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Innovative campaigns seek to break the clutter in a crowded market

Life insurance companies have pulled out all the stops in their bid to attract eyeballs in the last quarter of the financial year, which is usually known as the 'tax season'. So innovative campaign is the name of the game. If Future Generali came up with 'Insurance Week', Aegon Religare has launched aseries of teaser ads and ICICI Prudential is banking on Amitabh Bachchan, its newly appointed brand ambassador.

Insurance Week was Future Generali's biggest campaign which sought to promote insurance awareness using footfalls in retail stores. The campaign, launched with the tagline 'Insurance Week Mein Sign Karo, Mukti Paao!' ,asked consumers to sign the white balloon, signifying ' mukti 'or peace of mind. The company reached out to more than 100 Big Bazaar outlets in about 57 cities and collected more than one million signatures on balloons and pledge cards. Encouraged by the response, Future plans to celebrate this period every year as the Insurance Week.

"We want Insurance Week to become more like a movement, and not a mere marketing campaign - a movement that convinces more and more people to get insured and secure their Head - Brand & Corporate Communication, Future Generali Life. The company is looking to invest `10 crore this year versus `8crore last year. Meanwhile, in true blockbuster style, Aegon Religare has launched a sequel to its popular KILB ( kam insurance lene ki bimari )campaign of 2008, but with a new message on inadequate insurance cover. The company says that the sequel to a teaser campaign is the first of its kind in the country. "Our objective was to generate sufficient curiosity in the minds of viewers before unveiling our proposition. We ran the teaser for a week before the campaign was revealed," says Pradeep Pande of Aegon Religare Life Insurance.

The sequel features actor Irrfan Khan once again, teasing people and pointing out that they are accustomed to inadequacy. According to Pandey, while lifestyles have changed and salaries have increased over the years, people do not worry much about increasing their insurance cover and continue with what has been in the past. "We want to reinforce the idea that with better lifestyles, one must also pay attention to being sufficiently insured. Therefore, there was a need to create a buzz about the habit and carry across the ' aadat badlo 'meshas opted for the time-tested route of gaining visibility through an iconic brand ambassador. Madhivanan Balakrishnan, executive director ICICI Prudential Life, explains that Bachchan's ability to emerge out of various crises and reinvent himself makes him a credible voice for communicating the long-term features of a life insurance policy.

But not everybody is impressed with the financial year-end blitzkrieg. Harish Bijoor CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults feels that advertisements have little role in the promotion of an insurance product. "Benefits of advertisement do not go to that one company. Also, endorsers do not play any role in promoting insurance products. They will be very successful in creating awareness but turning them into business may not be easy." But insurance companies say they have to do something novel to break the clutter in a crowded market, specially during aperiod which has traditionally been the busiest for the industry. Life insurance companies earn half their premium income during the last quarter as most customers make investments for tax planning during this time. Balakrishnan, for example, says expenditure in the last quarter has always been proportionately higher to ensure a reasonable share of voice vis-à-vis competition.

Source: http://epaper.business-standard.com/