Geico Goes Cruising for Motorcyclists In Cyberspace
Networking Site Created to Hook Insurance Customers
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Monday, July 2, 2007
Think of it as a corporate MySpace for Moto Guzzis, or a Facebook for flatheads. (Harley flatheads, that is.)
Washington's Geico insurance company is turning to social networking to drum up business for its motorcycle policies.
Launched last month, MyGreatRides is a Geico-sponsored site on which users can post profiles and share pictures and stories of their motorcycles and their rides. The site also has a forum and a calendar of events.
Geico is not the only insurance company to try the user-content angle. Rival McGraw Insurance Services asks bikers to post photographs of their rides on its site.
Geico launched MyGreatRides at least partly to learn about its market. Companies increasingly are finding that social networks can provide valuable information on customers they want to reach. Geico would not say what percentage of its policyholders are motorcycle riders.
"If we can learn more about the needs of motorcycle riders and what kind of service they expect, we think it will help us with our current customers and potential ones," Kirk La, director of Geico's motorcycle products, wrote in an e-mail Friday.
Motorcycle riders have long had to pay far more for insurance than automobile drivers. Geico built its business on insuring safe drivers but now insures higher-risk drivers. That includes older motorcycle riders, the fastest-growing group of owners.
In 1985, the median age of U.S. motorcyclists was 27. By 2004, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council, the median age had risen to 41, as moneyed middle-agers entered the market.
Motorcycle accidents have risen with the age of riders. In 2005, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that the average age of riders killed in accidents has risen in the past 10 years.
The data show large increases in crash deaths of riders age 40 and older. Riders 50 and older accounted for the steepest climb in motorcycle fatalities in 2005 compared with the previous year, especially those riding large bikes, NHTSA reported.
Motorcycle deaths in 2006 were predicted to increase for the ninth straight year, according to preliminary data from NHTSA. The agency projected nearly 5,000 such deaths for the year.
None of this has discouraged motorcycle riding, it appears, based on sales of new bikes. Or Geico, for that matter.
