Tag: Insurance

Manila, Philippines – Insurance company Chubb in the Philippines has recently announced the appointment of its new country manager, Mari Rachelle [Cielo] Canta, effective starting 1 July.

Canta replaces incumbent country manager Peter van Ratingen, who has since then been appointed to the role of head of consumer lines for Australia and New Zealand at Chubb.

In her new role, Canta will oversee the operations and business development activities of Chubb’s key business lines in the Philippines namely, property and casualty as well as accident and health insurance. She will be also responsible for the management of regulatory relationships, strategic partnerships and affinity relationships.

Canta joined Chubb in 2017 as Chief Financial Officer for the Philippines. Her well-balanced acumen on all facets of finance, planning and controllership as well as operational risk is complemented by her strong general management skills. Prior to joining Chubb, she worked for a decade with insurance company AON, moving to roles of increasing responsibility in the Philippines as well as Singapore. 

In addition, she has extensive experience in the banking sector, from merger and acquisition integration to board and senior leadership team responsibilities.

She will report to Edward Ler, head of Southeast Asia at Chubb.

Paul McNamee, regional president for Asia Pacific at Chubb, said, “Cielo is a strategic and hands-on leader who has strong market knowledge and relationships. Our business will benefit greatly from her deep local experience to build sustainable partnerships with our distribution partners and customers.”

Thailand – As a lifestyle product, you can always trust that a campaign on insurance is sure to touch hearts and ignite sentiment from the audience. Insurance group FWD in Thailand did just that but with a little spin-off of the usual creative films that are served by brands. 

The twist isn’t one bit of a loud and attention-grabbing element, but a ‘slow burn’ or one that takes its time with a narrative – through the form of a ‘musicumentary’. 

The campaign was created with creative agency GREYnJ UNITED Thailand, through its sister agency, Black&White, and instead of presenting a finished creative, the audience is taken to a 10-minute documentary, sort of a ‘behind-the-scene’, where a young composer has been briefed by FWD to develop a song for the campaign that would center on its slogan ‘Celebrate living’. 

FWD Thailand 1

So instead of just surprising the audience with the song itself, FWD shows the ‘meaning of life’ through the journey of the young composer in finding the ‘right lyrics’. 

FWD Thailand 2

In a true depiction of one’s creative process, the composer grabs a notebook and starts drawing inspiration from social media and memories. As the young man deep dives into the different people he sees on social media, he starts to reflect on what the real meaning of life is. He looks into a couple playing with dogs, a woman enjoying a meal, a man indulging in a massage, and another woman energetically exercising in a gym, as well as a group of friends having fun and a father taking care of his child.

In the end, still with no lyrics in hand, the composer takes one last shot on an elderly that has met a car accident, losing her ability to feel on one side of her face. In the film, the retired senior is shown to have lost all hope but is slowly getting back up through the power of music, and playing the guitar.

“Music healed my muscles…it healed me,” she says. 

With this, the film comes to a conclusion with the composer’s realization that after all his search for the ‘meaning of life’, in the end, it’s simply a call to just “live it.”

He looks back at the people he has taken as study and realized that to live a good life is to simply continue enjoying the things that the said people are already doing – to eat, play with dogs, get a massage, dance, and live with the people we love. 

GREYnJ UNITED Thailand shared that the campaign’s aim is to shift the industry’s norm and change the way people feel about insurance, something which is typically built on fear tactics and even distrust.

“The combination between music and good storytelling allows the brand message to take center stage of the audience’s hearts effectively. It’s another way to encourage people to nurture a passion for life and empower people to live life to the fullest without hesitation,” said the agency’s Creative Director of Black&White Arnon Kantawang.

The campaign is an integrated communication and will cover TVC, outdoor media, radio, and online film targeting people in ‘Segment G’, those that are young at heart, creative minded, and aged between 18 and 35. 

Pavarisa Chumvigrant, chief branding, and communications officer at FWD Thailand, said, “GREYnJ UNITED via Black&White showed us its expertise in both strategic planning and creative excellence. They truly understand FWD’s initiatives on empowering people to celebrate Living and our vision in changing the way people feel about insurance.”

Black&White’s Business Director Sureeporn Kulchotehirun also commented that the life insurance market in Thailand is highly competitive, and therefore a strong brand presence and trustworthiness are becoming a key consideration for customers. 

“We’re pleased to partner with FWD and leverage our creative expertise to address the business problems of this challenger brand,” said Kulchotehirun. 

In January of this year, FWD in Singapore has also picked creative agency Grey to manage its integrated and creative campaigns. 

Manila, Philippines – Philam Life, the Philippines-based insurance company by multinational insurance and finance firm AIA Group, has partnered with India’s growth marketing platform Lemnisk, to implement a Customer Data Platform (CDP), aiming to deliver an orchestrated and personalized customer experience.

