Nationwide Insurance strikes deal with talk show host Tavis Smiley

By Matt Burns
Business First
(April 11, 2008) Nationwide is on Tavis Smiley's side.

The Columbus-based insurer has signed a three-year sponsorship deal with Tavis Smiley Group Inc., the holding company whose namesake is the radio and television host. With the deal, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. will sponsor Smiley's nightly, 30-minute television program, a 2009 State of the Black Union event scheduled for next February in Los Angeles, and a five-city tour making its first stop in Columbus May 17.

Nationwide declined to disclose terms of the sponsorship deal.

Nationwide Chief Marketing Officer James Lyski said the company, which has sponsored a State of the Black Union event for Smiley in the past, was drawn to the deal primarily because of the host's heavy focus on empowerment and financial literacy, a key component of the tour that also will be hitting Raleigh, N.C.; Richmond, Va.; Atlanta; and Dallas later this year.

"Not just in the African-American (demographic) segment, but in all segments, many don't even understand which questions they should ask their financial adviser or insurance agent," Lyski said. "That thematic ... is what we're trying to drive here."

The agreement also marks the second marketing effort Nationwide has made this year to reach a black audience. The company in February signed a deal with New York-based movie-screen advertiser Screenvision to run 30-second spots and slides in its network of metropolitan areas with large black populations.

Lyski acknowledged the Screenvision agreement expanded the company's advertising reach outside other demographic areas it had previously targeted through the theater ads, but said a focus on black consumers is far from new - or in need of repair.

"This is not a segment we're new to," Lyski said. "We're quite strong in it, and we're just reinforcing that."

Nationwide Mutual holds two-thirds equity ownership in Nationwide Financial Services Inc. (NYSE:NFS), which in 2007 recorded a $626.8 million profit on $4.53 billion in revenue.


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