‘Bike and blend’: Advisers take AIA Vitality to the people

In the last few months, the life insurer has partnered with two financial advisers – Ged Lowe, at Lowe Financial Group and Andy Hills from All Financial Services – to raise awareness of the incentive-based health and wellness program with prospective clients. Interactive kiosks (image attached), including bicycles that blend smoothies as you pedal, were set up in Melbourne’s Westfield Southland and Sydney’s Westfield Warringah to drive consumers to engage with the initiative.

Speaking about the pilot, Ged said that AIA Vitality and the interactive kiosks provide a new way to talk with people about life insurance.

“We’re turning the conversation on its head. We’re saying to people that we can effectively pay them to be healthy through the tangible, immediate benefits that make up the program, like discounts on shopping, travel and insurance premiums. It’s no longer just talking about ‘what cover will you need if things go wrong’, but we’re also talking about ‘helping you to improve your health and you get paid to do it’, which appeals to people’s aspirations rather than fears. This is a step-change for advisers writing risk.”

Since launching to the market in March, AIA Australia has seen a rapid increase in advisers now writing policies with AIA Vitality attached. More than 1 in 4 policies have been written with AIA Vitality since inception, and over 900 advisers have written a life insurance policy with AIA Vitality attached to it. These figures are destined to grow with the program recently expanded to be available on investment platforms.

Chief Executive Officer for AIA Australia, Damien Mu, believes that AIA Vitality is making good progress in changing perceptions about life insurance, both from the customer and adviser perspective.

“As an industry, we constantly hear about the need to improve engagement with life insurance, both to help financial advisers ‘promote it’ but also to make more Australians open ‘to it’. So, we wanted to do something a little different. We are starting to see AIA Vitality lift engagement of customers in their own life insurance.”

“Our message – Life insurance that pays you to be healthy – is prompting consumers to review their life insurance need which is a positive change for the industry. The kiosks are a fun and light-hearted way to get people interested in the AIA Vitality program. They can see how it integrates into their daily lives and incentivises them to change their behaviour, and the adviser can latch onto a unique selling point for life insurance in Australia that they’ve not had before.”

For more information about the program visit www.aiavitality.com.au