The travel insurance industry has undergone a significant transformation with the emergence of insurtech, presenting fresh opportunities and challenges for insurance professionals. As the sector continues to evolve, staying up-to-date with the latest advancements becomes crucial for decision-makers and experts. Attending conferences that provide insights, innovation, and strategic partnerships is an effective way to achieve this goal.

In 2021, we published an article highlighting the top insurtech and fintech conferences and trade shows. Now, we have curated a new list of five events that we strongly recommend attending, commencing from the second quarter of 2023. This article will outline each event’s key features and explain why we deem them significant.

1. FINTECH & INSURTECH DIGITAL CONGRESS

Event Details:

Dates: 17-18 May 2023

Venue: The Westin Warsaw Hotel, Poland

Website: https://fintechdigitalcongress.com/

2023 Topics Covered Include:

• Ecosystem of financial services
• What defines the sustainable finance industry?
• Customer Experience – how to hear customer needs?
• Impact of legal changes on the financial and insurance sector
• Implementation of artificial intelligence in solutions for the financial and insurance sector

The FinTech & InsurTech Digital Congress is a key event for those seeking to keep up with the ever-changing trends and latest developments in the financial and insurance sectors. It serves as a prestigious forum for sharing ideas and building strategic partnerships based on global experiences. With its varied thematic scope, including discussions on the ecosystem of financial services, customer experience, and the impact of legal changes on the financial and insurance sectors, attendees can expect to gain a wealth of knowledge and valuable insights.

This event also highlights emerging trends such as embedded insurance and open insurance as a trend accumulating insurtechs, as well as the implementation of artificial intelligence in solutions for the financial and insurance sector. It offers a unique opportunity to stay ahead of the curve in the fast-paced world of financial and insurance technology, where digitalization, technological progress, and evolving digital consumer demands are driving industry developments. The FinTech & InsurTech Digital Congress is a must-attend event for anyone looking to stay informed and engaged in the latest trends shaping the future of these sectors.

2. INSURANCE TECH & INNOVATION CONFERENCE

Event Details:

Dates: 25-26 May 2023

Venue: Embassy Suites by Hilton, Boston – USA

Website: https://events.altaworld.tech/Insurance-Tech-Innovation-Conference.html

2023 Topics Covered Include:

• Creating Better Customer Experiences with Innovative Solutions such as Customer Engagement Models, Chatbots/Conversational Bots, and Omni-Channel Support
• Unlocking the Potential of Analytics, Blockchain, and Cloud Technologies to Disrupt the Insurance Industry
• AI/ML, IoT, and Big Data in Insurance
• Achieving Transformation through RPA, Legacy Modernization, and Automated Compliance
• Navigating the Claims Transformation Roadmap and Virtual Claims Handling

The Insurance Tech & Innovation Conference, hosted by Altaworld, is a must-attend event for insurance leaders looking to accelerate their digital transformation journeys and stay ahead of the competition. With the rise of insurtech and the changing needs of customers due to the global pandemic, travel insurance companies need to reimagine their businesses both internally and externally. The conference will bring together 30+ insurance technology experts to share the latest strategies, insights, solutions, and innovations.

Attendees can expect to gain insights into creating better customer experiences through the use of new technologies like chatbots/conversational bots and omni-channel support. The conference will also explore the use of analytics, blockchain, and cloud technologies to create digital insurance disruption and drive process transformation through RPA, legacy modernization, and automated compliance.

Other topics that will be covered include AI/ML, IOT, and big data in insurance, as well as a Claims Transformation Roadmap and Virtual Claims Handling. The event is open to CIOs, CTOs, CEOs, VPs, directors, heads, and managers from across the insurance sector, including brokers/agents, retail agents, claim adjusters, underwriters, actuaries, and more.

Join over 200 leaders from technology, innovation, data, analytics, and more at the Insurance Tech & Innovation Conference on May 25-26, 2023, to learn from industry experts and gain insights that will help your business thrive in the rapidly evolving insurance landscape.

3. DIGIN by Digital Insurance

Event Details:

Dates: 5-7 June 2023

Venue: San Francisco Marriott Marquis, CA

Website: https://conference.dig-in.com/digitalinsurance

2023 Topics Covered Include:

• Digital transformation strategies and low-code solutions for a primarily digital operation
• Harnessing the power of big data and predictive analytics for more effective operational decisions
• Improving customer experience by identifying pain points and creating personalized experiences

DIGIN by Digital Insurance stands as the foremost event for insurance executives and decision-makers seeking to gain insights, integration strategies, and partnerships to meet their digital goals. With over 1,000 leaders in attendance, representing insurance carriers, insurtech startups, and government professionals, DIGIN offers a unique opportunity to connect with peers and stay ahead of industry trends.

The conference covers a range of topics, including driving digital transformation, predictive analytics, and customer experience. Attendees will discover strategies and solutions for converting to a primarily digital operation, explore how big data and predictive analytics can drive more effective operational decisions, and learn how to capitalize on opportunities for more intuitive and personalized customer experiences.

Whether you’re a senior insurance industry professional or a CEO, DIGIN is the place to be. Join the most knowledgeable experts in the industry as they dive deep into customer experience, insurtech partnerships, competitive pressures, regulatory changes, and more. You’ll leave with fresh strategies for differentiating your products and services from competitors to gain market share and grow revenue, as well as explore the latest cutting-edge solutions and technology to improve customer experiences, drive loyalty, and increase operational efficiency.

4. ITC DIA EUROPE BARCELONA 2023

Event Details:

Dates: 28-29 June 2023

Venue: Barcelona, Spain

Website: https://www.digitalinsuranceagenda.com/events/itcdia-europe/home/

2023 Topics Covered Include:

• Insurtech Trends and Innovations
• Digital Transformation Strategies
• Climate Change and the Insurance Industry
• Emerging Technologies

ITC DIA Europe is a premier event for insurtech professionals who want to keep themselves updated with the latest trends and innovations. This event brings together tech entrepreneurs, investors, and insurance industry leaders from across Europe and beyond. It will be held in Barcelona this June and is the perfect opportunity to witness the latest insurtech innovations firsthand.

With over 2,000 attendees from 200+ companies and 50+ countries, the event offers an excellent networking opportunity. Attendees will interact with not only large international companies, but also regional and domestic ones. The event’s high-quality content, premium atmosphere, and truly global reach make it stand out from the crowd.

This event will focus on relevant questions such as how to accelerate digital transformation, instill a data mindset, get the most out of AI, deal with climate change, win the war for talent, and many others. Attendees will learn about tried and tested methods to accelerate and improve their current plans. From core systems and automation in insurance claims to IoT, AI, and machine learning, this event will showcase what’s possible right now in all insurance verticals and parts of the value chain.

5. FINTECH LIVE LONDON 2023

Event Details:

Dates: 8-10 Nov 2023

Venue: Queen Elizabeth II Centre, London

Website: https://live.fintechmagazine.com/

2023 Topics Covered Include:

• Shaping the future of banking, financial services & payments
• Deep dive into issues impacting the industry

Taking place on November 8th-9th, 2023 at the QEII Centre in London, FINTECH LIVE LONDON 2023 is a hybrid event that offers a comprehensive content program with senior industry leaders and expert analysts. This event provides an excellent opportunity for businesses to showcase their values, products, and services to partners and customers, as well as to connect with key decision-makers in the industry.

With an agenda spanning two days, FINTECH LIVE LONDON 2023 covers a diverse range of activities, including keynote addresses, roundtables, fireside discussions, presentations, Q&A sessions, and networking opportunities. Attendees can expect to gain valuable insights into the future of banking and financial services. Companies of all sizes, from global giants to innovative startups will have direct access to a highly engaged and active audience.

The post 5 Must-Attend Insurtech Conferences in Q2 2023 first appeared on Ancileo.

The post 5 Must-Attend Insurtech Conferences in Q2 2023 appeared first on Ancileo.

