Mini Case Study: Short Codes for Short term Insurance - Mobile Marketing

Metropolitan Life, a South African insurance company, launched a new service called Cover2Go in 2007. Cover2Go is aimed at those on lower incomes in South Africa and has made innovative use of mobile phone technology in order to reach its target market. Cover2Go insurance can be purchased by SMS, and a single transaction can purchase instant life insurance for 6 days.

All a customer needs to do to purchase cover is to SMS their name and identity number to a premium rate short code. The system, powered by Clickatell, replies with a confirmation and policy number, requests the name of a beneficiary, and reminds the policyholder to inform an associate about the life insurance. All this only costs the customer R10, which is automatically deducted from the phone’s airtime, and gives them six days’ worth of cover.

Cover2Go’s innovative use of mobile phone technology makes insurance incredibly accessible to this market. The use of SMS technology ensures that the insurance is easy to purchase, and deducting the cost of the cover from the phone’s airtime makes it easy to pay for the insurance.

Cover2Go: www.cover2go.co.za Clickatell: www.clickatell.com