Tim Human speaks with Stanley Zhou, IR director of ZhongAn, about how the Shanghai-based online insurer’s youth-focused brand has led to success
Many companies today use video to tell their story to investors, but most are not as creatively brave as ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance. Last year, it commissioned a music video featuring a rap about the firm’s 2020 results and a man posing in a horse hat. Oh, and the actor in the hat was the head of IR.
Launched in 2013, ZhongAn is a pioneer in the insurtech industry, where start-ups use technology to offer faster, cheaper and more tailored services to customers than the traditional insurance market. The Chinese company has a youth-focused brand – most customers are under 35 – and it incorporates this image into all its communications, including IR activities.
‘Most of our customers are from younger generations – our products are the first policies they have bought in their life,’ explains Stanley Zhou, director of capital markets and IR (and the man in the horse hat). ‘So when we do earnings, we want to leverage our culture to attract customers and [showcase] our products to investors and analysts.’
ZhongAn’s innovative approach to IR caught the attention of the judges for the IR Magazine Awards – Greater China 2021, who handed the company two prizes: best use of multimedia for IR and best investor event (for a small or mid-cap). So what has ZhongAn been doing in those two areas that made it stand out from the crowd?
Stanley Zhou, ZhongAn
Multimedia focus It’s not really a surprise that ZhongAn’s IR team excels at multimedia use. Set up as an online insurer targeting Generation Y and Z consumers, the company has digital marketing baked into its DNA.
A key focus of the IR department is reaching investors and analysts via their smartphones. ‘I think we are [among] the first batch of listed companies to leverage cellphone-based channels to interact with investors,’ says Zhou, who majored in Arabic at Shanghai International Studies University before pursuing a career in finance. ‘Investors are busy: they are not able to sit in the office and check the data of the companies they follow.’
ZhongAn has set up an official account on WeChat, China’s biggest social media platform with well over 1 bn users, as well as a WeChat Mini-program – a ‘sub-application’ where companies can offer additional functionality. The insurer distributes monthly financial data through the WeChat ecosystem, as well as broader news and video content, to offer a comprehensive view of business activities, says Zhou.
In addition, ZhongAn works with various online investment platforms to spread its message to retail investors. For example, it has an account with Tonghuashun, a major provider of financial data. ‘We appreciate the interest of [individual investors], and it is also a very good branding opportunity for us to promote our products,’ Zhou points out.
This mix of IR communications and product marketing in the same message is perhaps best displayed by the insurer’s music videos. Following the success of the hip-hop video, which raked up more than 1 mn views, lists and reposts, ZhongAn did a follow-up with a rock soundtrack – although this time the IR team played a behind-the-scenes role. ‘It’s become a tradition for us,’ Zhou says.
ZhongAn's CEO Jiang Xing at the firm's 2020 year-end event
Award-winning event Along with its gong for best use of multimedia for IR, ZhongAn also received plaudits at the IR Magazine Awards – Greater China 2021 for a three-day investor event focused on its technology segment.
ZhongAn has major business units for its own insurance products, such as healthcare, auto and lifestyle, but it also makes technology available to other players in the industry to help them with their own digital transformation. Held in January 2021, the ZhongAn Open Day's aim was to give investors, analysts, media and business partners a better understanding of the technology on offer and how it adds value.
ZhongAn's 2020 results video
‘During roadshows, investors are always curious about how technology helps to improve our business operations and value chain – but that’s hard to visualize,’ says Zhou.
So for the event, ZhongAn renovated its Insurtech Experience Center, adding high-tech displays and interactive devices. Speakers included members of the C-suite and leaders from major business divisions, who discussed the digital trends shaping the insurance industry. In total, there were 24 speeches and five roundtable discussions, while organizers also released two white papers and an updated version of one of ZhongAn’s flagship products.
What does Zhou think investors and analysts most appreciated about the event? It was the interactive elements, such as artificial intelligence robots, that helped to bring the technology to life, he says: ‘They got a clearer view about how technology can improve the industry, rather than hearing about it from my speeches during the roadshow. That’s the most impressive part for the audience.’
Other winners at the IR Magazine Awards – Greater China 2021 include Link Asset Management, which won for best annual report by a large cap. Speaking to IR Magazine, Eric Yau, chief strategy officer at the real estate investment trust (Reit) manager, recommends companies think carefully about what to include in their annual report, rather than shoving in everything they think their range of stakeholders might want.
‘I think it’s easy to read [and] relatively concise,’ he says of his company’s report, citing feedback from investors and analysts. ‘What we try to do is not just throw everything in. I don’t think overloading people with information is the right solution. It’s about providing the right information in the right format. And we do use a lot of infographics, tables and graphs, because it does help to tell the story.’
IR Magazine also caught up with Christine Yang, senior IR analyst at Central China Real Estate, who won the rising star award in Greater China last year. Yang picked up the award for the positive contributions she made to her company’s IR efforts amid the disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, she co-ordinated monthly online reverse roadshows, which included bilingual introductory videos, and also helped management get comfortable with communicating via online video platforms.
During this time, Yang has tried to focus on the positive side of the changes, such as the added efficiency and flexibility of virtual outreach. She explains how, on physical roadshows, last-minute cancellations could wipe out the only chance to meet certain investors that year. ‘This situation rarely, if ever, happens in the virtual world as one can be more flexible, with the ability to reschedule meetings,’ she says.
This article is based on a video interview with ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance. To view the full interview, please click here.
