Why is this work relevant for Creative Strategy?

This campaign fits into this category for its effort to redefine a long-standing public perception that “insurance is too complicated to understand”. We, FWD Vietnam, are determined to be the pioneer in fighting this negative perception. With integrative approaches and innovative ideas, the campaign not only transformed the way our products are presented towards customers but further than that, reshaped the image of the insurance industry as a whole in customers’ minds.

Background

Vietnam has a developing economy and young population, however, the proportion of people participating in life insurance is still less than 10% among more than 97 million people. This is greatly influenced by the complex nature of insurance products. Customers find life insurance irrelevant, mistrust, and lack of sympathy compared to other sectors. Another global survey also showed that 55% of respondents willing to pay more for simpler services, 64% recommends brands to others if they have simple experiences. Thus, there are lots of chances for insurers who can transform insurance from complexity to clarity. FWD, a new player with the vision to change the way people feel about insurance, set out three objectives to tackle these situations, including (1) changing the perception of “complex insurance”; (2) becoming the trailblazer to solve this long-lasting paint point of customers and (3) affirming our position as an iconic brand in business innovation.

The Interpretation of the Challenge (30% of vote)

The most important for us in this campaign was to transform the complexity and mistruth of insurance policies into something that is easy-to-understand, simple, and relevant to customers’ needs. To change the status quo that has been existing for over 20 years in the market can be quite a challenge for such a young brand as FWD Vietnam. However, having the right strategy can make all the difference so we had to be innovative enough to take the lead as the days play out. The transformation would be beneficial for massive audiences, regardless of generation. The campaign was expected to drive engagement for our brand and products by generating greater confidence in customer’s purchase decisions. Most importantly, the campaign needed to bring the concept of insurance closer to customers through simple and easy-to-understand attributes.

The Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

Following focus group interviews and consumer feedback, we identified that complicated information was one huge aspect that stymies people from purchasing life insurance. Hence, we decided to develop FWD Clarity – Know what you are covered, an intuitive information design, transforming the complex insurance policy into clarity, to make insurance “easy-to-understand” for everyone. At the core of it, the project leveraged how the human brain processes information effectively. With that knowledge, we’ve discovered how to design and deliver information to increase interest, compression, and even action. This journey required the involvement of everyone within the corporation. Training and workshop were provided to these stakeholders to make sure the project is implemented consistently and properly. Just like our innovation to make insurance “easy-to-understand”, we kept things simple, clear, and straightforward in communications to promote effectively this new concept to the mass.

The Creative Idea (20% of vote)

“With FWD, insurance must be easy-to-understand for customers to know what they’re covered” – this became our manifesto when embarking on this project. At the heart of it was a full revamp of our insurance policy, from design to language. In this design, the insurance policy is presented in a lively form, clear structure, simple content, and friendly language. Specifically, words are illustrated by pictures, structures are made clearer, complex sentences are replaced with simple sentences, and terminologies are explained straightforward. The refresh demonstrated FWD’s commitment to innovate and to change the way people feel about insurance. This large-scale refresh required a great level of consistency in every angle from all departments. Furthermore, because every element in this revamp process boiled down to clarity, all communications strategy involved had to embody this same standard and even uphold it to a higher level for the sake of strengthening the brand image.

The Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

Every collateral that comes into contact with our customers was refreshed to align with the new Clarity standard. According to our customer surveys, the refresh increased the speed of reading insurance policy by 20-30% and the brand image was shaped like a “clarity” insurance company, which we consider our biggest accomplishment. The campaign also contributed to the new business growth of 92% and No1. Customer Experience in 2020 (according to Forrester). On the media front, the campaign became a top-talked-about topic, getting huge media and social users’ attention with an earned media value of 884,000 USD. With 160,100 mentions of #FWDClarity on social platforms and over 541 million reaches over the launch, FWD Vietnam was proudly ranked at 6th position among 18 insurance companies in the market in terms of brand awareness and consideration, despite being the youngest entrant in the competitive landscape.

Please tell us about the challenger brand and how your campaign challenged / was different from your competitors

It’s the first time after over 20 years, the Vietnam life insurance industry witnessed a campaign conducted by FWD, the newest player that changes the way insurance “looks” and thereby, “change the way people feel about insurance”. The “packaging” of insurance policy is something that has been ignored for a past long time. Commonly, insurance policy is filled with technical terminologies and jargons, which is one of the biggest factors preventing people from purchasing life insurance. In an era where people are facing information overload, we saw the need to carve out more differentiated customer-led experiences through a simple and innovative approach. We took the chance to be the trailblazer in refreshing the “packaging” of insurance policy, helping customers easily know what they are covered. FWD Vietnam is proudly the first company in the market to act on this issue and convey the message of “easy-to-understand” insurance to customers.