Setting A New Standard
A friend who works in finance is responsible for, among other things, liability insurance for the board of directors.
Insurance companies come in and make presentations all the time, hunting for his business.
The corporate insurance business has, until recently, been less about marketing and more about personal connections and lunches.
Then a couple of years ago, one of the companies hit on the idea of calling their top customers Gold Clients. They were pretty excited about this breakthrough, and came around and presented my friend with a special gold-printed folder holding documents that told him how important he was.
The marketing floodgates had opened.
Within a year, a competing insurance company came around and made a presentation. They were proud to announce that he had been made - you guessed it - a Platinum Client.
That’s the end of that, he thought. Nothing trumps platinum.
Last week, the Gold Client people did their new presentation. They had a special surprise for my friend.
They had upgraded him to a Palladium Policy.
“What the f*** is palladium?” asked the CEO after they’d left.
Good question. It’s a white metal that sits just near platinum on the periodic table, used in jewellery and various industrial processes. Where this Zimbabwean-grade status inflation will end is anybody’s guess. Beryllium?
For this, they get inducted into our “Infinity Plus One” Hall of Fame for goofy presentation over-promising.
Tags: Gold, Palladium, Platinum, Presentations
Ian Whitworth believes passionately in the power of live communication, without the buzzwords and bullet points. He works as a creative director and principal of agency A Lizard Drinking. He is also one of the founders of audiovisual company Scene Change. Ian is an ex-professional presenter and long ago, ex-audiovisual technician. For non-presentation stuff, try @ianwhitworth. 
