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Link all your marketing efforts back to the business goal: Abhishek Gupta

Abhishek Gupta, CMO, Edelweiss Life Insurance delves into the essence of customer experience, evolving role of PR, and growing importance of hyper-personalisation. He also offers a glimpse into Edelweiss’ plans for JFM.

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Karuna Sharma
New Update
Abhishek Gupta

A lot has changed in the world of advertising and marketing in the last two decades. Abhishek Gupta, CMO of Edelweiss Life Insurance, who has seen these changes first-hand, pointed out that a few things still remain the same. At its core, marketing has always been about connecting with consumers on a personal level while achieving business objectives — and these pillars still continue to hold the weight of the changing world.  

He refers to a pan wala to make his point. A pan wala doesn’t engage in long conversations but remembers customers by their faces and preferences, offering products tailored to individual tastes. This quiet yet effective personalisation makes customers feel acknowledged, while respecting their privacy. Gupta carried this principle into his career, recalling his early days at Shoppers Stop when he noticed how customers lit up when he remembered their names. That small gesture made them feel seen, deepening their connection with the brand.

After all, it all comes down to making people feel valued. This is the reason why Gupta takes pride in one of their recent campaigns, an idea that was pitched by one of their sales team members. They suggested putting up a hoarding in Meerut to celebrate a successful agent. Gupta loved the idea and expanded it nationally.

When asked what advice he would give to other marketers, Gupta spoke about the importance of spending time with people.

In this interview, he further looks back at this journey to share a page from his life full of marketing lessons, while also highlighting how hyper-personalisation and PR will play an important role in shaping brands in 2025. 

Edited excerpts: 

Q: Mr. Gupta, you have more than two decades of experience in marketing and started your journey in 1999. Can you walk us through this journey?

It has been a fabulous, rollercoaster journey, and definitely not a boring one. I started my career with Shoppers Stop Limited, which at that time was a seven or eight-year-old entity and a pioneer in modern retail. I joined as a management trainee fresh from management college. During the first three or four months, we did everything—housekeeping, security, and even a full week of toilet cleaning. These experiences shaped my career.

I spent close to three years at Shoppers Stop, starting in floor sales and later moving into marketing. Then I joined ICICI Bank, which was a completely different experience. At Shoppers  Stop, you waited for customers to walk in, whereas, at ICICI Bank, I was reaching out to customers to sell home loans. I worked across Pune, Chennai, and Mumbai for five years. Afterward, I had a brief stint at Spencer’s Retail Limited before moving to Walmart India. There, I was part of the initial team setting up retail stores in collaboration with Bharti. After Walmart, I worked for two years at The Mobile Store. For the past 10 years, I’ve been with Edelweiss Group.

Q: How has customer service evolved since you started working in 1999?

At the basic level, customer service hasn’t changed. It’s still about how you make customers feel when they interact with your store, branch, website, or app. The goal is to make the experience frictionless and enjoyable so customers leave with a smile. While the ways we deliver service and how consumers consume products and services have changed, the essence remains the same. Humans don’t change, and neither does the core of customer experience.

Q: You mentioned during your talk today that authentic PR will be crucial for marketers in 2025. Can you elaborate on how PR plays a role in building leadership?

PR is one of the most underutilized tools in marketing. It’s about telling the world what you’re doing through someone else’s voice rather than your own. At its core, PR is similar to influencer marketing. Authentic PR means talking consistently about what you stand for in a way that resonates with your audience. It’s not just for visibility but for impact. Unfortunately, PR is often seen as a visibility tool rather than a tool for making a meaningful impact.

Q. You also mentioned the growing importance of hyper-personalization. How is that trend shaping BFSI, especially for life insurance companies?

Let’s consider an example. If I start by referencing articles you’ve written or social media posts you’ve shared, I’ve personalised this conversation for you. It’s similar to what a regular paanwala does when they hand a customer their preferred products without any words exchanged. Personalisation shifts relationships from transactional to emotional. In BFSI, which is often seen as complex and opaque, personalisation—like offering a product tailored to a consumer’s needs—can impact conversion, ticket size, referrals, and upselling.

Q. How does AI facilitate hyper-personalization?

AI enables personalization at scale but starts earlier in the process. For example, in life insurance, the claim settlement ratio is critical. AI helps us eliminate fraud at the inception stage, ensuring only clean cases come in. It also identifies customers likely to lapse their policies and agents who might switch to competitors. AI helps detect trends, craft communications, and create personalized offerings at scale.

