Asia-Pacific Power List 2020: Stuart A Spencer, AIA Group

Stuart A Spencer

Group CMO and member of the group executive committee
AIA Group
Hong Kong 
Returning member

The CMO of 100-year old insurer AIA has had to tweak and re-tweak his marketing plans to keep pace with a rapidly changing environment. Stuart Spencer started 2019 leading the centenary celebrations of AIA across 18 markets, and ended it with a pandemic sweeping across China, forcing him to pivot.

The centenary celebrations centered around in-market events for employees, agents and other distribution partners, customers and the general public. The company was able to raise $500,000 to local charities across the region.

AIA’s marketing plans were on a roll in 2019, like the latest phase of its What’s Your Why? campaign with David Beckham, which was viewed over 56 million times. Beckham visited Hong Kong, Vietnam, China and the Philippines during the year, amplifying AIA’s presence there.

Spencer led the creation of a program to raise awareness of sleep sufficiency and to celebrate the benefits that just one more hour of sleep provides. In October AIA launched a new film ‘Who will you be when you wake up?’ in support of this program, which has since been viewed more than 3.5 million times. 

Many of these high-flying initiatives were grounded when the pandemic struck, but Spencer was able to recast AIA’s marketing efforts in a purposeful direction. Over the past few months, AIA offered tweaked coverage for policies, engaged more deeply with employees and built new tech-driven work practices.

The insurance brand also launched a new content series in partnership with AIA Global Ambassador Beckham and English Premier League football team, Tottenham Hotspurs, marking the first time AIA has brought its two global partners together. David Beckham and Spurs’ members discuss the simple health and lifestyle choices everyone can make to improve their health, whether a professional player or not. Seventeen AIA markets participated in the campaign, which reached 87.5 million people with 28.4 million views and 4.75 million engagements.