EVENTFAQS - 'An activity which alters my thought process is a WOW in my mind'

Interviews

'An activity which alters my thought process is a WOW in my mind'

1 February 2010

Pradeep Pandey is Director, Branding and Communication at AEGON Religare Life Insurance Company Limited since June, 2007. Pandey will be a part of the prestigious Jury of the WOW Awards 2010.

Part of the core team that set-up the company, Pandey was the 10th employee in the company. Prior to joining AEGON Religare Life Insurance, he worked with Reliance Life Insurance and was involved in launching the brand. He was also a part of the Reliance ADAG brand team that launched the new brand identity for Reliance Capital.

Pandey's professional career spans across some popular brands such as LML, Kinetic, SBI Life and Reliance Life, and creative agency Leo Burnett. He won two Golds at ABBY '05 for the best TV Ad and Campaign in the financial category, Silver Effie (award for effective advertising), Yahoo Purple Big Idea Award and Viewers Choice Award for the Lifelong Pensions Campaign, all at SBI Life. The Lifelong Pensions campaign was rated as the best TV Ad for the year 2004 in a viewer poll conducted by Zee News.

Pandey has also been instrumental in successfully launching two other leading Indian life insurance players - SBI Life Insurance and Birla Sun Life Insurance.

In conversation with WOW Awards 2010 Convenor Gokul Krishnamurthy, Pradeep Pandey gives entrants a sense of what the jury would expect from entries at the awards this year. Excerpts:

1. Insurance as a Category involves the intermediary like none other. How has the ATL/BTL balance in marketing shifted in your opinion, in the last decade? Would you agree that the personal connect and motivation is still the biggest driver?

The personal connect brought about by the intermediary is still the biggest driver for life insurance products. ATL still accounts for larger spends as it has the ability to build Brand Recall rapidly. This recall aids the intermediary and makes his product more acceptable by the consumer.

2. How do you see the growth of BTL efforts like Events and Experiential Marketing growing - in terms of offsites, incentive programs, education programs, for both intermediaries and consumers - for insurance products?

There is great focus on recognising and rewarding the intermediary through offsites, incentive programs, training etc. There are very few companies doing anything worthwhile to educate the consumers. We have taken the lead as a brand to educate consumers and help them buy the right way. Our Educative Series in print medium is a step in that direction. Although, as an industry we would love to see more emphasis on educating the consumer.

3. The insurance space is highly competitive. Will we see increased spends on direct contact programs and on-ground promotions?

I do not see any significant increased spends on direct contact or on-ground promotion. Insurance is not an impulse or a sexy category for consumers to be associated with. The on-ground promotions route works out very expensive in case of insurance.

4. There is a contention by specialist Promotion Agencies that they should be retained on an AoR basis to facilitate understanding of brand and category objectives. What is your take on this?

If a brand is spending serious money on promotions, they should certainly have an AoR arrangement. They should then treat the agency as an extension of their marketing team.

5. As a judge of an event (a live brand experience backed by an identified sponsor) or on-ground promotion, what are the factors that you would look for? What would make you say 'WOW'?

As a judge, I would look for the Big Idea in the activity, spends and ROI. An activity which gets disproportionate ROI or alters my thought process is a WOW in my mind.

6. Measurability of an event or promotion has always been in question. Past efforts at calibration have failed, except for Sales Promotions. What would you say should be the way forward? How important is 'gut feel'?

Any event or promotion has to be measured in terms of revenue generated, else it does not help. For pure Brand Recall, it can never beat TV as a medium.