Life insurance industry is set for transformative change in 2025: Ashish Nair

In today’s fast-evolving world of marketing, the role of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is more crucial than ever. In Adgully’s new column – CMO Unplugged – we bring you candid insights, expert advice, and thought-provoking discussions directly from the heart of the industry. CMO Unplugged goes beyond the surface to uncover the real strategies, innovations and challenges that define successful marketing leadership today.

In an exclusive interaction with Adgully, Ashish Nair, CMO and Head - Customer Value Management and Health Tech, Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance, discusses the recent campaign ‘Viraasat Ban Ke Hi Rahegi’ and its impact. He also shares insights on Kotak Life Insurance’s key focus areas, strategic plans for the coming months, and how the company is integrating traditional and digital marketing in an evolving landscape. Looking ahead to 2025, he highlights the key marketing trends set to shape the life insurance industry.

Your recent campaign, ‘Viraasat Ban Ke Hi Rahegi’, has garnered attention. Could you share the inspiration behind it and how it connects with your brand’s vision? What kind of response have you seen so far?

As India accelerates on its economic growth trajectory, securing lives through insurance has become more crucial than ever. Despite our 1.4 billion-strong population, life insurance penetration remains at a modest 2.8% in FY24, revealing a substantial protection gap. To bridge this divide, insurers and the government are launching strategic initiatives to enhance awareness, availability, accessibility and affordability. IRDAI’s ‘Insurance for All' vision sets an ambitious goal of universal financial protection by 2047, paving the way for a more resilient and secure future for every Indian family.

At its core, life insurance is about protection. Traditionally, term insurance has been positioned as a safety net for families. However, today, Indians are more emboldened in their financial pursuits - building assets through homes, accumulating gold, investing in various financial instruments, saving money etc. Given this evolving mindset, growing financial confidence overshadows the critical role of term insurance as a fundamental safeguard.

Our challenge, therefore, was to make term insurance resonate with an increasingly aspirational India. Through in-depth studies, we gained valuable insights into how Indians view financial security and term insurance. This understanding led us to reimagine term insurance as an instrument that is relevant and aligns with the ambitions of modern Indian families.

Our campaign, ‘Viraasat Ban Ke Hi Rahegi’, speaks to the deep-rooted desire of every Indian to build a legacy for the security and comfort of their loved ones. Through this communication, we aim to position term insurance as an instrument that can complement the building of assets, no matter what challenges life throws, thus ensuring the Viraasat is complete and can be passed on.  In the ad film, Rajkummar Rao is seen playing a crucial role in driving home this message.

What are Kotak Life Insurance’s key focus areas and strategic plans for the coming months? Are there any new initiatives or innovations in the pipeline?

At Kotak Life, our constant focus is on elevating customer experience for both our external and internal customers. From initial awareness to purchase and servicing, we recognise that today’s consumers expect seamless, personalised and transparent interactions at every touchpoint.

Our strategic roadmap is centred around four key areas:

1. Customer on-boarding, engagement and post-purchase experience: We streamline how customers discover, interact with, and stay engaged with us throughout their policy journey. This includes AI-driven policy calculators, simplified KYC processes and intuitive digital support systems to ensure informed decision-making. Beyond purchase, we strengthen our post-sales engagement with proactive policy servicing, renewal reminders and AI-powered customer support, ensuring long-term trust and seamless policy management.
2. Innovating product offerings: We refine our product offerings to better serve customer needs by crafting insurance solutions that not only meet but also anticipate expectations, ensuring each product delivers a clear and compelling value proposition that resonates with today's consumers. Our focus is on curating affordable products that provide financial security for all.
3. Empowering distribution partners: To strengthen our distribution ecosystem, we empower our advisors and partners with advanced tools, insights and training. Our ‘Smart Sell’ platform acts as a key digital enabler, equipping partners to lead impactful, need-based conversations with customers - driving higher engagement and conversions.
4. Expanding accessibility: We follow a multi-channel approach to increase the reach of life insurance. By strengthening our presence across digital platforms, Kotak Life branches, partner-bank branches and advisor-led models, we ensure that customers from all demographics have easy access to our solutions.

How are you planning to approach your advertising and marketing strategy for the upcoming year? Are there any significant shifts or new channels you’re focusing on?

At Kotak Life, our marketing strategy is anchored in a few fundamental tasks that we need to achieve:

• Do consumers know our brand?
• Do they know enough to consider us?
• Will they buy from us?

