A 2026 Social Media Performance and Customer Experience Analysis of 8 Select South African Insurance Companies
Executive Summary
The South African insurance industry is the undisputed financial powerhouse of Africa. It manages trillions of rands in client funds, covers major corporate risks, and routinely delivers billions in annual headline profits. For decades, consumers and market watchers across Southern Africa have viewed South Africa’s leading financial institutions as the gold standard of polished marketing and corporate excellence. However, after running a continuous 105-day social media audit across eight major insurers; Old Mutual, Sanlam, Momentum, Hollard, Liberty Group, OUTsurance, AVBOB, and Clientele, the data reveals a sharp split between glowing corporate financial statements and the everyday experience of real customers. While integrated annual reports celebrate record sales and climbing profits, their public social media channels show low user engagement, generic corporate notice boards, and neglected customer service touchpoints.
This analysis takes a fresh methodological approach by connecting social media numbers with verified customer sentiment from Hello Peter ratings and Net Promoter Scores (NPS). Traditional metrics like the Facebook Engagement Score (ES) ended up being misleading, as high comment numbers were often driven not by love for the brand, but by desperate policyholders trying to get unresolved claims sorted out. By ranking brands on actual customer satisfaction rather than surface-level metrics, the true state of customer experience in the sector becomes clear.
With five out of the eight analyzed institutions recording catastrophic NPS scores worse than -50, large parts of the sector appear to be facing a serious customer care breakdown. While agile players like OUTsurance prove that clear communication and prompt service can keep a brand on top, older legacy giants are running out of time. As younger, digitally savvy clients rely on online reviews, WhatsApp chats, and social proof to make financial choices, letting digital brand equity slide will eventually hit the bottom line, impacting customer retention, policy renewals, and long-term shareholder value.
Introduction
Growing up in Zimbabwe, my media diet on DStv was packed with South African corporate commercials. The adverts for South African insurance firms were sleek, moving, visually stunning, and gave off an image of solid corporate dependability. Looking across the Limpopo, South African financial institutions felt like the ultimate benchmark. For years, I genuinely believed our local Zimbabwean insurers had a great deal to learn from these corporate heavyweights when it came to building trust, marketing creatively, and taking care of customers throughout their journey. Having completed this 105-day audit, I can honestly say I was mistaken.
In a modern financial market, marketing cannot live in its own bubble separate from daily service delivery. When someone signs up for an insurance policy, they are not buying a physical gadget they can hold in their hands; they are buying a promise. They are buying a contractual guarantee that when life gets tough, the company will step in quickly, with empathy and zero red tape. Social media has broken down the old corporate wall where companies could hide poor service behind prime-time TV commercials and shiny billboards. Today, the true value of a brand is judged right out in the open, inside the comment sections of LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
This report looks closely at how eight prominent South African insurers handled digital communication over a 105-day monitoring period. By connecting social media metrics with verified customer sentiment and published financial numbers, this study asks a fundamental question: is the South African insurance industry actively building loyal digital communities, or is it simply riding on past glory while customer goodwill drains away in public view?
Methodology
To evaluate the digital performance of these eight insurance companies, data was gathered over a continuous 105-day window across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok and 3 months on LinkedIn. The dataset tracked audience numbers, publishing frequency, and direct user interactions. Collaborative brand posts and third-party reposts were left out of the count so that we could measure the pure organic pull and content quality of each parent brand’s primary page.
On LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok, engagement was measured using the Engagement Score (ES), calculated through the Winsorised mean of likes (wL). This statistical calculation keeps the score stable by capping extreme numbers, ensuring that a single viral post or big competition does not give a false impression of daily performance. On Facebook, where comment threads are the primary space for open conversations, the Engagement Score was calculated as the average of the Winsorised mean for likes (wL) and comments (wC):
ES = (wL + wC) / 2
If a company posted fewer than 10 times on a platform throughout the 105 days, an ES was not calculated because the sample size was too small to be meaningful.
This study deliberately takes a different path from standard rankings. Usually, rankings are built strictly on Engagement Scores. However, during this audit, the Facebook Engagement Score proved to be structurally distorted. High comment counts for several companies were not driven by excitement over creative marketing; they were fueled by a wave of frustrated policyholders chasing claims, disputing payouts, and venting their anger. At the same time, clear and distinctive product marketing was almost entirely missing across these feeds.
To provide a fair and realistic picture of brand health, the overall sector leaderboard was ranked using independent Hello Peter customer ratings and Net Promoter Scores (NPS). Hello Peter is South Africa’s most recognized consumer review platform, showing how willing customers are to recommend an insurer based on what happens after they sign on the dotted line. This setup anchors digital marketing directly to what matters most in business: customer satisfaction, real trust, and long-term advocacy. (Please note for Clientele it is an average Hello Peter score between Clientele Life [3.84; NPS = -9] and Clientele Legal [4.36; NPS = 33]).
