Emotional connect helps brands stand the test of time: Rathin Lahiri-SBI General Insurance

During the Independence Day week, SBI General Insurance, unveiled the next chapter of its integrated brand campaign, ‘Chuniye Bharosa, Apno Sa’, with a new film centered on Motor Insurance. The “Chuniye Bharosa, Apno Sa”, campaign was first launched earlier this year, in March, with actor Pankaj Tripathy as the brand ambassador and focused on highlighting health financial protection. Both campaigns strive to bring SBI General Insurance’s core message of trust, the importance of choosing the right insurance partner with confidence and positioning the insurer as a trusted partner in protecting consumers and their families.

For categories such as health and motor insurance, where the product is often bought today for a need that may arise years later, trust remains one of the most powerful currencies for a brand.

Commenting on Chapter 2 of the campaign, Rathin Lahiri, Head - Marketing & CSR, SBI General Insurance said, “With Chuniye Bharosa, Apno Sa, we set out to build a brand philosophy rooted in one timeless human need - the need for trust when it matters the most. While the campaign began with health insurance, the underlying belief extends across every protection need, including motor insurance. As a brand, our endeavor has always been to make insurance more relatable by connecting with real-life moments and helping customers see protection not merely as a financial product, but as an essential part of responsible decision-making.”

He continues, “Buying a vehicle is often the result of years of aspiration, hard work and careful consideration, yet the protection that accompanies it is frequently reduced to a compliance requirement or a price-led choice. Through this next phase of the campaign, we want to encourage consumers to place the same thought and care into choosing their insurance partner as they do into choosing their vehicle. After all, true peace of mind comes not just from owning a vehicle, but from knowing that you have a trusted partner standing beside you through every journey and every unforeseen situation.”

Lahiri highlights that motor insurance is not merely about covering unforeseen incidents; it is about providing the confidence that help, support and a dependable claims experience will be there when customers need it the most. He explains, “As customer expectations continue to evolve, trust is increasingly shaped by the entire experience, from transparency and accessibility to the assurance of timely assistance during moments of need.”

 Chapter 1 of Chuniye Bharosa, Apno Sa

Looking back at the first phase of the ‘Chuniye Bharosa, Apno Sa’ campaign, the 360-degree campaign executed was across the OTT platform, news channels, outdoor media, WhatsApp, social media and cinema theatres. In addition, special attention was given to vernacular languages and culturally nuanced storytelling to penetrate deeper into non-metro India. The results for the first part of the campaign focused on health insurance have been heart-warming. 

For starters, the campaign yielded 28% YoY revenue growth in health insurance in FY26 far ahead of the market growth. The multi-media campaign gained over one billion views/impressions running in key markets like: Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kochi, Patna, Chandigarh, Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Amritsar, Trivandrum and witnessed a 20% increase in overall website traffic. The campaign also garnered over 590 media coverages in publications, particularly business publications.

Looking at cinema particularly, the campaign yielded over 1.5 million eyeballs across over 35 PVR screens around the blockbuster, Dhurandhar: The Revenge movie. On social media, the campaign saw over 337 million video views. Another positive note for SBI General Insurance was the JioHotstar-Epsos Brand Lift study (BLS), which showed a significant spike of 5% in the purchase intent and a 12% uplift in the brand awareness. 

Leveraging Brand SBI

The brand’s attempt to own the territory of trust is also rooted in its association with the wider SBI brand. Lahiri says SBI General Insurance wanted to leverage the trust already associated with its parent brand while establishing a more distinctive emotional connection for the insurance business.

“We felt that trust is most relevant to the consumer, that from SBI General Insurance point of view also, we wanted to essentially own trust,” he says. The campaign, he adds, builds on the brand’s broader positioning around protection and trust, culminating in the proposition “Chuniye Bharosa, Apno Sa”—encouraging consumers to choose SBI General Insurance as a trusted name.

Trust may be a familiar proposition across BFSI and insurance, but Lahiri believes its effectiveness depends on how brands make the idea emotionally meaningful rather than simply claiming it. “The way we look at communication and advertising and building brand, is that they have to fundamentally connect at an emotional level. This can be backed by functional benefits and tools and I strongly believe that when brands connect emotionally, they stand the test of time.” he says.

This thinking also informed the campaign’s portrayal of its core consumer. SBI General Insurance has chosen to focus on men in the late 30s or early 40s—a family-oriented consumer who is focused on providing for his children, wife and parents.

Lahiri describes this as the “quiet heroism” of the average Indian man who spends his life taking care of his family. Just as the consumer takes care of his family, SBI General Insurance is positioned as the partner that takes care of his health and motor insurance needs.

A tonal shift in a noisy media environment

The Chuniye Bharosa, Apno Sa campaign also represents a shift in the brand’s communication approach. Lahiri says the change was driven by the reality of an increasingly fragmented and cluttered media environment, where consumers are constantly moving between short-form videos and multiple digital platforms.

“We are living in a time of Insta Reels,” he says, describing the environment as one of “extreme chaotic noise” in the average consumer’s life. With consumers exposed to a constant stream of short-form content, brands have an increasingly narrow window in which to create a meaningful impression. For SBI General Insurance, the answer was to find an insight that could connect with its broad target audience at an emotional level.

Why Pankaj Tripathi?

The decision to use actor Pankaj Tripathi as the face of the campaign was closely linked to the same consumer insight. With SBI General Insurance catering to a large customer base, anywhere from three to four crore people, across the country, Lahiri says the brand did not want a conventional “hero” figure but wanted someone who “represents the common man”.

He adds, “The second criteria is that we wanted somebody who personality exudes simplicity, trust, authenticity. We felt Pankaj Tripathi stood for all of those. The feedback on our association with Pankaj Tripathi has been extremely positive.”

Beyond metros: The opportunity in smaller towns

The evolution of insurance adoption is also changing the way SBI General Insurance thinks about its consumer base. Lahiri says smaller towns, state capitals and lower population strata have been growing significantly faster than metros.

This expansion also makes regional communication and distribution critical. Lahiri describes insurance, especially health, as a sophisticated category where an omnichannel approach is particularly important, rather than relying exclusively on a do-it-yourself digital journey.

SBI General Insurance’s distribution network spans banks, SBI, regional rural banks and agents across the country. The company also communicates policy-related information in 16 languages, reflecting the diversity of the markets it serves. The company is simultaneously investing in consumer and channel-partner education. SBI General Insurance's motor insurance proposition is backed by an extensive network of over 8,400+ network garages, cashless repair facilities, faster approvals and a “transparent” claims process, to enhance the overall customer experience.

Designing products for different stages of life

The company is also attempting to broaden health insurance adoption through a portfolio that caters to consumers at different stages of their lives. Lahiri says the insurer has been developing simpler products for younger and early-stage consumers, while offering more sophisticated options as consumers age. These include top-ups, super top-ups, critical illness coverage and restoration benefits. The objective is to create products that can meet consumers at different levels of insurance maturity rather than assuming that a single product will work for everyone.

At a broader level, Lahiri identifies three priorities underpinning the company’s corporate strategy: accessibility, affordability and awareness. “Our core goal at a corporate level, essentially, is that what can we do to be, A, accessible, therefore distribution. B, affordable, because that's very important in a country like India, to keep pricing down, and three, create awareness. These are the three pillars of our corporate strategy and this flows into everything from sales to marketing and communication to other processes” he says.

CTV takes a larger share of the media mix

The changing consumer landscape is also reflected in the insurer’s media strategy. Lahiri says CTV has gained significant importance, with the company spending an estimated 50–55% of its television allocation on CTV versus traditional satellite television. The attraction lies not only in reach but also in targeting and flexibility as CTV allows the brand to target specific age groups and markets and adjust campaign weightages based on response.

Traditional television, however, remains important because of the insurer’s national footprint. Regional channels continue to play a role in markets such as Assam, Kerala, Rajasthan and Punjab, where the brand needs to address consumers across different linguistic and cultural contexts.

Looking at the overall media mix, Lahiri says print accounted for around 7–8%, while outdoor was approximately 15%. Social media contributed another 10%, with the balance going towards television. Digital is treated separately because of its always-on, performance-led nature.

Outdoor continues to serve a particular role because the brand’s target audience is frequently commuting to work, making it an effective reminder medium. At the same time, the campaign’s emotional storytelling meant television remained central to delivering the intended message.

For Lahiri, the larger shift is therefore not about abandoning traditional media for digital, but about creating a flexible, omnichannel approach that reflects the diversity of India’s consumers. As health insurance moves beyond the metros and becomes increasingly relevant to younger consumers and smaller towns, SBI General Insurance is attempting to combine emotional storytelling with functional proof points, regional reach and increasingly sophisticated media targeting.