Majority of the Indonesian respondents (93%) have plans to travel in 2022. When it comes to the type of travel that makes it more likely for them to opt for travel insurance, there is a fair split for domestic travels (48%) but they are more inclined to opt in travel insurance for regional/international travels (56%). This implies a brewing opportunity for insurers to innovate their product and service offerings for the different types of travel.

Most of the Indonesian travelers (80%) already have a preferred insurance brand, but there is a significant percentage who are still open to buy travel insurance from travel players – especially with airlines and online travel agencies (OTAs).

Insurers direct channel still preferred by Indonesian travelers but open to purchase from travel players

In terms of willingness to purchase insurance via embedded/in-path means, Indonesia emerges as the second contender in our global research to have the most global travelers who are open to opt in for the aforementioned (57%).

Let’s delve into the specifics of the Indonesian market to find out what ticks for consumers when it comes to embedded travel insurance. The consumer research is part of Ancileo’s 2022 Travel Insurance Whitepaper, in which you can find the key highlights gathered from the global research deck in our post here.

Outlook of Travel Insurance in Indonesia

Aforementioned that majority of the Indonesian travelers have a preferred insurance brand. While the top 3 brands that travelers prefer are global insurers, namely Allianz, AXA and Prudential, we can see from the infographic that there is still a good mix of both international and local brands, including specialist insurance companies.

What enables the aforementioned brands to have a competitive advantage over others? Ease of online claims tops motivation for purchase. Going into the specific customer profiles, Gen Z and business travelers value insurers’ capability to provide guidance on travel formalities more than the reputation of the insurer. On the other hand, luxury travelers are less price sensitive and value high coverage with COVID-19 benefits.

What explains the strong inclination for Indonesian travelers to purchase travel insurance? Medical coverage and personal accident coverage are the top reasons to buy travel insurance. Differentiating the top reasons by customer profiles:

• Trip cancellation coverage is particularly important for travelers intending to travel multiple destinations and winter sport activity goers
• Baggage and loss of personal belongings coverage is particularly valued by travelers intending to travel internationally
• Trip Interruption coverage is particularly valued by budget travelers

The infographic below details the top additional services valued by Indonesian travelers.

Consumer guidance on COVID-19 formalities as the most valued complementary service is seconded by an interview we did with Melisa Irwan, Business Manager of Ancillaries at Malindo Air. She posits the importance of a travel insurance partnership strategy in the Asia region – elevating COVID-19 coverage as a key focus in this partnership – as it is being mandated as an entry requirement into some Asian countries.

Where is Indonesia now in Embedded Insurance?

As we now move into the partnerships arena, embeddedness of the insurance product and service is a key aspect that influences the customer experience for both the insurer and the partner alike.

Contrary to other markets surveyed, the reasons cited by Indonesian travelers to purchase in-path from travel players center around the convenience of the one-click purchase process, including but second to time and cost savings.

More than ⅓ of the respondents indicated “personalization of plan to my needs” as the key motivating factor to purchase from travel players. For upper managerial workers and baby boomers aged 56-69, they are influenced to purchase when the insurance is offered by their preferred insurer. Whereas, travelers going on short trips (i.e. city breaks, weekend trips) are influenced by one-click purchase.

92% are open to buying non-travel insurance products from travel players. Once again, the biggest draw factor is personalization of plan. That said, insurers should tap on the wealth of data that travel players possess to optimize the outreach of their offerings. The ever-changing climate of many industries, especially for travel, pushes insurers alongside other ecosystem stakeholders to review their product pricing and benefits regularly to remain relevant and competitive.

The post Indonesia: 2022 Travel Insurance Outlook first appeared on Ancileo.

The post Indonesia: 2022 Travel Insurance Outlook appeared first on Ancileo.

Traditionally, insurance has been regarded as a separate, and complementary or add-on purchase to a core product or experience that was already purchased. It’s been perceived as being sold “in your face.” As the industry sees a shift from siloed products to ecosystem, operating on the traditional distribution model alone via insurers, MGAs, reinsurers and channels will no longer suffice.

1. An ecosystem is customer-centric (experience-focused), not industry-centric (product-focused). It recognises that consumers have a variety of needs and enables access to an interconnected set of services.
2. Insurance is protection bought as a native feature. It’s now incorporated as a “risk assessment, management and mitigation aspects of these ecosystem domains.”
3. NOT an advertisement pop-up or a whitelabel, embedded insurance offers convenience and relevance by meeting customers at where they prefer to be at and the digital aspects of this enable customization to their diverse needs and profiles (READ MORE: Ancileo Blog – The Journey to Data-Driven Insurance)

In this article, we will look at embedded insurance partnerships for travel insurance in the regard of key driving factors to succeed in in-path sales as well as partnership strategies for insurers and other travel players.

Key Driving Factors for Travel Players to Succeed in In-Path Sales

In one of our previous posts, we looked at the key factors driving customers to buy from travel players via in-path means (See section: How likely are Potential Customers to Purchase Insurance via In-Path Means?).

What about what travel players themselves can do to incentivise their customers to “opt-in” for insurance purchase? In this section, we group some of these trends we have discerned from real-life industry case studies:

1. Bitesize Insurance Benefits To Push Other Ancillaries Uptake

AirAsia’s Premium Upgrade includes baggage delay and 1h on-time guarantee

Incorporate the provision of some sort of protection or insurance as one of the benefits to incentivise your customers to opt for an upgrade. When it’s already part of the package of benefits provided in an upgrade option, it can be relatively easy for you to implement, aka no additional technology needed. It’s as easy to add greater value to your existing product or service, and reinforce your brand promises to the customers.

2. Real-Time Personalisation

EasyJet Official Website Flight Search Simulation

“Personalization to Individual Travel Needs” consistently shows up in our research across 12 markets to be one of the top factors incentivising in-path purchase for customers. That being said, coverages that are personalized according to consumer demographics and travel patterns can help you to optimize your embedded travel insurance offering.

Of course this isn’t just a one-time implementation. The options presented have to be relevant real-time as they are being offered on your platform, and continuous A/B tests enable you to maintain that relevance of the offerings.

3. Syncing Up Platforms for Greater Value

Accenture Insurance – Insurance telematics: A game-changing opportunity

 Telematics is one of the emerging frontiers as we talk about digitalization in the insurance industry. Across automotive, health and travel insurance products especially, a scalable, modular, end-to-end telematics solution can help to cut cost, improve risk selection, and increase client loyalty.

Aside from risk management, an app that integrates both the telematics platform and insurer portal can help users to streamline the claims management process. As the solution provider, the analytical insights enable you to refine your product design, and make them more relevant for the users.

READ MORE: Ancileo Blog – 2021 Best UI/UX Practices for Embedded Travel Insurance

Tips for Partnership Strategies from Global Insurers & Travel Players

We want to look at partnerships beyond the insurance purchase, as what Gabi Kool, Chief Commercial Officer of leading e-commerce platform for loyalty programmes, Loylogic, calls “a “deeper partnership strategy to engage with customers on an ongoing basis.”

Keep in mind that the customer’s needs are diverse and the insurer tends to be involved in multiple portfolios beyond the travel insurance product. For travel players, the potential to raise the value of your offering is limitless and there is no rule in the book that you have to stick within your field. For example: For airlines, you can increase the utility of airline miles by signing up more partners, whether they are airline or non-airline, to make your miles more valuable in the customers’ mind and to grow your loyalty ecosystem.

Secondly, many of the partnerships tend to revolve around technology. New tech providers enter the industry all the time, and keeping up with the market enables you to be at the front of the line when it comes to leveraging the potential of emerging innovations for your business.

Lastly, it is about making the effort to hold onto that thread, aka having conversation on an ongoing, regular basis, with your partnering businesses. This is such that there is an avenue for both of you to align this partnership to streamline the experience for end users.