Q. Jan–March is the busiest period for the BFSI industry. What’s in store for Edelweiss on the marketing front?

We’ll be launching a new product in January that excites our distributor partners. We’ll focus on both consumer outreach and distributor outreach. My job is to ensure Edelweiss remains the brand of preference for both.

Q. Are there any new mediums that have caught your attention?

Connected TV. Consumers are gradually shifting from linear TVs to connected TVs. While the industry knows this well, I’m still exploring its potential.

Q. Mr. Gupta, from the time you started working to today, the role of Chief Marketing Officer has evolved significantly. While the basics remain the same, the role now includes data, technology, and customer experience. How do you balance these aspects?
Around 2013-14, when social media was emerging, we were unsure how to handle it. I tackled it by learning from the youngest team members, as they were more familiar with social media. I empowered them to take charge and learn from them. Empowering people has always been my approach—when you give your team autonomy, they perform their best.

Empowering others has always been a cornerstone of my leadership philosophy—when you trust your team with responsibility, they excel. In the same way, I’ve gained meaningful insights into PR by observing and learning from others, reinforcing the value of collaboration and continuous growth.

Additionally, I keep myself updated in three ways:

  1. Reading extensively: It sharpens my knowledge and keeps me aware of the latest developments.

  2. Attending events: Conferences and knowledge-sharing sessions, like those hosted by your organization, provide actionable insights. I've implemented ideas from such events with great success.

  3. Networking: Meeting people outside my immediate circle helps broaden my understanding and perspective.

Q: If you had to share one marketing tip for 2025, what would it be?
Understand sales. Ultimately, sales drive a company’s revenue. You need to know where your sales come from. Achieve this by staying close to customers or connecting with those who interact directly with them. Spend time with customers or the sales team to understand nuances. Once you grasp this, you can craft better strategies and plans.

Q: Looking at the first quarter of the year—January, February, March—what is the current consumer and marketing sentiment? How is the industry performing?
The industry is on a positive trajectory, growing at a CAGR of 14-16%. This growth is supported by India’s long-term economic progress and the financialization of savings. Despite minor short-term disruptions due to environmental factors, the outlook remains optimistic.

For the JFM period, I foresee significant growth. Ad spends are expected to grow in line with our business growth, around 10-12%. These will focus on two areas: consumer awareness and distributor enablement.

Q. What challenges do you anticipate for the industry this quarter?
While there aren’t major challenges, regulatory changes will push us to think differently. For example:

  • Open architecture in life insurance allows agents to sell multiple policies, prompting us to retain top-performing agents while attracting others.

  • Changes in surrender values mean products must work harder to deliver value.

  • Gradual reduction in tax benefits will shift the focus to the intrinsic benefits of life insurance products, which is positive for the long term but may impact JFM buyers.

Q. Can you share a campaign or initiative you’re particularly proud of from your time at Edelweiss Life Insurance?
One initiative that stands out is our effort to elevate the perception of insurance agents. These professionals often don’t see their role as a source of pride, nor do their families or society. With our campaign, we aimed to change this on three levels:

  1. Helping agents see pride in their profession.

  2. Gaining acceptance for their work among their family and friends.

  3. Elevating their profession in society at large.

The idea originated from a sales team member, who suggested putting up a hoarding in Meerut to celebrate a successful agent. I loved the idea and expanded it nationally.

Now, based on set criteria, we install hoardings in agents' localities with their photos, highlighting them as top advisors. This small gesture has had a massive impact. Families gathered to witness the unveiling, break coconuts, celebrate, and share the moment on social media. It fostered an emotional connection, making these advisors—who aren’t our employees—feel deeply valued and motivated.

With this, we are also able to retain our best agents and it has also become our recruitment tool. It helps agents boost themselves in their locality and now the campaign has been executed on a national scale, becoming more institutionalised. 

Q. Lastly, can you share a message with Social Samosa’s 40 under 40 winners? 

I have been a part of the jury and have seen some amazing work that has been done. I went through the body of the work and I questioned, ‘Is this person really under 40?’ That speaks volume over the quality of the work has been done. My only advice would be to link all your marketing efforts back to the business goal. I see that in bits. So always bring it back to the business goal and understand whether the initiative helped the CEO with their business objectives. 

marketing lessons Abhishek Gupta edelweiss Edelweiss Life Insurance