Health Insurance Ki Subah Ho Gayi Mamu! Here’s how we designed the ACKO Platinum Plan (and got Munna & Circuit on board)

The ACKO Platinum Plan was created to change the way health insurance worked from the ground up.

Before we built the product, we got on the ground to understand the real world challenges that consumers encountered with their health insurance. Here’s what we learned:

• Consumers, despite having health insurance, were not getting 100% of their bills paid. Sometimes their policies did not cover consumables. And some other times, their policies had co-pay clauses and other restrictions like room rent limits which prevented them from receiving a full settlement.
• Healthy consumers were being subject to standard waiting periods of 6 months to 4 years despite having no conditions at the time of buying the policy.
• Consumers were not able to cover themselves adequately since the premiums for policies with higher coverage were too expensive or at times, not available

These were the three problems that we wanted to solve when we started our health insurance journey…and we’d like to believe that the ACKO Platinum Plan manages to tick all the boxes and so much more. 

• The policy ensures that the entirety of the consumer’s hospital bill is paid, including consumables. There are no room rent limits, so its holders can choose the room they feel the most comfortable in and don’t have to worry about any difference in charges. 
• Healthy consumers who have provided comprehensive and truthful disclosures about their health don’t have to be subject to standard waiting periods. 
• And finally, our D2C model ensures that consumers get the comprehensive coverage at a competitive price!

A Special Product Needs A Special Campaign

We built our product by thinking about the industry from a first principles perspective, asking the questions that no one else would, building solutions that no one else would.

We wanted to build a solution from the outside-in: a welcome change with a fresh perspective that only a new age insurer could bring. We knew we needed ambassadors who’d signify what we stood for. And the more we thought about the ways in which the ACKO Platinum Plan questioned the status quo of health insurance, a light bulb went off - Munna & Circuit. 

The very possibility of having Munna and Circuit as our brand ambassadors thrilled us, but also gave us a scare - how do you bring a pair as iconic as them back on screen? The last we’d seen them on screen together was in 2007.

Incidentally, 2023 also marked 20 years since the duo first came on screen. So, along with our creative agency, Leo Burnett, we made the trip to Mumbai to meet the brain behind it all - Raju Hirani. Our EVP of marketing, Ashish Mishra, along with senior folks from our agency made a passionate case for bringing the duo back on screen…and Mr. Hirani agreed. 

Once Mr. Hirani came into the picture and the shoot began, we knew we had a winner on our hands. The crackling chemistry between Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi as Munna and Circuit was as powerful as it had been in 2003 - if not more!

And with great power, comes great responsibility. The films inspired us to ensure that our systems, our processes and customer experience was on par with the ads that we’d just created. 

The journey from conception, filming and finally release, was a roller coaster ride of its own. Apart from the thrill of putting this campaign together, we were also tasked with the responsibility of keeping it all under wraps until we were ready to release. This was easily the toughest part of the entire process. The days leading up to the release saw us at our nervous best as we fretted about how audiences would absorb it.

Would they love it as much as we did? Would they celebrate the comeback? Or would there be criticism? 

We went live with our ads during the Asia Cup final between India and Sri Lanka.  

And the rest, as they say, is history. 

If you haven’t caught our campaign yet, do check out our ads here. We’ll be back next month with more useful tips on health and health insurance. 

Stay Healthy, 

ACKO