Bajaj Allianz kicks off soccer talent hunt

The insurance player has launched the fourth season of its football talent hunt, with camps across 120 cities of India.

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance recently launched the fourth season of its local soccer talent hunt, 'Junior Football Camp 2013'. The camp will be conducted in 800 schools across 120 cities of the country during June-July and select five candidates to be trained for a week at FC Bayern Munich in Germany. The training will take place at the Allianz Arena stadium in Germany in the first week of August and provide an international exposure to talented young footballers of the country.

The camps will be organised in conventional soccer markets such as Kerala, Goa and the Northeast, and new upcoming markets such as Dehradun, Durgapur, Siliguri, Jalandhar and others. The company aims to reach out to 50,000 players in the age group of 14-16 years through this on ground campaign.

Touch points such as schools, print, online and cinema branding are being used to promote the campaign. Regular print advertisements are being released in DNA (West Zone), Mathrubhumi (South Zone), The Telegraph in Schools (East zone) and Dainik Bhaskar (North Zone).

For online, a website provides all information about the previous and the upcoming Junior Football camps. In 2013, Bajaj Allianz has also launched a Facebook page which has more than 25,000 Likes for the campaign. For cinema branding, it has tied up with theatre chains such as PVR Cinemas for promotion in metros.

Bajaj Allianz has also launched a missed call alert facility across all the four zones for the students to register directly. Missed-call alert numbers for registration are - 080 6773 0156 (East), 080 6773 0157 (West), 080 6773 0158 (South) and 080 6773 0159 (North).

Speaking about the campaign, Rituraj Bhattacharya, head, market management, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, says, "It gives Bajaj Allianz a unique platform to connect with the parents via kids. It presents us with an opportunity to connect with the kids and create our presence in their minds as they will soon join our target audience. And, in the end, it helps in mobilising our sales force on the ground and keeps them engaged with the consumers."

He adds that this camp is an attempt to revive football in both urban and rural areas.

For years, the insurance player has maintained its brand position as 'Jiyo Befikar' where it says that if people are protected then only can they live life worry-free. Most of the brand's communications have been around this positioning and this campaign is also an extension to that position.

Bajaj Allianz has chosen football as the theme for the campaign for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it believes that football is the next 'in' game after cricket in India. Secondly, Allianz, the joint venture partner, conducts soccer training for kids across Europe every year, so Bajaj took up the same idea and customised it according to India with an aim to penetrate the rural Indian market, spread awareness about the brand and also promote football.

Bajaj Allianz has also tied up with domestic football clubs such as Mohun Bagan and the Kerala Football Academy that are providing scholarships to prospective football talents. It also has a partnership with FC Bayern Munich.

Bhattacharya emphasises that this campaign is not a CSR activity but a marketing initiative. The past three seasons have helped the brand to create effective branding in the areas where the campaign has been carried out. Its sales force keeps a track of the registered participants and many a times, business materialises as their parents look for a policy for them.

Bajaj Allianz spends around Rs 2.5-3 crore every year for this campaign.

Speaking on specific challenges, Bhattacharya says that insurance is more of a push category and not a pull category. The brand thus needed to create a positive idea through football or any other medium and create a recall in the minds of consumers.

Bajaj Allianz launched the first leg of this campaign in 2010, where it touched 15,000 students in 40 cities. In the second season, it met 25,000 students in 41 cities, while in the third season, it reached 38,000 students in 120 cities.

The insurance market in India is valued at more than Rs 1 lakh crore and Bajaj Allianz's share in the market is around 2.8 per cent. For FY 2012-13, the company issued more than 7,30,000 policies. Bajaj Allianz is also the No.1 player among the non-bank promoted insurance companies.

Bajaj Allianz started operations in India in 2001 with a paid up capital of Rs 110 crore. It is a venture between Bajaj Finserv Ltd and Allianz SE. Allianz SE has more than 119 years of financial experience and is present in over 70 countries around the world. It offers products in motor insurance, life insurance, health insurance, life insurance, travel insurance and home insurance.