In a bid to confront one of India’s most persistent financial challenges, the deep and widening life insurance protection gap—24 life insurers under the Insurance Awareness Committee (IAC-Life) have come together with a common message: Sabse Pehle Life Insurance.
Launched on 2nd July, 2025, with a press conference in Mumbai, the campaign signals a shift in the industry’s narrative. It’s not just about awareness anymore; it’s about action. According to a 2023 National Insurance Academy (NIA) study, India’s protection gap has surged from 83% in 2019 to 87% in 2023. Among youth aged 18–35, it exceeds 90%. This means a vast majority of Indians either don’t have life insurance or are grossly underinsured.
“We often treat protection as an afterthought in the race to build wealth,” says Kamlesh Rao, Chairperson - Insurance Awareness Committee. He adds, “This campaign is about changing that mindset, about putting protection first, about securing dreams before chasing them.”
The campaign rollout includes three core films centred on distinct life stages: one on term protection, another on child savings, and a third on annuity and retirement. Together, they mirror consumer anxieties across different age groups; delayed retirement planning, denial of health risks, and overconfidence in savings without a safety net. These narratives were crafted after extensive consumer research, which highlighted one dominant behaviour: people know insurance is important, but don’t act on it. Rao notes, “People say, ‘I’ll do it later,’ or ‘It won’t happen to me.’ That psychological distance is what we’re trying to break.”
The initiative is not a one-off burst. It’s designed as a sustained, three-year behavioural marketing programme, with strategic messaging across digital, print, television, radio, and out-of-home. Importantly, the campaign will be released in 10 vernacular languages, ensuring it reaches deeper India, from urban metros to remote gram panchayats.
“Protection is aimed at younger earners, annuity at the 60+ demographic, and child plans cater to parents of school-age children,” explains Rao. “So the media mix and messaging will vary. We’ve planned for that.”
The focus on regional and underserved markets aligns with IRDAI’s 2024 mandate: that life insurers must now cover at least 10% of lives in 25,000 Gram Panchayats. As part of the push, the digital portal sabsepehlelifeinsurance.com has been revamped as a knowledge hub, offering consumers simplified tools to assess needs and explore policy options.
Speaking at the launch, Swaminathan Iyer, Member (Life), IRDAI, struck a firm note on consumer-centricity, “If we want the customer to put life insurance at the centre of financial planning, we as an industry must put the customer at the centre of everything we do policy design, service, communication.”
Iyer also reflected on the transformation of India’s insurance sector over 25 years—from a LIC-dominated space to one with over 20 active private players, with growing trust and improved claim settlement rates. As per IRDAI data, the industry settled 96.82% of claims in FY2024 within 30 days. However, Iyer warned that growth alone wasn’t enough. “We’ve seen strong CAGR numbers, but the protection gap persists. The underserved and underinsured must be addressed, not just the affluent,” he says.
The event also spotlighted the category-building effort behind the campaign. Moving beyond the jargon of ‘penetration’ and ‘persistency’, the films focus on stories. Stories of families, missed chances, and second thoughts. The advertisement leans on believability and emotional nuance.
Ad industry veteran Piyush Pandey, who consulted on the campaign's creative direction, notes, “We didn’t want to scare people into buying insurance. That doesn’t work anymore. This campaign isn’t trying to sell you a product. It’s asking you to reflect on your priorities.” Drawing comparisons to his earlier work on public category campaigns like India’s polio eradication drive, he added, “With polio, we fought fear. With insurance, we’re fighting neglect. The goal is to make life insurance feel relevant, not mandatory.”
The campaign is not just about getting new customers. Future phases will also focus on existing policyholders and people with more than one policy—helping them get better coverage, renew on time, and stay engaged after buying. Insurance companies are also working with regulators to create rural-specific products, offer annuity benefits, and launch affordable digital plans.
At the event, data shared showed a mixed picture. While total premiums in FY24 crossed ₹8.29 lakh crore (a 6.1% rise), most new policy sales came from Tier I and II cities. Long-term policyholder retention beyond 61 months still ranges between 45–55%, highlighting the need for better customer education not just sales growth.
Also present at the launch were senior leaders from across the industry, including Venkatachalam Iyer (Tata AIA), Amit Jhingran (SBI Life), Parag Raja (Bharati AXA Life), Rushabh Gandhi (IndiaFirst Life), and representatives from LIC. They emphasised that this is not a campaign any one insurer owns—“It is industry-owned, publicly driven, and focused on long-term change,” says Parag Raja.
In a country aiming to become a $5 trillion economy, the campaign argues that financial resilience is as important as growth. And at the centre of that resilience is life insurance, not as an optional extra, but as the essential first step. Because dreams matter. But protecting them comes first.