The post Maximizing Embedded Insurance Partnerships for Travel Insurance first appeared on Ancileo.

The post Maximizing Embedded Insurance Partnerships for Travel Insurance appeared first on Ancileo.

What Else Influences Customer Experiences?

From the global consumer research we’ve recently done, the other two top driving factors aside from price competitiveness are personalisation of plan, interestingly for both luxury and adventurous, budget travelers alike; and ease of online claims for Gen Y consumers. For example, Swiss Re’s event-triggered claims payout platform with the integration of FlightGlobal’s real-time updates has helped to raise customer satisfaction among their clients.

More details about Swiss Re Parametric Flight Delay Insurance Solutions

Most Valued Complementary Services in Travel Insurance

When it comes to global travelers’ most valued complementary services in travel insurance, you can see that COVID-19 formalities and digital touchpoints including insurers having a mobile app for policy access and tele-medicine services are being rated highly.

Global Travelers’ Most Valued Complementary Services in Travel Insurance

 While it’s clear that these complementary offerings do add up to the customer-centric value of the product, what are the more direct benefits for insurers and airlines?

For insurers: Efficiency gains translate into cost savings. Consider a one-stop shop for COVID-19 formalities on the travel requirements of every country and information on what airlines are doing on their ends to give flexibility… Allowing your customers to easily access such information will positively impact the overall efficiency of the insurer. Also, the clarity that you can provide to your customers also helps to do away with as much of the unnecessary work for your agents to check whether the claims are valid in highly-uncertain times like these.

 For airlines: Loop in your insurance partner to reward customer loyalty some more! With insurance being an absolute essential now with traveling, that is one more reason for you to partner with insurers to add greater value to your customers’ frequent flier currency – miles, elite status benefits and co-brand credit card benefits – by locking in purchase behaviors for travel insurance.

READ MORE: Ancileo Blog – Travel Expert Insights on Consumer Behavior & Insurance Trends

 A case study example is Collinson’s Lounge Pass programme which provides their travel agent, tour operator and airline clients with access to a pre-booked airport lounge which aims to optimize their airport experience.

Core Benefits of Collinson’s Lounge Pass Programme

Cross-Selling other Insurance Products via Airline Partnerships Platform

On a concluding note, the potential of airline-insurer partnerships is limitless and goes beyond travel insurance. The chart below shows global travelers’ interest in purchasing non-travel products from travel players, with the top 3 insurance products being “personal accident insurance”, “mobile device insurance”, and interestingly “life insurance.”

Global Travelers’ Interest in Purchasing Non-Travel Products from Travel Players

A case study example is Qantas. Over the last 5 years, Qantas insurance has expanded a comprehensive range of products from travel insurance into health, life, car and home insurance. It is also integrated with their Frequent Flier program that allows consumers to offset purchases with miles collected.

Market Research by Ancileo

The insights gathered in this article were based upon two research decks produced by Ancileo:

1. 2021 World Travel Insurance Benchmark For Airlines

A market research done on 140 Airlines, for Airlines. You can find detailed information ranging from their global monthly website traffic, overview of their GDS and travel insurance providers to real-life demonstrations of travel insurance integrated in the booking path.

READ MORE: Ancileo Blog – 2021 World Travel Insurance Partnership Benchmark for Airlines

If you are from the airline industry, contact us here to get free, full access to the full research deck.

2. 2022 Travel Insurance Whitepaper: Endemic Market Research Outlook

2022 Travel Insurance Outlook is a 180+ pages report which encompasses insights into how consumer sentiments towards TI have changed in the endemic, key features of TI during this period, and what this means for distributors and insurers in 2022.

Consumer market research was done with 4,800 participants from 12 markets (Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and Australia); and in-depth interviews were done with industry experts coming from Airlines, OTAs and travel solution providers.
<Download the Global Travel Insurance Market Research 2022 for FREE>

The post Beyond Price: Understand What Travel Insurance Customers Value first appeared on Ancileo.

The post Beyond Price: Understand What Travel Insurance Customers Value appeared first on Ancileo.

As the virus is here to stay, more and more insurers are leveraging this crisis for new opportunities in COVID-19 coverage. Consumers want to travel and for the first time ever, travel insurance would be key to their plan. Plus, customer expectations today are at all-time highs for greater marketing convenience and product personalization.

Parallel to these opportunities are challenges as different countries impose different travel insurance coverage entry requirements. Traditional insurers are also plagued by ageing legacy systems which can impede innovation. That said, our approach seeks to bridge this gap – on one hand, enabling seamless distribution for insurers and travel platforms through embedded products (no doubt COVID-19 coverage is part of this); and on the other, customising the best-in-class travel insurance experience for every traveller’s unique needs.

Psyche of an Endemic Traveller: 2022 Travel Insurance Outlook

Last December 2021, we sent out a survey questionnaire to 4,800 participants from 12 markets (Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and Australia) to understand how consumer sentiments towards travel insurance have changed in the endemic.

We also interviewed executives coming from Airlines, OTAs and travel solution providers to find out the key features of travel insurance during this period and what this means for insurance distributors and insurers in 2022.

The 2022 Travel Insurance Outlook is a 180+ pages report, encompassing the following sections:

• Tangible actionable insights (4,800 travellers surveyed)
• Country specific dataset (12 markets)
• Travel players strategies (e.g. Singapore Airlines, Etihad, Kiwi…)

Download the Global Travel Insurance Market Research 2022 for FREE

At a Glance – Consumer Data Charts & Interview Insights

The topics covered in this whitepaper include, but are not limited to, the impact of travel destinations/origins on travel insurance take-up; consumer decision-making process and the purchase journey of travel insurance; and where embedded insurance stands creating a perfect customer experience.

The whitepaper is developed in tandem with insurers and distributors including air carriers. You’d be able to find that some of these consumer-data charts are accompanied by real-life case studies, and we glaze this off with further in-depth industry interview insights. Without further ado, let’s get started…

Food for Thought #1: We all want to travel again! What would affect consumer confidence to resume travel?

Despite COVID-19 concerns, consumers’ sentiments about travelling are positive in 2022. More than half of those surveyed indicated an interest to travel domestically, regionally and internationally (Least keen being Singapore with only 60% indicating interest, and most keen being 95% coming from the UAE region).

Amidst the ever changing travel restrictions, the general sentiment is that consumers are uncertain themselves as to what would affect travel confidence. However, as seen in the chart below, consumers in Asia-Pacific and UAE are more likely to be influenced by support for COVID-19 formalities to resume travel again.

This was further ascertained when we prompted them further on the top 3 benefits that would affect consumers’ take-up of travel insurance which were (1) Trip cancellation, (2) Emergency and medical expenses, and (3) General COVID-19 coverage. Safe to say that these are aspects pertaining to related crises happening overseas and last-minute changes in travel plans. That said, risk management is pertinent to what insurers do now as they are best-positioned to guide consumers through COVID-19 formalities.

Food for Thought #2: Do consumers prefer to purchase travel insurance directly from insurers or are they also open to buy from other travel players?

Purchasing travel insurance directly from insurers is preferred but consumers are also open to purchasing from travel players. As seen in the chart below, airlines and Online Travel Agencies (OTA) are unanimously related as the top travel players to purchase travel insurance apart from insurers.

Interestingly, in a separate question asked, the Americas, UK and France markets have the highest proportion of respondents (more than 20%) associating travel insurance with their credit cards and banks, and believing that they already have sufficient coverage of travel insurance from the aforementioned means.

Delving deeper into motivational factors for purchasing travel insurance from other travel players, price discounts come up as a clear contender, followed by convenience and personalization which are regarded more importantly for Indonesia, Thailand and UAE markets.

Food for Thought #3: How does embedded insurance help to perfect a customer experience, and where do partnerships stand in this regard?

If there’s one lesson we have taken away from the in-depth interviews conducted with air carriers and digital travel solution providers, it is that “one-size-fits-all is a thing of the past, as the consumers and circumstances will not allow for any compromises.”

