IndiaSocial Case Challenge – edition 2
Category: Best strategic programme
Winner of Position #3
Title: Parenting – You are not alone – The MNYL igenius community
Share a little about your organisation
Max New York Life Insurance Company Ltd. is a joint venture between Max India Limited, one of India’s leading multi-business corporations and New York Life International, the international arm of New York Life, a Fortune 100 company. The igenius Programme is our special customer-centric initiative to establish connect beyond business. Our mission is to partner parents in the wholesome development of children. The igenius Programme has several engagement initiatives like the igenius Scholarship Programme, igenius Photography Contest, igenius Sports Contest. Parent workshops are conducted to encourage all-round development of the child as well help Max New York Life engage effectively with customers and create customized solutions to meet their long-term life insurance needs.
Executive Summary
The igenius Programme is Max New York Life’s special customer-centric initiative to establish connect beyond business. Our mission is to partner parents in the wholesome development of children. The igenius Programme is a collection of initiatives aimed at discovering a child’s hidden talent and all-round potential early enough to maximize it. The programme not only facilitates monetary backing but also partners in nurturing a child’s abilities and securing their future. Acting on the consumer insight that parents love to talk about parenting & children especially since there is no single right way of parenting; parents are constantly seeking ideas and suggestions to improve their parenting skills. Our primary focus was on developing and nurturing an authentic first of a kind parenting community of India on Facebook and Twitter by launching the igenius Programme. An official blog & YouTube channel was created where we discussed relevant issues and interviewed parents as well as field experts (school principals, child psychologists
Nature of the programme/ activity/ campaign
Business to consumer
Duration of the said programme/ activity/ campaign. Start date-end date
Start Date – 8th February, 2010 End Date – Ongoing
Background
igenius was launched in 2010 to create a relationship platform to engage with customers and drive customer engagement beyond business. The strategic objective was to extend the business focus in the child insurance space and engage with existing customers and potential customers to drive brand awareness and position Max New York Life as a company that connects with and understands its customers. The igenius Programme is a collection of initiatives aimed at discovering a child’s hidden talent and all-round potential early enough to maximize it. The programme not only facilitates monetary backing but also partners in nurturing a child’s abilities and securing their future.
Objectives
- To create a first of its kind engagement platform with parents of young children to further the wholesome development of children – for long term brand affinity
- To encourage participation in the igenius Scholarship programme
Strategy and Planning
The core idea: Connect with parents via social media and establish the core thought of wholesome development + better parenting. The focus was on developing a relationship with the TG and not direct selling of child plans.
Stakeholders
We wanted to spread awareness among parents about the potential benefits of realizing their children’s capabilities early in life and thus aspiring to develop their children as all-rounders while also being sure about a secure future of their children. Parents (Male and Female) between the age group of 23 – 45 years
Choice of channel/s
Instead of creating another standard online campaign, we decided to invest in developing relationships with potential customers via establishing presence on key social platforms. Acting on the consumer insight that parents love to talk about parenting & children especially since there is no single right way of parenting; parents are constantly seeking ideas and suggestions to improve their parenting skills. Our primary focus was on developing and nurturing an authentic first of a kind parenting community of India on Facebook and Twitter by launching the igenius Programme. An official blog & YouTube channel was created where we discussed relevant issues and interviewed parents as well as field experts (school principals, child psychologists, sports trainers etc These social destinations acted as an enabler and a catalyst for parents in India.
Implementation
We did various activities throughout the year:
a) We have weekly & monthly discussion areas based on interest for eg, how to spot talent in your child, what is the role of nutrition, how do you tackle sibling rivalry and other such issues
b) Associations with celebrities like – Derek O’Brien, Ruskin Bond, Palash Sen to address parenting & child development specific queries resulted in fruitful and meaningful interactions with the brand.
c) We took the program to the next level by taking the virtual connection to the offline world with the help of various interactive on-ground events which helped parents to decipher the realities and challenges of modern day parenting. These were also shot on video and shared with the community as well as live tweeted.
