Great Eastern targets Singapore’s ‘sandwich generation’ with new campaign and customer experience
Great Eastern Insurance has launched new iterations of its ongoing ‘The Life Company’ campaign. Created by BLKJ, the campaign included a three minute long thematic film called ‘The Kid I Didn’t Ask For’ and two shorter films called ‘A Father’s Prayer’ and ‘A Daughter’s Prayer’.
Speaking to Mumbrella about the genesis of the campaign, Great Eastern managing director of group marketing Colin Chan said: “Last year, as we went through our 110 year milestone, we took a hard look at where we’ve been successful and where we needed to do a fair bit more.
“The last time we had a major refresh was 2012 in which we said we are not just a life insurance but a life company. The time was ripe for us to do another refresh.”
Research revealed that the brand was plateauing to an extent with the younger audience. And so, the youth became the focus. The ‘Prayer’ videos were the first to be launched. According to Chan, they were meant to tie into the same narrative, with the daughter in the second video being an adult version of the child in the first film.
Singaporeans are amongst one of the most invested parents in the world. But just how invested are we? Watch this film to find out and see what happens when the roles between father and daughter are reversed here: https://gelife.co/2Vb1yb3Learn more at greateasternlife.com
Posted by Great Eastern Singapore on Thursday, 9 May 2019
Singaporeans are living longer lives. How does this affect our daughters and sons? Watch this film to find out and go back in time to see a father’s prayer here: https://gelife.co/2LGiKpALearn more at greateasternlife.com
Posted by Great Eastern Singapore on Thursday, 9 May 2019
The longer brand film was launched a few weeks later.
They say pregnancy is a blessing. But for this young mother, having a new baby brought her more stress than joy. With things as they were at home, she feared that she simply wouldn’t be able to manage.Find out at www.thelifecompany.sg how she'd have found greater assurance with GREAT Family Care – the first-ever multi-generational critical illness term plan. Protected up to specified limits by SDIC.
Posted by Great Eastern Singapore on Monday, 27 May 2019
According to Chan, the strategy driving these campaigns was to appeal to the ‘sandwich generation’: people with young children and elderly parents, both of whom needed looking after.
Chan said: “In Singapore, people are living longer. It has the highest life expectancy in Asia. They are getting married and having kids later and so, are going to be challenged in that situation.
“Also, insurance is traditionally purchased by parents for children. In Singapore, where filial responsibility is still so strong, that was the opportunity which we identified, when we were talking about a relevant target audience.
“The research didn’t say ‘sandwich generation’. But by distilling all these points, it felt relevant.” The campaign had deliberate and overt calls to action. Chan said: “We wanted it to achieve not just brand perception at a high level, but to tie it to support commercial results aligned to the business. It’s not just a campaign disconnected from outcomes.”
Prior to the launch, Great Eastern had simplified its policies to allow seamless add-ons to base policies such as cover for children and parents.
Chan said: “Half the people who are buying our policies are also adding the additional cover for their parents.
“A key aspect of this policy is how we make this accessible to people. It removes some steps that existed when it came to parents: getting them to fill a form, sign up, go for medical checks etc. We intentionally made it easily accessible whilst being relevant.”
Chan also highlighted the efforts made to simplify the consumer journey – whether it was made directly or via agents. He said: “There are many parts not visible from the brand campaign. But these are just as if not more important. We have complemented our campaigns with digital tools where customers can immediately activate the cover.
“Customers are used to doing everything on the phone. But in insurance, they still have to fill forms in the old fashioned way.
“It is losing out on an opportunity to give the wow factor. Some people may we still want to discuss the plan the agents. But even they appreciate different choices of how to transact. It may not be as convenient as Apple, for example, but it’s simple enough.”
Take a wonderful Thai insurance film and drain it of every bit of spirit,
originality, storyline, acting plus VO skills, and this is what you get. An overcooked mess. Creepy, slow voiceovers dripping with fake emotion.
Im not really sure how these sell insurance to any….most of the comments on FB are hardly trackable in terms of purchase intent…just lame nonsense composing of likes and questions on where the skatepark is located. Abject fail.
Replyhow pray tell would you do an insurance ad?
ReplyLove it that an age old singapore brand is telling it’s stories and connecting with different segments. Love the great financial care spot and product too. Many of us are going through this predicament now.
ReplyActor in first ad should be grandfather, surely?
ReplyWho’s he trying to kid?
Both hackneyed and fake at the same time with zero level of originality.
Replywhat would you have done instead?
ReplyAt least TRY to do something original! Look at the cool work done for insurance companies in the States. They don’t always work but many campaigns are excellent and become part of the zeitgeist.
ReplyA client partners with an agency in order to make their brand standout with original thinking and not cloying, anodyne trite that has been done so much better a hundred times before.
Perhaps the client is happy but then that simply shows the state of domestic Singapore advertising. Everyone is too scared to push the envelope as they are too worried about causing offense so rehash something done before.
BLKJ can do all the PR they want about their creativity but if this is their best offering then it’s a [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines].
fair point, in some ways I agree.
ReplyHave your say