Helping Clients Keep Healthy is a Win-Win

0

Initiatives launched by two New Zealand insurers are examples of how the industry is evolving. The sell-and-forget business model is being replaced with relationship-building as insurers take an active interest in their customers’ health and wellbeing – and for good reason.

And now more than ever, as clients start tightening their belts due to reduced household income or job loss, there are plenty of examples of industry leaders saying that now is the time to work on those relationships.

An illustration of this approach is AIA New Zealand’s current marketing campaign – AIA Vitality Healthy Ad Breaks. TV adverts feature the firm’s ambassadors Dame Valerie Adams, Jess Quinn and Ian Jones. The ads feature short videos they recorded at home using their phones.

The commercials encourage viewers to take small steps towards being healthier.

Ian Jones, one of AIA's ambassadors.
Ian Jones, one of AIA New Zealand’s ambassadors.

A spokesperson for AIA New Zealand says: “The ads, which are a New Zealand first, are aired at the beginning of the TV ad breaks and are designed to help encourage Kiwis to use the downtime of the breaks to, among other things, do some squats, practice mindful breathing, and stretch to help improve flexibility.”

Last year AIA New Zealand named Wellington as the country’s fittest city and in February launched its AIA Vitality app – described by the company as a “personalised, health and wellbeing programme that supports you every day to make healthier lifestyle choices”.

Fidelity Life

Elsewhere, Fidelity Life has its own app, launched in partnership with digital health company Sharecare to help New Zealanders “…live happier, healthier lives”.

Drawing on the app’s link to its customers, the company surveyed 1,000 of them to generate a snapshot of national wellbeing toward the end of Alert Level 4 (ended on 27 April). The company says people aged in their 20s and 30s are the most anxious about their future in a Covid-19 world.

Fidelity Life’s CEO Nadine Tereora says the stress of an uncertain future, job losses, working from home with children, and other pressures are taking their toll.

We wanted to see which parts of society will need the most help and support…

“We wanted to see which parts of society will need the most help and support as we look to life post-lockdown,” she says in a statement.

While the results of the survey are interesting in their own right; the fact the company is trying to understand more about its customers is key.

While it’s no surprise that, according to the survey, a third of those surveyed have money worries, that insight could help the company develop lower-priced products.

The survey also revealed that the impact of Alert Level 4 on people’s physical health was significant, with exercise reducing during lockdown due to a “hunker down” mentality.

In general, those surveyed were sleeping more, eating more, drinking more alcohol, and smoking/vaping more than before the lockdown – but exercising less.

Tereora says: “Ultimately, if we can help our customers make positive changes to their health and wellbeing then that’s good for them, good for us, and good for our communities too.”

Anyone in New Zealand can download the Sharecare app for free from either the Google or Apple stores, but Fidelity Life customers, advisers and staff, have access to extra features and functionality in a more personalised experience.

One of the Healthy Ad Break commercials released by AIA New Zealand.