HATBORO, Pa. (August 16, 2010) – In recognition of its successful launch into social media marketing, Aon Affinity, the group insurance products and services business of Aon, earned awards from the Professional Insurance Marketing Association and Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association for its Outstanding Nurse Search campaign on Facebook. The Insurance Marketing and Communications Association acknowledged its multi-channel campaign in support of Aon Affinity’s AICPA Value Plan.

Aon Affinity took home the Gold Award in the Social Media category as well as the prestigious Best of PIMA award at PIMA’s annual Marketing Methods Competition held during its mid-year meeting and trade show last month in Lansdowne, Va.

The PDMA recognized the Outstanding Nurse Search campaign at its Benjamin Franklin Awards for Direct Marketing Excellence, known as the “Bennys,” in Malvern, Pa, this past spring. A panel of experts from the Direct Marketing Association of New York judged this year’s PDMA submissions and awarded Aon with the Benny in the Social Media category.

The Outstanding Nurse Search campaign was produced by Aon Affinity’s Nurses Service Organization with the help of NetPlus Marketing. Using the NSO Facebook page, visitors were asked to submit a short story about an exceptional nurse. Over a six-month period, six story winners were selected, each of whom received a $500 shopping spree on the NSO Marketplace. From those six winners, an overall Outstanding Nurse was selected by NSO’s Facebook fans. The winning nurse is a U.S. Army nurse serving in Afghanistan.

During the course of the campaign NSO enhanced its brand awareness within the nursing community by:

•           Improving page views on its NSO’s Facebook site by 512 percent

•           Increasing its Facebook fans by 856 percent

•           Boosting interaction by website visitors by 2,543 percent.

The IMCA presented Aon Affinity with its Award of Excellence in the category of Sales, Marketing and Branding Promotion at its 52nd Annual Showcase Awards held in Atlanta. The award honored Aon’s AICPA Value Plan multi-channel campaign that spanned direct mail, email and space ads, and resulted in 460 new paid policies and $263,405 in new premium.

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About Affinity Insurance Services, Inc.

Aon’s Affinity Insurance Services combines the specialized knowledge of affinity program management with the extensive resources of a global company to bring an everyday commitment to helping clients achieve their goals. Affinity offers full service capabilities; technical expertise and industry knowledge that adds value through an innovative approach to program strategy, from the design of products and services to the delivery of the marketing message. Visit http://www.aon.com/affinity for more information.

About Aon

Aon Corporation (NYSE: AON) is a leading global provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human capital consulting. Through its more than 36,000 colleagues worldwide, Aon delivers distinctive client value via innovative and effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions. Aon's industry-leading global resources and technical expertise are delivered locally through more than 500 offices in more than 120 countries. Named the world's best broker by Euromoney magazine's 2008, 2009 and 2010 Insurance Survey, Aon also ranked highest on Business Insurance's listing of the world's largest insurance brokers based on commercial retail, wholesale, reinsurance and personal lines brokerage revenues in 2008 and 2009. A.M. Best deemed Aon the number one insurance broker based on brokerage revenues in 2007, 2008 and 2009, and Aon was voted best insurance intermediary, best reinsurance intermediary and best employee benefits consulting firm in 2007, 2008 and 2009 by the readers of Business Insurance. Visit http://www.aon.com for more information on Aon and http://www.aon.com/unitedin2010 to learn about Aon’s global partnership and shirt sponsorship with Manchester United.

About NSO

Nurses Service Organization is a registered trade name and division of Affinity Insurance Services, Inc.; in CA (License #0795465), MN & OK, AIS Affinity Insurance Agency, Inc.; and in NY, AIS Affinity Insurance Agency. NSO is the largest provider of individual nurses’ professional liability insurance in the U.S., serving over 675,000 nurses, nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists, and has been answering the insurance needs of the nursing profession since 1976. For more information, visit http://www.nso.com.

About PIMA

For more than 35 years the Professional Insurance Marketing Association (PIMA) has provided the premier forum for leaders in the insurance direct marketing industry to craft strategic relationships, develop business opportunities, and perfect their expertise. For more information, visit the PIMA web site at http://www.pima-assn.org.

About PDMA

The Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association (PDMA) provides a program of continuing education on all aspects of Direct Marketing to the general public and people involved with the Direct Marketing Industry.   The PDMA promotes the highest professional standards for Direct Marketing, cooperates with government and industry organizations for the advancement of Direct Marketing and encourages the exchange of ideas among members, participants, and students.   For more information, visit the PDMA web site at http://the-pdma.org.

About IMCA

IMCA is a professional industry association whose collective membership represents the insurance and financial services industries throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Bermuda. The organization represents over 120 companies.  Members includes senior level management and professional staff working in the areas of advertising, public relations, marketing communications, marketing and sales promotion, marketing research and technology. For more information, visit the IMCA web site at http://www.imcanet.com.

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