a pool ofnon-Newtonian fluid to simulate running across water. Somehow mykids found him to be awesome, but the Gecko tripped thecreep-o-meter. Some times you just can't catch a break.

But the best insurer on display was Travelers, which got youinto its exhibit by offering a terrific free service—runnertracking. Runner tracking is where you input your phone number andthe name of a registered runner and you get text updates as therunner progresses along the course. It's wonderful for spectatorswho want to intercept friends and family along the route so theycan cheer them on as they pass. It also tends to cost a few bucks,but Travelers was giving it away for free. Not only that, but theyhooked up my son, who was only watching the race, with updates frommyself, my wife and my daughter. How cool is that?

But where Travelers really earned my respect is with the bigdriving video simulator they also had in their booth. You begindriving the simulator with a smartphone in hand, and at randompoints, a “TEXT” message flashes on the corner of the screen. Whilemaintaining your speed, you have to answer the text right away. Mydaughter tried the game and immediately crashed into another carstopped at a red light, but was going fast enough to blow throughthe light, too. Her game ended with a police pullover and, oneimagines, one very unhappy talking-to from her parents. It wasamazing to see how totally she focused on the text and not thewheel, as did adults who played the same game after her. The gamegives players an opportunity to Facebook their results, as well asto sign a pledge not to text and drive.

Now this is how you do insurance marketing, people. There werekids lined up to play this thing, and more than a few (my daughterincluded) walked away with a valuable lesson in mind. And while itmight be too optimistic to hope that this is the only auto crashthese kids will ever have to walk away from, the fact is, Travelersprobably helped prevent a few accidents from ever happening. Andfor that, they deserve special praise. Well done, Travelers! Andthanks.