“A key focus for 2022 will be to expand the availability of our travel insurance to cover more SIA markets. In addition, we will be looking into enhancing our product to offer consumers with a choice of two tiers of insurance plans, to provide greater flexibility to suit different budget needs.”

Singapore Airlines

Moving forward, personalised products along the lines of traveller profiles and market-specific travel requirements would become key for conversion and differentiation. Data analytics is at the heart of this personalization trend to enable you to effectively predict the relevance of the products for every given customer and provide tools that enable further customization that lead to more varied and competitive pricing schemes.

Every stage of the customer decision-making process can be enhanced via digital touchpoints to ease access to both information and services on a seamless, well-integrated platform which can improve the overall customer experience.

For example, one of the pain-points for policyholders in the post-purchase phase is making claims. It can be a painstaking process and one that creates anxiety when the policy-holders constantly have to check their home and email inboxes, and/or bank accounts to see if their claims have been deposited. Now… consider bringing the whole process of opening up the claim, uploading and submitting the receipts, and accessing the real-time status of the claim submission on an app, wouldn’t it make the lives of your customers so much easier?

“In 2022 we are focusing on improving the way we offer our ancillary products including insurance across our digital touchpoints. It’s important for us to make it as convenient as possible for our customers to tailor their journey, either as part of the flight booking or during the post booking phase.”

Salla Rinta-Kanto, Senior Business Manager, Product Offering, FinnAir

In the regard of partnerships, the aforementioned charts have illustrated the importance of travel insurance with COVID-19 coverage and in some Asian countries, travel insurance is mandated as an entry requirement. Beyond regulatory calls for greater collaboration, partnerships with digital travel solution providers in particular would also enable insurers to promote their offerings across more distribution channels expanding their target markets.

Download the Global Travel Insurance Market Research 2022 for FREE

The post 2022 Travel Insurance Whitepaper: Endemic Market Research Outlook first appeared on Ancileo.

The post 2022 Travel Insurance Whitepaper: Endemic Market Research Outlook appeared first on Ancileo.

Today, a new breed of players threatens to intrude on their turf. Armed with both customers and data, tech titans like Facebook and Google have made significant insurance investments.

From health insurance to product liability coverage, take a look at some Big Tech’s latest insurance plays.

Google: towards all-in-one insurance?

Google has business arms across many verticals, and its insurance investments appear to be widely distributed across them.

What appears to be a common theme across all its investments, however, is an emphasis on precision solutions powered by data analytics.

This is likely due to the fact that Granular Insurance, the flagship subsidiary of Alphabet-owned Verily Life Sciences, focuses on developing prevision risk models which help optimise rates for employer-backed insurance.

On the broader level, its US$100 million purchase of a minority stake in US insurtech provider Applied Systems will see the firms’ talent collaborate with Applied Systems to “drive innovation within the global ecosystem,” says CapitalG’s Gene Frantz. CapitalG is the investment arm of Google’s parent company Alphabet.

In exchange for Google’s investment, Applied Systems can tap on Google’s expertise in aspects such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Some of Google’s investments have focused on health insurance. These include a US$375 million investment for a 10% stake in US health insurance startup Oscar Health, as well as a US$81 million investment in US health-tech firm Collective Health.

Other investments made by Google include a US$300 million play in US insurance carrier Lemonade and a US$60 million investment into online people platform Gusto.

Amazon: betting on Indian auto-insurance

So far, Amazon hasn’t been as prolific an investor in insurance.

The ecommerce juggernaut’s sole investment is a US$12 million play in India-based digital insurance startup Acko, which dates back to 2018.

According to industry observers, Acko’s coverage of the “internet economy” was what made the deal appealing to Amazon.

Separately, vehicle owners in India can also sign up for Amazon insurance in two minutes or less, thanks to the firm’s partnership with Acko.

Microsoft: a cloud-driven investment play

 Microsoft’s cloud business has slowly chipped away market share from rivals Amazon and Google, and the firm is looking to solidify its lead by not only building nearly a 100 new data centers each year, but also acquiring and investing in insurance and insurtech leaders.

One such acquisition this year is Nuance. Built upon an existing partnership, Microsoft acquired the healthcare cloud and AI software provider for US$19.7 billion.

The acquisition is expected to accelerate Microsoft’s efforts to develop industry-specific cloud solutions, particularly in healthcare where the firm introduced Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare in 2020.

Microsoft also made a US$74 million investment into digital insurance provider Atbay.  The move has been billed as an effort to strengthen the firm’s cyber-security posture and improve cyber-security for small-medium businesses.

With this partnership, small-medium businesses enjoy 15% off their At-bay cyber insurance policy premiums by leveraging Microsoft 365’s built-in security controls, as well as free active risk monitoring.

Tencent: transforming WeSure into a one-stop shop

Launched in 2018, Tencent’s WeSure has gone from tackling distribution for small-ticket items like mobile insurance coverage to complex, long-term policies that most insurtech disruptors have stayed away from.

Recently, the Chinese tech giant also launched a dedicated sales team that focuses on building new audiences via artificial intelligence and digital channels.

Much like Google’s broad play, Tencent has also made a number of investments across various insurance categories.

Some, like the firm’s US$61.9 million investment in Chinese online financial consulting startup Xiaobangguihua, don’t directly cover insurance.

Others cover a wide swathe of insurance policies. Tencent’s US$218 million-dollar investment in Chinese insurer Hetai Life Insurance, for example, covers female-specific disease insurance, travel insurance, and comprehensive accident insurance.

Tencent has also claimed a 20% stake in multinational insurance firm Aviva, as well as made a US$150 million investment in Chinese insurtech firm Waterdrop.

Sony: catalysing digital transformation for insurance

Sony sells a range of products and services as a conglomerate, and the Japanese multinational firm doesn’t shy away from insurance.

Its subsidiary, Sony Life Insurance, offers a range of insurance policies including life insurance, endowment insurance, personal pension insurance, and nursing care insurance.

Earlier in April this year, Sony’s venture capital fund invested US$2.3 million in US-based digital life insurance platform Covr.

The investment is expected to catalyse Sony Life Insurance’s digital transformation. By enabling new modes of distribution, this tie-up with Covr may enable Sony to offer more accessible policies.

Plastic economy
Difficult to create, from local material, all based in SEA and South Asia

The post A Look at Big Tech Investments in Insurance first appeared on Ancileo.

The post A Look at Big Tech Investments in Insurance appeared first on Ancileo.

The growth in ancillary revenues is not unique only in the pandemic year. Apparently, the world’s 75 largest commercial airlines showed that average ancillary revenue as a percentage of total revenue last year was 14.6%, a rise of 12.1% over 2019. Diving into specific ancillary revenue-generating products, travel insurance is one of the top products generating “non-air” ancillary revenue, followed by car rental and hotel booking services.

Consider why travel insurance has become even more important than ever – firstly, a lot of countries have added travel health insurance as part of their visa requirements; secondly, the risks pertaining to trip cancellations, medical cost incurrence while you’re abroad, and quarantine costs are higher than ever before. Of course, putting COVID-19 aside, we also want to look forward to some of these insurance trends that are set to affect airline ancillary moving forward.

Trend #1: Expansion of an Insurance Ecosystem Beyond Travel

Qantas Airlines is one of the early adopters of this innovative business model when in 2017, it launched the “Qantas Assure” to offer its frequent flyer members health, life, car and home insurance products. Members are also allowed to offset their purchases with the miles collected through their travels.

Qantas was able to expand its insurance portfolio by partnering with insurers like TAL and NIB.

Screenshot Courtesy from Qantas Airlines’ Website

Another more recent example of an airline offering non-travel insurance products is “CEB Health Protect” which came out of a partnership between Cebu Pacific and AXA Philippines in 2020. The product was the first of its kind in the Philippines’ aviation industry.

