From Jakarta to Hong Kong, thousands of life-insurance agents use internal gatherings, such as town halls, to sing songs they have written reaffirming their dedication to selling their companies’ policies. Insurers in at least half a dozen countries rely on the tunes, which range from rock to folk-style, to get agents pysched up before they call on potential clients.
In Indonesia, agents for Manulife Financial Corp. , one of Canada’s biggest life-insurance firms, sing a tune that exhorts the team to “take a step with confidence, move your feet, evoke a new spirit, with Manulife,” to build a prosperous nation. The lyrics of “Growth with Quality” have agents belt out “One team, one dream, and one spirit, Manulife for your future.”
“It is quite unique to Asia from what I have seen,” said Kim Fleming, a Manulife vice president and regional head for agencies in Asia. He likened the singing to sports fans passionately chanting their support for their team.
Corporate songs aren’t unusual globally—company music is often associated with Japanese culture, for example—but executives say the fervor and gusto behind the life-insurance songs in Asia, which are often the initiative of sales staff, take music as a motivational tool to a new level.
Analysts say the singing agents are a reflection of the competitive culture around insurance in Asia. The region is a target of most global players because sales are slowing in developed markets.
Flashy marketing campaigns aren’t uncommon in insurers’ fight for customers. Last year, for instance, Prudential Asia, a unit of the U.K.’s Prudential PLC,sponsored concerts in the region by the Rolling Stones, and the year before, AIA Group Ltd. sponsored a concert by Justin Bieber in South Korea.
Among the insurers in Asia whose agents sing are Prudential, AIA, China’s Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd. and Sun Life Financial Inc., Canada’s third-largest insurance company by assets.
In the Philippines and Hong Kong, agents at Sun Life sing a song titled ‘Under the Sun,” with a chorus that goes: “Shine on, shine on; Experience the Sun, Life is brighter under the Sun, Come on, come on, Experience the Sun, Life is brighter under the Sun.”
“To me it is quite unique here,” Kevin Strain, Sun Life’s president for Asia, said of the singing agents. “I never, ever saw it in North America and I have never seen it in Europe, I have only seen it in Asia.”
Asia is attractive for global insurance firms because of the market’s growth prospects. A smaller proportion of the population has insurance than in the developed world, and the middle class is growing, so more people are able to buy coverage.
At the same time, “there is a massive health-insurance protection gap,” said Robert Burr, head of Life and Health Asia at Swiss Re
According to Swiss Re, emerging markets in Asia accounted for 9.8% of life premiums worldwide in 2013—the most recent figures available—compared with 3.3% a decade earlier. In the same period, North America’s share slipped to 23.1% from 29.4%, a reflection of the market’s maturity.
As a result, Asia has emerged as a battleground. Global insurers have hired thousands of sales staff across the region and cut expensive deals with banks to sell policies in their branches.
This month, a host of the world’s biggest insurers, from AIA to MetLife Inc., are expected to bid to be partners with Singapore’s DBS Group Holdings Ltd. , people familiar with the matter said. The winner will be allowed to sell its policies in the bank’s branches in Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong and elsewhere in the region.
The pact with Southeast Asia’s biggest bank could be valued at billions of dollars over its lifetime and is one of the few remaining bancassurance deals in the region that is still up for grabs. That narrowing of distribution options means banks will continue to rely on agents to drum up sales.
That is one reason, say insurers in Asia, that a singing agency force will be here to stay.
“When you have a good song, it creates a great identity for the team,” said Huynh Thanh Phong, chief executive officer of FWD, a fledgling insurer backed by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li . Having a happy sales force is vital to complementing tie ups with banks, Mr. Huynh said.
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