d) Variety of content and relevant topics like work life balance, role of a father v/s mother, peer pressure, making children understand the value of money, etc added stickiness and loyalty to the entire program
e) We introduced the ‘igenius parent of the month’ where we select one parent from our community on the basis of his/her discussion & participation every month and discuss the topic which is close to his/her heart. This activity got good response and after we have been getting many queries from parents to be the igenius parent of the month
f) Last year on the occasion of mother’s day, we introduced ‘Love you Maa!’ application which got a good response from parents. We invited parents to upload images with their parents and after that we sent those images in a nice photo-frame to the desired address.
g) On the occasion of Christmas, we introduced ‘Letter to Santa’ application where we encouraged children to participate & make a selfless wish for others like house-maid, family, friends, relatives, etc. Total installations made were more than 2000 and more than 1300 letters were sent to Santa
h) On the occasion of reaching 50,000+ facebook fans, we celebrated the occasion with a small cake-cutting ceremony where parents from igenius community itself gave their feedback about our community
i) We have also introduced igenius book club where we suggest one book every month which can be read by parents to their children. We’ve been also asking parents for the books that can be recommended to others and we’ve got some good suggestions from parents
j) Another initiative which we introduced is the igenius movie of the month where we recommend one movie to parents which they can watch with their children. Various movies like Tangled, Stanley Ka Dabba, Kung Fu Panda, etc. have been suggested earlier.
Impact and Outcome
On Facebook: We have close to 65,000+ fans on our Facebook community & 98% of these are active users in a month. The quality of comments on Facebook has always been ehigh – parents give detailed feedback and share their personal experiences. Our posts have had over 1.5 million views in the past month (as per Facebook analytics) & close to 4500 comments
On YouTube: Our total channel views are more than 26,000 organic views with 43 subscribers. We have made videos of parents who volunteered themselves to share their opinion & be a part of our parenting community. We have also made videos of Derek O’Brien, Neil O’Brien, Palash Sen and Ruskin Bond on topics which are close to parents. Then there have been videos from doctors giving special advice to parents on some important topics. We have also made videos of our last 5 workshops.
On Twitter: We have daily interactions with parents and discuss various issues with them. In the past, we have also live-tweeted 5 igenius workshops. We have around 320 followers and we follow 264 parents.
On Blog: Our blog is helps parents to get a perspective on different topics like inculcating the habit of reading in children, value of money, etc. These suggestions help them in parenting and wholesome development of children. We also feature parents’ views on different topics in our Parents’ Speak Up category. The blog views are on average more than 50,000 with around 110 blog-posts.
Learnings
To engage with an audience which is evolved and has good experience was challenging. The audience comprised of parents, whose children differ in many ways (e.g. food habits, extra-curricular activities, etc). Thus, to manage the flow of discussion in a way which is of benefit to all is challenging. It is essential to ensure that no comment or suggestion was seen as contradictory for any parent. We also focused more on the emotional quotient and it really worked. We asked people questions about parenting & wholesome development of their children and they started engaging with us. Many times parents themselves add value by answering some other parent’s queries
What next
At this stage, we have been able to build a platform where we have healthy discussions on various topics related to parenting. We also celebrate important occasions with parents like mother’s day, father’s day, parent’s day, daughter’s day, etc. These discussions and participations have helped us to build a strong platform for parents. We would like igenius to be reckoned as a pioneering community of parents with focus on wholesome development and extend this strongly offline by creating clubs for parents to interact with each other.
Testimonials
Parents’ sharing their opinion about igenius community
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igl7HJPTNo4
Feedback from parents Isha Shah and Aanchal Munshi Vig:
https://www.facebook.com/igeniusprogramme?sk=app_10442206389
External Agencies: Any partners who helped you with strategy
Media2win – A leading independent full service digital agency in India
External Agencies: Any partners who helped you with implementation.
Media2win – A leading independent full service digital agency in India
Suitable Tittle
Parenting – You are not alone – The MNYL igenius community
Factsheet
Name of the company: Max New York Life Insurance – igenius
Category: BFSI, Business to consumer
Case Submitted By: Namrata Balwani
Website: http://www.media2win.com/