The product can be conveniently purchased when you’re booking or managing your flight on the CEB website, and flexible payment terms of up to 20 years are also available to accommodate the budget of the consumer.  The airline is also set to offer other products in its suite of lifestyle insurance packages in the coming months.

Screenshot Courtesy from Cebu Pacific’s Website

Trend #2: Travel Insurance as a Loyalty Benefit, Instead of a Cross-Sell

As an airline partnering with an insurance provider, you want to earn from the commission you get from selling insurance via YOUR distribution channel. But think about this… why should consumers buy insurance from you instead of directly getting it from the insurance provider?

Virgin Australia hits two birds with the stone- (1) Earning the extra commission for selling insurance and (2) Rewarding customers via its loyalty programme: Silver, Gold and Platinum members earn a 50%, 75% and 100% bonus points respectively on top of the base points earned when travel insurance is bought alongside your airfare tickets through Virgin Australia’s website.

Aside from partnering with insurance providers, Virgin Australia is also big on partnerships with a diverse range of retail providers such that points earned can be exchanged for an extensive suite of retail products beyond flight and seats.

Screenshot Courtesy from Virgin Australia’s Website

 Trend #3: In-Path Upsell Masterpiece

Take your upselling game to a new level. Expand your focus beyond the standard travel insurance that is offered across the other airlines.

Beyond covering for your usual flight cancellation and lost baggage, bespoke add-ons like gadget cover can be clearly promoted based on the persona of consumers purchasing the flights. For frequent travellers, an annual insurance plan can be offered at an affordable price and conveniently purchased via the airline’s booking page.

Screenshot Courtesy From RyanAir’s Website

Trend #4: Real-Time Personalization

When it comes to trends in innovation whether it’s in the insurance or airlines industry, the name of the game is personalization that is enabled through technology – specifically data analytics.

As it’s been iterated in the previous trend, you can only effectively up- or/and cross-sell when you understand the persona of your consumer. Airlines have the upperhand when it comes to personalizing travel insurance plans for their customers given the wealth of data they have about their consumer demographics and travel patterns (frequency and destination).

A/B testing can be continuously done to optimize embedded travel insurance offering by reducing variation between the targeted persona and the persona of customers who actually end up purchasing the insurance product.

Screenshot Courtesy from EasyJet’s Website

Trend #5: Exclusive Benefits for Airline Members

Also in line with trend #2 is the provision of additional insurance coverages for frequent flyer members. With Singapore Airlines, KrisFlyer members who purchase travel insurance via the Singapore Airlines’ booking page receive exclusive coverages.

Screenshot Courtesy from Singapore Airlines’ Website

Trend #6: Bite-Size Insurance Pushing Uptake of Other Ancillary Products

Sometimes, insurance is offered to the airline to complement the uptake of other ancillary products like the purchase of additional baggage allowance, meals on flight, and seat selection.

In the example of AirAsia, an insured element is incorporated to incentivize premium pack upgrades. As this is part of the package and not a separate add-on purchase relatively easy to implement as no technology is involved to incorporate an additional line in the feature.

At the same time, the 1-hour on-time guarantee also reinforces one of AirAsia’s brand promises: Low-cost carrier with a network carrier reliability and quality.

Screenshot Courtesy from AirAsia’s Website

Trend #7: Complimentary Travel Insurance Offers

Not only airlines, other players in the tourism industry are also differentiating themselves in the market by incentivizing their potential customers with the complimentary offering of travel insurance – some including COVID-19 cover.

A caveat there, nevertheless: The devil is in the detail of the clauses! Such as the dollar caps on the coverage and restrictions of the types of claims you can file. Allianz Partners also shared that the most common type of coverage for these complimentary offerings tend to centre around emergency medical expenses for COVID-related illnesses.

Trend #8: Building Travel Insurance with Non-Insurance Benefits

Think out of the box – Look beyond travel players to other ecosystems with products and services that can potentially complement your travel insurance offering. There are no hard and fast rules to the scope of partnerships as long as it’s something that your target customers may be attracted to.

Ixigo, an Indian-based online travel portal, has made it enticing for their potential customers to get travel insurance via their platform for the simple reason that they can differentiate themselves from the myriad of other platforms (e.g. directly via the insurer or via the airline)  that customers can get travel insurance from.

The post 8 Insurance Trends Boosting Airline Ancillary Revenues first appeared on Ancileo.

The post 8 Insurance Trends Boosting Airline Ancillary Revenues appeared first on Ancileo.

Introduction

Much of the heated competition in the insurance industry today is largely due to technology and digitization. Aside from championing insuretechs, digitization has given consumers numerous choices. From registering for an insurance package on an app to filing claims, it’s gradually becoming a ‘consumer’s market.’

While this trend is good for the industry as a whole, it has also created a huge challenge. The practices and principles of yesteryear aren’t effective today. What worked previously isn’t guaranteed to work. For insurers, this is the time to wake up to the challenge and find ways of surviving in the midst of the competition.

One sure bet for insurers is mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Of course, M&As have been around for decades. But their importance in mobilizing resources to build better insurance solutions can never be underestimated. While the pandemic slowed economic activities worldwide, M&As in the insurance sector didn’t seem to be affected that much. Deals have been picking up since the second half of 2020 and continuing into 2021.

Mergers and Acquisitions in insurance reached a 4-year high in 2019 with 419 insurance M&As as compared to 382 in 2018. Deals in Asia Pacific rose to 69, representing a year-on-year increment of 17%. This is said to be maintained through 2020 (with a few glitches from covid19) to 2021.

Figure: CLYDE&CO: Volume of Global Insurance M&A Deals from 2009 to 2019

In a global report by Deloitte, 26% of Asia Pacific respondents, 32% of North American respondents, and 38% of those in Europe have plans of pursuing M&As. The report states that these deals are more about strategic moves as insurers consider financial stability as core to their survival. While the pandemic is certainly playing a role in the rise of M&As in insurance in recent times, there’s more to this.

Factors Driving Global Insurance M&A market

Beyond the pandemic, there are factors that have been driving mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry for years. These factors will continue to push more deals in the future

Technology and digitization

Unlike banking, insurers have been slow in adopting new technology and digital solutions. This has largely slowed down the growth of the industry as companies fail to meet consumer demand. It also kind of exposed the insurance industry in the wake of the pandemic. Suddenly, consumers couldn’t get access to top-notch digital insurance solutions while staying quarantined in the pandemic.

In a 2020 Deloitte survey, 79% of insurance executives accepted that the pandemic has exposed the lack of or slow adoption of digital solutions in the industry.

Fortunately, insurers are waking up and ready to adopt digital and tech solutions. In the same Deloitte survey, 95% of executives said they are making plans to adopt technology and digital solutions in their companies. With their focus turned on cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud computing, and data analytics.

Figure: Deloitte 2021 Insurance M&A Outlook: Insurance Industry Technology Investment Policies.

These are the factors encouraging M&A deals to focus on digitization and technology adoption.

• Legacy insurance firms are trying to upgrade their current systems (which are mostly outdated)
• They are looking to use technologies such as AI, Big Data, Blockchain, and IoT to stay competitive.
• And the need for them to meet the demands of modern insurance consumers

Heated Competition from Insurtech

Insuretech is giving legacy insurance companies a run for their money. These insurtech startups leverage data and AI to build on-demand insurance offerings. And consumers love them for the convenient and swift services. With a growing population, increasing disposable incomes, and high ecommerce penetration, Asia is one of the biggest markets driving the insurtech revolution.

While these startups compete with legacy insurers, there’s a way for all of them to survive: Mergers and acquisitions. These M&A deals are happening in different ways, including:

• Acquisitions – legacy insurance firms completely buying out insurtech startups
• Partnerships and investments – legacy insurers and insuretechs coming together to advance their offerings
• These two merging through special purpose acquisitionS (SPACS)

According to Bain & Company, investments in insurtechs reached $7 Billion in 2020, from $6.3 Billion in 2019. And the value created by these M&A deals in the insurance industry are massive.

