Social Media Marketing Awards: Lincoln Financial Group

Mobile: Runner-up

Program: Annuity Visualizer iPad tool

Why we liked it: Plenty of busi-nesses have developed mobile applications to make their stacks of collateral and documents more manageable, but Lincoln Financial Group went one step further. The financial products provider saw tablets as a way to help financial wholesalers explain a unique product to advisers and clients using a show-and-tell approach. Instead of paging through charts in a brochure, wholesalers can use Lincoln's Annuity Visualizer to demonstrate to prospects the effect of the company's i4Life variable annuity product using prepopulated data or real numbers provided by the customer. A system of slider bars and drop-down menus enables customers to change variables and see the impact on their retirement savings. Instead of trying to explain a complex product, reps can show results. After three months in the field, Annuity Visualizer was already winning rave reviews, with more than 80% of wholesalers using the tool more than twice a week.