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Insurers turn to CCTV gala to sharpen edge

By Song Hongmei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-03-01 14:08

Chinese basketball players Yao Ming, right, and his wife Ye Li huddle under umbrellas during a television commercial shoot for China Life Monday, December 3, 2007 in Houston. [Agencies]

Just like many Chinese, a man surnamed Zhang, a business operation director for a foreign-funded life insurance company in Guangzhou, watched the performance gala presented by the China Central Television (CCTV) at home with his parents this year as he does on the eve of every Lunar New Year.

Zhang saw China Life, the country's largest life insurer, and its smaller rival Ping An Insurance appear now and then with promotions during the gala, which was broadcast live on several CCTV channels from 8:00 pm on February 6 to 1:00 am the next day.

A survey conducted by the Nielsen Media Research shows that about 214 million Chinese watched the annual evening CCTV gala on the eve this year. They came from more than 100 million families representing 70 percent of all families nationwide. The figure suggests the CCTV gala, first aired in the 1980s, still enjoys top audience ratings among Chinese worldwide, said the research company.

According to the 21st Century Business Herald, China Life spent more than 50 million yuan ($6.98 million) on advertising during the gala and Ping An around 10 million yuan.

"It's a good timing for China Life to further promote itself in the gala, as it reaches our target clients," a sales official from China Life was quoted by the 21st Century Business Herald as saying.

During the Spring Festival holiday, CCTV broadcast a new China Life commercial featuring Chinese basketball player Yao Ming and his wife Ye Li. The advertisement campaign also included outdoor billboards in big cities including Guangzhou. The commercial involves a symbolic diamond ring that turns into a China Life logo, representing long-term care.

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Meanwhile Ping An chose a different strategy, releasing a new credit card commercial as part of its efforts to become an integrated financial service provider instead of a single underwriter.

China Life has spent nearly 20 million yuan in outdoor advertisement in the Guangdong provincial market, a source said. Some eighty percent of insurance advertising revenue for metropolitan newspapers in Guangzhou came from China Life, the source said.

Now could be the right time for the country's two largest insurance companies to invest in promotions and marketing programs, as more and more deposits drain from commercial banks to the capital market and the insurance sector, said Wang Xiaogang, an analyst with Orient Securities.

"Our insurance sales agents will become far more confident in introducing our plans as we spend more in advertising," the sales official said. This certainly puts sales teams at other insurance companies, including Zhang's, at a disadvantage.

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The full text is available in the February Issue of China Insurance.