Lemnisk provides CDP-led personalization and real-time marketing automation solutions that deliver customer experiences that aim to bring increased conversions, retention, and growth for enterprises.

During the pilot engagement, Lemnisk will be collaborating to amplify Philam Life’s digital leads funnel and increase existing customer engagement on its digital properties.

According to Philam Life’s CMO Leo Tan, the insurance company is at an exciting time where the pandemic has pushed them to fast track the development of their digital capabilities. 

“Piloting a CDP is the first step towards a more customer-centric approach in lead generation and we are excited to welcome Lemnisk onboard as we collaboratively create a more relevant and stronger leads management program that will benefit potential customers,” said Tan.

Meanwhile, Subra Krishnan, the CEO of Lemnisk, commented that they are immensely excited at the opportunity to partner with Philam Life in its journey to create an engine for phenomenal customer experience and amplify its business objectives. 

“The pandemic has mandated a strong data strategy foundational to long-term customer value and the way brands like AIA Philam Life have responded truly sets them apart. We look forward to innovating together and exploring valuable use cases,” said Krishnan.

Hong Kong – Insurance company AXA has announced the rollout of its new global brand campaign aimed at creating inspiration for confidence and progress.

Embodying the brand’s ‘Know You Can’ brand signature, the new brand campaign centers on the purpose of “act for human progress by protecting what matters.” This means evolving the meaning of the brand’s promise from empowering an individual’s self-belief towards being an enabler of progress through collective and connected confidence. In doing so, it seeks to make the brand a trusted and reliable beacon for its stakeholders.

In addition, the campaign is directly inspired by what most need nowadays: optimism. With the global pandemic having a massive impact on the physical and mental health of people around the world, the brand campaign’s message can be summed as “when you feel confident you can go far. When you feel protected by AXA you can go further.”

“This new brand campaign underscores AXA’s continuous commitment to being a true partner for our customers and helping them to achieve their goals. We hope to inspire people with this impactful campaign to embrace the future with confidence and build a better world together,” said Sally Wan, chief executive officer at AXA Hong Kong and Macau.

https://youtu.be/RU6rPImz7L4

The new AXA brand campaign will first roll out in the Asia Pacific, particularly in Hong Kong, where the campaign will be promoted across TV, digital and social media, and on outdoor billboards at strategic locations.

One of the initial parts of the campaign is a short film produced by AXA, which focuses on a young girl’s dream to become a soccer player. Throughout the storyline, the young girl faces a lot of obstacles, from being bullied in school to having seen a riot in their local area. Despite the adversities, she manages to emerge victorious as she plays for a large crowd. 

Overall, the brand’s campaign is a focus point for AXA’s commitment to supporting its customers, small-to-medium enterprises and the wider community, giving them the confidence to move forward.

“We are proud and delighted to be the first Asian market to launch this powerful brand campaign. To further reinforce our brand promise ‘Know You Can’ among Hong Kong citizens and build up the impact of this meaningful brand campaign, we will also introduce a series of local inspiring true stories surrounding the themes of Climate Change, BetterMe and Health throughout this year,” said Andrea Wong, chief marketing and customer officer of AXA Hong Kong and Macau.

Manila, Philippines – Philippine telco Globe, in a bid to add value and “peace of mind” to customers amid the ongoing pandemic, is now entitling its Globe at Home (GAH) Prepaid WiFi users to a ₱140.5K in free medical coverage services.

Through the offering, GAH aims to move beyond just providing connectivity and coverage to Filipino households but also to grant ‘extra care’ through GInsure. Powered by SingLife and GCash, GInsure provides free medical insurance for three months to prepaid subscribers against COVID-19 and dengue. 

GAH users can avail of the free medical coverage offering when they register to GAH promos HomeSURF99 and up, SURF4ALL99 or HomeWATCH199 and up.

With HomeSURF99, users get 10GB worth of data for five days at ₱99. With its free 1GB data per day refreshed and replenished daily for five days, users can send messages through Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Viber, stream YouTube videos, and shop online via Lazada and Shopee on top of the remaining 5GB open access data allocation. In addition, HomeSurf99 can support as many as four to six mobile devices or gadgets all at the same time. 

“Due to the pandemic, security, safety, health, and peace of mind are the top priorities of most Filipino families. People now are extra careful and concerned for the health and safety of their loved ones. With these in mind, Globe At Home is doing its part to help our prepaid customers have one less worry by giving them free health insurance for three months,” said Darius Delgado, Globe head for broadband business. 

He added, “We believe that the free insurance protection will go a long way in helping families during these times when their means of livelihood are particularly challenged.”

Manila, Philippines – Insurance company Manulife Philippines has released its share of New Year ad, holistically capturing 2020, and doing everyone a favor through its intimate full-year review of the challenging and eventful year that was. 

