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Category
Creative Use of Data
Annual ID
OS26_HW029M
Background
In India, retail health insurance penetration remains alarmingly low at just 10%,one of the lowest globally. When ACKO, the country’s leading digital-first insurance brand, ventured into health insurance, we realised that while access to healthcare and insurance delivery have improved, preventive care remains a blind spot.
Most Indians don’t actively think about their health until something goes wrong. As a result, insurance isn’t even a consideration until illness strikes.
Across the country,people delay medical attention until symptoms become severe, driven by fear, confusion, or hesitation to navigate the healthcare system.
The biggest challenge remains with heart health- cardiovascular diseases account for 27% of all deaths in India and 45% among adults aged 40–69. Yet early detection remains rare.
Over the past five years, heart-related insurance claims have nearly doubled , from 9–12% of all health claims in 2019–20 to nearly 20% in 2023–24.
Treatment costs have surged with average claim amounts increasing by an alarming 300%.
Most of these claims come when the disease is already in a late stage, requiring urgent, intensive, and expensive care.
As a new health-insurance brand, we needed to stand for proactive health leading to lesser claims rather than only talk of claims process and settlement ratios.
On World Heart Day, we saw an opportunity to start a new conversation around heart health.
Not just by talking about the growing burden of heart disease, but encouraging people to take action earlier through regular checkups and simple preventive steps before emergencies happen.
Most Indians don’t actively think about their health until something goes wrong. As a result, insurance isn’t even a consideration until illness strikes.
Across the country,people delay medical attention until symptoms become severe, driven by fear, confusion, or hesitation to navigate the healthcare system.
The biggest challenge remains with heart health- cardiovascular diseases account for 27% of all deaths in India and 45% among adults aged 40–69. Yet early detection remains rare.
Over the past five years, heart-related insurance claims have nearly doubled , from 9–12% of all health claims in 2019–20 to nearly 20% in 2023–24.
Treatment costs have surged with average claim amounts increasing by an alarming 300%.
Most of these claims come when the disease is already in a late stage, requiring urgent, intensive, and expensive care.
As a new health-insurance brand, we needed to stand for proactive health leading to lesser claims rather than only talk of claims process and settlement ratios.
On World Heart Day, we saw an opportunity to start a new conversation around heart health.
Not just by talking about the growing burden of heart disease, but encouraging people to take action earlier through regular checkups and simple preventive steps before emergencies happen.
Creative Idea
Detecting heart disease early dramatically reduces the risk of fatality. We set out to find an early, accessible indicator of heart health , one that wouldn’t necessarily require a visit to the doctor.
Our search led us to the waist-to-hip ratio, recognized by the World Health Organization as a powerful predictor of cardiovascular risk.
A ratio above 0.9 for men and 0.85 for women signals a significantly higher likelihood of heart issues.
We used this insight as the launchpad for our idea: transforming a simple, everyday measurement into a call for early awareness and preventive action.
Our search led us to the waist-to-hip ratio, recognized by the World Health Organization as a powerful predictor of cardiovascular risk.
A ratio above 0.9 for men and 0.85 for women signals a significantly higher likelihood of heart issues.
We used this insight as the launchpad for our idea: transforming a simple, everyday measurement into a call for early awareness and preventive action.
Insights & Strategy
Ostrich mentality ,the instinct to ignore uncomfortable truths, runs deep among Indians, especially around health. Most avoid doctors altogether. So instead of bringing people to healthcare, we turned to someone already in their lives.
We realised India’s most overlooked health database wasn’t digital — it was stitched into notebooks of neighbourhood tailors. These tailors, who’ve quietly tracked generational body measurements, became the foundation of ACKO’s most unexpected data-led health intervention.
On World Heart Day, ACKO launched The Tailor Test. Partnering with 1 million tailors, we transformed this trusted network into local health sentinels. Armed with WHO-approved waist-to-hip ratio charts and access to generational records, tailors identified early signs of heart risk and discreetly stamped bills when thresholds were crossed.
By unlocking data from the most unlikely places, ACKO didn’t just raise awareness — it reimagined insurance as proactive care, showing how prevention can be stitched into everyday life.
We realised India’s most overlooked health database wasn’t digital — it was stitched into notebooks of neighbourhood tailors. These tailors, who’ve quietly tracked generational body measurements, became the foundation of ACKO’s most unexpected data-led health intervention.
On World Heart Day, ACKO launched The Tailor Test. Partnering with 1 million tailors, we transformed this trusted network into local health sentinels. Armed with WHO-approved waist-to-hip ratio charts and access to generational records, tailors identified early signs of heart risk and discreetly stamped bills when thresholds were crossed.
