Chief strategy officer says instead of fear factor, the ads give a happy messageIt is exciting to be in the business of life insurance in Pakistan these days. Six decades after the country's birth, premiums of life insurance companies have just surpassed those of non-life insurance companies, heralding a new era of expansion in life insurance.

With premiums of the life segment accounting for 60% of the total insurance premiums collected in Pakistan during 2012, the life insurance business seems to have finally come of age. And steering the largest private-sector life insurance company to record profitability in these exciting times is Mohammed Ali Ahmed, Chief Strategy Officer of EFU Life Assurance. "We're in the middle of a massive ad campaign that is unprecedented in its scope and extent as far as life insurance companies in the private sector are concerned," Ahmed told The Express Tribune in a recent interview.

As the top player among the country's six private-sector life insurance companies, Ahmed believes his company's heavy investment in creating awareness of life insurance will benefit EFU Life. After-tax profit of EFU Life Assurance in 2012 Was R5914.1 million, which was greater than the profits of all other private-sector life and Takaful companies put together in that year. In terms of total assets, EFU Life Assurance enjoys a massive 50% industry share. Its closest rival happens to be Jubilee Life, which has total assets of Rs23.5 billion as opposed to EFU Life Assurance's assets of Rs37.8 billion at the end of last financial year. "People will be able to see the full provisioning (for the marketing campaign) in our annual report. But I can safely say that the level of investment is unparalleled in the history of life insurance in Pakistan," he added.

Although he refused to share the exact budget set aside for the campaign, a look at the latest financial results of the company reveals a major up-tick in the management expenses of EFU Life Assurance. The expense provisioning for the media campaign shows up as part of the higher expenses, which amounted to R5931.4 million during the previous quarter (July-September), up 29.7% from the corresponding three-month period in 2012. According to market research conducted by EFU Life Assurance's ad agency prior to the launch of the campaign, buying a life insurance product is not one of the top 10 financial goals of an average Pakistani. "Our research reveals that life insurance is still not a priority for 90% of the people," he said. Although the first phase of the campaign will end in the last week of December, Ahmed says the company will continue making heavy investments in marketing in the next two years.

"A lot of customers are now willing to meet our sales force just because they have seen our ads. They say this campaign is acting like a door-opener for them, as customers are far more receptive now," he noted, while emphasizing that absence of fear factor from the campaign has actually helped make life insurance more acceptable to the masses. "Life insurance is perceived by the public as a difficult proposition, something very complicated. Its advertising is generally based on the fear appeal proposition. But we consciously tried not to take that route," Ahmed said, noting that the campaign delivers happy message where the decision to buy life insurance is actually celebrated. "It was a risky route because it was an untested concept. But going by the feedback we have received, the public have found a light-hearted message very close to their heart," Ahmed noted.