)
What has been the most interesting sales promotion you have engineered so far?
In September 2013, we kicked off a below-the line-activation, "What's your big plan", wherein we asked children in the age group of 3-12 years to share their big plan in life and what their parents were doing to support this plan. The campaign was run in seven cities - Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. Students could just walk into the partner stores and drop in their entries. We also tied up with around 200 schools in these cities to encourage participation. Apart from these, students could also submit their entries online.
We got around 65,000 entries over a period of one month. The campaign ended in November 2013 when 20 winners were picked. They were awarded scholarships and were also given a chance to play cricket with Sachin Tendulkar.
Who did you primarily target with it - new or existing customers or both?
The campaign was targeted at both new as well as existing customers. It was expected to generate a business pipeline, which we managed with over a lakh parents engaging with the brand actively. About 70 per cent of these leads were generated through our tie ups with the schools; the rest through the entries collected.
How was the promotion designed?
The entire campaign was aimed at promoting our child plans category. This is a category of focus for Aviva. We would like insurance buyers to think about us each time they think about child plans.
A happy outcome of this campaign was the children's aspirations study. Based on the entries, we unveiled a report on the aspirations of young children in India, which reflected on interesting insights on the ambitions of young kids in India.
Why was it designed so?
Every summer we run campaigns for the child plan category. This year we rolled out the "What's your big plan" campaign"? Apart from the scholarships, we also gave away 10,000 educational DVDs. We used that as a conversation starter with our leads.
After the campaign was completed and the findings collated, we passed on the leads generated as well as these findings to our agents, whom we refer to as 'child-future planning experts'. The findings of the study were fed into the lead management system so that when the agent met the parents, he was already aware of the child's as well as parents' response to the "big plan" question.
What were the challenges?
What began as a below-the-line activation has today moved into the mass media space, with a television commercial being cut as an extension of the campaign. The challenge was delivery of our vision for the TVC. We needed to use moving images of Sachin's younger self along with his current self. It was difficult to get the right visuals.
Who partnered you in it?
We partnered with select Croma and McDonald's stores in the cities the campaign was run. The stores worked as the touch-points for the entries.
What was the impact on sales and the brand?
We generated a business pipeline of one lakh contacts at the end of the campaign. Of those finally contacted, almost 80 per cent evinced an interest in meeting our representative. And of those met, around 60 per cent expressed an interest in purchasing the plan. This translated into a potential of selling 33,600 child plans or child-plan related products by Aviva in the final quarter of 2013 -14.
Child-related products, which constituted 35 per cent of Aviva's business in the quarter ended December in 2012, stand at 55 per cent for the same period this year, registering a growth of 20 per cent. Brand scores increased from 77 per cent to 87 per cent. Brand consideration also went up 2.5 times.
Don't sales promotions incur high long term costs for the company?
Sales promotions incur high long-term costs mainly due to the trade and consumer discounts involved and the consequent dip in the margins. That is technically not the case with us. Insurance as a category is not permitted to incentivise its consumers through discounts, freebies or in any other conceivable form. All costs attached to the campaign are a part of the budget allocated for marketing.
"What's your big plan"
Aim
To reinforce Aviva as the choice of insurer for the child plan category by engaging with parents and promote the category
Target
To maximise our reach and generate a healthy business pipeline for the sales team to subsequently follow up
Plan
Children, within the age group of 3-12, were asked to share their big plan in life and the parents, to elaborate their preparation support this plan. Twenty winners were announced in November 2013. They were awarded scholarships and given a chance to play cricket with Sachin Tendulkar
Outcome
Brand scores increased to 87 per cent. Child-related plans registered a growth of 20 per cent
