SBI General Insurance is a leading general insurance company in India. The situation caused by the pandemic in the world and the ever-increasing medical inflation has made health insurance must-have protection instead of just a personal choice to tackle the medical expenses related to unforeseen incidents that may arise in the future. Health insurance provides the customer with double the benefit and solution.
Recently SBI General Insurance has launched a few campaigns to educate their customers. One such campaign was #BahaneChhodoTaxBachao to save tax. A Road Safety campaign was also launched.
Shefali Khalsa, Head – Brand & Corporate Communication, SBI General Insurance in an exclusive chat with Medianews4U talks about the growth of the Insurance sector during the pandemic, marketing trends, few recent campaigns, and much more…
How has the Insurance sector fared during this pandemic?
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on industries as well as individuals. And the insurance industry has been no different. The COVID-19 pandemic served to underscore the relevance of risk mitigation and highlight the importance of having the right insurance protection. We have seen two sides of the coin, as the impact of the pandemic. On one hand, it has accelerated the digital adoption process as social distancing became the norm. Digitization has always been a part of strategy across the insurance sector, however, with the pandemic, the speed has been taken off.
On the flip side of the impact, we saw a significant spike in the awareness levels for insurance needs and thereby we have seen an increasing number of people seeking health insurance policies that can adequately cover them and their families. At SBIG, we strongly believe that we need to provide customers with simple, easy-to-understand, and affordable products.
A study had highlighted that the non-life insurance sector’s health insurance businesses expanded by 41% owing to increased demand for health insurance products amid the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.
While with digital technology adoption the sector has embraced many emerging opportunities and continues to advance on this path of transformation.
Are you seeing an increasing awareness when it comes to investing in insurance in the past 2 years?
The pandemic compelled people to assess their health as well as their contingency planning in terms of financial resources to deal with medical exigencies. We have witnessed a rise in awareness of health insurance amongst individuals, families, and MSMEs/corporates.
An increase in awareness levels amidst the first wave of COVID-19 was also endorsed with the spike in the keyword search for “health insurance”. On the other hand, with the rising hospitalization costs/treatments, the fence-sitters have also learnt that health insurance is a priority to avoid a health crisis from turning in to a financial crisis. While new customers are coming into the insurance fold, existing customers understand the importance of assessing their sum insured or adding top-up plans for future contingencies as per their risk evaluation.
What will be the outlook on the marketing trends when it comes to this sector in 2022?
The pandemic has ushered in a “digital-first” wave that drives all aspect of a customer’s insurance-buying journey, thereby impacting the general insurance landscape. While digital technology adoption was well seeped in for most insurers, the pandemic presented the real scope of digitization. Digital transformation in the insurance industry is now hygiene like any other sector. Here are a few marketing trends that will continue to be a part of the strategy for marketers for the coming year.
Influencer Marketing will continue to trend: In an effort to make the communication more personalized and credible marketers will continue to leverage influencer marketing. It helps it provide better context and relevance yet appeals to customers on a personal basis.
Communication through interactive videos: With the increased usage of social media and other digital platforms, we have seen various video innovations. Also, smartphones and affordable internet connections have been a booster for video consumption. With this trend of enhanced video communication that is here to stay, video marketing will increase. We will create original content and attempt to make conversions through various types of video content such as shoppable videos, self-shot videos, home videos (using celebrities or employees), and chroma shot videos.
Hybrid Events: Events using a mix of physical and digital platforms have worked well in 2021 and this trend is here to stay. It is cost-effective, more engaging, drives more audiences since they can attend from the convenience of their homes / work-spaces. It has al been convenient to bring together a wide array of experts together from across geographies which was not as well explored before the pandemic.
Shift in Messaging: The pandemic has also nudged marketeers to revisit the messaging. They have understood that a better understanding of customer behavior and sentiment will lead to more empathetic customer experiences and brand loyalty. To achieve this, it’s important for marketing leaders to steer the course to the new normal that is constantly evolving.
SBI General Insurance recently launched #BahaneChhodoTaxBachao; a quirky Vox Pop campaign on Save Tax with Health Insurance, can you explain the strategy behind this campaign?
While we have seen that the awareness levels about health insurance have certainly spiked, the generic population has still not switched from awareness to action, in the AIDA model. The campaign aims to increase the benefit of buying health insurance, especially for saving tax which proves to be an apt messaging during this season. To bring a humor element and bring out the various reasons for procrastination, we opted for this unique mode of the campaign using vox pop video. This vox pop campaign was well accepted by the locals, as we went to 4 major metros of the city viz Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore& Kolkata. Through this campaign we have achieved to reach a 10,00,000 audience on social media, thereby underling one of the reasons to buy health insurance is saving tax.
The strategy behind the recent campaign on Road Safety, the strategy and conceptualisation of this campaign, what were the platforms used to drive this message?
At the back of Road Safety Week, we conceptualized the brand campaign to bring about a behavioral change towards road safety in India and urge everyone to exercise caution on the roads, while adhering to traffic rules.
As per the report on Road accidents in India 2019, accident-related deaths were 1,51,113. This is certainly an alarming number that raises great concern and so it becomes imperative to ensure the adherence to traffic rules and regulations, thereby try to avoid catastrophic accidents. Through our campaign, we aim to extend our responsibility in spreading awareness about this message by engaging with millions of Indians through digital platforms.
We launched a series of comic strips, short videos, and stickers to indulge the audience in an impactful manner. Considering the impact and the amplification digital platforms hold in today’s date, the campaign was spread across our digital platforms for maximum reach. The videos were based on different safety aspects like traffic rules, promotion of safe driving practices, and prevention of road accidents.
In 2022 what would be your focus, what will be your marketing strategies, and will your ad spending be skewed towards digital?
While considering the lean on digital platforms, the core marketing focus will continue to be on digital platforms across the insurance sector. However, with the normalcy seeping in between the waves, we have seen brands having a mix of traditional marketing campaigns too. Digital platforms will continue to be popular, with shorter and more focused videos taking primacy. Influencers will continue to grow in importance, while experiential marketing will also gain traction.
While digital continues to grow, traditional media to is now getting back to normality for various campaigns. In fact, we had launched a targeted radio and bus-branding campaign underling the health insurance need.
What are the trends you are seeing globally, and India will soon follow these global trends?
Some of the global trends that have also shifted to digitization, almost all the industries have now figured and implemented ways of operations to be smoother and seamless. The power of mobile, access, and big data is a big game-changer across economies. As the trend of individuals opting for comprehensive insurance plans plays out, improving the customer experience by automating processes and providing customized services will be crucial.
Within marketing, influencers will continue to gain a strong foothold and experiential marketing will also have a strong presence. Another trend that has seen an uptick is cross-brand associations and promotions, again primarily on digital platforms.
