The Hindu Business Line : Max New York Life recasts brand campaign

As most insurance advertising tends to focus constantly on life, security and benefits, making differentiation virtually impossible, and players are known by their heritage, size or trust, the values that they stand for are not coming through. It’s therefore vital for brands to realise exactly what they stand for and talk about it, says Ms Anisha Motwani, Executive Vice-President (Marketing), Max New York Life Insurance.

Speaking to Business Line here, she said Max has launched a new campaign to communicate that the brand has been revamped to reflect the spirit of its modern Indian consumers. This consumer, as seen in research conducted by McKinsey Global Institute and Max, is younger, willing to take risks and unabashedly ambitious.

It’s to celebrate and partner this that the brand has changed its tagline to ‘Karo Zyaada Ka Iraada’ (expect more) from ‘Your Partner for Life’, said Ms Motwani, adding that the new campaign is reflective of the company’s transformation as it gears up to meet consumer expectations.

While the Hindi version of the campaign is already on air, South Indian language versions will break out this week. “Insurance is a category that does well with advertising – there is a consumer connect, and considering that each insurance company has between 50,000 and three lakh agents, the advertising lets consumers be more open to them,” Ms Motwani said.

Considering that there are various kinds of insurance products offered now – relating to health, education, children, Max believes it has to act like a typical FMCG brand and communicate the benefits of each product. While umbrella branding will stay, there will be different approaches to individual products’ advertising, she said. Max New York Life kicked off a branding exercise with Indian Railways last month. It has branded three South-bound Rajdhani Expresses and placed its agents on these trains to speak to the passengers.

It has the sole advertising and promotion rights on the exterior and interiors of these three trains. Also, to cut clutter in the life insurance segment, it has departed from the industry’s tendency to show cheerful images in its advertising and went in for the “fear factor” instead, with its “Sanju” advertisement during the IPL tournament, Ms Motwani said, adding that the ad worked well for them.

Max New York looking at `most admired' tag
Max to build brand through healthcare project