MAM
Travel brands plan to resume advertising on digital media
NEW DELHI- When the curve in many countries has started to flatten, India is still witnessing a spike in the number of novel coronavirus cases. But this hasn’t stopped people from deciding about their next holiday plans.
Leading online travel agencies are gearing up to resume spending on advertisements after a gap of a few months, and in all their campaigns, the players are mostly focusing on safety and precautionary measures.
Similarly, to regain the confidence of customers, OYO has launched a campaign ‘Road Trippin’ under theme #DekhoApnaDesh. As a part of this campaign, the brand has partnered with two influencers Rocky and Mayur, who inspire travelers to come out of their homes and head on exciting road trips across India, safely.
The latest ad from OYO highlights that there is no need to ponder after so many days of lockdown and hit the road while Oyo is waiting for you with all precautionary measures. The film this time has a quirky Haryanvi narration (with English subtitles). The digital film is conceptualised by OYO’s in-house team and produced by Flying Elephants.
The brand recently partnered with Unilever to enhance OYO’s ‘Sanitised Stays’. This global partnership has started from India and then went live across Indonesia, Vietnam, USA, LATAM, and Europe.
According to OYO Hotels & Homes head of global brand Mayur Hola, “Travel industry’s livelihood and survival depends on scrubbing every surface, sanitising every inch. Over and over again. That’s what we are doing. We’re equipping our asset owner partners with the knowledge they need to be able to qualify as ‘Sanitised Stays’ and we’re monitoring this constantly”.
Hola opined that slowly but surely the loyal base is returning to the fold.
When quizzed about why the brand is not relying on TV medium and closely monitoring the digital space, Hola explains, “In such times, mass dissemination of any campaign would be wasteful and unfocussed with the uncertainty, restrictions, and lockdown variance across different States. We’ve focused our distribution amongst our frequent user base (referred to as power users) which by itself is a huge audience.”
Last month also, OYO released a campaign on the lines of Fir Badhega India, the campaign focused on adopting new standard operating procedures to welcome guests safely.
OYO rival, Airbnb has recently launched a campaign ‘Go Near’, an initiative to support local economies through local travel.
Makemytrip also joined the league by coming up with a digital campaign ‘AzaadiWaliFeeling’ asking travelers to plan those much-delayed trips.
The pandemic has created a very different scenario for consumers and the travel industry in general. OTA brands are smartly engaging in conversations around the need for a shorter trip in this stressful time. The question being asked is: What major role advertising will play as OTAs, while the industry is on the verge of recovery?
Dentsu Webchutney, AVP- account management Jaipal Singh explains advertising has its task cut out – to reassure consumers of hygiene and bring back their confidence towards travel. “It is important that advertising realigns itself in sync with the shift in the industry. The consumer attitudes towards travel have changed considerably – it’s time to work on new consumer insights and build further.”
While advertising campaigns are often built around pre-existing assumptions, habits, or seasons, the question arises is: What tools and strategies should OTAs be implementing while planning advertising, given the changing nature of consumer behavior?
Singh affirms, “While the playbook on new strategies is still being written, some early trends have started coming in. Given that people can work from anywhere now, longer stays would become relevant.”
“OTAs have traditionally been big on TV and digital mediums, which needs to be relooked. In the current times, TV might lead to high spillover as many cities still have restrictions in place. A digital led phased approach to advertising would be apt for the current times. An approach that helps target consumer cohorts with personalised messaging, he further adds.
In the past, we have seen that a lot of OTA marketing campaigns were designed to maximize ROI. But the pandemic has created an opportunity for brands to devise marketing strategies targeting a broader range of moments. Can brands do it successfully is what we have to see?
Mirum India regional director Arvind Nair believes that the need of the hour is to be more relative and original. “It can no longer be one size fits all. Getting back to normalcy is a distant dream as that can happen only next year. It’s a situation no one predicted before, so we all need to re-strategise the way we looked at campaigns, objectives, and measurements.”
Buying family medical insurance online in India has become a common option for individuals who want to secure health coverage for multiple family members under a single policy. However, many buyers are unsure about the exact steps involved in selecting and purchasing the right plan online.
In this guide, you will know the step-by-step process of buying family medical insurance online in India, along with the key factors to review before purchasing a suitable policy.
Step 1: Assess Your Family’s Healthcare Needs
Before buying online health insurance, check the healthcare needs of all family members. Check age, existing illnesses, regular medicines, and the likely need for hospital care later. This helps in selecting a suitable sum insured, policy type, and level of cover. It also reduces the chance of buying a plan that appears suitable but does not meet actual medical needs.
Step 2: Visit the Insurance Company’s Official Website
After understanding the family’s needs, visit the insurer’s official website and read the plan details carefully. Use the official platform to review eligibility, policy wording, waiting periods, cover details, exclusions, and renewal terms.
This step gives a clearer understanding of how the policy works before payment is made. It also helps avoid confusion caused by incomplete summaries on other pages.
Step 3: Compare Available Family Health Insurance Plans
A family medical insurance policy should be compared on factors beyond the premium. Review the sum insured, hospital network, room rent limits, pre- and post-hospitalisation cover, daycare treatment coverage, and waiting periods. It is also important to check treatment sub-limits and specific policy conditions.
Careful comparison helps determine whether a plan provides balanced coverage and whether its terms are suitable for the healthcare needs of the entire family.
Step 4: Choose the Right Policy and Start the Online Purchase
Once the options have been compared, select the policy that best fits the family’s medical needs and budget. Before starting the application, review the covered members, policy term, benefits, and main conditions again. This is an important stage because errors here can lead to the wrong cover amount, an unsuitable variant, or missing details that create problems during policy use.
Step 5: Calculate the Premium Using an Online Calculator
Use the online premium calculator before making the final choice. Enter the correct details, including age, city, number of insured members, and selected cover amount. The result helps in understanding the expected premium and whether the policy fits the annual budget. This step is useful because it allows cost and coverage to be reviewed together, instead of choosing a plan only because the premium looks lower.
Step 6: Fill in Personal and Medical Details
When filling in the proposal form, provide accurate details for each insured member. This includes name, date of birth, contact details, medical history, ongoing treatment, and previous insurance information if required.
Every answer should be complete and truthful. Incorrect or missing details can create difficulty later. Before you submit the form, read every section again and correct any mistakes.
Step 7: Make Payment Through the Secure Payment Gateway
After checking the form, go to the payment page and complete the transaction through the secure payment gateway. Review the premium, policy term, and entered details once more before confirming payment.
After the transaction is completed, save the receipt, reference number, or confirmation message carefully. Keeping this record is useful if you need to track the purchase or follow up on policy issuance later.
Step 8: Download and Keep Your Policy Document Safely
Once the policy is issued, download the policy document, schedule, and any related papers without delay. Read them carefully to confirm member names, policy period, sum insured, and major terms. Save a digital copy in a secure folder and keep a printed copy if needed. Proper record keeping makes future renewals, document checks, and policy servicing easier and more organised when information is required quickly.
Conclusion
Buying health cover online becomes easier when you handle each step with attention. From checking your family’s needs to reading the final document, every stage helps you make an informed choice. A careful approach can reduce mistakes, improve your understanding of policy terms, and help you choose coverage that matches your household’s medical needs, financial capacity, and long-term healthcare planning in a reliable way for your family over the long term.
