Exclusive | Social Media yet to add value to Life insurance, IDBI's Khanna

Advertising today has changed dramatically in every sector, may it be FMCG, Insurance category or any other. Today we see a lot of emotional advertisements, long in length conceptualised to catch the attention as emotional appeals touch the target audience’s heart. Recently launched campaigns by some of the insurance companies have made their mark on the TG.

One such name is IDBI Federal Life Insurance that released its latest advertising campaign for its flagship product Life insurance Whole Life Plan. The campaign uses the thought of “Befikar, Umar Bhar” to highlight the core product benefit of protection till 100 years of age.

In the life insurance category in India, such a TVC treatment has never been attempted before with multiple roles to depict the different life stages. The execution needed significant planning and precision to get the sequencing of events right while shooting the TVC. The TVC seeks to make IDBI Federal Life Insurance Whole Life Plan stand out in the maze of insurance products and simplify product understanding for the consumers.

To get a deeper understanding Adgully caught up with Aneesh Khanna, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, IDBI Federal who spoke about the new TVC, marketing strategies and much more.

Campaign Insights:

Speaking about the rationale behind the campaign, he said, “Whole Life is a difficult category to communicate and hence most life insurance companies have not advertised in this category. However one needs to understand, that while increasing spans is a positive development for the society, it also poses a serious challenge for individuals to secure protection and income during their sunset years.”

The flagship product, IDBI Federal Life insurance, Whole Life Insurance plan can be a great savings tool for the consumers to address this crucial need. Most customers are not aware that such products exist. “With this campaign we want to educate the customers about this category and highlight two key benefits of Whole Life Plans - Life cover till 100 years of age and 2 lump sum payments. We have communicated the product benefits in a simple and interesting manner with an adequate dose of humour,” he added.

It is a 360 degree campaign which has a mix of TVC, Outdoor, Cinema and Digital. Customers across the globe find life insurance the most complex category to understand. With this campaign they wanted to explain the complex product in the simple yet an interesting manner. Hence, the brief shared with the agency was to make sure that the advertisement was communicated in a way that was easy to comprehend for the customers and should be engaging in a style truly unique to IDBI Federal. “We have taken a different route as a Life Insurance Company. Our ads are not emotional tear-jerkers. Instead, they focus on the practical need of buying life insurance with a dash of humour,” he added.

Over the years, the BFSI sector has grown against the backdrop of rising economy, growing middleclass incomes. The rapid expansion of the financial services sector has been a force behind India’s economic rise. When asked about the growth of the BFSI sector, he said, “This segment, comprising private- and public-sector banks, non-banking financial services, rating agencies, brokerages and other quasi-financiers, is registering a strong growth rate due to the penetration of banking, plastic-based payment systems, electronic fund movements, and so on. Inspite of the growth we have seen in the BFSI sector, If we contextualize the current size of this industry against the 1.2 billion India opportunities, it would be correct to say that so far collectively, only few spoonfuls are harvested, with an ocean out there waiting to still be tapped.”

Social Media Impact:

According to Khanna, Whole Life Insurance companies in India haven’t yet fully realised the potential of social media. He feels that while it is a good medium to build awareness among the discerning audience  and get brand recommendations basis word-of-mouth, insurance players are yet to fully extract the benefits of social media for insurance sales. Insurance in India is still largely sold with human interaction.

Undoubtedly, most campaigns that have been executed on social media have been around brand engagement. “With companies using social networks and online communities for effective marketing and lead generation, richer information on policy holders is allowing for better segmentation and customisation. Moreover insurance companies are leveraging social media to maximise revenues through greater reach and comfort for the customer during various stages of a customer lifecycle. It is also helping minimize costs through realization of operational efficiency by automation of processes.  As a growing life insurance company, we have also developed a detailed digital media strategy to tap the potential of this medium and continue to move forward on the roadmap. We also have plans to launch an array of online products soon,” he said.

Changing face of advertising: 

As he mentioned that today advertising has changed dramatically, so when asked to comment on the marketing/advertising strategies that have worked well for IDBI, he said, “Indian’s are not very forthcoming in insurance purchase. In over 50 years of existence of life insurance in India, we are only at about 18% penetration, compared to the near 50% penetration in developed countries.”
Having said that, understanding of risk associated with the loss of life is a concept that is still not very well established in the minds of the Indian consumers. Hence, some companies use emotional and persuasive routes.

Khanna stated, “At IDBI Federal we use a mix of emotional and rational communication, depending on the proposition being communicated. Our approach has been to use a humorous format that acts like a gentle pinch and yet lands the key message powerfully. Our campaigns have been a success through their light hearted, yet impactful implementation, thus increasing the recall for the brand.”

Change in Consumer behavior..:

As it is observed that over the years financial literacy has been increasing, the impact of social media is growing and consumers are realising the need for financially protecting their loves ones using life insurance. He also mentioned that, the research reveals that customers are also looking for more information before making the final purchase and are gradually becoming more aware about the service aspects of the life insurance business. “They are interested in knowing more about the claims management ability of the companies, persistency and other aspects that makes company a good life insurance provider,” he added.

The year gone By and 2015…:

As an organisation they have been registering profits quarter on quarter basis. The Total Premium grew by 11% last quarter.  IDBI Federal has been leveraging the deep understanding of the Indian market from IDBI Bank and Federal Bank, along with the domain expertise from Ageas. IDBI Federal has been reporting profits even amidst the challenging external environment.  “For 2015, our focus is to continue our profitable trajectory, stay on course of our customer first strategy, add shareholder value and become an employer of choice,” Khanna said while concluding.