“Edelweiss TVC is funny but positioning could be better”

After one year of operations, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance has launched its first advertising campaign, which aims to focus on the insurance needs of the mass retail audience. The ad campaign revolves around the tag line ‘Insurance se badhkar hai aapki zaroorat’, which emphasises that identifying the customer’s needs and requirements are of utmost priority for the brand, before offering a solution.

The ad campaign depicts real-life situation of a common man with a touch of humour linking to the promise of ‘aapki zaroorat’.

The first TVC shows that a patient goes for an eye check-up, but the doctor’s asks him to do various health tests rather than focusing on the actual problem of the patient, where the advice is offered, not as per the need. Similarly, in the second TVC, an employee seeks IT solution from an IT expert but rather than identifying the problem, the IT expert offers an advice without fully understanding the issue. The brand will launch the third TVC within a few months.

Ashish Morone, Vice President and Head – Marketing, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance said, “We did a lot of research and realised that there is a huge gap in the insurance industry in understanding the needs of the consumer and selling of insurance policies, which should be addressed. The core philosophy of the organisation is to have a consumer-centric approach with need-based selling. Hence, the campaign is based on the need-based approach to customers.”

He added, “The main challenge was to differentiate ourselves from the others with a fresh and unique approach.”

Deepak Mittal, MD and CEO Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance said, “We have extensively trained our staff to understand the customer needs and to address it accordingly. I believe that this customer-oriented approach will be a key differentiator for us and will lead to a highly satisfied insurance consumer base.”

This is a 360-degree campaign, which includes on-ground training to the sales teams and the agents. The budget earmarked for this campaign is Rs 10 crore. The two ads are currently running and the third one will be released on YouTube and Facebook for now. The ads will also be shown in cinema halls as well.

Kumar Subramaniam, Executive Vice-President, Contract Advertising said, “The central idea is to talk about role of Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance in protecting your loved ones and their dreams and aspirations. We were looking at the most potent consumer insight that is available in the context of buying insurance and one of the biggest things that we found out was that despite the insurance category being big there were lots of things that lacked as far as the consumers are concerned and that led to the insight and the creative proposition.”

“The main challenge was to carve out a space and tonality for a brand that is ownable, distinctive and unique among the 20 odd brands in the category,” added Subramaniam.

Industry speaks
According to Chetan Sharma, Creative Director, What the Hell?, “The creative is funny and it makes you smile – that is the good thing about it. It positions Edelweiss nicely as a company that doesn't mislead its customers. However, it is similar to the Max New York Life Insurance campaign. The good thing about the campaign is that it shows insurance agents are not annoying, though in a subtle manner. The situations are real which audience will find easy to connect with. But, the positioning could have been framed in a better way.”

“The ad is simple yet entertaining. It has good use of everyday life situations. The promise of putting the customer's needs first is a strong proposition for an insurance service provider and it helps the brand come across as a trustworthy player in the insurance category,” said Munaf Shaikh, Group Head (Copy), Concept Communications.