With the launch of its new campaign to empower women, ‘Rewrite Her Life’, Prudential Life Assurance Thailand is all set to unleash its game-changing range of products and services designed to reflect the position of women in Thai society as the key financial decision-maker and disrupt the Thai market with its bold new approach to what is expected of an insurance company.
At the packed-out launch event in downtown Bangkok, the company screened music videos for three famous Thai pop songs, rewritten to inspire and encourage female confidence and individuality and establish new perceptions of women in contemporary music while they’re at it.
The rewritten songs, include ‘Drip Queen’, ‘Kon Mee Sa Nae’ and ‘Pak Kon’.
Explaining the reasons behind the campaign, Mr. Robin Spencer, Chief Executive Officer of Prudential Thailand, was keen to promote the vital role women play in Thai culture.
“Women have continuously been the key driving force in Thai society and all over the world, both socially and economically,” he said. “More women are taking on decision-making roles for large purchases such as homes, cars, electronics, as well as financial products. Across the planet, women are in charge of almost 80 per cent of consumer goods spends, either by using their own money or by influencing others. This is aligned with our business where women are significantly represented, because of our female-focused products and service propositions, alongside our wide range of products suitable for everyone, whether they are male, female, young or old.”
Robin joined Prudential Thailand in spring 2020, after first joining Prudential Corporation Asia as Chief Operating Officer (COO) in 2018, where his 25 years of CEO, senior functional and business experience across the insurance industry enabled him to drive key transformation projects across the region. Now, as CEO of Prudential Thailand, he is ready to help Thailand on the next stage of its growth journey while protecting the health – and building the wealth – of all of its customers
“With our focus on ‘helping people get the most out of life’, Prudential Thailand is ready to disrupt the market and provide the best products and services that match the behaviour of every generation, regardless of gender, status or lifestyle.”
It’s a smart move for an organisation with nearly two centuries of success in the West but that has only operated in Thailand for the relatively short time of 26 years and is all part of Prudential’s plan to smash the traditional perception of insurance and unlock the potential of a digitally powered 21st-century underwriter.
Indeed, the company’s multi-use app, “Pulse”, has several digital features that help improve and maintain positive physical and mental health as well as financial planning stability for everyone. Pulse has an exhaustive list of features, including a digital health check, an online symptom checker, a meal and nutrition tracker, and even an AI-driven virtual personal trainer.
These are just a small selection of the services users can access to increase their longevity, health and wellness, however, the heart of Pulse is its teleconsultation service. By connecting to Pulse customers can speak with a doctor, receive a prescription to complete an online purchase at Boots or have the medicine delivered directly to their home.
Other services for women who plan to look after their own financial security include PRUClick Saving 8/20 and PRUSuk Samran – essential tools for long term peace mind about the future, especially because in Thailand women live, on average, to 84 years old while men have a life expectancy of between 77-79 years. Furthermore, Prudential Thailand also provides various wellness products that cover women's health issues, including PRUBreast Cancer Care, PRUCritical Care, PRUSmart Health and PRUHealthy Plus.
Enthusing over the products and services, Mr. Spencer went on to highlight Prudential’s new short-term products, such as the maternity protection plan PRU Mum and PRU Breast Cancer, a yearly automatically renewable policy, which have all gone live on the Pulse application. The introduction of these “affordable products” is a big deal in a country whose wider population is often reticent to sink their hard-earned cash into long-term financial commitments.
“Some people in Thailand say that insurance is the product of the privileged. This is something that must change and we are determined to be the ones to do it. For example, where we have provided Dengue products for 200 baht we have seen huge take-up, especially when we introduced the Pulse teleconsultation services to AIS and AIS Fibre customers at a special rate of only 199 baht.
We think there are great opportunities for us to get the message out to the masses and continue on our mission to prevent, postpone and protect our customers during their health journey and throughout their lives.
The sweet spot
The challenge of adoption is just one of the reasons that galvanised Prudential Thailand’s plan to upset the insurance applecart and introduce new ways of operating.
“One area where Prudential is trying hard to push more awareness on is with their powerful AI symptom checker on Pulse. If nobody knows it is there, they can’t use it. But if it is used more broadly by people in rural areas, people who aren't close to hospitals or those who struggle to pay for treatment, it can not only transform the lives of millions of people in Thailand but also reduce the burden on doctors and medical centres by freeing up resources to focus on seriously ill patients.”
That aspect of “getting it out there” plays a big part in ‘Rewrite Her Life’ and the creation of a music-centric campaign promoted through social media is no accident.
“If you base things around music or dance in Thailand, then you are hitting the sweet spot and many more people will want to get involved. A great example of this is our partnership with Korean pop (K-pop) super group SuperM to launch our ‘We DO Well Together’ campaign – to motivate people across Asia to stay well and keep healthy. When this was rolled out on social media, it was so effective that we had a hit rate of more than 300 million views across all social media platforms and over 9.6 billion views of We DO hashtags.
Pushing for similar success with its latest marketing drive, ‘Rewrite Her Life’ also urges members of the public to rewrite lyrics of other songs to discuss social issues, place women in the spotlight and, above all, put them in charge of their own narrative.
“We want to help women in Thailand feel more confident and feel that they don't have to put up with other people writing their story. We want them to take control and feel empowered to live their lives the way they want.”
Moreover, in addition to boosting the perception of Thai women and raising the profile of Prudential Thailand in the public consciousness, Mr. Spencer wants the company to become number one in the hearts and minds of its customers and be seen as an organisation that genuinely cares.
