Tuk tuks with manulife advertising. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Canada-based life insurance company Manulife Cambodia will launch a big advertising campaign on tuk-tuks this year to raise awareness of its services.

Manulife Cambodia chief executive Robert J Elliott said the campaign would begin with 75 tuk-tuks.

“We want to educate people to understand the role of life insurance in people’s lives and help them to protect their financial future,” Elliott said.

Manulife Cambodia, which began operations in June last year, has undertaken numerous branding activities such as television commercials, radio and print advertisements, and public displays.

“We see there is a big market for life insurance here, and we are pleased with  our performance in our first eight months of operation in Cambodia,” Elliott said.

He believes between one and two million people from Cambodia’s middle class may want to buy, or take advice on, insurance in the future.

Seng Men, 53, who has driven tuk-tuks for about a year and who has become a Manulife client, said he parked his tuk-tuk at the Chbar Ampov market but drove all over Phnom Penh.

“Many people see my tuk-tuk, and some of them ask: ‘What is life insurance?’ I just explain what I know about it,” Men said, adding that Manulife paid him US$15 a month in addition to his daily earnings of between $7 and $13.

Besides Manulife Cambodia, two other companies provide life insurance.

Cambodia’s first life insurance company, Cambodian Life, launched in late May 2012.

In early January, Prudential Cambodia Life Assurance launched operations in the Kingdom.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rann Reuy at [email protected]