L&T Health Insurance: A lesson in writing

Written promises hold a lot of weight and indicate solid commitment. Larsen and Toubro (L&T) General Insurance's health insurance product, My Health, uses a written promise to establish its sincerity in its recently released launch campaign. The campaign theme, 'Likh ke doge kya,' assures customers of response to claims within six hours or payment of penalty.

The launch film shows a mother telling her son to eat green leafy vegetables to help him excel in class. She is, however, left speechless when the child asks her, 'Likh ke doge kya' (will you write that down?). In Office, a trainee, while leaving office late with a handful of files, is assured by an almost patronising superior that he will surely get promotion. The trainee asks the superior if he could put this in writing. Similarly, an astrologer and a milkman are asked to write down their claims in different films.

The films capture the stories quite well, ensuring the idea did not get diluted or disguised with over-the-top-humour, she adds.

The spokesperson for the brand team at L&T General Insurance says that a lot of care was taken to ideate on the brief. In fact, this feature is unique to the brand as it has been approved by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA).

The spokesperson says, "This was based on the insight we gained through consumer research, when the product was being designed. We found that customers liked to be informed when their claim would be processed and that the insurance agency stick to the given time frame," the spokesperson says. Hence, L&T Insurance's brief to the agency was to communicate the brand's promise in a clutter breaking way, says the spokesperson.

In addition to Hindi, the four-week campaign will also be shown in Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Kannada, Telegu, Tamil and Malayalam. The campaign's target group is men in the age group of 25-45 years, belonging to SEC A and B. The campaign will launch its digital phase with the same protagonists seen in the TVC leg of the campaign, this week.

Promising idea?

"What puzzled me was the difference in execution across the commercials. The thematic commercial had strange 1970s styling, for example. It comes across as the weakest of the lot in terms of set-ups. The Office one was the best. Astrologer and Milkman were effective. But, I wish they had come up with other characters, as astrologers and milkmen have been featured in so many ways in various commercials. Still, the platform is strong with relevant use of humour and lends itself to many more strong commercials," he opines.

Mythili Chandrasekar, senior vice-president and executive planning director, JWT India, believes while the brand's willingness to guarantee and be upfront about its promise to be held accountable comes through clearly, the '6 hours' in itself gets lost. "Although the format works, some of the situations like the milkman seem unnecessary and not what a big insurance company would want to compare itself to. The advertising will have recall but the brand name is doubtful," she says.