Aviva India, recently launched a social media campaign highlighting their fresh brand promise, “With you today for a better tomorrow”. Like any other company, Aviva India has also adjusted to the new normal with various engaging initiatives targeting not only their existing customers but also acquiring newer ones.
To dive deep into the campaign and its insights, Aviva India’s Chief Customer, Marketing, Digital & IT Officer, Anjali Malhotra spoke exclusively to Medianews4u and shared interesting details about the campaign and the way forward for the brand.
Edited Excerpts.
Tell us about the campaign #LeaveItToUS and what was the brief given to the agency/in-house creative team?
Life insurance is all about preparing people for financial uncertainties which may surface in the future.
Today, everyone dreams big and makes their own plans for life, with ambitious goals and objectives. These goals could be around children, business, home, family or whatever matters most to them. However, the fact of the matter is that things don’t always go according to our plans and there are always chances of some unforeseen circumstances. This was brought to the fore during the panic due to the outbreak of Covid-19. We understood the uncertainty caused by this unforeseen situation and wanted to address that proactively. This feeling of empathy led us to creating the campaign #LeaveItToUs.
The aim of this campaign is to reach out to our existing and potential customers with a message that Aviva as a trusted brand is will always stand by them and will be there to support and guide them to make the right financial decisions during these tough times.
We clearly wanted to deliver the message that one should not worry about one’s investments, financial planning, dreams or their future because Aviva is there to take care of all their responsibilities. Especially at this time when a lot of people are worried about their jobs, some are going through financial crisis or have other financial worries, #LeaveItToUs reassures everyone that with the right planning done at the right time, they can secure their dreams and the happiness of their loved ones. With this campaign, we as a brand wanted to highlight our relevance as a trusted aide who inspires confidence and a sense of security amongst our customers.
What are your objectives behind this campaign and how does it stand out of the clutter of campaigns that exists in the market?
The campaign emanates from Aviva India’s new brand purpose, i.e., “With you today, for a better tomorrow” and emphasizes the fact that Aviva enables customers to be prepared for a better, brighter and more prosperous future. And this further reassures customers that as a trusted partner, Aviva is proud to stand with them in their time of need. The campaign is aimed at inspiring people to have a good financial plan in order to make every kind of dream a reality, whether it is a child’s education or marriage, one’s own retirement or aged parents’ security, or even growing one’s own business and more. Our message was to provide the sense of security and reassurance in both good and bad times.
What are your expectations from the campaign and how have consumers evolved especially during Covid-19?
Through #LeaveItToUs campaign we expect customers to see life insurance with a new perspective. We want them to understand that choosing the right insurance plan is one of the most critical decisions of their life, similar to choosing the right college, employer, getting married etc. We strongly believe that once people have this mindset, they will be in a better position to protect themselves and their families from the uncertainties of life. Thus, this new campaign is all about assurance and trust that we want to deliver to the customers. We wanted to engage with them on social media, provide them meaningful content and highlight the importance of being financially well-planned, thus enabling them to take the first step towards this critical aspect of life.
The consumer during and post-COVID is showing remarkable flexibility, bringing about a paradigm shift in consumption. The new consumer is following the “WW” curve — the “Wait and Watch” curve.1-1 in person sales has taken a backseat, mandating life insurance companies like us to think of the alternative, more personalized digital channels. From policy issuance to payments- the entire customer journey need to be re-imagined into a digital process.
Customer self-service is gaining in importance- – in insurance- we have ramped up the activation of the customer self-service portal adding multiple new functionalities. It is more a behavioral change, and the challenge for organizations will be in addition to making these facilities available seamlessly – pushing the lesser educated customer to adapt to digital. We have seen quick uptake of digital payment modes – which has necessitated us to be available everywhere the customer could come to pay digitally.
Well, WW curve actually makes so much sense, in every way! All of us are waiting and watching. Coming to your TG for the campaign, how would you define your TG and how has the demographic targeting evolved during Covid-19? And also shed some light on the media mix of the campaign.
Over the last few years, we have strengthened our positioning as India’s most trusted private insurance company. With this campaign, the intent is to strengthen this position even further. During Covid-19 times, we have been engaging with our audience organically. Even though this campaign is for everybody, we are targeting people in metros, who are active on social media between 18-50 years of age. We are trying to build a better connection with millennials. This is because millennials are and will be at the center of financial decisions for themselves and their family.
#LeaveItToUs is a social media campaign, so far, the campaign has witnessed on Aviva’s owned social media channels, i.e., Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.The campaign has evolved in phases to reflect different needs: savings and retirement, child education planning and even SME Insurance plans.
How has the company performed during Covid-19? Any progress report/numbers/data/ etc?
Back in March- as the impact of the pandemic started growing- demand for liquidity went up as the fears around job uncertainty and pay cuts continued to mount. This definitely impacted policy renewals and purchase of new policies in the month of March and April – March especially being the last month of the FY – is a very crucial month for any of the insurance companies. Q1 for FY 20’ – Most insurance companies saw a downfall in total APE collections as high as 30%-40%. This was due to a sharp decline in sales of market linked products.
We definitely have seen an uptick in the business numbers in the second quarter- we have collected pending renewals from March to June which earlier could not be collected. I cannot say the insurance industry overall must be witnessing a similar trend- because it was reported that LI companies overall posted a 7% reduced APE collection end of August. However, at Aviva – post May we have seen an upward trend. If we just look at the FY 20’-21’- we have registered a double-digit growth in new premium collection.
What’s next for Aviva?
From a life insurance perspective, more people will open up to the ‘mortality’ conversations and proactively seek advice to draw out adequate coverage for them.
Will Writing is a Legacy proposition of Aviva India- In the ‘New Normal’ where face-to-face interactions are limited, this unique Digital tool has generated a lot of interest amongst prospects- and we have witnessed a considerable spike in cases logged in through this tool.
Processes such as Video Based Identification Program (VBIP), Video MER and Video KYC are being aggressively explored by us.We see insurance sales moving from mostly physical to mostly phygital as customers draw more comfort connecting on video conferencing and with DIY tools provided to them.