Our marketing approach is structured around the following areas:

1. Consumer Insights & Research: We invest in deep, multi-layered research across various segments to understand consumer behaviour, needs and motivations. By analysing diverse customer segments, we craft nuanced value propositions that resonate authentically with our audience.
2. Digital-First, Always-On Approach: In today’s dynamic landscape, staying visible and relevant is key. We leverage our owned digital assets—including social media platforms—to communicate our brand’s digital services, product offerings, company innovations, customer testimonials, educational content etc, ensuring a continuous and engaging presence.
3. Marketing Automation and Tools: We leverage advanced AI and data analytics, enabling real-time optimisation, hyper-personalisation and data-driven decision-making. By integrating automation tools, we streamline processes, improve customer targeting and maintain a competitive edge in an evolving digital landscape.
4. Brand Love: Connecting with customers today requires a blend of heartfelt storytelling and smart, data-driven insights. Through compelling storytelling in our social media films to strategic partnerships such as our collaboration with RCB, we aim to create brand properties that advance our story, resonate with consumers and position Kotak Life as a preferred choice in the purchase journey.
5. Influencer partnerships: Authentic advocacy plays a vital role in brand trust. By collaborating with influencers, we amplify word-of-mouth marketing and strengthen our credibility among key consumer segments.
6. Enabling Business: We focus on equipping our sales and distribution teams with intuitive digital tools and targeted campaigns that help convert interest into action.

With the ever-evolving digital landscape, how are you integrating traditional and digital marketing efforts at Kotak Life Insurance?

Life insurance caters to a diverse customer base, ranging from young professionals to early retirees and the retired segment. To effectively engage them, we employ a data-driven segmentation approach, leveraging advanced ML models to categorise customers into six distinct cohorts. Using a digital-first approach, we tailor our outreach to each segment, ensuring personalised and relevant engagement.

The majority of our communications are designed for digital platforms, but we also actively seek meaningful opportunities to tell our brand story in impactful ways. These opportunities span digital, and traditional media including cricket properties, high-impact fiction and non-fiction shows—allowing us to remain fluid and adaptable in our strategy.

By maintaining a balanced synergy between digital and traditional channels, we ensure that Kotak Life’s marketing efforts remain both dynamic and deeply connected to our audience.

How is Kotak Life Insurance utilizing GenAI for customer engagement? Are there specific areas where GenAI has already shown significant impact? Could you share some examples of how you’ve integrated AI-driven insights into marketing collaterals and customer communications?

AI and GenAI represent an evolving frontier where all industry players are in the early stages of exploration and implementation. While there's considerable ground yet to cover, at Kotak Life, we have initiated GenAI-driven experiments across our teams, targeting both internal and external customers.

From a consumer engagement perspective, we leverage GenAI to curate marketing content and craft compelling targeted messaging. For customer retention, we create AI-generated hyper-personalised videos featuring a customer’s name and policy details, ensuring seamless and impactful communication.

On the distribution front, we've developed AI-led pitches that deliver personalised messaging. Our advisor AI videos are specifically designed to enable our distribution partners to send personalised communications to their customers, enhancing engagement.  To further enhance effectiveness, we have introduced AI-driven training modules that simulate real-time conversations. These intelligent bots respond like actual customers, allowing advisors to refine their pitches, receive instant feedback and identify areas for improvement. This innovative approach not only sharpens sales effectiveness but also ensures a more customer-centric engagement strategy.

For our employees, we have introduced ‘Kavya’, an advanced HR virtual assistant powered by generative AI, designed to enhance employee experience and engagement.

The primary value we are deriving from AI implementation lies in its personalisation capabilities and strategic message delivery. This foundation positions us well for expanded applications in the coming months.

Looking ahead to 2025, which marketing trends do you believe will drive the most impact in the life insurance industry?

In 2025, the life insurance industry is set for transformative change driven by technology, data analytics and evolving consumer expectations. Several key trends will define how insurers engage with customers and drive growth:

• Advanced Cohorts and Segmentation: Machine learning and AI-driven analytics are enabling insurers to develop precise customer personas, allowing them to craft personalised messaging and experiences that resonate deeply with each segment. This data-driven approach ensures more relevant and impactful communication, improving engagement and conversion rates.
• Seamless Customer Experiences: Consumers now expect frictionless interactions across their entire journey, from policy discovery to post-purchase servicing. Insurers must invest in digital-first, user-centric experiences that enhance accessibility, simplify processes and provide exceptional value at every touchpoint.
• Tech Innovation: By leveraging AI, machine learning, and MarTech, insurers can enhance personalisation and anticipate customer needs. These technologies improve targeting precision, optimise marketing efforts and enable the delivery of tailored solutions at scale, ultimately strengthening customer relationships.
• Redefining Engagement: The industry is moving beyond traditional insurance offerings to integrate wellness programs, financial planning tools and lifestyle benefits. This shift reflects a growing demand for value-added services that promote overall well-being and financial security, fostering deeper, long-term customer relationships.
• Winning Consumer Attention: In a saturated digital landscape, insurers must focus on creating content that cuts through the noise. By using deep insights, brands can craft messages that are relevant, authentic and deliver consistent value, ensuring stronger brand recall and long-lasting customer relationships.

To drive sustainable growth in 2025 and beyond, the life insurance industry must prioritise building authentic, long-term relationships with customers, fostering trust and delivering consistent value at every touchpoint.