Death is the eternal truth. It is the only certainty in life. However, it is never a pleasant thought to engage in. No one really wants to discuss it. Insurance advertising has to balance the unpleasantness of this life event. In process, Insurance brands have used SHAM (logic), DAAM (price and not necessarily the cost of premium), DAND (penalty) and BHEDH (Differentiation and doubt). They have used polarisation of emotions and expressions, Sad to not-so-sad (Happy), Fear to hope, Guilt to assurance, Love and care, unprepared to certainties, accidental to pre-planned to varied level of success.
The last few years, we have seen some remarkable positive shift in insurance brands connecting with the audience. Long format story telling in the digital world is the new flavour. Though keeping the audience with a lower attention span engaged is still a barrier that few have scaled successfully.
Brands have tried moving away from the format of fear of unwarranted situation and tax savings to an emotional high of caring sensibilities. The brands have entered this area treading softly thus diluting the resistance of reference to death. However, the category cannot do away with the emotion of fear to jump-start the engines from time to time. A good example of it is the Max Life Insurance life ad (Sanju). My mom hated it and would change the channel because the protagonist shared my name.
Rationality and logical sensibilities have been exploited to death. Brands know their limitation. They understand that consumer is not logical or rational but more of an emotional construct. Raising anxiety, dramatization of unpleasant scenario and Arousing tension before presenting the solution is no longer the code.
There is another barrier. When it comes to the complex conditions and policy statement ( and unstated statements) few consumers can decipher the features and future on their own. Insurance agents are known to over sell features and non-relevant policies. Brands like Max Life Insurance (Aapke Sachche Advisor), SBI ( 10 questions) have tried addressing this issue.
To defuse the alienating effect of fear, it has been replaced with long-term benefits of insurance. It looked like someone watched the episode of ‘Mad Men’ in which Dan Draper outlines the appeal of fear as a tool for selling with chilling clarity. “Advertising is based on one thing: happiness,” he calmly tells his clients. “And do you know what happiness is? … It’s freedom from fear.” See the engaging SBI AD – Great Dad tackling this imagery.
I share with you the international ad by AVIVA. You see a family rushing for their vacation. You realize that the father is long dead, but all this is possible because of the insurance. The brand claims this helped encouraging families to think about taking out life insurance.
Insurance brands have moved to the new level of understanding of their consumers. They have replaced the fear of ‘What If’ to a beautiful story of ‘That’s. Why’, a far more positive statement connecting with the audience. One of the ads that did it well is the ‘Memories for life’ by HDFC.
The category is not short on awareness. It is understanding and buying where the block exists. Someone said, insurance selling is like ‘pathaar marana per makmal mai lapet kar’ (Hitting with a stone after wrapping it in muslin). Jokes apart. Insurance ads have used humour sparingly. Death, is not a subject to be taken lightly. The end has to be positive, and it must make you smile.
The communication may have moved; I am not sure if the consumer has. What Madhukar Sabnavis said in his article of 2008 in Business standard still is true. No one wants to talk of death. So, within family, if someone asks ‘How much will my next of kin get if I die tomorrow?’ the most likely reaction will ‘Shubh shubh baat kar‘ (say only auspicious things). It has always been a tight ropewalk for Insurance brands. Sometime, stretching it can backfire. We are yet to see extreme adverse reaction to an Insurance ad in India.
Here is, an edgy National Insurance ad ‘Make It safe’ ad. It was an attempt to initiate discussion on safety at home that got people rattling. It became known as the worst ad ever in Super Bowl and later was branded ‘The Dead Kid ad’. It showed a kid growing up, there are memorable shots, and then you realiSe that he will not do all that as he died.
Another aspect of Insurance business is smoothness of the claim process, and the percentage of claim settled. These are pure functional performance parameters important enough for the insurer but not the focus here. L&T Insurance makes a six-hour claim in ‘Likk Kar Dogey Kya’ and Bharti Axa Life Insurance talks of 48-hour promise and asks you to go to GO TO FRIEND for advice.
Still after so much noise, media pressure, awareness and now just a click away comparison and buying of a policy, India remains an underinsured country. Insurance is still more of a tax planning necessity than the business of real protection.
Aegon Religare Life Insurance with its ad “kam insurance lene ki bimari” featuring Irrfan Khan attempted to question the situation. Maybe, its time we have a social scheme of 1% insurance cess giving the taxpayer an annual insurance of 50% of annual income. It will be waived if you can prove you are already insured. This is still a country where people are not willing to pay a low cost for travel insurance. In case of rail, it comes at just INR 1.
Earlier, the Brands have been very rational and analytical. Slowly, they have been using emotional triggers to connect. Story telling is used as a device to engage and involve audience. Here are some examples. Tata AIA ‘DaddyAurZooey’ a very touching story.
Birla Sun Life Insurance ‘Kudko Kar Buland’, a very progressive positive motivation toward taking insurance.
Second life by Max Life Insurance is a classic example of it.
These are not the isolated attempts of brand exploiting long format film approach in the digital medium. Everyone seems to be doing it. Unfortunately, the content is not so engaging and involving and hence the efforts are not bringing in the expected returns. The digital audience lack of attention span has not been filtered in. Here is an example of completely engaging insurance communication.
The range of stories and emotions depicted in these brave attempts shows that brands understanding of consumer life journey. The canvas still seems limited and more driven from the cubical in the agency than the homes of the consumers. It is an apt phase for the brands to explore DESIGN THINKING and use of IMPLICIT RESEARCH like face recognition, eye tracking and neuro mapping while evaluating effectiveness of their communication.
The space is really getting crowded. The race is on. The stories are being shared. Hopefully, the marketing strategies and communication will have a happy ending with consumer paying the premium.
Just to close here is a film by insurance brand, Metlife ; child education is worth every sacrifice. I find it a great example of rich story telling. It primes you up as a father, and so you are ready when the agent or another trigger to signup fires on you.
……………………….
First published in mxmindia.com
Blog/ 25/2017
……………………..
Sanjeev Kotnala with 28 years of corporate experience is the founder of Intradia World; a Brand, Marketing & Management Advisory that focusses in Ideation, Innovation and design thinking. Email sanjeev@intradia.in tweet @s_kotnala web: www.intradia.in www.sanjeevkotnala.com.
