The campaign went beyond traditional forms of advertising and became visible thanks to the cricket series between India and South Africa | Photo credit: iStockphoto
The new ‘real and interesting’ multimedia and multilingual campaign launched across the country in July last year focused on three major life insurance segments: protection, annuity and savings plans.
During the first three-month period (July-September 2025), the ‘Sabse Pehle Life Insurance’ campaign had reached a total of around 31 crore people, of which 17 crore through digital channels.
These figures were in line with the early traction expected by the Insurance Awareness Committee (IAC Life) and reflected the strong initial visibility the campaign has achieved across multiple media platforms.
In addition to digital platforms, the campaign also included television advertising including presence during major cricket events such as the India-South Africa series, coverage in leading local newspapers across regions, outdoor campaigns in 17 cities, murals in 325 cities and ground activations including engagement through agents, bancassurance touchpoints and distribution partners.
“By the end of December 2025, the cumulative reach had grown to around 35.5 crore people across all channels. The visibility achieved through the India-South Africa cricket series further boosted this number. Digital engagement is also higher than the September estimate, with platforms like YouTube, JioCinema, Amazon and others continuing to make a strong impression,” Venkatachalam Iyer, co-chairman of Insurance Awareness Committee (IAC-Life) told reporters. business line.
According to him, insurance penetration is influenced by several macroeconomic and sector-specific factors: pricing, competitive savings instruments, economic conditions, distribution depth, regulations, etc.
“As an industry body, we look at the big picture and ideally would not limit ourselves to a set goal of improving the reach of life insurance,” Iyer emphasized.
Steps to address the dip in coverage
For the country’s life insurance sector, insurance penetration fell from 2.8 percent in 2023-2024 to 2.7 percent in 2024-2025.
Iyer said a number of initiatives have already been initiated at the workplace to increase insurance awareness, especially in semi-urban and rural areas, where the country has the largest protection gap.
To ensure accessibility to the Bharat markets, communication is done in eleven languages; On-the-ground distribution is taking place through agents and bank branches, with frontline representatives emphasizing the importance of protection and other categories, and additional initiatives such as the regulator-led insurance expansion programs at the state and Gram Panchayat levels have also been taken up. These measures are working in parallel – across the sector – to deepen awareness beyond the metros and into Bharat.
A formal feedback mechanism is already in place to evaluate the progress made by the new awareness campaign.
“An investigation (including Kantar’s review) is underway and the committee expects to review the updated insights soon. The IAC and participating life insurance companies are working together on an ongoing basis, and periodic review will guide future phases of the campaign,” Iyer added.
Published on February 6, 2026
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