A JWT-created TV campaign, dubbed ‘Fun you never forget’, promotes the brand’s Smile Club Card, part of a CRM programme which reward its customers with various lifestyle privileges and event tie-ups. “Most Thai consumers consider insurance to be a serious form of long-term investment,” said Pinit Chantaprateep, JWT Bangkok’s ECD. “The client therefore wanted a concept that would change attitudes and differentiate it from other life insurance brands. The idea was to communicate how life insurance policies should leave you worry-free and give you more time to enjoy your life.”
Comprising five TV spots, the ads feature trademark Thai humour with consumers dancing Saturday Night Fever-style while stuck in a queue for an ATM. Other executions include car mechanics with cosmetics and a well-to-do heiress giving away her jewellery to beggars - bizarre scenarios that turn out to be figments of Muang Thai customers’ imagination as their joy run amok while attending Smile Club Card events. “The commercials are about the fulfillment of a happy life as Muang Thai members enjoy concerts, hobby workshops and drama performances with their card,” added Pinit.
The Muang Thai Smile Club boasts 300,000 members out of one million policyholders with the life insurance brand. Muang Thai’s low-priced premiums are a big draw with low-income segments of the country’s population, who traditionally set aside money for old age.
In 2008, the company will be targeting new businesses among Thailand’s rural population - 60 per cent of Thais reside in the countryside. Insurance agents from the same villages as its customers will be hired to sell premiums as low as 2,000 baht (US$63).
With its expansion plans in place, Muang Thai will be looking to grow its gross profits to over US$40 million this year. The insurance group’s premium sales grew 37 per cent to $438 million in 2007 with $220 million alone coming from new businesses.
The company recently merged its related businesses in leasing and real estate in January 2008 to brand itself as the Muang Thai Group.
