#LEAwards spills: How Manulife balanced promotion and brand building in 2020

During the recent #LEAwards 2020, Manulife nabbed the gold award for Best use of advocates and the silver award for best engagement strategy for B2C. Looking to cut through the clutter and hopefully get Singaporeans conversing about insurance, Manulife became one of the first brands in Singapore to deliver a mobile interactive artificial reality (AR) game experience to its consumers with its Chinese New Year (CNY) campaign.

Moreover, to amplify its communications to the various communities, Manulife engaged the help of influencers across the region to find a way to cut through the clutter and engage its audience in an interactive and fun way.

Cheryl Lim, VP, head of branding, communications and sponsorships, Manulife Singapore shares with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE some of the plans the brand has in 2021 and beyond 

What are some of the expectations your consumers now have for your brand?

Lim: Consumers are now looking for content that goes beyond the face value; just providing brand awareness. Content needs to be multifaceted and integrated with other components like technology, to provide engagement and/or other value-added elements.

They also hold brands accountable to values like authenticity and genuine understanding. This is especially so in the time of COVID-19 where health and wellness protection are even more crucial. Our content needs to come across as meaningful instead of fearmongering.

How has your marketing/your clients marketing plans shifted this year?

Lim: With COVID-19, all our plans (like everyone’s) went out the window. We had to shift our plans to be relevant and contextually sensitive in content, tonality and direction. Another obstacle we had to overcome was the change in budgets, with shift in priority towards tactical product promotion campaigns. This meant we had to not only pivot our campaigns and platforms to align ourselves with the new normal we were in, but we also had to do so on a reduced budget.

The pandemic was an opportunity for us to optimise our campaigns to ensure they balanced product promotion with brand building. It was important that our short-term goal of product promotion and lead generation did not erode away years of long-term brand reputation building as the latter is what will enable our future campaign successes.

What are some of the trends you see carrying on post-pandemic, and how are you readying your workforce to be ready with these trends?

Lim: Authenticity has been a big driver of campaigns we’ve seen during the pandemic and it has resonated well with consumers. In an unfamiliar and new environment, brands that understand the biggest impacts of the pandemic on their consumer and are able to address and empathise with them through their campaigns have succeeded. As a life insurer, authenticity has always been a key tenet of our campaign and we have always prided ourselves in not just walking alongside our customers, but walking ahead of them to anticipate their needs and safeguard their steps.

Besides pivoting our business and marketing plans this year, we also carved out resources and opportunities for the team to cross rotate roles and attend high quality relevant webinars to get practical hands-on and theoretical exposure.

What do you think makes for great marketing these days?

Lim: Great storytelling never goes out of style. I am a firm believer that a great story told well can turn a reader into a customer.

The pandemic has made the digital world even more cluttered, with almost all our social interactions taking place online. In order to reach, engage, and connect with our customers, we need to ensure that we get the format right.

Good data hygiene coupled with authentic storytelling is the key to cutting through the clutter. Data and research help ensure that we continue to understand our customers and their changing concerns while authentic storytelling is how we connect with them in a way that humanises our brand by bringing forth our brand values.

Establishing strong emotional connections with our customers through our marketing campaigns is a powerful tool that brings us closer to them, and increases the probability that they will take the next step after viewing our ad.

How are you planning for 2021?

Lim: Like 2020, we will be agile and nimble to shift where necessary.

While we will expect more digitalisation and automation to take place in 2021, it’s crucial not to lose sight of our customers insights and remain contextually relevant to them. This should put us in good stead for 2021.

Read also:

#LEAwards 2020 highlight: Huat Manulife did to win gold for its 'Nom-bassadors'

Marketing podcast: Hustle to the top with Manulife SG's Cheryl Lim