How roping in Rishabh Pant benefited HDFC Life

New Delhi: The insurance sector, especially the health and life sector, has been growing slowly but steadily.

Ever since COVID-19 entered India, the fear and need for insurance became a top priority for many households in our country. Both the public sector and the private sector seized this opportunity to take a deep dive and garner enough market share in the competitive world of insurance, both life and health. There is hardly any differentiation between one insurance brand when compared to the other. What actually differentiates is the customer service and clever marketing and advertising, which will bring the brand into consideration. Otherwise, the products of all these insurance companies are on par. 

Many insurance brands have roped in celebrities, especially from the sporting world, to endorse their brands. Rohit Sharma and Neeraj Chopra have been endorsing Max New York Life and Tata AIA. 

While TATA roped in Neeraj when he won the Olympic Gold in 2022, Max New York Life roped in Rohit when he was not in the best of form. But the brand took a bold step to back him and today it has paid off. Sometimes brands need to walk on the edge and make such decisions. Brands should back the endorsers, not the way one of the soft drink brands did many years ago to end the contract with the Indian cricketers when India was eliminated from the World Cup cricket in the Caribbean. 

But one of the boldest moves taken by a brand to endorse a cricketer who had a major setback with an accident and then bounced back is HDFC Life. No one expected Rishabh Pant to bounce back after that major road accident. But somewhere the brand strongly believed in Rishabh Pant and today, with Rishabh Pant back after nearly 18 months, it is slowly paying off. It was interesting to note how the company connected their product to being prepared to take challenges and face uncertainties in life. 

They bundled the term plan insurance as a safety net for individuals and their families. Ideally, a hospital in the healthcare space should have signed up Rishabh Pant after he bounced back with a fresh lease of life.  However, since hospitals are not allowed to advertise freely, the hospital that treated Rishabh Pant would have been handicapped to take advantage of it. 

The Sar Utha Ke Jiyo—living life with pride and confidence—has been a long-standing positioning the brand has been owning. This positioning has further been amplified by roping in Rishabh Pant, who really bounced back and is now back on his feet. The brand HDFC Life has been proactive here and I think the brand believes in encouraging such individuals who have overcome challenges and brightened the light at the end of the tunnel. For a category like insurance, the case of Rishabh Pant fitted the brand perfectly, which the brand leveraged in a very positive manner by truly narrating the story of hope and how to overcome challenges and uncertainties. 

Now with Rishabh performing well, the gamble has paid well for HDFC Life. And his association will continue further as he still has a few years of good cricket ahead. With some major test series that are coming in Australia and the Champions Trophy followed by that, the brand will build its brand equity and raise its saliency. While no other insurance company will approach Rishabh now, there will be other brands where he will be a perfect fit that will chase him in the coming years.