Hello Peter & Rankings
| Company Name | Rating | NPS | Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|
| OLD MUTUAL | 1.52 | -70 | 4 |
| SANLAM | 1.21 | -69 | 8 |
| MOMENTUM | 1.46 | -63 | 5 |
| HOLLARD | 3.58 | 21 | 3 |
| LIBERTY GROUP | 1.21 | -65 | 7 |
| OUTSURANCE | 4.83 | 83 | 1 |
| AVBOB | 1.35 | -76 | 6 |
| CLIENTELE (combined) | 4.10 | 23 | 2 |
Followers
| Company Name | FB | Insta | TikTok | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OLD MUTUAL | 511,388 | 375,000 | 50,000 | 149,500 |
| SANLAM | 388,418 | 193,000 | 37,300 | 71,400 |
| MOMENTUM | 391,873 | 133,000 | 35,500 | 146,300 |
| HOLLARD | 118,000 | 172,000 | 10,000 | 0 |
| LIBERTY GROUP | 212,000 | 72,000 | 24,000 | 398 |
| OUTSURANCE | 156,000 | 158,000 | 17,100 | 0 |
| AVBOB | 33,000 | 260,000 | 5,155 | 40,800 |
| CLIENTELE | 39,000 | 166,000 | 4,795 | 62,200 |
Posting Frequency
| Company Name | FB | Insta | TikTok | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OLD MUTUAL | 63 | 63 | 63 | 28 |
| SANLAM | 37 | 35 | 32 | 0 |
| MOMENTUM | 13 | 38 | 38 | 29 |
| HOLLARD | 14 | 22 | 18 | 0 |
| LIBERTY GROUP | 37 | 70 | 67 | 8 |
| OUTSURANCE | 19 | 20 | 18 | 0 |
| AVBOB | 23 | 29 | 26 | 20 |
| CLIENTELE | 2 | 11 | 34 | 11 |
Engagement Score (ES)
| Company Name | FB | Insta | TikTok | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OLD MUTUAL | 50.20 | 28.23 | 29.62 | 152.81 |
| SANLAM | 70.54 | 21.14 | 51.13 | 0.00 |
| MOMENTUM | 89.23 | 34.01 | 669.30 | 91.86 |
| HOLLARD | 71.50 | 8.12 | 16.61 | 0.00 |
| LIBERTY GROUP | 30.81 | 6.60 | 32.55 | 0.00 |
| OUTSURANCE | 53.74 | 37.10 | 16.17 | 0.00 |
| AVBOB | 22.48 | 101.43 | 17.50 | 28.60 |
| CLIENTELE | 0.00 | 22.20 | 2.44 | 13.82 |
Detailed Brand Analysis
1. OUTsurance
OUTsurance takes first place on our sector leaderboard with room to spare, driven by an exceptional Hello Peter rating of 4.83 out of 5.0 and an extraordinary Net Promoter Score of +83. In an industry where public customer sentiment is overwhelmingly negative, those numbers are nothing short of remarkable. From a financial perspective, this customer-first focus shows up in their business results. The OUTsurance Group saw its insurance revenue climb 16.35% to R37.13 billion, while group profit rose 16.21% to R5.22 billion, supported by solid underwriting and steady client gains within OUTsurance South Africa. OUTsurance Life added even more momentum, lifting its operating profit by 65.9% to R438 million.
On social media, OUTsurance moves with calm confidence. They avoid spamming their channels with unnecessary posts, sharing just 19 updates on LinkedIn, 20 on Facebook, and 18 on Instagram, while skipping TikTok entirely. What truly sets their feed apart is thoughtful, intentional copywriting. Their team sticks to a simple rule: say less, but make every word count. Their community work feels equally genuine, highlighted by partnering with The Dogs Trust as their primary 2026 charity and running a Mandela Day campaign that handed out 6,700 pairs of shoes to schoolkids in need.
Even so, OUTsurance leaves good commercial opportunities on the table. Their educational blog posts perform surprisingly well on Facebook, driving a healthy ES of 37.10. Yet these deep-dive thought-leadership pieces are nowhere to be seen on LinkedIn, where an audience of 156,000 corporate professionals is primed to read them. Simple A/B testing to adapt these consumer finance blogs into native LinkedIn articles could boost their B2B engagement without raising costs. Additionally, by having zero presence on TikTok, OUTsurance ignores a younger generation currently stepping into the workforce. Their customer service reputation is unmatched, but their social media presence could afford to be bolder.
