Future Generali: Offering peace

The campaign, launched with the tagline 'Insurance Week Mein Sign Karo, Mukti Paao!', asked consumers to sign the white balloon, signifying 'mukti' or peace of mind.

Future Generali, the insurance joint venture between the Future Group of India and the Generali Group of Italy, launched a unique promotional initiative - Sign Karo Mukti Paao - aimed at attracting new customers.

The insight behind the campaign was the low penetration of insurance in India. As per the data provided by Future Generali, insurance penetration in the country is only 4.6 per cent in life insurance and 0.61 per cent in non-life insurance.

With this insight, the company rolled a television-led campaign to break the procrastination barrier in insurance planning. The insight behind the whole initiative was to talk to the 'Karta' (doer) of the family about the importance of insuring himself.

The TVCs, conceptualised by Ogilvy India, feature a 'Karta' (Mr Shrivastava), who has not done his duty of taking an insurance and is not at peace even after he dies. "We wanted to do it in a way that delivers the message without losing the edge, but in a manner light-hearted enough for the consumers to accept it," says Abraham Alapatt, head, brand and corporate communications, Future Generali India Insurance.

To associate an action with the message, the company launched an on-ground activity called the Insurance Week (during January 29-February 6) to ensure accessibility to end consumers. For this initiative, the company tied up with Future Group's large format retail store, Big Bazaar, in order to standardise delivery and maximise reach. The on-ground activation was managed by Grey's activation arm, G2rams.

Future Generali India Insurance has spent about Rs 8 crore on ATL (above-the-line) promotion and Rs 1 crore on BTL (below-the-line) activities.

"Being the 19th player in a 24-player market, you clearly have to grapple with the issue of market share in a small segment in terms of penetration of the category. So, I think the battle is for the market to expand, which will make it easier for the new players to break ground. The existing customer will not necessarily go to the new players and buy new policies. So, if we have to acquire new customers, we have to create new customers," says Alapatt.

The campaign, which was launched with the tagline 'Insurance Week Mein Sign Karo, Mukti Paao!', asked consumers to sign the white balloon - signifying 'mukti' or peace of mind - and take a pledge to re-evaluate their insurance covers.

The company reached out to more than 100 Big Bazaar outlets in about 57 cities and collected more than 10 lakh signatures on balloons and pledge cards.

It plans to celebrate this period every year as the Insurance Week. "As it is, this period sees a surge in insurance. So, instead of reinventing the wheel, we want to go at a time when they are looking for it," adds Alapatt.

The January-March quarter is a very lucrative period for insurance providers, which is evident from the spends during this time. In the last quarter of the financial year, most insurance companies spend 40-70 per cent of their total ad budgets.