Esurance Premieres Star Trek-themed Site

Direct-to-consumer carrier partners with Paramount Pictures to promote new Star Trek film to be released May 2009.

Direct auto insurance carrier Esurance (San Francisco; a subsidiary of Bermuda-based White Mountains Insurance Group) has launched a Star Trek-themed microsite as part of the insurer's partnership with Paramount Pictures. The site promotes the studio's new "Star Trek," which is due to be released May 8. Visitors to www.esurance.com/StarTrek can view exclusive content about the upcoming "Star Trek" movie, gain access to novelty downloads, enter a contest for a chance to win a trip to the movie's premiere, among other prizes, according to an Esurance source.

The media-based partnership builds on Esurance's novel use of Adobe (San Jose, Calif.) Flash animation and action themes in its advertising. While the Star Trek film is not animated, the promotion shares the adventure theme of the carrier's trademark cartoon secret agent "Erin Insurance," which has been featured in live-action shots with real customers who themselves become animated figures.

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio