Operating in diverse markets around the world, Sun Life Financial’s client engagement innovations are often tailored to suit local cultures, says Dean Connor, president and CEO of the insurer.

In the Philippines, for example, Sun Life has created a mobile app game that educates people about critical illness insurance. He described it as similar to Snakes and Ladders. The player gets points as they play the game and various life events happen throughout the game. While he does not think such an approach would fly in Canada, in the Philippines the gamification of critical illness has been “very successful” as a way for Sun Life to engage clients and get them to think about the product. “It has helped grow our business a lot…We’ve got the number one market share in the Philippines. That’s just an example of how we tailor to different markets.”

Teaming up with Telcos

Connor says that in Asia another innovative approach to distribution has been to team up with telcos. Sun Life works with telcos in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia and will soon work with one in India. Custom-designed Sun Life products and solutions can be purchased by the telco subscribers via their smartphone or even on a simple mobile phone. The fee for the products is added to the subscriber’s telco bill or deducted from their prepaid card.