By unlocking data from the most unlikely places, ACKO didn’t just raise awareness — it reimagined insurance as proactive care, showing how prevention can be stitched into everyday life.
Execution
On World Heart Day, ACKO brought The Tailor Test to life by mobilising one of India’s largest and most trusted offline networks, over 1 million neighbourhood tailors. Partnering with tailor welfare associations across the country, we equipped them with WHO approved waist to hip ratio charts, turning a simple body measurement into a powerful early warning system for cardiovascular risk.
Tailors were trained to calculate the ratio during routine fittings and discreetly identify when a customer crossed the risk threshold of 0.9 for men and 0.85 for women. When triggered, they stamped the customer’s bill in multiple regional languages with a message encouraging a free heart check up via an ACKO helpline. This ensured the intervention felt personal, private and culturally sensitive.
Crucially, tailors did not just rely on one time measurements. With access to generational records, they compared historical data to flag worsening patterns across families, transforming analogue logs into predictive health signals.
The execution deliberately met people where they already were, embedding preventive screening into an everyday ritual rather than forcing medical environments onto reluctant consumers. By converting trusted community figures into frontline health messengers, ACKO scaled preventive care across geographies and income groups, redefining insurance from a claims processor to a proactive partner in everyday health.
Tailors were trained to calculate the ratio during routine fittings and discreetly identify when a customer crossed the risk threshold of 0.9 for men and 0.85 for women. When triggered, they stamped the customer’s bill in multiple regional languages with a message encouraging a free heart check up via an ACKO helpline. This ensured the intervention felt personal, private and culturally sensitive.
Crucially, tailors did not just rely on one time measurements. With access to generational records, they compared historical data to flag worsening patterns across families, transforming analogue logs into predictive health signals.
The execution deliberately met people where they already were, embedding preventive screening into an everyday ritual rather than forcing medical environments onto reluctant consumers. By converting trusted community figures into frontline health messengers, ACKO scaled preventive care across geographies and income groups, redefining insurance from a claims processor to a proactive partner in everyday health.
Results
CREATED RELEVANCE FOR ACKO BY EMBEDDING PREVENTIVE HEALTH INTO INDIAN DAILY LIFE
• Over 50,000 calls made to the ACKO helpline for free heart check-ups — turning awareness into action.
• Sparked 648,000+ branded searches, as Indians began actively seeking out ACKO post-campaign.
• Triggered 4,24,904 health insurance quotes, signalling a tangible shift toward preventive intent.
• Drove 2,41,042 app downloads, with users engaging not just for claims, but for care.
Most importantly, helped put heart health on India’s radar — where insurance became a conversation starter, not an afterthought.
• Over 50,000 calls made to the ACKO helpline for free heart check-ups — turning awareness into action.
• Sparked 648,000+ branded searches, as Indians began actively seeking out ACKO post-campaign.
• Triggered 4,24,904 health insurance quotes, signalling a tangible shift toward preventive intent.
• Drove 2,41,042 app downloads, with users engaging not just for claims, but for care.
Most importantly, helped put heart health on India’s radar — where insurance became a conversation starter, not an afterthought.
2026 Awards
Total Points: 3
Merit
Credits
Agency
Leo India / Mumbai
Client / Brand
ACKO General Insurance Ltd / Bangalore
Minikin DGWorks / Bangalore
Art Director
Vighnesh Parab
Chief Creative Officer
Sachin Kamble
Vikram Pandey
Chief Marketing Officer
Ashish Mishra
Chief Strategy Officer
Anirban Roy
Copywriter
Rohit Vaidya
Sneha Tiwari
Creative Director
Mustafa Hasan
Editor
Dileep Dharampuri
Executive Creative Director
Ashish Sharma
Associate Executive Creative Director
Indrajeet Kadam
Senior Art Director
Urja Patel
Brand Services Associate
Vaishnavi Kulkarni
Brand Strategy Director, Strategic Planning
Nabodita Rao
Brand Strategy Partner
Vrudhi Doshi
Brand Strategy Partner, Strategic Planning
Anushka Mitra
CEO
Amitesh Rao
Chief Creative Officer - Publicis Groupe South Asia and Chairman - Leo South Asia
Rajdeepak Das
Managing Director
Abhimanyu Khedkar
Marketing Head, Content
Prateek Malpani
Marketing Head, Growth
Nitin Khanna
Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning
Raghav Swamy
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