Interview: Life Insurance sector increased AdSpends in H1 FY 2019-2020 from the previous year: Abhishek Gupta

With Abhishek Gupta, CMO, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance, we take a look at #AbIndiaBachayega and the Edelweiss Tokio marketing strategy for 2020.

In sync with the trend followed by BFSI brands to make the most of JFM 2020, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance has put forth a musically humorous campaign. The insurance brand hopes to leverage various digital trends to go big in 2020. This includes vernacular content, moment marketing, and personalisation. In conversation with Social Samosa, Abhishek Gupta tells us more about the Edelweiss Tokio marketing strategy.

Edelweiss Tokio Life has kickstarted 2020 with the #AbIndiaBachayega campaign. How do you hope for it to help the brand as a part of the Edelweiss Tokio marketing strategy? 

2020 marked the beginning of a new decade and we wanted our first campaign to reflect that enthusiasm and optimism. We conventionally refrain from using negative narratives traditionally used in the sector. Thus, this campaign is fun, groovy and succinctly captures the importance of savings. Through its light-hearted tonality, it seeks to convey that financial planning can be easy and need not be as dull as often perceived.

We expect this campaign to generate interest among the millennial generation that usually prefers to have an optimum mix of short term and long term goals, with short term goals taking precedence.

The campaign videos have elements of humour and music in them. How does it help when talking about life insurance and savings?

Curating a campaign for any life insurance brand is a balancing act – we have to preserve the importance of life insurance as a savings and security tool without being grim, morbid and too serious. The route of humour and music was the most concise way to showcase that wealth creation is easy, simple and most importantly, fun.

How has the response been like for #AbIndiaBachayega so far?

Our digital films have attracted over 5 lakh impressions so far. There has been a promising interest in the product too, which is the ultimate success indicator for any campaign. Within three months of its launch, this product is contributing to more than half of our online sales. 

Also Read: PNB MetLife to go big on customer-centricity in 2020: Nipun Kaushal

Please take us through your marketing mix and plan for the year.

We have a fairly diversified marketing mix, which includes ATL like TV, OOH, & Digital, BTL and PR. All these elements play a crucial role in driving brand consideration and thought leadership, and form an integral part of any initiative we undertake. We do not have a pre-determined mix that we aim to fulfill every year. So, the proportion of each element might change annually, but the focus on the initiative remains constant. 

Which digital trends would Edelweiss Tokio Life be tapping into in 2020? What are the digital marketing trends that the BFSI sector would pick up on in 2020?

Digital marketing trends are quite dynamic and fast-evolving. For 2020, I see 3 major trends hitting the BFSI sector. Brands are likely to invest in creating personalized, data-driven, and omnichannel marketing campaigns that are driven through relevant content.   

For Edelweiss Tokio Life specifically, we will focus on creating vernacular content going forward.

Almost 70% of internet users consider digital content in local languages to be more reliable than English and nearly 90% of Indian language internet users are more likely to respond to a local language digital advertisement.

These two insights are a clear indication that as a life insurance brand, we need to interact with our customers and target audience in their preferred languages. Similarly, we will focus on engaging with local and relevant influencers, to create affinity among regional customers.  

Moment marketing is another space that excites me. It provides a unique opportunity to piggyback on news/trends of the moment and create visibility. It offers massive scope to be cheeky, funny, fun, enthusiastic and more. 

Personalization has been trending for a few years now, but there is a lot more marketers can do. Generic communication does not work anymore and customers expect customized and relevant communication from brands. 

Apart from these trends, we will continue our focus on social causes that we have identified – Organ Donation, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, and contribution to the Armed Forces. Being a responsible corporate citizen is important for us as a brand and is a natural fabric of who we are as an organization. Our focus on social causes will stay consistent, irrespective of the marketing trends that emerge year on year. 

In terms of marketing, what are the key areas that Edelweiss Tokio Life would be focusing on in 2020?

In the medium term, our focus will be on building brand consideration, while focusing on products, services and socially relevant causes like organ donation. We will focus on building thought-leadership through an insights-based approach to our initiatives. Besides engaging meaningfully with our customers, we also want to generate an affinity for our brand among distributors. 

When it comes to interactive online content — how can BFSI brands leverage it?

Interactive online content is a burgeoning space and BFSI brands can leverage it effectively for their brands if they can identify the right tools and content. It can help, not only create consideration for your products and services but is also an effective avenue for educating customers while engaging meaningfully with them. For instance, for a life insurance brand, a premium calculator or a need analyzer tool provides a great opportunity to not only educate the customer but also build brand consideration. 

The first quarter of the year usually witnesses high marketing spends from BFSI brands, what does 2020 look like?

We expect 2020 to be in line with the trends so far.

The life insurance sector specifically, has increased its marketing expenditure in H1 FY 2019-2020 from the previous year and we expect that this trend will continue in the last quarter of this financial year.

While individual companies will loosen their purse strings considerably in the ongoing quarter, we should see a significant jump in the overall marketing spends of the sector, owing to the ‘Sabse Pehle Life Insurance’ campaign, driven by the Life Insurance Council.

Compared to the previous year, was there a difference in the way Edelweiss Tokio Life allocated its marketing spends for 2020?

The media spends will change to suit the initiatives we are carrying out. We refrain from following a cookie-cutter approach to marketing and focus on initiatives that are differentiated, relevant and ownable.