Abhishek Gupta decodes life insurance marketing trends in 2023

In the year gone by, a trend that stood out the most was – Staying ahead of the curve. We saw content becoming more contextual and local, as customers demanded instant gratification. Brands started viewing customer experience as a critical parameter of the overall brand experience and started building a more holistic brand strategy that is rooted in customer centricity.

Amid the fast evolving external dynamics, keeping up with the changes and maintaining relevance with the customers was a priority for brands. As we look forward to 2023, we will see an increased dominance of social responsibility and purpose marketing as brands focus on creating an aura of authenticity and approachability, writes Abhishek Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer of Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance.

Key events that defined the life insurance industry in 2022

• We observed a sharp rise in awareness levels for the product as well as industry-shaping regulatory reforms during the year.
• We saw an increased demand for solutions that offer guaranteed returns over a longer period in addition to protection solutions.
• Increased demand for hyper-personalisation across sectors.

Marketing vision 2023

The year 2023 will see marketers continuing to adopt an omnichannel approach. Brands will look at avenues to integrate channels in a way that leads to a highly consistent and cohesive brand experience.

Marketing will become more insight-led as brands will try to gain deeper insights into the psyche of their stakeholders to improve relevance and innovate.

Marketers will make social responsibility a key part of their value proposition as Gen-Z and millennials increasingly show preference for brands that can effectively address social challenges.

Life insurance marketing trends 2023

The life insurance sector will enter 2023, riding the tide created by IRDAI reforms. The role of marketing will significantly improve as the distribution architecture eases, industry become capital-attractive, and the regulator pushes for customer centricty above all.

To take advantage of increased cap on tie-ups, life insurance companies will focus on improving their distributor experience and technology architecture that can easily integrate with that of partners.

Insurance brands will promote solutions among highly specific geographic groups across India, and adopt a hyper-localised, personalized content approach.

Another much-hyped trend is shorter ads. Due to skippable ads and subscription models and attention spans decreasing, ads are getting shorter, and brands are expected to convey their message within a few seconds. However, this trend will not gain much traction within the insurance sector as insurance continues to rely on advisory in India. Marketers will implement storytelling to simplify the product proposition and explain the relevance of insurance in fulfilling dreams and aspirations.