NEW “AMBIENT” CAMPAIGN IN INDIA FROM RELIANCE INSURANCE

India’s Reliance General is launching an “ambient” insurance campaign covering theft and personal safety. The company’s advertising agency is placing heavily chained and locked motorcycles or cars outside shopping malls, accompanied by placards saying “Instead, call us”. The insurer is also deploying men clad in steel armour to increase awareness of accident and personal theft covers. Reliance CEO KA Somasekharan said that “the insight used here is that at times people go to extreme lengths to protect themselves from accidents or health hazards such as infections”. He noted that “the general insurance sector is under-penetrated in India, with only around 2% of people availing themselves of such services. People know about life insurance, but they don’t know that their television sets or even travel baggage can also be insured”. Bimal Nair, executive vice-president of Rediffusion DYR, the creative agency behind the campaign, said that mass marketing campaigns improved brand awareness, but were less successful in showing what the company offered and how that benefited the consumer”.