Aditya Birla Health Insurance (ABHI) has been on a mission to shift the healthcare industry’s focus from insurance to health assurance, with a Health First approach. One of the ways they’ve been doing this is through their annual campaign, JumpForHealth, which encourages people to take care of their health and inculcate the habit of healthy living. But this campaign is more than just promoting health. For the past six years, the campaign's main aim has been to foster a culture of inclusivity by actively involving individuals from diverse backgrounds and communities, such as transgender people, dabbawalas, and differently-abled persons.
The campaign moves beyond merely promoting fitness and has aligned itself to support an important social cause. It seeks to create a sense of awareness and empathy that encourages people to support their cause. This year too, by collecting jumps and donating prosthetic legs via their NGO partner, Sadhuvaswani Foundation, ABHI is aiming at 1000 prosthetic leg donations. The campaign has been running since 2017 with over 3,000 prosthetic legs being donated till date.
In this interview with TheCSRUniverse, Mr Mayank Bathwal, CEO, Aditya Birla Health Insurance, discusses the impact of the campaign, the strategies the company has employed to create enthusiasm and participation, and how it ensures its social initiatives for people with disabilities are sustainable and inclusive.
Q. What is the goal of Aditya Birla Health Insurance's annual campaign JumpForHealth and how does it align with its HealthFirst philosophy?
A. Since inception, we at ABHI have attempted to change the industry narrative from Health Insurance to Health Assurance, from Insurance First to Health First. We had a clear purpose in our minds that we wanted to “Empower people to lead healthier lives” and build a Health First approach in the Insurance industry. The journey of Jump For Health began with this purpose at the heart of it. We stumbled upon an interesting insight at the same time – which was, according to the American Journal of Health Promotion, jumping 10 times, twice a day is good for bone health. Coupled with this insight, the idea for Jump For Health was born. We would get people to jump for us so that they can build their health and in turn we would collect the jumps and give back to the society. For every 10K jumps collected, we decided to donate 1 prosthetic leg via the Sadhuvaswani Foundation.
The main objective of this campaign is to encourage people to take care of their health and inculcate the habit of healthy living.
Q. How do you plan to reach the target of 10 million jumps and 1000 prosthetic leg donations this year?
A. This year, #JumpForHealth campaign is based on the theme of finding your reason to jump while helping someonein need.As the campaign continues to witness tremendous involvement from the people all over the world,the 6th edition#JumpForHealth has already completed 5 million jumps in just five days. This time we will be targeting people from all age groups and collaborate with several schools, hospitals and choreographers.
Q. What has been the impact of the JumpForHealth campaign since its inception in 2017, and how has it contributed towards creating awareness about healthy living and its benefits? Moreover, how have you managed to sustain and expand the same campaign for the past six years, and what are your future plans? In addition, what were the major roadblocks in this journey and how did you overcome those challenges?
A. The campaign was launched on 7th April, 2017 with a target of 1Mn jumps and ended up with 2Mn at the end, as the initiative reached 6.1 million users online in the first edition.Every year thereafter, Jump For Health was launched with a unique new theme to keep the momentum alive and we have been successful in engaging people from various age groups and backgrounds across the world. The year 2018 – was communities jumping for us such as transgenders and Dabbawalas, 2019 was the year of dancing as a form of jumping with Remo Dsouza, the king of hip-hop dance, headlining our campaign, 2020 due to Covid, we did not go ahead with JFH that year. While 2021 was dedicated to the spirit of Covid warriors with SudhaChandran headlining our campaign, in 2022, we launched with a bang since Covid was over and people were returning back to freedom and that was the year we attained the biggest achievement under our belt – the Guinness World Records title.
Over the years JumpForHealthhas become a popular movement with over 32 million jumps recorded and 3262 prosthetic legs being donated.
One of the major roadblocks in the campaign's journey was the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced people to stay indoors and limited their physical activities. However, we overcame this challenge by launching an online version of the campaign, encouraging people to jump in their homes and share their pictures and videos online.
Given the success of the campaign we would like to continue going forward.
Q. What strategies has the company employed to create enthusiasm and participation from their partners, agents, customers, employees and participants for the campaign? Who all are your NGO & Implementation partners, and how are they helping you with this initiative?
A. We aligned the campaign's message “Jump for Health” with a social cause of donating a prosthetic leg to specially abled people. It has helped us tocreate a sense of purpose & awareness among participants. The movement went viral on multi-channels in the first edition and then we introduced a dedicated signature music track in 2018 choreographed by Bollywood dance master – Remo D’Souza.
The platforms used to get participation for Jump For Health goes the whole 18 yards – with ABHI using the power of social media and influencers to get the campaign viral and get awareness.
To reach the young audience, ABHI collaborated with various fitness influencers and celebrities to incentivize the participation on a grander scale. During the lockdown, we encouraged more participants to join us across all digital platforms available to us. The campaign was amplified via a microsite and through all our social media platforms i.e. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
Our on-ground teams work extremely hard to get jumps from public spaces such as parks, schools, hospitals, offices, among others. Even all our advisors, bank partners, agency partners– everyone jumped for health. We have managed to excite and inspire people across ages, professions and geographies. This has become a viral phenomenon. Word of Mouth has played a key role to spread our message across the globe.
The Sadhuvaswani Foundation is our main NGO partner, who distributes the legs to the specially abled individuals across the country.
Q. How does the company ensure that its social initiatives for people with disabilities are not only aligned with its larger business objectives and values but also sustainable with a lasting impact, and how does the company integrate them with its other offerings and services?
A. Jump For Health is closest to our hearts not because of the multiple achievements we have as a brand, but for the fact that it has helped us to create an awareness about healthy living and thereby enables us changing lives of over 3200 people and their families through this initiative. It is special because the smiles on the faces of the recipients and the families of the prosthetic legs is what keeps us going every year.
Since inception, incentivized wellness has been the primary focus for us at ABHI and our offerings are based on its philosophy of “Empowering people to lead healthier lives”. One of the unique propositions of ABHI has been the concept of HealthReturns™, which incentivises policyholders for staying fit and adopting healthy lifestyle. This concept enables a policyholder to earn up to 100% of their premium as HealthReturns™, which can be accrued on the basis of Healthy Heart Score™, the fitness assessment result and the number of Active Dayz™ recorded on a monthly basis.
Q. What are the best practices health insurance companies like Aditya Birla Health Insurance can adopt to ensure that their social initiatives align with customer expectations and values, and what are the key factors that influence consumer perception of these efforts?
A. At ABHI, our primary focus is to help our customers with cutting-edge innovative health-first insurance solutions which not only protect them from medical uncertainties but nudge them to live a health-focussed life. We take immense pride in having pioneered this model of health insurance that transcends the boundaries of an indemnity based model by focusing on proactive healthcare for our customers.Our customer centric approach enables us to understand our customers' expectations and values. Our intention is to leverage our research capabilities to identify areas where we can make a meaningful impact, and design initiatives that align with their customers' priorities.
#JumpforHealth is a testament to our commitment of solidifying credibility in the minds of our customers. To demonstrate our commitment, we collaborate with our stakeholders such as customers, employees, and community organizations to develop initiatives that address their needs and priorities.
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