Titled ‘Goodbye, Hello’, Manulife’s two-minute film ultimately defines the art of subtlety as it drops any brand mention or suggestive placement of insurance but in the credits scene. The film rather focused on ‘life’ itself, and the journey that has taken everyone on an unprecedented ride, from the eruption of the country’s Taal Volcano at the beginning of the year down to the pandemic, moving everyone and everything to operate virtually. 

“The year 2020 taught us a lot of things. Because of the pandemic, our values and priorities have changed. We focused on the truly essential, and realized what we must do to make our loved ones feel cherished and protected,” said Melissa Henson, senior vice president, and chief marketing officer of Manulife Philippines.

“The new year gives Filipinos the opportunity to look back and look ahead at the same time, and we at Manulife Philippines are determined as ever to be with them in every step of their financial journey. As our new digital film aptly puts it—when life stops, we keep going with you,” added Henson. 

The film is narrated through the story of one man Miguel and his Lola Nora, or grandma in Filipino. It takes viewers on a month-by-month review, touching on the trends that everyone has learned to normalize amid adapting to the lockdown in the pandemic – such as having more time to grow plants at home, shopping more items from e-commerce, and engaging in short video platform TikTok.

The short film was released on the company’s YouTube and Facebook channels, where it currently has 400K views on the former. 

In the past year, Manulife Philippines has rolled out various initiatives, such as creating HealthFlex, a health insurance plan that enables customers to customize their health coverage based on their needs.  

Singapore – After a four-month-long pitching process, Grey’s Singapore arm Grey Group Singapore (Grey) has won the appointment of insurance company FWD Singapore as its lead agency, battling out 18 other agencies.

The deal is inked to span 12 months, with the option to extend for another year, and charges Grey with the management of all of FWD Singapore’s integrated and creative campaigns. The partnership will also see Grey offering its strategic counsel and advice on brand strategy to the company.

FWD Singapore is part of FWD group which spans Asia such as in Hong Kong & Macau, countries Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, offering life and medical insurance, as well as general insurance, and employee benefits.

Grey Group Singapore’s CEO Konstantin Popovic

Taking over the mantle from incumbent DDB Asia Pacific, Grey Group Singapore’s CEO Konstantin Popovic said, “We are absolutely thrilled and honored to become part of FWD’s next growth phase. The brand’s pioneering spirit and ongoing commitment to innovation present tremendous creative opportunities.”

“Coinciding with how this category could transform for the better in an ever-changing, fast-paced world, we can’t wait to create famously effective campaigns together,” added Popovic.

Just recently, Grey has launched a new division, Grey Commerce Collective SEA, which saw the consolidation of Grey Singapore’s Shopper marketing arm to the collective.

Hong Kong – Insurance group FWD is launching a podcast series titled ‘Changing the way people feel about insurance…with FWD’, in an aim to freshen peoples’ perspective towards insurance. 

The podcast will offer insights into FWD’s innovative approach and areas of expertise as well as the exciting trends in Asia’s dynamic insurance industry by means of expertise from FWD’s leadership team across Asia.

Its CEO, Huynh Thanh Phong is the first guest for the pilot episode of FWD’s podcast series. The episode centered around his personal philosophy that inspired his work, revealing what his customers have taught him, and describes how FWD is taking a new approach to a legacy industry.

Huynh-Thanh-Phong-FWD-CEO
Huynh Thanh Phong, FWD Group CEO

Hosted by broadcast journalist and writer Fiona Mattesini from podcast production group The Podcast People, FWD’s future podcast episodes will be focused on FWD’s customers, business partners, and employees and will cover topics ranging from FWD’s brand and culture, to its customer-led approach, to technologies and industry trends that are driving business initiatives.

“We’re delighted to announce our first-ever podcast series which is designed to bring powerful stories and helpful insights and information to our customers, partners, and employees located all across Asia. FWD is a digital-first insurer that prides itself on innovation, so launching a unique and educational podcast is a very logical step and aligns with our ambition to engage and inspire our customers in new and exciting ways,” said Azim Mithani, FWD chief of staff.

He added, “Today’s audiences are looking for original, on-demand content that sheds new light on old topics. This is exactly what our new podcast series is all about and we hope it will allow us to illuminate trends and leading-edge solutions in insurance to our audiences throughout Asia.”

Meanwhile, Bernadette Stevens, FWD Vice President for Brand and Marketing, said, “Our new podcast series will enable us to start a fresh conversation in what is a largely unoccupied space in the Asian insurance industry. Our aim is to stimulate interest in insurance and explain complicated subject matters in a creative and accessible way. At the same time, we are providing access to deeply candid conversations with FWD executives that illustrate exactly why we’re different and ahead of the curve, and ultimately changing the way people feel about insurance.”

