Mumbai: HDFC Life was established in 2000 and is a leading, long-term life insurance solutions provider in India, offering a range of individual and group insurance solutions that meet various customer needs such as Protection, Pension, Savings, Investment, Annuity and Health. The Company has more than 60 products (including individual and group products) and optional riders in its portfolio, catering to a diverse range of customer needs.

HDFC Life continues to benefit from its increased presence across the country, having a wide reach with branches and additional distribution touch-points through several new tie-ups and partnerships. The count of distribution partnerships is over 300, comprising banks, NBFCs, MFIs, SFBs, brokers, new ecosystem partners amongst others. The Company has a strong base of financial consultants.

Indiantelevision.com in conversation with Vishal Subharwal - Chief Marketing Officer and Group Head - Strategy, HDFC Life on the latest 10 part campaign, the insights behind the campaign, innovative marketing ideas, trend in insurance globally and in India and much more………

On the ad campaign 'Missing Dulha', what was the story behind it?

With our latest campaign ‘The Missing Dulha’, we aim to create awareness on the importance of life insurance and its various product categories. The unique 10-part 'ad-series' narrates the story of a Dulha who goes missing on his wedding day and all that ensues in trying to find him. The complete series makes for a humorous and interesting watch, capturing the nuances of a big fat Indian wedding, the various characters and their idiosyncrasies. Each film ends on a cliff-hanger to keep the audience hooked for the next episode while highlighting the features and benefits of various life insurance products along the way.

Life insurance is a must-have product for all individuals for their family's financial security and fulfilment of key financial goals, enabling them to face life’s challenges and live with pride. Through this campaign, we aim to deliver the message of importance of life insurance in a fun, relatable and humorous way.

On the strategy, insight and objective behind this campaign?

HDFC Life as an organisation aims to make a difference by offering products that add value to customer's lives. Our endeavour has been to simplify life insurance products and come up with features that help our customers fulfil their financial goals. The challenge we had to solve for was to demystify life insurance and communicate it in a way that appeals to a wider audience pool.

With this objective in mind, we have launched 'The Missing Dulha', an industry first, one-of-a-kind 10-part 'ad-series' that highlights the various features and benefits of our suite of life insurance products with an interesting and humorous setting of an Indian wedding. The campaign educates consumers about the importance of life insurance products and their features that will eventually help drive life insurance penetration in India

Today post-pandemic how has the perception towards insurance changed?

With the advent of the COVID- 19 pandemic, the awareness levels for life insurance increased manifolds. People have started looking at life insurance as a necessary measure to protect their loved ones and secure them financially in case of adversity, as the pandemic clearly highlighted the importance of timely financial planning. Customers have started looking at life insurance as a necessary tool for battling uncertainties, rather than a mere tax saving financial instrument. They have also started looking for higher customisations in the products, which can be tailored to their financial needs, current situation and long term goals.

On other initiatives beyond traditional marketing for targeting existing consumers and potential customers?

To target existing policyholders as well as prospective customers, we run segmented campaigns through direct marketing modes. These campaigns follow a holistic campaign management framework, which is based on customer lifecycle management principles. Further, we adopt a product-propensity led approach which is based on deep understanding of the customer's profile and their preferences. Our focus remains cantered around personalised, relevant content for our customers, underlined by strong insights and compelling propositions.

Currently, we are exploring various digital formats to increase audience reach and engagement. These include short-form video bytes, text ads, visually appealing static banners, animated GIFs, interactive gamification rich media ads, and social media stories. By utilising a mix of digital formats, the campaign aims to engage the audience in an entertaining, relatable and informative way.

On the trends globally and in India when it comes to investing in insurance and the communication strategy?

The life insurance industry in India and globally, is facing an inflection point. In the wake of inflation and global slowdown, we are seeing the rise of more value-conscious consumers who are seeking a seamless experience offered to them across touch points. A consumer-first approach is what I see emerging as a key trend, which needs to reflect across all functions - building marketing strategies and capabilities, digital-led efforts and business models. In terms of communication, being able to appeal to consumers with relevant messaging that caters to their current needs and to be able to create a strong emotional connect with them, is critical for success in today’s evolving world.

On marketing campaigns translating into sales for the brand?

Life insurance remains a push product. With low awareness about the product category, India continues to face the challenge of under penetration in terms of life insurance. Consumer understanding of our products and offerings is yet to increase. Hence, a critical component of our efforts is to identify consumer needs and communicate how our insurance solutions enable individual to address those needs. A sale does not necessarily follow through immediately. Hence, most of our efforts are also not directed towards the same.

We essentially focus a large part of our efforts towards brand building, tracked by brand health parameters. Our campaigns are aimed at ensuring that we enjoy high recall and always rank towards the top of the consideration set. This ensures that when consumers are ready to make a purchase we are always in consideration. A second critical part of our communication efforts are directed towards need creation. This ensures expansion of customer base with a strong brand ensuring we collect on the awareness when consumers are ready.