How ACKO’s marketing injects humour in a fear-driven category
ACKO’s marketing has brought a new flavour to the insurance category. Its secret sauce includes well-known faces in uncanny scenarios, emphasising humour, and prioritising entertainment–split equally between digital and traditional. EVP - Marketing Ashish Mishra sheds light on ACKO’s marketing.
The insurance industry in India has witnessed fairly formulaic marketing strategies from companies over the past few decades. Up until a few years ago, it was a given that one would see a conventional Indian family with their head–stereotypically the father–being concerned with the future of their children and, by extension, the whole family. Fear-based messaging was quite evident and, to an extent, was the norm. For years it seemed like that was the only way of selling insurance.
With the spread of the internet and changing consumer behaviors, insurance companies have embraced a more diversified and innovative approach. With the digital medium gaining momentum, several direct-to-consumer brands have emerged whose marketing strategies have gone past the traditional messaging. Among the digital natives, ACKO is one insurer that has been actively experimenting with its marketing communication. It has injected humor into a category traditionally viewed as serious and somber.
Talking about ACKO’s marketing strategy, EVP - Marketing Ashish Mishra opens up about the thought behind the brand’s communication, social media strategy, marketing plans for the future, and more.
Awareness and affinity
Mishra mentions that as a digital-first insurance company, marketing plays a crucial part for ACKO to connect with customers. He says that it helps the company build affinity and trust–as the current focus of its marketing endeavours is upon building awareness.
He further mentions that at this point, the company is placing its resources on gaining customer trust and breaking traditional insurance buying habits.
“Building brand awareness and creating brand love will always be our ongoing priority,” he adds.
Cutting through with humor
ACKO’s use of humor in its campaigns has been a noteworthy feature that has helped it stand out in the digital insurance space.
“Advertising by nature is intrusive and hence every advertisement should at least entertain while trying to sell. Insurance as a category, has generally been sold on the basis of fear. We, however, are trying to change that perception. We want insurance to be relatable and easy to understand for customers. Hence, our conscious choice of humor."
A common thread in ACKO’s campaigns has been using well-known faces and putting them in uncanny scenarios, generating humor through quirky narratives. The intention behind this seems to be to acquaint the audience with the concept of digital insurance through familiar faces.
The ‘Munna-Circuit’ campaign for ACKO’s health insurance exemplifies this perfectly. "The characters of Munna and Circuit seemed to fit in quite naturally," says Mishra. "They question everything and look at society from outside, which aligns with our aim to educate consumers about digital insurance."
ACKO’s efforts to incorporate humour are visible consistently in its campaigns. Whether it's the Saif-Sara Ali Khan campaign, or the one featuring The Great Khali and the one with Ravichandran Ashwin, these campaigns carry a lighter tone in their narratives.
Apart from embracing humour, ACKO has also found high-visibility media platforms such as IPL and Shark Tank to further build awareness.
Speaking about how the ROI has been on the ongoing campaigns and marketing efforts, Mishra says, “We started with Auto and this year we launched health, travel and life insurance. The Saif and Sara campaign landed very well, and we saw strong growth on the back of it. On the health insurance front, the Munna-Circuit campaign helped establish us as a prominent health insurance provider in the country. Our media investments across Shark Tank, IPL, KBC and other properties have made sure that we are a well-known brand.”
Investing equally in digital and traditional
ACKO maintains a balance between traditional and digital when it comes to investing in mediums. It produces a large number of TVCs, however, these are created in such a way that besides television these can run on digital platforms–the tonality and narratives of the ads go with both mediums.
Talking about ACKO’s plan for 2024, Mishra shares, “Our media strategy will continue to be how it has been. It is equally split between traditional and digital. We are heavy investors in outdoor, OTT platforms, and television. The primary objective behind this is that our target audience is in the cost-cutting segment. TV still continues to play a large role in raising awareness.”
The insurance provider prioritises TV not only through TVCs but also by sponsoring shows. ACKO sponsors a segment on Masterchef India.
While humour serves as the cornerstone of ACKO's marketing efforts, the brand also prioritises consumer education. Mishra elaborates, "The main message we want to land is – ‘Insurance is not complicated. It has been sold as if it’s a math equation. But once you try ACKO, hopefully, you will feel differently. It’s the habit of buying insurance from someone you know or a conventional source that we are looking to change. Our focus, therefore, is on educating people about not paying commissions and buying digitally from us.”
Through informative content and engaging campaigns, ACKO aims to challenge traditional buying habits and promote the adoption of digital insurance solutions.
With the kind of messaging ACKO uses in its marketing efforts, social media plays a substantial role in bringing its goals to fruition. ACKO’s social media presence reflects the youthfulness of a young adult trying to navigate the peculiar roads of the digital realm. ACKO India has a following of 31.6K on Instagram, 41.8K on X (formerly Twitter), and 38.3K on YouTube. To keep the engagement thriving, the brand puts out content regularly which involves content buckets from memes and creatives to reels and videos.
To market its travel insurance, ACKO collaborates with travel influencers on social media who share clips from their travel vlogs incorporating the brand’s offerings and sharing travel advice.
While ACKO’s social media presence across platforms follows a similar tonality, there are a few palpable differences–such as its Instagram being more visually rich and appealing to the tastes of younger audiences vis-a-vis X (Twitter).
ACKO signed actor R. Madhavan as brand ambassador, who did an interview with founder Varun Dua titled ‘What’s the Catch?’ in which he questioned the latter about the fundamental insurance queries that a citizen has. Snippets from this were shared extensively on social media. With this campaign, the brand intended to raise awareness and speak to the young audience.
2024 and beyond
With 2024 just a few days shy of its first quarter, ACKO’s marketing aims to continue the hitherto approach. The brand is planning to launch some products in the travel insurance sector. Sharing the short and long-term goals, Mishra remarks, “Short-term goal is to enable a large section of the market to buy ACKO products. Long-term goals involve building ACKO as a trusted tech-first brand and a destination for the new India where people not only go for protection needs but also for tertiary needs as well.”
To further raise its brand awareness level, ACKO has amped up its marketing efforts as IPL 2024 is underway. It has partnered with three IPL teams: Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Titans, and Kolkata Knight Riders.
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