Rishi Mathur on how Canara HSBC Life Insurance has been leveraging inspirational narratives

Canara HSBC Life Insurance, established in 2008 as a joint venture between Canara Bank and HSBC Insurance Holdings, recently wrapped up the fourth season of its ‘Depend on Insurance’ campaign. The digital series brings forth heart-warming and inspirational stories narrated by veteran actor Kirron Kher.

The series draws inspiration from brave women who have achieved incredible things by depending on their inner strength, which is the most dependable form of insurance. Through the initiative, Canara HSBC Life Insurance aims to reaffirm its positioning, “Promises Ka Partner” and underpins its brand promise with the message #DependOnInsurance-DependOnUs.

In conversation with Adgully, Rishi Mathur, Chief Distribution Officer – Alternate Channels & Chief Strategy Officer and Marketing Head at Canara HSBC Life Insurance, speaks about the underlying objectives that have been driving the ‘Depend on Insurance’ series, insights into the social impact of these stories, key elements in the marketing equation for the insurance industry, and more.

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What were the underlying objectives driving the ‘Depend on Insurance’ series in Seasons 1, 2, 3, and 4? How has this campaign evolved over the seasons?

The underlying objective of #DependOnInsuranceDependOnUs – a long standing IP by Canara HSBC Life Insurance – has been to highlight the importance of insurance, and especially Canara HSBC Life Insurance as the most dependable partner one can have in life.

As part of this campaign in the past, the brand had created ‘Life Lessons from Cricket’ hosted by Sanjay Manjrekar in Season 1; ‘Life Lessons from the Battlefield’, hosted by ex-army Major Gaurav Arya in Season 2; and ‘Life Lessons From Parenting’, hosted by actor Neena Gupta, who has been an unconventional parent herself.

This digital series of snackable content has been bringing to the audience real life inspirational stories of dependability. This season builds on the success of previous seasons, which have featured popular hosts such as Sanjay Manjrekar, Gaurav Arya, and Neena Gupta. The new season takes the series to another level by focusing on the brand’s positioning – ‘Promises Ka Partner’ – and underpinning its brand promise of dependability.

How has Canara HSBC Life Insurance been reinforcing its brand promise through the ‘Depend on Insurance’ campaign? What strategies and messages have been used to establish and maintain brand identity?

While all the stories, through all the seasons have had dependability as the main anchor, the key message is an establishment of thought that the brand is a dependable insurance partner, which helped in reinforcing the brand promise.

As an organisation, Canara HSBC Life Insurance has always tried to put women first, whether it is their organisation structure where a lot of women hold key positions, and are seen as dependable pillars, or their female customers for whom the brand has built thoughtfully curated life insurance products, that they can depend on.

Even in the latest season, the stories end with motivating everyone to take a leap of faith towards their dreams, with a promise that we as their dependable life insurance partners are there to make it easy for them.

The campaign has featured stories of influential women in Season 4. Could you share some insights into the social impact of these stories and how they align with the overall campaign objectives?

Women are God’s most dependable creations, but they are usually not treated with equality and their journeys to their dreams are tougher than they should be in the realistic world. And so more often than not, women who dare to change the world have done it all alone, with no one except their own inner strength as their most dependable insurance. So this season, we decided to bring to life some ‘Life Lessons from Women Who Changed the World’, narrated by veteran actor Kirron Kher.

We did our research to zero in on women who have not just been pathbreakers, pioneers in their field, but have also paved the way for the future generations to come. We went into the details of their stories, looked up anecdotes, old pictures, interviews, literature, and every possible piece of information to put together an episode full of goosebumps!

The heart-warming series has five episodes featuring inspiring stories of Paralympics Gold medalist Deepa Malik and her journey from paralysis to the Paralympics, Sudha Murty’s struggle for her rights, Bachendri Pal’s climb to the top of the world, Kalpana Chawla’s journey beyond the stars and lastly, Guneet Monga’s victory at the Oscars!

All the five stories highlighted how these women stood up for themselves against all the odds, only armed with their courage, determination, and resilience. And how all of us can take this leap of faith towards our dreams and it becomes a little easier, if we have a dependable insurance partner like Canara HSBC Life Insurance by the customer’s side.

