ICICI Lombard drives home safe on digital

The social awareness campaign makes extensive use of various social platforms and targets the online user in the age group of 20-45 years, owning either a car or a two wheeler.

With a large number of Indians considering insurance as a means of saving income tax, various insurers are targeting the young Indian workforce on social media.

In a similar move, insurance firm ICICI Lombard has launched a social awareness campaign on digital platforms. Titled 'Drive Home Safe', the campaign makes extensive use of various social platforms, primarily Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The target audience for the campaign is the online user in the age group of 20- 45 years, owning either a car or a two wheeler.

As part of its 'Drive Home Safe' campaign, the company has created a video titled 'Cop Experiment' which focuses on analysing the behaviour of motorists in terms of following traffic rules. It juxtaposes the motorists' behaviour in the absence of a traffic cop against that in the presence of a traffic cop.

The video, shot in traffic heavy junctions in Mumbai, shows how motorists in general display lack of road sense and how the mere presence of a cop instils a sense of fear, thus making them follow basic traffic rules. The company informs that a series of videos on similar lines will be launched to ensure that the message is taken forward and creates additional impact.

As a part of the initiative, the company has introduced the 'Belt Up India' mobile app on its Facebook page where users can come together and pledge to wear a seatbelt to make Indian roads safer. With every click a #beltupindia pledge is taken, which results in expanding the virtual safety belt across India. The company had set a target of 10,000 clicks and has crossed this milestone.

Besides, ICICI Lombard has also shot several home videos wherein kids request their parents to follow all the traffic rules and regulations and come home safely. The videos beautifully capture the emotion of each child who eagerly awaits the parents' arrival each day.

Speaking to afaqs! about the objective behind the campaign, Shankar Nath, head, marketing and direct, ICICI Lombard, says, "Every year, we issue millions of motor insurance policies across the country. We have a social responsibility towards promoting safe driving behaviour on India's roads. With this campaign, we are trying to reinforce that by following traffic rules, the roads of our country can become less dangerous. In the past as well, we have been associated with road safety initiatives in coordination with government and other organisations."

Launched in April, the campaign is an ongoing one and has witnessed almost 100,000 views across the videos uploaded by the company on YouTube. Designed by digital agency Ignitee, this campaign has resulted in increasing the number of Facebook fans for the brand from 250,000 to the current 390,000 (a 56 per cent increase).

Besides, the #DriveSafe hashtag introduced by ICICI Lombard has trended globally at times on Twitter. The hashtag #BeltUpIndia was trending No. 2 globally and No. 1 in India.

More than 10,000 people pledged with ICICI Lombard to belt up while driving, and drive safely.

The videos were promoted in various ways. They were initially launched on YouTube. ICICI Lombard followers on Facebook and Twitter were made aware of such videos being launched on the platform. Also, they were promoted extensively on the company's website. The existing customers were also reached out to through this initiative and were requested to participate. Parallel activities were done on Facebook and Twitter in the form of daily posts and contests.

"This campaign would reinforce that we are a responsible corporate citizen and are acutely concerned about the risks that our citizens are exposed to. As a leading car insurer, we would like to be at the forefront in terms of contributing towards causes that focus on road safety," Nath states.