In conversation with Tanya Marwah, Head – Brand Marketing, Digit Insurance

The insurance sector is seeing more footfall as consumers become more concerned about their financial stability and it is no surprise that digitization has played a significant role in it. Like other sectors, the insurance sector is also leveraging digital channels to create a valuable experience by easing the process of insurance. One such digital insurance brand which is simplifying insurance for its consumers by educating them about the know-how of insurance is Digit.

To understand the marketing strategies of Digit and how it is leveraging the digital revolution to differentiate itself from its competitors, Agency Reporter had an exclusive conversation with Tanya Marwah, Head – Brand Marketing, Digit Insurance

Agency Reporter – How has Digit Insurance used marketing to educate Indians about insurance, and what challenges have you faced in this endeavour?

Tanya Marwah – Digit’s mission is to make insurance simple, so educating our audience about insurance is core to us. We have an all-touch point approach to education, right from our policy document, which has been simplified and has a summarized version on our social handles and our website. We focus on demystifying terms, especially exclusions for people. Not just this, we torture-test the simplicity of our summaries by getting them checked by 15-year-olds. Only if they say it is simple, it is simple enough.

In the past, we have launched a digital tool, an insurance dictionary, where people can search for confusing insurance terms and find simple definitions for them. We also have a section called ELI5 (Explain it like I am 5), which explains the terms as if a 5-year-old had to understand them. We have also launched an insurance board game, which is given out to people, wherein they use their money to buy insurance at different times of the year. The game has multiple hurdles depicting the ups and downs of life, helping people truly understand the importance of having insurance.

We have a digital tool for business owners as well called the ‘SME Buddy’, which asks simple questions to businesses and provides a customised recommendation list of insurances they should have to protect their business and the meanings of the same. In addition to this, we also share daily educational material with our partners, as they have a one-on-one rapport with their customers and can affect change. We have a yearly customer education journey via email for people who become our customers. We focus not on selling but educating on different insurance products. So yeah, that’s what goes behind Digit’s marketing.

Agency Reporter – How has Digit Insurance leveraged the digital revolution to enhance its marketing efforts, and what strategies have been most successful?

Tanya Marwah – The basics of marketing, i.e., understanding the consumer, creating a valuable product and proposition for them, reaching out to them at their most receptive point, and redoing all this to be better every day. This remains the same, but digital revolution today is about doing all this more efficiently with the digital tools available. Whether it is scaled up creative generation, research, media planning, monitoring, analysis, CRM tools, database management, etc., everything now uses digital alternatives. We have been using these tools extensively at Digit as well, but one of the things we are doing differently with these tools is creation of use-worthy interactions that help people get comfortable with insurance.

Agency Reporter – Could you share some examples of how Digit Insurance’s marketing strategies have evolved over the past few years, and what impact have these changes had on the brand’s success?

Tanya Marwah – The key is that we have stuck to the basics, which is creating something valuable for people and having them on your side. In addition to this, we also focused on experimenting with changing creative formats, media vehicles, and localised marketing along with digital. Our expectations from owned channels like social media have also changed. Now, we focus on engagement only, and being more boutique in our approach than focusing on gaining followers.

At Digit, the marketing team is an integral part of the customer experience, right from the UI UX to retail products, we work closely across functions to create value apart from the benefits of the products we are offering.

We also experiment with our approach to experience design. We understand that different products demand different interactions. In some cases, customers want to get in and out of the process quickly, while in other cases, like health, they want to spend more time understanding the product before buying. So, our marketing approach follows the customer’s needs.

Agency Reporter – How does Digit Insurance build the right content to engage its partners, and what role does marketing play in this process?

Tanya Marwah – At Digit, our motto is to simplify insurance for our customers (end-consumers and partners) and we own it, so content becomes an integral part. From bite-sized learning to simplification terms, each content piece plays its role in simplifying insurance for our customers. We also have strong customer feedback from channels like social, customer calls, and partner interactions, so we keep building content in palatable formats to address the gaps.

Agency Reporter – How does Digit Insurance differentiate itself from its competitors, and what marketing strategies have been instrumental in achieving this?

Tanya Marwah – Consistency is a major focus for us. One thing that I have learnt over the years as a marketeer is that the golden rule to making a company a brand is to stay consistent with the purpose, mission, and tonality you hold. So, I would say we trump over on consistency, but we also don’t forget to experiment with our delivery formats. We push the bar there as well and always focus on the customer’s advantage first, everything else follows. In addition to these efforts, we also handle our brand like a boutique brand, catering to a small set of people where each customer is valued, and their experience is important.

Agency Reporter – What steps is Digit Insurance taking to drive insurance penetration in India, and how does marketing support these efforts?

Tanya Marwah – Our focus is increasing reach for Digit, and then we supplement it by increasing the understanding of insurance, simplifying it, and demystifying it, this automatically drives penetration. But as of now, we are focused on Digit’s reach first as a challenger brand.

Agency Reporter – With Virat Kohli as the brand ambassador, how has Digit Insurance leveraged this partnership in its marketing efforts, and what impact has it had on the brand’s success?

Tanya Marwah – Virat’s presence has helped the brand become associated with scale. His presence has been effective in driving recall and trust. Plus, as an icon known across geographies, he has helped us make a national presence. Since he is also our investor and customer, we value his trust as a brand ambassador even more. A true endorsement, I would say.

Agency Reporter – Looking ahead, what new marketing initiatives is Digit Insurance planning to implement, and what role will these initiatives play in achieving the company’s long-term goals?

Tanya Marwah – Our marketing focus has been on simplifying insurance and increasing Digit’s reach, and we will continue to focus on the same in the coming months too.