• Legacy insurers get to tap into the technological innovation provided by insurtechs to advance consumer offerings
• The insurance sector is full of legislation that requires large assets and human resources to navigate. And legacy insurance firms have the capabilities to navigate the space. Thus, insurtechs are able to leverage their M&A deals with legacy insurers to maneuver through the legal space and stay compliant.
• Both get to keep and share human resources to better serve the insurance consumer

Diversification and expansion

In a bid to diversify their offerings and expand operations geographically, both legacy insurers and insuretechs are looking to leverage M&A deals. Coming together gives them the power to combine resources to better serve customers.

It also helps both firms to reach geographical locations where it would be difficult or costly to reach by just expanding operations or building branches. But while M&A is championed by digitization, diversification, and insurtech’s competition, there’s more happening in Asia. Let’s find out.

Understanding Insurance M&As in Asia: A Deeper Look

Insurance in Asia isn’t the same in the west. The population, income, and cultural dynamics are different and in a way influence consumer demand. Beyond digitization and insurtechs driving M&As in insurance globally, Asia has some additional unique factors aiding the M&A boom.

Asia’s Focus: Growth and the consumer.

Asia’s population is more than half of the world’s. It has some of the fastest growing economies. Most of the countries on the continent boast a large middle-class population. And the mobile phone penetration rate is high.

To meet the demands of consumers in such a market, insurers need to innovate and champion growth. There’s huge potential for both legacy insurance firms and insurtech startups. And coming together could mean better resources to meet the needs of the growing population.

And as EY noted in their report “The extremely high expectations of consumers for seamless and personalized digital experiences inspire a great deal of innovation.” Their M&A deals and investment also reflect this mindset – creating partnerships and investments that seek to grow the industry, according to McKinsey.

According to data from Clyde&Co’s Insurance Growth Report 2019, M&A in insurance picked up in 2019 despite a little slow down in 2018. This growth is expected to be maintained throughout 2020 and 2021 despite a few glitches from the pandemic.

Figure: CLYDE&CO: Insurance Growth Report 2019.

But there’s also another driving force: the final consumer.

At every point in the growth stage, Asia’s insurance M&As focuses on the customer. Innovations focus on mobile-first insurance solutions and making the entire process convenient. With a growing population, high internet usage, and a high ecommerce patronage, it only makes sense that Asia’s M&A deals in insurance focus on digital and online solutions. These kinds of partnerships and deals are already happening in many parts of the continent.

1. WeSure, a Tencent InsurTech subsidiary, allows users to purchase insurance offers without leaving the WeChat platform. The platform has partnered with 20 other insurers to make this possible.
2. Alibaba also has a mutual aid platform referred to as Xiang Hu Bao which is operated through the Alipay mobile app.
3. Indonesian ecommerce giant Tokopedia closed a US$1.1 billion funding round in 2018 led by Alibaba Group Holding and SoftBank Vision Fund – for the platform to go into insurance and air tickets.
4. Chinese Insurance giant Zhong An and ride-hailing giant Grab announced a joint venture in 2019 to create an insurance platform for Southeast Asia.
5. In Korea, reinsurer Korean Re partnered with an AI-based insurtech Leapstack to support the latter’s expansion into the Korean market.
6. Earlier this year, Indian insurtech Plum raised $15.6 million led by Tiger Global.

Zooming out: the way forward

Across Asia, M&A in insurance is growing. Legacy insurance firms are leveraging AI and Big Data to create modern insurance solutions. Insurtech startups are creating peer-to-peer platforms to enable an online-first insurance ecosystem. And these two are collaborating to bring insurance to the doorsteps of the consumer. These innovations are happening in Japan, Singapore, and in many parts of the continent.

In a mobile and online-first market like Asia, this is good news, especially for the consumer. These innovations would go a long way to remove the cumbersome paperwork that is common in the insurance ecosystem. It would also eliminate third-parties and make registration and claims processing seamless.

In the end, it’s a race to capture the heart of the consumer. And the insurance mergers and acquisitions that focus on this would end up being winners.

The post M&A Deals in championing insurance growth globally and in Asia first appeared on Ancileo.

The post M&A Deals in championing insurance growth globally and in Asia appeared first on Ancileo.

These best practices can help OTAs ensure a higher conversion rate and convince users to buy travel insurance, thus boosting revenue from one of their key ancillary streams. UI/UX and a smooth user experience can sometimes really be the make or break point in the purchase decision of the user. Not only can it maximize revenue generation opportunities but also reduce troubleshooting and associated costs. A more finished and professional look of the website sets you apart from the competition too.

1. Product Benefits Readability is Key

Simple and well-organised products benefits in a panel or tabular format that makes the pros and cons of all plans evident in one glance, encourages a more direct approach and saves the user a lot of frustration and time. Readable information organised in a digestible manner is quicker to read, easier to understand and easier to retain. Tools like colour differentiation which allow easy comparison of pros and cons as well as clear and succinct comparative display of coverage boundaries are all things which can essentially help you sell more travel insurance.

2. Importance of Design Quality

A high quality website can help empower OTAs to boost the conversion rate of travel insurance. Rarely would a well-known company or even a startup feel confident in promoting products when their website is poorly designed and doesn’t show any of the product benefits clearly.

Personalised lifestyle image displays along with demographics matching the customer’s needs and requirements will create a positive impression of the company and are likely to draw in more users to potentially buy travel insurance. Tags, such as ‘Recommended’ will help catch the user’s attention and spend more time studying the travel insurance plans and schemes. By displaying prices by per day instead of by full figure will encourage upsell.

Other marketing tactics can include callout bubbles to highlight the disadvantages of not buying travel insurance as well as live numbers of converting customers to create peer pressure, such as “15,389 customers have secured their trip in the last 3 days. What are you waiting for?”.

3. Don’t Forget Mobile UI

A website interface and mobile UI are starkly different but are based on the same principles of simplicity and functionality. The mobile responsive display of travel insurance too should be able to show the coverages and their benefits at a glance and without any unnecessary clicks or scrolling which hamper the user’s probability of purchasing the cover. The interface must only display the essentials by prioritising elements as screen space is limited in mobile UI. Further, it should be optimised for both portrait and landscape modes. While desktops allow for multi-column formats, which enable elements like a navigation menu, sidebars for widgets, etc, a single central column is best for mobile devices.

4. Product Benefits Directly Displayed

This is another way to smoothly integrate cover on the customer journey popular among many travel players. Product benefits displayed directly without the user having to make any additional clicks will increase ease of viewing the advantages of the product and the scope of coverage. Basic principles of human psychology dictate that this will induce more users to give more attention to this section rather than just scrolling past it. Not only will it increase travel insurance conversion rates but also website conversion rates.

5. Covid 19 Highlights Is Becoming A Must

The pandemic is still foreign and daunting to travellers and OTAs must ease this by displaying COVID-19 protection, including its coverage limits, inclusions and exclusions clearly. The image below shows how various travel players have displayed their COVID-19 coverage plans through eye-catching display features like pop-ups, appealing graphics and words like ‘complimentary’.

6. Multiple touch-points

OTAs have improved their conversion rates by getting insurance products through to the customer at many different junctures to coerce the customer to secure their trip. The graph below shows the existence of multiple touchpoints such as during the flight booking, as discussed in this blog, post-purchase, in-destination and post-trip, through channels like web or app, SMS or email as well as at the airport.

Get Access to the Full Research Deck for Free!

The full research deck contains detailed information of the 180 OTAs:

• Global monthly website traffic
• OTA Type
• Purchase Funnel Touchpoint
• Travel insurance integration type
• Number of plans offered
• Customer self service modules
• 60+ screenshots of travel insurance integrated in booking path

This deck will enable OTA platforms to benchmark their competitors with ease. If you are from the OTA industry, contact us here to get access to the full research deck at no cost.