FWD’s future podcast episodes will be released every two weeks, and are available on online platforms Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify.

Singapore – As Singapore moves to phase three of reopening its community amid the pandemic, local car-sharing platform Tribecar has launched a ‘Super Economy’ rental for its cars starting at SGD$0.54 per hour.

The pricing package is a new addition to its slew of ‘Economy’ rentals, where the starting rate applies to rentals within ‘super off-peak’ hours, which are weekdays from 12 am to 6 am. In addition, in an aim to provide more value, the rental service has also extended its ‘off-peak’ hours to now cover weekday rentals from 6 am to 6 pm.

Each Tribecar’s service type corresponds to an available fleet for rental. For the ‘Super Economy’ package, only selected automatic vehicle models are available.

Together with the launch of the new service, Tribecar has also announced the adoption of the usage-based car insurance (UBI) by insurance company NTUC Income (Income) and automotive marketplace CARRO where motor insurance is no longer based on a fixed cost but tied to the vehicle’s smart data such as mileage, location and, timing consumption.

In November 2019, the two firms launched the first-ever car insurance model, dubbing it as ‘Pay-as-you-drive’ insurance. 

The joint initiative developed a usage-based motor Insurtech platform, combining telematics, insurance, and data analytics, designed to enable car rental firms in Singapore to mass adopt usage-based programs effectively. Tribecar said the new ‘Super Economy’ category has been made possible through its adoption of the model. 

“We’re very pleased to roll out this program with the aid of Income and CARRO. This adoption of UBI for our cars simply means transparency, lower prices, and tremendous savings for our members,” said Adrian Lee, co-founder of Tribecar.

Meanwhile, Max Tiong, head of digital transformation at Income, commented, “It is very encouraging to see the growing interest in new insurance models like usage-based insurance within the motoring community, which is testimony to the value it brings to drivers – customization and convenience.”

Founder and CEO of CARRO Aaron Tan also commented, “With a usage-based model that allows them to pay insurance based only [on] how much they drive, Tribecar’s customers can now enjoy a new level of flexibility with rental cars. With Income’s support in driving this transformation, we hope this partnership will help catalyze further efforts to use technology to meet the practical needs of today’s drivers.”

Lee revealed that Tribecar is experimenting with new ways to deliver greater value for its members, sharing that it is in talks with authorized car distributors in Singapore to roll out ‘Drive before you buy’ schemes for members that may be keen to buy a new car.

Manila Philippines  – Acquiring insurance will always carry its own complexity, and in a bid to trivialize the process of finding the right financial product for consumers, the Philippine arm of Canada-born insurance company Sun Life has launched a campaign that bundles insurance products with mutual funds, rolling them out as different “starter packs.” 

Dubbed as “Celebrity Product Starter Pack,” Sun Life wanted to make insurance friendlier by offering “combos” specifically curated for each life stage, enlisting well-known Filipino celebrities that best represent such stages to forefront each bundle. 

Sun Life offers five starter packs, namely, the Adulting, Negosyante (entrepreneur), Newlywed, Health, and Parent of OFW (overseas filipino worker) bundles.

For each starter pack, one insurance and mutual fund is bundled together. For example, the Adulting Starter Pack, which is the brand’s offer for first-time workers discovering their independence, combines its basic life insurance plan Sun StartUp and minimal risk mutual fund Sun Life Prosperity Money Market mutual fund for an affordable monthly premium starting at P2,000 ($50). 

The said starter pack is endorsed by Gen Z actor and singer Iñigo Pascual. Meanwhile, for its Negosyante or entrepreneur bundle, the brand got young adult and TV personality Enchong Dee.

For its Newlywed Starter Pack, Sun Life has partnered with recently wedded Matteo Guidicelli, who created buzz earlier in the year for his secret wedding with popular Philippine pop star Sarah Geronimo. 

For its Health and Parent of OFW starter packs, on the other hand, Sun Life appointed Piolo Pascual, who is also the brand’s main endorser, and Charo Santos-Concio, respectively, who is a well-known media executive in broadcast giant ABS-CBN. 

The campaign is a digital campaign with banners rolled out on its social media channels Facebook and Instagram. A 6-second spot for each starter pack has also been published on YouTube, with the brand also executing native email advertisements.

Sun Life Chief Marketing and Client Experience Officer Gilbert Simpao said the company released the bundle marketing campaign, having found that many Filipinos consider insurance as an overwhelming and expensive endeavor. 

“This [insight] prompted Sun Life to highlight and offer the budget-friendly essential products to start their financial foundation with. These insurance and investment starter packs can suit different lifestyles and needs of Filipinos,” he said. 

He added, “With the Celebrity Product Starter Packs, Filipinos will have a clearer starting point in their pursuit of their financial goals, especially now that everyone is striving to rise above the challenges presented by the pandemic.”