Global health and wellness company Vitality Group and its parent company Discovery took home two awards at the Efma-Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards last night, winning Gold in the Global Innovator category and Bronze in Core Insurance Transformation category.
In its fifth annual awards, insurance industry association Efma and Accenture announced the winners in a digital ceremony showcasing the best examples of insurance innovations across the globe. The competition this year attracted 360 submissions from 240 institutions in 45 countries. Close to 800 institutions have participated in the awards since 2016, with more than 17,000 votes received for more than 1,500 innovations.
The Global Innovator category recognizes the most innovative insurance organization whose corporate vision commits it successfully to continuous innovation and transformation, to the development and leadership of a broad ecosystem of partners extending beyond insurance, and to the exploitation of emerging technologies that improve the experience of its customers and the performance of its business.
Vitality won for its pioneering shared-value business model, which has been scaled globally to 25 markets with over 20 million members, leading a transformation in the insurance industry. Its mechanism of guiding and rewarding better health behavior has been adopted by leading insurance organizations around the world, with the aim of making people healthier.
Discovery Chief Executive Adrian Gore accepted the Global Innovator Award saying “We are honored to be featured in a global competition of this calibre and see it as a validation of our Vitality Shared-Value Insurance model that creates value for the insurer, clients and society.”
In addition to Global Innovator, Vitality won Bronze in the Core Insurance Transformation category for its Active Rewards 2020 offering. Vitality Active Rewards incentivizes individuals for reaching personalized weekly activity goals, with research showing this results in sustained improvements in physical activity (a 2018 study by RAND Europe shows participation is associated with an increase in total tracked activity of about 33%). Given this impact, Vitality Active Rewards has evolved to include into other areas of health and wellbeing, such as improved nutrition, better sleep and managing mental health. The program recommends and tracks lifestyle and health-related goals on a weekly basis and uses a gamified rewards structure combined with timely notifications and other tools to keep members engaged.
“We are excited about the potential of Active Rewards 2020 to create holistic and lasting health behavior change,” said Alan Pollard, President, Innovation & Product, Vitality Group International. “The product provides ongoing interactive opportunities for members to practice healthy activities based on their unique health attributes along with learned preferences and behaviors – making healthy habit formation attractive, engaging, and rewarding.”
The winners were selected through a combination of votes by a panel of judges comprising senior insurers from around the world and online by Efma members and non-members from insurance institutions. Each entry was assessed using three criteria: its originality; its strategic capacity to create a long-term competitive edge and return on investment; and its adaptability for use in other markets and countries.
