For years, Indian insurance ads have followed a predictable formula: a celebrity face, a fear-driven message, and a forgettable impact. But in a category where trust is everything and attention spans are fleeting, Niva Bupa aspires to take on a different route. “No one discusses health insurance over a cup of chai,” Nimish Agrawal, director of digital business and CMO, Niva Bupa, told financialexpress.com. “And yet, when it matters most, it can make all the difference.”
Faced with the twin challenges of low awareness and even lower engagement, Agrawal and his team are doubling down on a less glamorous but more effective approach: real stories, real users, and messaging that makes people see themselves, not stars, in the brand’s narrative. Their latest national campaign doesn’t feature a celebrity. It features a sentence: “Acha Kiya Insurance Liya” The line, spoken by actual policyholders who’ve faced medical crises, is the culmination of an 18-month effort led by a subcommittee of marketing leaders under the General Insurance Council (GIC). The campaign seeks to increase general insurance penetration in both urban and rural India, and will run for at least three years.
“Research showed three major behavioural barriers: a false sense of invincibility, overreliance on social support, and the perception of insurance as a sunk cost,” Agrawal said. “People believe bad things won’t happen to them, and if they do, family will step in. But that’s not always the case.” The campaign’s core insight, that those who have benefited from insurance become its strongest advocates, informed the decision to feature real voices instead of high-profile endorsements. “In a trust-driven category like insurance, authenticity performs better than fame,” he added.
Changing the conversation around insurance
Within Niva Bupa’s marketing strategy, a broader repositioning is underway. The company is working to debunk long-held myths about health insurance, particularly that it is only useful during hospitalisation. “Less than 0.01% of India’s urban population has undergone a comprehensive health check-up,” Agrawal said. “This points to a huge preventive gap.” To address this, Niva Bupa now promotes its policies as enablers of daily wellness, offering services like unlimited general physician consultations, nutrition counselling, home diagnostics, and second medical opinions. The brand’s positioning, “Hamesha Ke Liye Saathi- In Health and Sickness”, reflects this shift. “Insurance is no longer just a reactive tool for emergencies. It can be an everyday partner in living better,” he noted.
A digital-heavy, screen-aware strategy
To reach its core audience, aged 28 to 35, Niva Bupa has adopted a media planning model that is both screen-aware and demographically driven. About 70% of the company’s media spend is now allocated to digital platforms, with the rest distributed across television and connected screens. Internal segmentation divides viewers into ‘cutters’ (mobile-first), ‘shavers’ (hybrid users), and ‘lovers’ (TV loyalists), enabling tailored messaging across formats.
“Our approach is not about chasing platforms. It’s about finding the consumer where they are, and using the right creative on the right screen,” Agrawal said. Campaigns are launched on connected TV for visual impact, sustained via mobile for engagement, and amplified on traditional TV during tentpole events like the IPL. However, challenges remain, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, where attribution becomes non-linear. “In smaller towns, discovery often happens through agents or branches, not direct clicks. This makes campaign performance harder to measure,” he said. “We’re working to better align media spends with distribution presence to avoid generating demand we can’t service.”
Are celebrities still relevant?
Agrawal is unequivocal about the limits of celebrity endorsements. “The era of superstars is over,” he said. “People now scroll past celebrity updates like any other content. The mystique is gone.” He argues that celebrities often end up dominating the narrative rather than supporting it, especially in low-margin, high-trust sectors like insurance. “If your creative bends to accommodate the star, the consumer can’t see themselves in it. That’s a problem.” Instead, the brand is focused on building familiarity, emotional resonance, and credibility, what Agrawal describes as the three essential levers of trust: I know you, I like you, I believe you’re an expert.“Trust isn’t built with a punchline,” he said. “It’s earned over time, across channels, and with consistency.”
Among Niva Bupa’s most effective campaigns so far is Yeh Toh Mujhe Bhi Chahiye, launched alongside ReAssure 2.0, the updated version of its flagship product. The campaign simplified complex product features using everyday analogies set in familiar spaces, salons, gyms, and sweet shops.
“We avoided jargon and fear tactics. Instead, we explained features like carry-forward benefits and age-locked premiums through conversations that felt intuitive,” Agrawal said. The campaign drove a noticeable uptick in website traffic and also helped reduce consumer hesitation around discussing insurance. The broader takeaway, according to him, is that health insurance has moved from being a product that needed category-level awareness to one where brand preference now determines market share. “Earlier, people asked ‘Should I buy insurance?’ Now they ask ‘Which one should I buy?’ That’s where marketing makes the difference.”
And for Niva Bupa, that difference lies not in star power, but in stories people can see themselves in.