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CASE STUDY

Allstate Insurance Company
Territorial Rate Cap Campaign

A major flaw in New Jersey's antiquated auto insurance law lay in its system of Territorial Rate Caps (lids limiting premiums charged city drivers to only 35 percent more than rates paid by suburban drivers). The caps were imposed although financial losses from accidents in urban areas were sometimes double or triple the amount of losses in suburban areas. With the introduction of auto insurance reform in 1997, Allstate saw an opportunity to abolish the rate-cap system and benefit the industry and consumers alike.

Aware that consumer education and grassroots mobilization were key to persuading legislators to eliminate rate caps, Winning Strategies designed and carried out a communications campaign that touched all kinds of media and interested most drivers and automobile owners. The campaign included:

An 800 telephone number and a web site. They were set up to provide information to consumers on current law on rate caps and the improvements promised by reform.
Meetings with the editorial boards of major New Jersey daily newspapers. The purpose was to educate their editorial writers and reporters covering the issue.
Opinion essays suitable for newspaper op-ed pages. The pieces carried the byline of Allstate's president and were prepared to enable the company to deliver its message directly to the public.
Exclusive information for The Star-Ledger. Winning Strategies developed information from Allstate outlining the reform legislation's impact on individual municipalities. It provided the information to the newspaper exclusively for use in a news story.
Ads, designed to raise public awareness, in newspapers and on radio and television.
Business people recruited to contact their state representatives in favor of repeal.

Opinion pieces and editorials supporting Allstate's position appeared in the Star-Ledger, the Home News Tribune of East Brunswick, the Camden Courier-Post, and the Courier News of Bridgewater. Every Assembly member contacted voted to repeal the subsidy, and the Territorial Rate Cap system was abolished in March 1998.