Are you ready for Life Insurance Awareness Month?

It starts in 55 days.

No, not the NFL regular season. I’m talking about Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM), which spans all of September. Seems like a ways off, but now is the time to start thinking about what you can do to really take advantage of this opportunity in a meaningful way to raise awareness of the need for life insurance in your community.

Today, it is estimated that 95 million adult Americans have no life insurance, and most people with coverage have far less than experts recommend.

The LIFE Foundation, which coordinates LIAM, recently announced that former NFL quarterback and current NFL Today analyst Boomer Esiason is the official 2013 LIAM Spokesperson. Esiason’s mother passed away from cancer while he was in kindergarten, and over the years, he has spoken extensively about how money was tight growing up because of it. Boomer has long protected his wife and children with life insurance, which has become especially important, given that his son is fighting cystic fibrosis.

While I don’t expect Boomer will plug LIAM during an NFL Today broadcast (but I can hope, right?), I bet he’ll be a valuable asset to this year’s LIAM efforts via his soon-to-be-released public service announcement video, which producers will be able to link to. (Check the LIAM website for it in mid-July.) The LIFE Foundation’s also planning an aggressive social media campaign featuring Esiason.

To help producers make the most of the LIAM marketing opportunity, the LIFE Foundation has created the LIAM Producer eKit, which contains a wealth of marketing resources including:

• A one-page flyer and a two-page Q&A featuring the realLIFEstory of Esiason. And again, in mid-July, there will also be a video featuring Boomer that you can link to.
• Free downloadable flyers, including new ones with the “Life Happens” theme
• Embeddable life insurance videos
• Themed-marketing resources — including football paraphernalia to tie in to Boomer and his message
• Social media resources to help you spread the word

As the football season kicks off — something that excites most Americans who, at that point, are optimistic about their favorite team’s prospects — perhaps football-themed LIAM activities will be the ticket this year. If you have a game plan in place for LIAM, I’d love to hear about it and share it with our audience. You can email me at [email protected] or simply use the comment tool below.