Hong Kong – AIA Hong Kong has launched its brand new advertising series ‘Going Beyond With You’ starring its new ambassador for Hong Kong and Macau, the world swimming champion Siobhan Haughey.

Based on Siobhan’s personal stories, the new commercial, which includes four commercials with different themes, not only showcases her extraordinary talents but also celebrates her fighting spirit in the face of challenges. The successful pursuit of her dreams would inspire people to be brave and stay strong to rise to the challenge. Moreover, the new advertising series also highlights her tenacity and resilience that resonate with the company’s ‘Beyond Insurance’ concept.

Bonnie Tse, chief customer, strategy, and transformation officer of AIA Hong Kong and Macau, said Siobhan is widely recognised as a world-class athlete who keeps pushing her own limits and has broken multiple records in the international sporting arena; her feats are more than impressive. 

“We are exhilarated to invite her to be ‘AIA Hong Kong & Macau Ambassador’ and star in our newest advertising campaign. Not only does she embody our theme of ‘Going Beyond’, but her personal story also exudes positivity and inspires people to face challenges head-on,” added Tse.

The new campaign has been rolled out on AIA and other major social media, as well as digital media platforms, last 14 July.

In addition, Siobhan has also participated in a short video to promote the AIA Healthiest Schools programme as an outstanding athlete, encouraging students to develop healthy and good living habits at an early age. Earlier this year, AIA set an ambition to engage a billion people to live Healthier, Longer, Better Lives by 2030. The AIA Healthiest Schools programme, to be launched in Hong Kong, Australia, Thailand, and Vietnam during the 2022/2023 academic year, will contribute to this goal by putting it into action. 

In Hong Kong, the AIA Healthiest Schools programme will be available in all primary schools and will provide teachers with free, curriculum-linked online resources developed by professional educators. These resources cover four areas, namely healthy eating, active lifestyles, mental well-being, as well as health and sustainability, and are designed to encourage students to actively pursue physical and mental wellness.

Tse noted, “We would like to thank Siobhan for her staunch support of the programme. We are also very grateful for the opportunity to help schools foster students’ health and well-being encompassing body and mind on top of their intellectual development. The programme would nurture healthier human capital of the next generation, bringing lasting positive change to society.”

The AIA Healthiest Schools programme will also include a competition to serve as a platform for participating schools to build communities that share best practices in promoting health and wellness and showcase their success in driving better health outcomes. Prizes worth US$50,000 in total will be given to winning schools to help them accelerate their health initiatives.

Australia — Grassroots advocacy organisation Australians for Mental Health (AfMH) has announced the launch of their new project entitled Holding out for Help, which makes use of hold music – the business practice of playing recorded music to fill the silence that would be heard by telephone callers who have been placed on hold – to shine a light on the long wait times Australians face when waiting for mental health treatment. The campaign was done in collaboration with Australian artist Reuben Styles of hit electronic rock duo Peking Duk.

AfMH has developed a first of its kind library of freehold music, with tracks embedded with messages from styles highlighting the fact that while customers wait, millions suffering from mental ill-health are waiting for help too.

The bespoke messages scattered throughout the hold music feature styles asking Australians to turn their ‘hold’ time into ‘help’ time and end the wait for people suffering from mental ill-health by signing a petition for greater government funding and mental health reform.

Those that joined to support the effort includes life, health, and wellbeing insurer AIA Australia who will deliver the campaign hold music across their customer service phone channels.

Chris Raine, campaign director of AfMH, said that Australia’s mental health system is overstretched, leaving millions of Aussies with mental health issues waiting for treatment, unsure when or if, help may come.

“Our library of hold music is free to every Australian business and with Aussies listening to 90 million hours of hold music a year, we think it’s an incredible channel to reach the nation, at the exact moment it will really hit home. We’re proud to launch the campaign with AIA Australia and share our message with their 3.8 million customers. We hope other Aussie businesses follow suit in turning their hold music into help music,” Raine said.

The library of music is free for all Australian businesses to access and download, with a once-off licensing fee that may apply to broadcast or play the tracks for businesses without a OneMusic license. Meanwhile, the ‘Holding out for Help’ campaign will run across channels namely TV, OOH, print, social and hold lines.

Interested individuals who want to help Aussies in the effort to end mental health wait times can sign the petition at the campaign’s website (holdingoutforhelp.com).

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Dentsu Malaysia has won Malaysian insurance company AIA’s creative retainer services, with immediate effect.

In addition to the existing creative duties of dentsu for AIA PUBLIC Takaful, the network will now become the sole creative agency of record to further support AIA’s purpose of delivering communications that would empower Malaysians to make healthy living choices in the new normal.

AIA is one of the largest independent pan-Asian life insurance and finance corporations, with a presence in 18 markets across the Asia-Pacific region.

Chief Marketing Officer of AIA, Heng Zee Wang said that after an impressive stint with its Takaful business, the company has decided to place its trust in dentsu to extend its capabilities in managing the entire AIA brand in Malaysia, creating integrated solutions that will help build a stronger brand narrative and deeper connection with customers across multiple touchpoints. It is expected that dentsu will create an integrated model that aims to leverage ‘connected creativity’ and help evolve AIA’s brands to be fit in this virtual economy.

Meanwhile, CEO of dentsu Malaysia One Michelle Ong commented that they are deeply honored to acquire the business.

“Our collaboration internally even during work-from-home has been charged with inspiring positivity. The brief was to have AIA at the forefront of consideration for both health and wellness needs. However, one requirement was to not just deliver a ‘campaign’, but a sustainable communication solution that can be carried forward naturally and touches all the relevant consumer and agent points,” Ong said.

Milan Agnihotri, chief strategy officer of dentsu, shared that the anchor of AIA’s proposal was in the seamless integration of ‘Big Organizing Idea (BOI)’ with ‘Return on Investment (ROI)’ for the brand.

“We leveraged our proven methodology of ‘Masterbranding + Behaviour Mapping’ to make sure we steer the brand through the funnel and the brand ecosystem – externally and internally, on a single-minded platform,” Agnihotri added.