MNC Life Assurance employs media advantage for market expansion

CEO Risye Dillianti harnesses the power of media to expand MNC Life’s outreach and education whilst securing almost 300,000 clients.

Being under the MNC Group umbrella, MNC Life Assurance has advantages in terms of captive customers who are employees in all business units of more than 10,000 employees. Interestingly, one of the business units owned by the MNC Group is a media network, both television and website portals.

MNC Life Assurance CEO Risye Dillianti spoke with Insurance Asia and acknowledged the opportunity in this competitive advantage even as their existing number of non-captive customers is bigger.

She explained that the certainty of premium income from MNC Life’s captive customers is a big capital for them to continue to develop their non-captive market share.

“MNC Life is in the largest media group in Southeast Asia which comes with an ecosystem and extensive media coverage, because of that MNC Life has a competitive advantage in the form of media exposure that other insurance companies don’t have,” Risye said in the recent interview.

Being in the MNC Group

There are four pillars in the MNC Group business, namely; Media and Entertainment, Financial Services, Hospitality, and Energy.

MNC Life Assurance itself is under the Financial Service pillar along with various other financial services such as banking, asset management, multi-finance, etc. Then the Media and Entertainment pillar has several national TV channels such as; RCTI, GTV, MNC TV, INEWS and four website portals.

Risye said media exposure is used to communicate positioning and value proposition effectively to potential customers. The power of the media is used by MNC Life to target potential customers beyond their inherent market.

So far, MNC Life has almost 300,000 customers from its all market, far exceeding the number of its customers from its natural sphere of influence.

Not hard selling

Risye explained that they utilize all media channels in an integrated manner. “Because the insurance market share itself is still very large in Indonesia and Indonesian people have different characteristics, MNC Life certainly does not only focus on one media channel but uses it as a whole in an integrated manner,” she said.

Risye clarified that their approach doesn't involve aggressively pushing insurance products. Instead, they primarily use their channels to educate people about financial literacy. This is essential because many individuals still equate purchasing insurance with losing money.

Risye said that in order to get through Indonesian people, especially millennials, who are a growing demographic, they need to focus on financial literacy due to low insurance awareness. “So that in terms of content, what we describe is more to provide education, for example about how to make good financial planning for young people,” she said.

“Besides that, we also remove jargon about insurance in every exposure so that it is more friendly to be accepted by the wider community,” she added.

MNC Life’s strategic approach, she said, remains rooted in research and development. Their observation is that people, particularly the millennial generation, can allocate funds for insurance, thanks to their evolving lifestyle.

Recognizing this opportunity, they have crafted educational content. Risye noted that this initiative is unique, as there are few insurance companies actively promoting financial literacy through media channels. “This is a void we aim to fill whilst playing a part in community education,” she said.

Good intentions

In addition to research and development, MNC Life gains valuable insights into segments, locations, ages, and premium capabilities. This information guides them in choosing suitable media channels and products for potential customers.

Risye also noted that MNC Life doesn’t just tailor products to fit MNC Media’s audience characteristics. “Our products now cater to various stages of life,” Risye explained.