Five videos of the campaign were promoted across all prominent social platforms, namely Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The cumulative reach of the five videos across the three platforms reached up to 76.15 million. The total views of the videos ranged above 15.12 million, with an average engagement rate of 1.25 million.

In recent years, influencer marketing has gained increased importance. How has Canara HSBC Life Insurance leveraged influencer marketing in the ‘Depend on Insurance’ campaign? What benefits has it brought to the brand?

In this season of ‘Depend On Insurance’, we have made a very strategic use of influencers by mapping a relevant celeb influencer for each story being narrated. While the main films told the story of an iconic woman who had actually changed the world, the influencer content followed it had a more modern-day, one-amongst-us kind of person sharing his or her story of taking a leap of faith supported by their ‘promises ka partner’ and further reiterating the belief that if they can do it, anyone can do it, and having a dependable insurance partner by their side makes the ride easier.

Paralympian Deepa Malik’s story was followed by Indian Cricketer Sushma Verma talking about her struggles as a woman in sports. Sudha Murty’s story was followed by Savi Sharma drawing inspiration from her and becoming India’s fastest selling female author. Bachendri Pal’s episode was followed by mountaineer Prakriti Varshney idolising her and choosing mountaineering as a way of life. Kalpana Chawla proved to be an inspiration for innovative educator Shraddha Fogla, while Guneet Monga’s story was followed by that of Abhinav Chandel scripting his life’s story as an aspiring filmmaker.

Stories from these influencers reiterated the brand messaging while getting the campaign a better reach and amplified engagement.

Could you elaborate on the approach of synergising product and marketing to provide customer-centric solutions? How has this holistic approach shaped the campaign’s success?

At Canara HSBC Life Insurance, we believe in putting the customer’s needs first. This is reflected in the way we design our products and services, and it became even more evident when we accelerated to a digital-first approach during the pandemic. That’s when we came up with the idea of ‘Depend On Insurance’, a campaign to make people believe in insurance as their most dependable partner. With its focus on digital-first insurance and positive brand stories, the campaign has garnered love and affection from audiences and customers alike.

Stories depicted are inspirational and relatable, and they help to build trust with our customers. The ‘Depend on Insurance’ series feature stories of people who have overcome challenges and achieved their dreams with a little, but honest help. These stories are a reminder that with little help from appropriate life insurance can be a powerful tool for financial security and peace of mind one can achieve.

Looking ahead to 2024, what do you see as the key elements in the marketing equation for the insurance industry, particularly in terms of digital tools, robust platforms, and insights into the target audience?

The insurance industry is undergoing a digital transformation and Canara HSBC Life Insurance is at the forefront of this change. By embracing digital technologies, the company is driving efficiency, improving customer engagement, and building new business opportunities.

The aim is to make customers’ life simpler by not just selling them insurance products, but also allowing them to take charge of managing their insurance policies on a day-to-day basis, with something as simple as operating an app. This also allows the brand to keep its customers engaged all-year round in a meaningful conversation and just not keep the relationship restricted to policy renewal. The continuous effort of being around the customer completes the whole journey in a much more lovable way.

In what ways is innovation paving the way forward for insurance marketers? Are there any specific innovations or trends that Canara HSBC Life Insurance is embracing to stay competitive in the market?

At Canara HSBC Life Insurance, we use innovation to pave the way forward for insurance marketing. For example, we have dedicated marketing platforms like our customer app – Canara HSBC Life Insurance App (Promises Ka App) to build consistent communication with our customers. We also use marketing automation tools for personalising this communication. Constant and ongoing enhancements of the scope of DIY services available on our mobile app – with latest improvements which enable customers to access incremental services, including (but not limited to) updation of life certificate/e-KYC, mobile-number based policy search, eNACH modification, option to access in vernacular languages, Aadhaar masking/PAN validation, etc. Emergence of the WhatsApp-powered BOT is an another significant milestone of our omni-channel digital journey, this service resolution mechanism enabled on WhatsApp via BOT significantly reduces turnaround time in terms of addressing customer queries and allows customers to access our service bouquet through a mode which is extremely convenient and accessible for them.