health insurance penetration at sub 15 percent in the country points to the acute lack of awareness about the importance of health insurance in india to most people today health insurance translates to merely covering hospitalizationmedical treatment costs while this is fine for an illness that can be cured in the short term what happens when an individual is rendered incapable of living a normal life due to incidence of critical illness for an extended period of time besides the hospitalizationmedical treatment expenses that heshe would have to meet other financial commitments like emis childrens school fees credit card expenses etc also suffer as the individual is unable to go to work and earn a regular income this is where newer products like a critical illness health insurance policy help as they provide lump sum compensation that can help in meeting daytoday expenses and covering hospitalization costs a firstofitskind campaign in the insurance industry bharti axa gis viral marketing campaign successfully capitalises the most potent communication medium today the digital platform in communicating the needofthehour for insurance to create awareness about the importance of a critical illness health insurance policy seven videos have been developed that narrate the predicaments of ordinary people who suffer from critical illnesses and are forced to work while they are ill owing to the financial commitments the videos take a sliceoflife look at people from different walks of life women entrepreneurs working professionals with the aim of driving home the point that a critical illness could hit any one of us the videos end with creating awareness about bharti axa gis critical illness policy that provides them with lump sum compensation that can take care of the financial commitments while the customers peacefully recover from their illness the digital platform was chosen for this campaign for its ability to maximise reach to the target audience young working individuals who use the internet on a daily basis and to promote bharti axa gis new ecommerce enabled website the fact that the incidence of a critical illness can happen to anyone is clearly denoted in the choice of the characters in the videos the videos depict people from different parts of the country as well people from different professions they are a mix of candid videos and scripted videos the candid videos depict people from different regions where a real life scene has been shot the onlookers are not aware of the shooting and only see a patient a fellow commuter trying to make it to work while being critically ill the scripted videos which depict people from different professions are based on drafted scripts and hired actors one of the candid videos shows a critically ill south indian trying to catch a bus to get to work in mumbai and how other people at the bus stop try to advise and help him another video shows a critically ill bengali man entering a caf and telling his boss on a telephonic conversation