Health insurance advertising has long relied on fear, hospital emergencies and financial uncertainty to persuade consumers. But Niva Bupa Health Insurance is taking a different route. Launched ahead of the ongoing Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow, the insurer has launched its latest campaign, Setback se Comeback Tak, centred on resilience rather than vulnerability.
In an interview with IMPACT Magazine, Nimish Agrawal, Director - Digital Business Unit & Chief Marketing Officer, Niva Bupa Health Insurance, shares, “We would never get into celebrating anxiety, amplifying vulnerabilities or doing any kind of fear-mongering. Fear is a powerful lever, but it’s a very short-term lever. We believe people should build a long-term habit of staying insured, and fear doesn’t create that.”
The campaign features athletes Saina Nehwal and Mirabai Chanu, both of whom have battled serious injuries before returning to their respective sports. However, Agrawal mentions the campaign is not just about elite athletes.
Watch the interview here:
“For Saina, picking up a racket is a comeback story. But for somebody in our customer pool, picking their kids up is a comeback story. While the world celebrates the medal, nobody looks at the struggle behind it. We’ve paid 37 lakh claims, and each of those is a story of resilience.”
The insurance marketer deliberately chose the Commonwealth Games over cricket, despite the latter’s unmatched reach.
“If the objective was simply awareness, cricket would have been the obvious choice. But we wanted stories that are deeply aligned with our brand purpose. Cricket today is highly cluttered, whereas platforms like the Commonwealth Games allow meaningful stories to stay with consumers.” With Mirabai Chanu winning gold on July 26, consumers are more likely to notice and connect with campaigns featuring the athlete.
Agrawal also believes the biggest challenge facing the health insurance category is not awareness but relevance.
“People know about health insurance, but they don’t find it relevant enough. Younger consumers overestimate how healthy they are, while older consumers think buying insurance can always wait. Marketing’s job is to drive relevance without evoking fear.”
When it comes to measuring the success of the campaign, Niva Bupa follows a three-layer framework spanning brand health, digital engagement and business outcomes. The company tracks awareness, consideration and preference, alongside engagement metrics such as click-through and view-through rates, before evaluating website traffic, leads and policy sales.
Looking ahead, Agrawal shares that sports will remain an important marketing platform only if it delivers measurable returns. While nearly 40 per cent of the company’s media spends currently goes towards sports, he notes that rising cricket sponsorship costs are making marketers reassess their investments in favour of platforms that offer stronger storytelling and better return on investment.
