What Esurance's Sponsored Bracelets Say About Insurance's Future

The debate over the potential efficacy and role of the "Internet of Things" in the insurance business is ongoing and robust, but regardless, new technology continues to emerge that shows the proliferation of consumerized, one-to-one technology.

Esurance recently partnered with the digital agency ClearHart Digital to provide "insider bands" to Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival attendees. The bands allow users "to tap specially marked towers around the festival to take and upload photos, save memories like music set lists, and remember brewery or winery names from Outside Lands's famous Beer and Wine Lands," according to a release. "Most importantly, users can check in at different stages and landmarks, see where their friends are checked in, and send messages to their network."

Here's a video that explains the concept:

While this is clearly a promotional vehicle and doesn't appear to be any sort of clue into an upcoming insurance product from the company, it does show the confluence of factors through which new technologies are disrupting what it means to gather risk data.

Wearable technology, like the upcoming Google Glass, allows for a level of one-to-one intimacy that outstrips even the smartphone. And while insurance uses aren't necessarily top of mind with all these inventions, obvious applications become clear: A user who gets hurt at Outside Lands, for example, can piece together a nearly unimpeachable picture of their trip to settle any sort of liability issues.

We're entering an era where facts are increasingly easy to come by: even your family car likely has an airplane-style "black box." Widespread leveraging of this kind of technology in insurance might be theoretical now -- but it won't be forever.

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio