MUMBAI: IDBI Federal Life Insurance Wednesday launched its #KeepMoving campaign in the city in partnership with Indian cricket legend, Sachin Tendulkar, which focuses on balancing two aspects of fitness – physical and financial.
The company’s CEO and former Ranji Trophy cricketer Vighnesh Shahane revealed that ever since Tendulkar came on board as the brand ambassador of their flagship marathon properties in April 2016, IDBI Federal rose from being ranked 16th that year to 10th in 2017 in the Economic Times Brand Equity survey. Incidentally, it has also managed to register gross written premium worth Rs 1 billion since Shahane was named CEO in 2014.
These developments have encouraged IDBI Federal to focus more on marathon events in four cities – Mumbai, Kolkata, Kochi and New Delhi. These are owned and organized by Bengaluru-based NEB Sports.
IDBI Federal chief marketing officer Karthik Raman told SportzPower that that the company has opted to go for a balance between traditional and new-age branding and marketing opportunities. Besides utilising Tendulkar’s following through his official social media handles, its own event
pages are promoted organically courtesy photographs shared from training runs and the main race days, which make people feel worthy not just as participants, but as evangelists of marathons in the country.
On aggregate, IDBI Federal’s official marathon pages on Facebook have garnered 45,040 followers.
The brand has also supported 3-4 free-of-cost training runs prior to the events which is organised by its running partners and global apparel giant, adidas. It has garnered the support of top running communities such as adidas Runners to encourage turnouts of 2000-3000 people on an average and inspire people to build a culture of physical fitness in the country. This has also resulted in newspaper editorials featuring testimonials from runners about the event.
Raman claims that in Mumbai alone, participation has risen from 8000 to 17000 runners every year for its half marathon since its inception five years ago. According to him, the most impressive trend seen is people showing more interest in the half marathon (21k) run as the 5k and 10k runs continue to garner the maximum participation.
IDBI Federal has made a conscious effort to engage fans with the brand and give them an experience of a lifetime by giving them a chance to meet Tendulkar after the races.
On the other hand, New Delhi continues to draw impressive crowds due to the quality of runners and its affiliation with the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) and Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS). The winners of the full marathon (42k) run get to represent India at international level competitions.
While the present focus lies in consolidating the four properties as Kolkata and Kochi are fast growing as well, Raman said that IDBI Federal is open to sponsoring marathons in other cities amongst other sports marketing opportunities.
Previously, the company sponsored the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) Bowling Foundation in 2015 and 2016 where budding, young fast bowlers were mentored by Australian legend Jeff Thomson. The same talent identification initiative was held by the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) in Bengaluru and Kerala Cricket Association in Wayanand. Many bowlers got the opportunity to train in Australia or bag IPL contracts, according to Shahane.
IDBI Federal’s USP of focussing on sport, fitness, health and hygiene as a way of building its brand made it the curate the Quest of Excellence grassroots-level programme. As part of it, it sponsored the #YoungChamps initiative at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy back in 2017 for children aged 10 and below. The winners of that contest got an opportunity to train with the Indian badminton national coach and legend in Hyderabad.
Shahane concluded that the new #KeepMoving campaign is an extension of the brand’s movement to make India’s young population productive enough for equally being a sporting and financially fit nation rather than just an enthusiastic one.