The post 2021 Best UI/UX Practices for Embedded Travel Insurance first appeared on Ancileo.

The post 2021 Best UI/UX Practices for Embedded Travel Insurance appeared first on Ancileo.

1. Exploring New Horizons through Moana

Source: Disney Movies

Moana is the story of a spirited young girl, due to be the first female chief of her tribe, who takes off on a quest across the Pacific Ocean to save her people. When her tribe is in danger, Moana goes off beyond the reef where no one in her tribe has ever been to find out the cause of their problems. Insurers must explore new horizons just like Moana did. By exploring into the unknown they too can solve challenges with unheard of and innovative solutions. For example, technological innovation is the future of insurance and by using tech to automate the insurance value chain, insurers can simplify and quicken the tedious traditional insurance process.

2. Insurance in a ‘Click’

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

When we first heard of the movie Click, starring Adam Sandler, all it reminded us of was embedded insurance. Embedding insurance at the point of sale provides flexibility, convenience and personalization. It means bringing affordable and personalised cover to customers exactly when and where they need it. Embedded insurance also helps close the protection gap, that is, where the supply of insurance is way more than its demand. Customers don’t want, or trust, insurance products and insurers are unable to keep pace with changing consumer demands and tackle enormously high insurance distribution costs. According to Simon Torrance, industry expert, embedded insurance is a $3 trillion market opportunity and insurers must capitalise on this opportunity to get a piece of the action.

3. Willy wonka and the Chocolate Factory as a Pioneer of Innovation

Source: Warner Bros

Willy Wonka’s magical and imaginative chocolate factory is the playground of every child’s dreams. It is also a leading company in the chocolate industry. This is the perfect inspiration for legacy insurance firms. With the three-course meal chewing gum and chocolate river, Willy Wonka and his weird yet pathbreaking ways only prove that innovative companies are what become market leaders in their respective fields. In some sense, he was a visionary chocolatier and insurers must imbibe this drive to pioneer innovation and unconventionality. He employed his tools, the oompa-loompas to achieve his goals and bring his ideas to reality. Similarly, even within the shackles of regulations and legal complications, insurers must employ tools of data from numerous sources as well as technology, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and blockchain to create insurance magic.

4. Monsters Inc. Accelerating Data Transformation

Source: Disney Movies

While Boo, the single cutest Pixar character, makes Monsters Inc. a must-see film, it also carries a heart warming message that you should never judge a book by its cover without full information of the situation or person. A similar importance of information is emulated by the insurance industry. The work of actuaries and underwriters has been transformed due to new sources of data and by communicating with one another. This has helped price policies accurately and prevent fraud. The shift from paper applications to online applications has reduced the probability of error and wearable technology has given insurers vast amounts of data about their policy holders. Algorithms automate decisions which use data from online applications, wearable tech, etc. AI has applications in claims processing. This is why data is revolutionizing insurance and insurers must attempt to be a part of it.

5. ‘Up’ Your Customer Journey

Source: Disney Movies

Up is an adorable tear-jerking movie, especially when poor Carl loses Ellie and spends the rest of his life pursuing the adventure that they never got to have. Through the film, Carl slowly realizes that his relationship with Ellie was the real adventure. Thus, it’s all too easy to focus on the destination, but the journey is important too. And in insurance, optimising the customer journey is equally important. To optimise lead generation, insurers must ensure that customers stay on their site for as long as possible and purchase online by creating top-notch user experiences. The first step can be to make the customer’s experience a priority across every function of the firm, including HR, operations, strategy, etc.

6. The Incredibles: Stronger Together

Source: Disney Movies

The Incredibles is about a family of superheroes attempting to save the world and reveals a sense of trust and collaboration within a family unit that insurers too can imbibe. There is unlimited opportunity for partnerships in the insurance space, from those between insurers and insurtechs to whole ecosystems. While a partnership is merely a business where firms have common commercial interest, in an ecosystem, firms also share a common effort to innovate and disrupt the existing value chain in the industry. There is a viable possibility for collaboration between insurers and start-ups to innovate as start-ups lack the expertise insurers have and insurers can improve their value chain through high tech methods offered by InsurTech firms.

7. Captain America: Civil War And Recruitment

Source: Marvel Studios

In Captain America: Civil War, the Avengers team of superheroes split and formed two opposing groups. Each side has to bring in new recruits to reinforce their strength. This proves that you might be the best leader in the world, but without good people around you, it’s difficult to get very far in business. Recruiting the right people is key whether in a civil war or in insurance. Insurers should focus on building the expertise of existing employees and also hire new talent with experience in technology. Employers must also enhance their value proposition to replenish their workforce and attract the next generation of talent.

8. The Devil Wears Prada Teaches Us How Not to Lead

Source: Fox 2000 Pictures

Miranda Priestly, the editor of a major fashion magazine, is the perfect example of how not to lead. She rules with an iron fist and expects those around her to magically understand everything she wants through mind-reading apparently. While the industry seems highly demanding, she offers the smallest amount of information and help one can to her employees. Good leaders equip their team with the knowledge they need to carry out their duties. If she was a little more understanding towards her team and provided them with more information to carry out tasks, they would soar to even greater heights.

Thus, movies not only entertain us but can also teach us valuable life and business lessons. From courage to teamwork to risk-taking, we have a lot more left to learn from them. This was what the team at Ancileo learnt from these movies. Anything you learnt that we didn’t mention? Let us know.

The post Lights. Camera. Insurance first appeared on Ancileo.

The post Lights. Camera. Insurance appeared first on Ancileo.

Beyond paying for just your seat on the plane from one place to another, airlines offer a variety of “extra” services (also known as “ancillary services”) that you can choose from to improve your experience on flight. Some of these in the most traditional forms include:

• Ala carte goods and services (meals, baggage, seat upgrades)
• Commission-based products (hotel accommodation, car rentals, travel insurance)
• Frequent flier activities
• Advertising space sold to third parties

Ancillary revenue makes up slightly more than ⅕ of the revenue garnered by airlines. Despite the dip in ancillary revenue in 2020 which is largely accounted for by the dip in overall revenues, this revenue component continues to see an upward trend in estimated growth based on positive ancillary revenue activity observed with the global airlines – low-cost carriers and full-service carriers-alike – in recent years.

Travel Insurance Offerings Post-COVID

COVID-19’s impact on the airline industry is indisputably and evidently the most significant. Now more than ever, the pandemic has further highlighted the need for airlines to diversify their revenue by exploring strategies to expand its range of ancillary services through untapped opportunities in travel retail, in-flight shopping and F&B pre-order.

Alliance between travel distributors and insurance providers are imperative to stimulate and sustain travel in the post-pandemic context. Market research consultancy, Finaccord, estimates that the annual revenue arising from airlines-travel insurance providers partnership may range from $1.2 to 1.5 billion in premiums. With the gradual offset of the pandemic, this can prove to be the silver lining and the perfect time to review this existing relationship as to design a more compelling travel insurance offering.

How Do Airline-Insurer Partnerships Work?

The airline (or travel player), insurer and insurtech form an insurance ecosystem together to provide the customer a seamless and hassle-free trip. These partnerships are usually tender driven, following 3 stages:

1. Travel insurance distributor approaches the market by issuing a document detailing your Request for Proposals (RFP).
2. Shortlist 4 to 5 candidates to clarify the details of the proposals submitted.
3. Select 2 best candidates to negotiate the commercial agreement/partnership.

The table below explicates the 2 types of tender process that can be considered by the airline:

Use Case of Embedding Travel Insurance into Airlines

Travel insurance offering within the flight ticket purchase funnel is probably the first successful embedded insurance use case.

