How radio is helping HDFC ERGO power its Voice of Time campaign

HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company has been adopting unconventional means to connect with customers. In April this year, HDFC ERGO launched its AI enabled Chatbot ‘DIA’ on Amazon’s cloud based voice service, Alexa. Dia – The voice of Alexa is an integrated artificial intelligent Chatbot service, which connects with the customers and helps in resolving queries. Apart from providing customers with information related to their HDFC ERGO policies, DIA can also email customers the copy of their policy on their registered email address. 

HDFC ERGO recently rolled out its radio campaign, ‘Voice of Time’, featuring well-known voice artist Harish Bhimani (of ‘Mahabharat’s ‘Main Samay Hoon’ fame). The campaign focuses on reminding individuals that complaining to God is not always the answer always, in fact, people can solve a lot of their problems just by taking preventive measures. 

Elaborating on the campaign thought, Mehmood Mansoori, Member of Executive Management & Group Head, HDFC ERGO General Insurance, said, “The ‘Voice of Time’ campaign touches upon the common problems which every individual can relate to. We often pray to God seeking a solution or guidance for these common problems. But while doing so, we usually tend to overlook the most obvious solutions that are available to us, such as general insurance. Hence, Voice of Time is a clutter breaker campaign, which in a quirky manner highlights general insurance as a common solution and thereby, creating awareness about our products among the consumers.” 

HDFC ERGO intends to engage with different segments of customers, for which it has woven a regional and age fringe in the creative. This will make the campaign more relatable to every individual and target consumers across all age groups, gender and cities in India, through the radio medium. 

When asked about the marketing spends for the current fiscal, Mansoori replied, “We strategically align our marketing spends between digital and offline platforms, considering the requirements of the business.” 

While most insurance companies are bullish on digital for their marketing and consumer engagement strategies, HDFC ERGO has turned to a traditional medium like radio. The reason for this is, as Mansoori explained, “Every media platform has a role to play in communication, and digital media most definitely has a faster reach. But, radio is heard by consumers in every city and appeals to all age groups. This enables us to reach out to a wider group of consumer and also build a stronger recall of our brand and message among them.”  

In this era of technology advancement and digitisation, customers are interacting through various channels with the companies, expecting instant gratification for their needs. Hence, insurance companies need to ensure that they reach customer more smartly. Keeping this in mind, HDFC ERGO launched DIA, its Artificial Intelligence Chatbot service on Amazon Alexa, Google Home and its company website. “Leveraging these platforms, we have empowered customers to interact with HDFC ERGO and get easy access to information about their insurance policies, simply with the use of voice commands. DIA offers customers 24x7 assistance and instant response to their queries,” Mansoori added.  

On roping in Harish Bhimani for the campaign, he said, “Bhimani is known as the Voice of Time for his voiceover work done for the popular ‘Mahabharat’ series. Hence, he has an instant recall and is the best fit for our campaign. In fact, our generation has grown up with this series and therefore, it makes his voice more relatable.”  

Talking about his association with HDFC ERGO’s ‘Voice of Time’ campaign, Bhimani said, “Voice of Time is something that has become my mnemonic ever since I assayed the eternal audio character of Time as an integral part of the path breaking TV serial ‘Mahabharat’ in the year 1988. So, when I was approached by HDFC ERGO with this new concept of their radio ads having the core of ‘Voice of Time’, I saw the potent synergy between the campaign and the all-encompassing character of Time.” 

Elaborating on the core message of the concept, Bhimani added that people often wailed to God with their complaints which could have a solution, but they usually missed noticing one. “That’s where the ‘Voice of Time’ acts as a guide and helps people to choose the right path, by realising that it is in their power to help themselves rather than wail to God,” he remarked. 

Speaking further on how a voice-over artist can enhance an audio campaign, Bhimani said, “I would say that an audio campaign largely depends on the voice-over artist’s creativity in terms of the modulations, chuckles, etc. Because, in a radio campaign all you get to hear is only a voice without any visuals. Hence, the voice does the double role of even helping the listener to imagine/ visualise the situations.” 

He believes in radio as a very effective advertising platform across segments of society and cities. “Music is something every generation has an affinity for and so we lean to radio, thereby brands also get the space to voice out an advertising communication via this medium, which gives a stronger impact as the listeners are usually tuned in, largely in a closed environment,” Bhimani concluded.