Keep watching – those mysterious thought balloons will get filled in

Tom Taylor knows what will happen as soon as he tells you what he does for a living. You’ll nod off.

“Insurance is kind of a dry subject,” acknowledged Taylor, a Tacoma insurance broker. “There’s death, taxes and insurance.”

And there’s you and me snoring.

So when Tom Taylor Insurance Brokers, after 73 years, decided to rebrand and rename itself, the company opted for humor to get our attention – and keep us awake.

You might have seen the mysterious yellow billboards around Tacoma with the blank comic-strip-like “thought bubble” and the simple instructions – “send us your famous last words: www.ttib.net.”

If you saw the billboards, I’ll bet your mind started spitting out ideas. Just like mine. How about:

 • Do you think this will break if I jump on it?

 • Give me liberty or give me death. Hey, wait! I thought you’d give me lib …

“We wanted to do something outside that vein” of boring insurance, Taylor said. “We wanted something with levity. Something fun and something that would get people to laugh a bit.”

Because, most often, insurance isn’t a laughing matter.

Perhaps only Geico, with its offbeat talking gecko and its so-easy-a-caveman-could-do-it commercials, understands how to break through the competitive clutter of big-time insurance companies with humor.

But Taylor doesn’t run a national insurance company with his own products to sell. As a brokerage, his company scours the products from multiple companies to match them to whatever insurance needs you have.

And the company founded by his father, Tom Taylor Sr., isn’t a one-man show as the corporate moniker suggests.

So starting this week, the company will be called Taylor-Thomason Insurance Brokers, which reflects the 20-year part ownership of Steve Thomason in a 12-person office.

“It’s part of our rebranding to reflect that we are growing,” Thomason said. “The agency started in 1937, and we’ve been kind of that agency that’s growing gradually, like the turtle – stable and very solid. We’ve got more expertise and are in tune with the times so we can provide service to larger businesses, not just individuals and small businesses.”

Just as the economic downturn has changed many industries, Thomason said the insurance industry has had to evolve too.

For Taylor-Thomason Insurance, brokers find themselves hiring out as consultants and advisers rather than pure salespeople.

“Some of our clients are diversifying their businesses into new activities as they look for other sources of revenue, and they’re getting into areas that they may not have the proper coverage for,” he said.

Like a grocery store deciding to open a fireworks stand for the Fourth of July.

Are you getting bored yet? Would you rather think about famous last words? Me too.

Kurt Jacobson, president of JayRay, the Tacoma firm hired to help Taylor-Thomason spread the word about its name change, said the “famous last words” campaign makes people think.

“Insurance is one of these low-interest categories,” Jacobson said. “The real key is, before people think about talking to Taylor-Thomason, we have to get them to think about their risks and that there’s a reason you should have insurance.”

So starting this week, those blank billboard thought bubbles will start to get filled with sayings. Some examples you’ll see:

 • I’m sure we thought of everything.

 • What’s this button do?

 • 325 days without an accident.

 • He’s our most trusted employee.

“The first billboards were just to tease people, to prime the pump,” Jacobson said.

The campaign also could eventually include some famous last words submitted via www.ttib.net by folks like you and me.

Taylor-Thomason already has received more than 20 submissions. Maybe you can come up with something better than: “Pull the pin and count to what?”

Dan Voelpel: 253-597-8785

dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com