GIO took to the streets of Brisbane and Sydney last week armed with the message that border security and general insurance are essentially the same thing, just on a different scale.

Dog-handling representatives could be seen traipsing around the CBDs of both state capitals handing out brochures while being led by pairs of cute and sensory acute beagles.

The Suncorp-owned insurer’s promotion on Tuesday was on the back of GIO’s prime sponsorship of Channel 7’s Border Security.

The beagles were kitted out in GIO emblazoned dog jackets, while the reps handed out information for house, motor and CTP cover.

GIO also gets regular exposure on Channel 7 via its airborne daily morning traffic reports in some cities – not to mention its overall television advertising presence.

General insurance has long been a commodity, and the endless millions that the likes of GIO, AAMI and NRMA spend on advertising week-in-week-out are understandable when price and perhaps brand are the only differentiating features these groups can tweak.

Insurance companies believe they have to be omnipresent to succeed.

Health funds are by and large following the same path – but what this simply means is higher costs are ultimately borne by the consumer.

The problem, however, is insurance advertising is only likely to be of interest to those people who are already policy holders of one group or another, meaning companies are merely poaching customers from their competitors and vice versa.

This again pushes the cost to the industry – and therein lies an increase in the cost of premiums paid by consumers.

The challenge for the industry is how to educate non-policy holders into taking out insurance and existing policy holders into taking out enough cover.

The recent floods across many parts of New South Wales and Victoria unearthed a common trend – the high number of affected homes not having policies that cover flood damage (and indeed, what constitutes flood damage).

OK, so we have been in one of the severest droughts on record for the past few years and maybe people were hedging their bets – however the common angle of coverage taken by the media after such events is that many people believed they were covered, when in fact, they weren’t.

This forces the Government’s hand in intervening and the whole system of insurance begins to seem unfair.

So, the chicken and egg situation continues.

Education therefore, rather than hand over fist media advertising, is required if the industry is to grow and consumer premiums are to stand any chance of falling.