Usually, the customer needs to simply click a checkbox to add on insurance. While this can be at any point in the purchase journey, it is usually seen on the extras (or additional services) page or on the payment page. For example, travellers who fly with Singapore Airlines can choose to opt in for the travel insurance add-on by AIG (screenshot below).

In-path Screenshot of Travel Insurance offered by Singapore Airlines

Some additional touchpoints for airlines to include the travel insurance offering, while they may be less integrated than API, include social media marketing, emails, SMS messages, newsletters subscribed post-purchase, and standalone white-label sites.

2021 World Travel Insurance Benchmark For Airlines

The Ancileo team researched 140 airlines globally across six primary regions, Asia, Middle East, Africa, Europe, Australia & New Zealand and the Americas.

Ancileo’s 2021 World Travel Insurance Benchmark For Airlines

Embedded In-Path Travel Insurance

Only 53.57% of Airlines offer embedded insurance in-path and of which, airlines in Europe and Asia have the highest proportion of airlines offering in-path embedded insurance.

Some airlines also offer complimentary travel insurance or COVID-19 cover, either through self insured or via partnerships:

• Japan Airlines
• Cathay Pacific
• Emirates
• FlyDubai
• Oman Air

Airlines Booking Path Travel Insurance Integration Type

There are 3 types of integration methods for embedding travel Insurance into the booking path: Opt-in, Opt-out and Forced Choice.

1. Opt-in – traveller must click to add on cover

   Most airlines give travellers the choice to click and add travel insurance. This is prominent over almost all regions including Asia, Middle East, Europe, and the Americas.

   

   Alitalia provides in-path opt-in insurance to travellers

2. Forced Choice – travelers must select an option to continue to the next stage of the booking process.

   Forced choice is widespread over almost all regions. Travellers must either choose insurance or click on ‘no’ to continue the booking process. 

   

   Air France provides in-path forced choice insurance to travellers

3. Opt-out – cover is pre-selected and the traveller can click to drop it

   Most airlines in Vietnam, such as VietJet Air and Vietnam Airlines as well as those in the Philippines, such as Cebu Pacfic (screenshot below) and Phillipine Air offer opt-out insurance.

Cebu Pacific provides in-path opt-out insurance to travellers

Interestingly, 68% offer just 1 plan in the booking path for simplicity, and 81.3% of insurers offer travel insurance as opt in.

Details of Insurance in the Booking Path

Free Access To the Full Research Deck

The full research deck contains detailed information of the 140 airlines’:

• Global monthly website traffic
• Number of passengers in 2019
• GDS providers (IBE)
• Travel insurance providers
• Travel insurance integration type
• Number of plans
• 70+ screenshots of travel insurance integrated in booking path

If you are from the airline industry, contact us here to get full access to the full research deck

The post 2021 World Travel Insurance Partnership Benchmark for Airlines first appeared on Ancileo.

The post 2021 World Travel Insurance Partnership Benchmark for Airlines appeared first on Ancileo.

But the rise of technology solutions has brought about the gush of data from numerous sources and every other industry is seeing the emergence of a new profession: the data scientist. The work they do is so much alike to an actuary that the internet is so torn between the both.

Is the birth of data science the damn of actuary science?

Despite that said, the industry is pretty much in consensus that the actuary wouldn’t be made redundant but requires development in its role to fit the requirements of the changing world. Being an industry ladened with business processes, regulatory and accounting requirements, actuaries often have to undergo rigorous formal training and have ample experience to hold its ground in the insurance industry.

Like the insurance agent (aka the financial advisor or consultant now), the work of the actuary will evolve and innovate to  bring about a more direct and meaningful impact on their potential customers – contrary to the common misconception that they’re seated hunched behind a computer at the back of the office, crunching numbers.

Forces shaping the “New Age actuary.” (Source: The evolving role of actuaries for insurance innovation, sas blogs, Sept 2020)

Beyond risk assessment that actuaries mostly deal with, in this article we want to make a case for data analytics in our industry. And how the impact of data has seeped into every other stage in the value chain, every other personnel in the insurance industry, and the role of insurers in today’s economy.

Market Potential for Data Analytics in Insurance

A new market research report by Meticulous Research highlights a number of insights on the state of data analytics in the global insurance market:

The aforementioned predictions are consistent across many market research reports. While it’s with no doubt that the ROI from deploying data analytics in the insurance value-chain will be plentiful. Yet, it can be painful to implement and integrate across the organization given the resistance to change – both on the fronts of legacy infrastructure and human skill sets needed.

For instance, this means transforming the actuarial role. Even within their traditional scope of work in pricing, valuation and regulatory reporting, the value that data-driven insights can bring is bountiful. Say in pricing insurance products, traditionally insurers have only used a few pricing bands (what they used to call a “one size fits all” model to pricing) and customers are evaluated depending on a few simple metrics. As we throw analytics into the picture, now you get:

Structured vs. Unstructured Data

Now that analytics as a tool or a means to a greater end has been covered, we want to move to the data pool where you use your tool to extract useful insights to your insurance business. And to explore the importance of tapping on unstructured data for the industry.

As much as 90% of the data out there is unstructured data. Unlike structured data, they don’t fit nicely into a box. Think of structured data like entries on a Google Form. You can easily generate them into columns and rows on the Excel spreadsheet.

Source: Unstructured Data vs Structured Data Explained with Real-life Examples, Yunee Ham, Jul 2020

For unstructured data, your potential customers are spontaneously generating these data as they’re online. Some examples of unstructured data are like Facebook comments, Tweets, email messages, instant messages, and audio or video files.

That said, for us, it’s more challenging to analyse and not as easily searchable. This also means that this type of data is not tapped into enough yet for the insurance industry. Ever thanks to advances in AI and ML, insurers can now tap into insights specifically from unstructured data.

Role of Partnerships in Enabling Data-Driven Insurance

Having a lot of data is good news, but not ideal when not all of these comes in useful for insurers. You want to be able to make use of a selected portion of the vast data pool to hone your existing product offerings and come up with new ones to serve untapped markets.

And getting the right data is facilitated by forming digital insurance partnerships to capture specific and diverse types of data of your targeted markets.

 Digital insurance partnerships can vary from:

• Digital distribution (via embedded insurance)
• Connected insurance (IoT/Telematics)
• Smart underwriting
• New product development
• Digital claims management & fraud detection
• Customer engagement (BoT/voice)

Consider telematics data from ride-sharing companies for auto insurance, or our health data gathered from wearables and mHealth devices for health insurance. Who better to get it from than your partners who service these markets directly?

On new product offerings, McKinsey & Company puts forward the multiple roles that insurers play in a particular ecosystem. In the example of the personal-mobility ecosystem, there is a range of opportunities for insurers to expand into areas such as vehicle purchase and maintenance management, ride-sharing, carpooling, traffic management, vehicle connectivity, and parking – where there is something for risk management and prevention in every one of these areas.

Future Trends: Digital Insurance Distribution

Traditionally, B2B2C insurance distribution has always been done via agents and your face-to-face interaction and relationship with your insurance agent have been at the hallmark of the distribution model.

Post-COVID-19 in a world where consumers are better informed, hyper-personalised and have higher expectations in the products and services, we need to consider how to redefine insurance distribution in the remote world. Agents will be deployed to provide more meaningful, real-time customer service that’s enabled by digital tools.

There will be more product offerings catering to the diverse needs of every individual consumer. The value of the product, its distribution and the service (or self-service) that follows after will be centred around the consumer, than it being limited to what the insurer can do on its individual platform.

It’s an ultimate win-win situation for both the insurer and the partner. Expanding distribution partnerships could help insurers to reach out to potential customers more effectively on insurance products that matter to them through their distribution partner. For the partner, this means a commission revenue earned on their end. Their value proposition would also expand given that the customer’s purchase extends after-sales.

The post The Journey to Data-Driven Insurance first appeared on Ancileo.

The post The Journey to Data-Driven Insurance appeared first on Ancileo.