The Asia Insurance Awards 2024, held on July 9, 2024, in Singapore, recognized MB Ageas Life’s Happy Ekiden as the only professional run event organized by a life insurance company, setting it apart from conventional races.
Insurance Asia Awards is an annual prestigious award organized by Asia Insurance Review, aiming to honor impressive initiatives by insurance companies across the continent that bring value to customers and the insurance market. The winners are selected based on stringent criteria set by an independent jury of financial experts from the Big Four audit firms (Deloitte, EY, PwC, and KPMG).
According to the organizers’ congratulatory message, Happy Ekiden has spread positive values in the community, providing an opportunity to strengthen emotional connections and enhance spiritual values for family members.
First held in 2018, Happy Ekiden is an annual large-scale running event organized by MB Ageas Life with the goal of accompanying Operation Smile Vietnam. All ticket proceeds from the event are donated to bring happy smiles to children with cleft lip and palate deformities, free of charge.
Happy Ekiden offers a space for family members to connect and spend quality time together away from busy work and study schedules. It is not merely a sports event or a competition; instead, it emphasizes the journey of happiness and companionship, aligning with the core message of the MB Ageas Life insurance brand.
Happy Ekiden, with its focus on enhancing happiness, has resonated strongly with the community. This explains why the event has attracted an increasing number of families, growing from 200 families in 2018 to 800 families in 2023, setting a record for a large-scale running festival with over 20,000 participants and covering more than 8,000 km.
Happy Ekiden’s success and its strong community impact
The event’s impact was evident as Happy Ekiden 2023 made it to the top 10 Hot Topics on social media, as reported by Kompa. Along with a series of activities promoting the message of “Hạnh phúc lành” (roughly translated as “Blessed Happiness”), the campaign contributed to MB Ageas Life’s brand health, ranking it in the top 6 of the YMI Brand Health Index in 2023, announced by YouNet Index.
Ms. Nguyen Quynh Mai, Head of Communications and Branding at MB Ageas Life, shared, “MB Ageas Life is positioned as a leading and most trusted life insurance company, with a mission to accompany customers in building happiness. Therefore, the message of happiness is integral to our operations through our community activities, including Happy Ekiden. We are deeply honored to receive the ‘Marketing Campaign of the Year’ award, which encourages us on our journey to fulfill this meaningful mission.”
Previously, MB Ageas Life was also recognized by the Asia Insurance Awards in the “Insurance Initiative of the Year” category in 2023. Ranked among the top 10 reputable life insurance companies in the market, MB Ageas Life continuously strives to innovate its product and service quality while upholding its commitment to social responsibility. The company allocates significant resources to social projects and charities focusing on education and children’s well-being, aiming to build a healthy and happy future for Vietnamese families. Notable community campaigns include “Hạnh phúc lành” and “Đồng hành là Hạnh phúc” (roughly translated as “Accompanying is Happiness”), which have successfully spread sustainable humanitarian values throughout the social fabric.
