Blue launches campaign to help employees of industries hit hard by COVID-19

Hong Kong digital insurer Blue has launched a campaign to go with a project that will offer free life insurance protection coverage up to an amount of HK$100 million to certain industries that have been hard hit by COVID-19.

The campaign is part of the “Revitalising Hope” project which aims to allay the anxiety among the public by offering free life protection coverage. It includes three videos, featuring a dancer, a former flight attendant, and an owner of a restaurant, who tell their stories amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with all of them having had their business plans or career disrupted in recent months. 

Sarah Tam, vice-president and head of customer at Blue, told Marketing about the reasons for choosing these people in the ad. 

“We hope to feature the most affected during the crisis in the campaign. The industries of travel and hospitality, retail, F&B, as well as arts and recreation, are the most severely hit. We bring hope to Hongkongers to help them stay positive amid COVID-19.”

The latest statistics from the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong government has shown the unemployment rates of industries related to consumption and tourism, as well as arts, entertainment and recreation, have soared. 

To help the practitioners of these industries, Blue’s project will offer free life insurance protection coverage totalling HK$100 million to individuals who are still employed or have recently become unemployed due to COVID-19. 

Asked the impact caused by COVID-19 on Blue’s business, Tam said the company had survived the tough times because of its digital capabilities. 

“As the public are advised to perform social distancing, they can hardly meet an intermediary to purchase insurance products and complete underwriting. However, as a digital insurer with products catered for Hongkongers, we can complete every step online, which has provided us with very positive results in recent months,” Tam said. 

Blue has recorded a significant increase (about 400%) in applications for all insurance products from January to April compared with September to December 2019. 

Tam said it had no plans to overhaul its marketing strategies after the pandemic, but the company would closely monitor data and react quickly to better meet customers’ needs. 

Charles Hung, CEO and executive director of Blue, concluded: “The pandemic has adversely affected many people’s livelihoods. It is in times like these that we must unite and help each other. We would like to thank different organisations, including chambers and industry associations, that have joined us to promote this meaningful project. Together, as we all play our part, we will ride out this storm.”

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