Leading private life insurance company, HDFC Life recently launched its first regional multimedia campaign highlighting discipline and financial preparedness among parents to secure their children’s future. This campaign targeted the Southern markets, starting with Tamil Nadu and extending to other southern states - Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. On what prompted this regional campaign Vishal Subharwal, Chief Marketing Officer and Group Head – Strategy, HDFC Life says, “We've been tracking the awareness of life
insurance across the country and there were select pockets in Southern India where there was a gap from a life insurance perspective and where the awareness levels can improve further. That's how we decided to come out with a campaign dedicatedly focused on the southern markets.
He adds, “We are opening more branches, increasing our distribution and moving into semi-urban and rural areas i.e. Tier II and Tier III markets across the country including in the South. Given the opportunity to increase life insurance awareness in these markets, we are speaking to the audience in their language with the cultural nuances that they live with. "For example, an insight that came out is there is a lot of focus on child's education, particularly in the South.” Leveraging the insight of education, HDFC Life’s Tamil campaign film highlighted on the word, centum – a cultural nuance which locally translates to striving for perfection and putting in 100% effort – and showcased a father counselling his daughter to put in her best effort, with her parents always standing by her side. From a media mix perspective, a 360-degree campaign was undertaken which included regional media, Television, Digital and Out-of-Home.
Typically, a HDFC Life campaign would be dubbed in eight or nine regional languages, with Hindi being the medium in the rest of the markets. What is happening is the shift in media mix in certain geographies. Subharwal explains, “In Tier I markets, we are right on top as far as awareness and consideration is considered. What is happening, is that marketing budgets are shifting a little bit towards Tier II and Tier III markets.”
Sar Utha Ke Jiyo
In 2005, HDFC Life launched its first TV advertising campaign 'Sar Utha Ke Jiyo' which has become not just the brand’s tagline but also its core value emphasizing on living life confidence, making this tagline relevant to date. Continuing with this proposition, HDFC Life associated with cricketer Rishabh Pant in a campaign to drive the importance of preparation for life’s uncertainties, positioning Term Life Insurance plans as a vital safety net for individuals and their families.
In December of 2022, Pant met with a life-threatening car crash and then fought against all odds to make a miraculous recovery to once again play for Team India. He went on to become a part of the winning team at the T20 World Cup. Subharwal says, “We thought Rishabh Pant would be a good brand ambassador to speak about the need for protection term insurance. This campaign speaks about, ‘Tyari’ and planning for the life ahead with an insurance for protection. Rishabh's story is of a great bounce back and the insurance also gives you a safety net or protection to bounce back from a problem or a crisis. Who better than Rishabh to represent ‘Sar Utha Ke Jio.’
The Missing Beat’
Another campaign from the insurer is ‘The Missing Beat’, a public interest initiative, aimed at spreading awareness on the importance of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) – a lifesaving technique. As per the World Health Organization, Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally, taking an estimated 17.9 million lives each year, which is what essentially term insurance protection covers. Subharwal says, “A lot of lives can be saved if interventions happen on the spot. Almost 40% of lives can be saved if proper CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) is administered in the case of cardiac arrest. That was the inspiration for the CPR film. Currently, the number of people who can administer CPR in an emergency, in the event of a cardiac arrest, is less than 2%.”
The first stage of this initiative is to raise awareness, and the second, training people to administer CPR over a period of time through proper medical practitioners. He adds, “From an insurance point of view, if we can go ahead and help people protect lives, that is a true Sar Utha Ke Jiyo moment. If we can help people improve their lifestyle, we can then offer wellness products as part of our offering. Over a period of time, some of these offerings can get bundled as value added services, but not right now.”
The two key axis that Subharwal looks at as a differentiator from its competitors – Trust and Innovation. He says, “When it comes to trust, we are in the top quartile. From an innovation standpoint - customer experience, new product offerings, technology that makes the customer's life easier, making the claim settlement process easier, the consumer views this as innovative. Typically, you would find a lot of players either in the trust category or in the innovation category. You won't find players in both categories. We are one of those rare players and being able to do this on both trust and innovation is a differentiator for us.”
A key initiative for HDFC Life is reaching out to Gen Z and engaging them through campus connect program. The insurer has also created a platform called Clarify Life where Gen Z can learn about term insurance and protection. A lot more investment is on digital marketing – social media, shorts, reels, podcasts - to reach out to the younger audience and build a connect. He adds, “A lot of the young audience today is either looking at protection or at wealth creation through vehicles such as unit linked investment plans. The audience is slightly different and has evolved. We try and talk to them in their lingo and language and the formats are changing. Therefore, HDFC Live
continues to grow in terms of both customer acquisition and the premium that we are able to garner”. Looking ahead, HDFC Life is looking at distribution expansion and go deeper, with their branches, into the smaller markets.
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