Digital & engagement - our growth drivers: Mohit Goel, Exide Life Insurance

‘MS Dhoni - The Untold Story’, a biopic based on the former Indian cricket captain, has received critical acclaim and also saw quite a few brands associating with the film. Exide Life Insurance is one of the brands to leverage their association with this Sushant Singh Rajput-starrer.

Resonating with their new campaign, ‘Lambaa Saath Bharose ki Baat’, and as part of this association, Exide Life Insurance has also released a short digital film in which Dhoni talks about the long lasting relationships that have helped him in his journey from Ranchi to Wankhede and from being a TC with the Indian Railways to winning the Cricket World Cup.

In conversation with Adgully, Mohit Goel, Director - Marketing, Exide Life Insurance, speaks at length about associating with ‘MS Dhoni - The Untold Story’, evolution of communication in the insurance sector and more. Excerpts:

What role does communication play in insurance?
Life insurance is a long term product and over the years, the industry and we as a company have worked very hard in communicating to the people about the benefits of taking a life insurance cover. Today, people are educated well enough to be able to take informed decisions as far as life insurance is concerned. Therefore, I think communication has a big role to play. The better informed the people are, the higher is their comfort level. Constant Communication through-out a customer’s life cycle helps in building strong relationships and not just while taking a new insurance policy or asking for a renewal. This increases their confidence and makes them more aware about the Company and its insurance offerings. And that is what is helping us in building the overall cause for the industry.

Please tell us about the genesis of the tagline: Lamba Saath Bharose Ki Baat.
We are in a long term business – life insurance is a long term contarct which is sold with 10 years, 20 years polict terms. It is not sold as an instant gratification programme, where you can get the product benefits in the short term. Secondly, you are asking Indians to invest their hard-earned money in an intangible product, so you need to give that assurance that they are joining hands with a long standing partner to secure their future. This is where Exide Life Insurance steps in as a long standing partner in your long and happy life. We have been in this country for almost 15 years now. So, that’s where the long term orientation comes in and that’s where the confidence comes in. We also believe that the more time you spend with the same partner, the stronger is the relationship, and these relationships help further strengthen the trust. This is what we are trying to convey in our communication – ‘Lamba Saath Bharose Ki Baat’..

How did Exide Life Insurance decide to be a part of ‘MS Dhoni - The Untold Story’?
Exide Life Insurance had signed on Mahendra Singh Dhoni as brand ambassador earlier this year. When we were in the process of signing him up, we were introduced to the possible opportunity in the form of a film association. Hence we decided to associate with MS Dhoni – The Untold Story and weave our brand message using the film’s narrative. We saw great synergies in partnering with the production house and the marketing firm for promoting the movie as well. We not only tied up for promoting our ad using film footage, but also have presence using infilm placement. We are one of the brands to have agreed with them for brand placement within the film. And since Sushant Singh Rajput is essaying the role of MS Dhoni in the film, you also see him endorsing Exide Life Insurance.

Apart from the digital film, in what ways is Exide Life Insurance taking forward this association with ‘MS Dhoni - The Untold Story’?
We started our promotions in September, wherein in the first week we were ready with our digital film. Initially we were toying with the idea of taking this film on multiple channels, but then we realised that the power of digital is such that you may be able to do a better job focussing only on digitalto get that multiplier effect. And when you say digital, it involves the entire social media and high viewership platforms like Hotstar and Voot, which have actually become a second or mirror screen of main line television. These apart, we are also on a lot of video networks. We aggressively pushed it on YouTube, which, as you are aware, is competing with Television medium.

To support this entire social drive, we have launched a lot of on-ground promotions. As a company we are present in 200+ cities, where our sales team and advisors interact with the general market with whom we do business. We created 2 activation programmes that allowed us to have conversations with our target audience. These ideas revolved around Dhoni. As a gratification, people got instant gifts and also stood to win tickets to watch the film.

Thus, from the brand promotion point there are two important pillars that we have used: One being Digital; and the second pillar being on ground activations using one-to-one interactions, where we engaged with people at various touch points like parks, cinema halls, malls, residential places, clubs etc

Which agency was involved in the creative ideation and execution of the digital film?
We worked with digital agency Autumn Worldwide, who helped us in scripting the film. We also worked in consultation with Inspired Entertainment and Fox Star Entertainment.