2. Clientele
Clientele lands comfortably in second place with an impressive Hello Peter score of 4.10 and an NPS of +23. From a commercial standpoint, Clientele has built a profitable home in South Africa’s mass market, using high-volume telesales along with straightforward, low-cost life, funeral, and legal cover to sustain recurring cash flows and healthy margins. Their strong rating shows that when their core retail clients use direct customer support channels, their issues are generally resolved quickly and effectively.
Yet from a digital marketing angle, Clientele is practically a ghost. They do not just underperform; they barely show up. Over the full 105-day audit, Clientele shared only two posts on LinkedIn, resulting in an uncalculated ES of 0.00. Their Facebook activity was tiny with just 11 posts, earning an ES of 22.20, while their Instagram account generated a negligible ES of 2.44 across 34 updates. Their TikTok profile showed a few signs of life with 11 posts and an ES of 13.82, but lacked any clear direction.
Clientele shows no obvious digital brand identity, runs no integrated digital campaigns, and makes no real effort to educate or win over online prospects. They treat social media like a box-ticking exercise rather than a growth engine. While their positive customer ratings protect their existing customer base for now, completely ignoring modern, value-driven digital content leaves them open to being challenged by tech-savvy newcomers who know how to engage younger retail buyers on their phones.
3. Hollard
Hollard finishes third on the leaderboard with a respectable Hello Peter score of 3.58 and an NPS of +21. As South Africa’s largest privately owned insurance group, Hollard manages a broad portfolio across commercial risks, personal cover, and specialist partnerships, consistently posting stable underwriting margins and steady balance sheet growth. Their customer service standing stays safely in positive territory, avoiding the deep dissatisfaction that plagues the older listed life insurers.
However, Hollard's social media presence is surprisingly quiet and flat. On LinkedIn, they managed an ES of 71.50 from 14 posts, showing that their corporate peers listen when they decide to speak. But on consumer-facing networks, the brand goes almost completely dark. They recorded an ES of just 8.12 on Facebook across 22 posts, managed an ES of 16.61 on Instagram over 18 posts, and did not bother with TikTok at all.
While a competitor like Momentum champions women’s empowerment, Hollard builds its entire online identity around masculine corporate visuals and traditional sports alignments. There is nothing wrong with sports sponsorships, but Hollard fails to tell any interesting digital stories around them. With their rich heritage and distinctive purple brand assets, Hollard is naturally suited for adventure-based risk marketing, lifestyle resilience stories, and real community spotlights. Instead, their channels settle for minimal posting, safe corporate graphics, and zero memorable campaigns. They have opted for basic digital maintenance when their market size calls for genuine brand leadership.
4. Old Mutual
Old Mutual takes fourth place on the leaderboard, but the sentiment behind the scenes reveals serious brand risk. The company carries a dismal Hello Peter score of 1.52 out of 5.0 and an alarming NPS of -70. This deep customer frustration sits in total contrast to its financial strength. In its annual results, Old Mutual demonstrated financial strength, with operational results up 13% to R9.8 billion, adjusted headline earnings climbing 24% to R8.3 billion, and funds under management in its Life and Savings business rising 11% to R1.1 trillion. At the same time, the group is pouring capital into its new retail banking play, Old Mutual Bank, aiming to create a comprehensive financial ecosystem.
Looking closer at their digital work, Old Mutual is clearly an organization packed with research talent and intellectual firepower. During our audit, they published the comprehensive South African Financial Landscape Report and rolled out slick PDF carousels breaking down the national two-pot retirement reforms, the Black Business Council Summit, and Women's Day conferences. They ran an ongoing "Spot The Scam" campaign, affectionately referred to staff as "Mutualities," and shared community projects during Mandela Month. On LinkedIn, where they have over 511,000 followers, updates on the Durban Tech Hackathon, the Business Journalism Exchange, and youth technology sponsorships brought in a solid ES of 50.20 across 63 posts.
The core breakdown in Old Mutual’s strategy is that they treat every platform the same, alongside a clear gap between high-level research and frontline service. On Facebook, Old Mutual dumped complex, data-heavy economic reports on an audience that simply was not interested, causing engagement to stall at an ES of 28.23. Everyday Facebook users do not want corporate white papers; they want simple, practical "Did You Know?" breakdowns showing how financial shifts affect their household pockets and monthly premiums. When Old Mutual ran quizzes and giveaways, engagement picked up immediately, and on Instagram, numbers spiked whenever they showed real human faces instead of sterile graphics. On TikTok, where they have 149,500 followers and pulled an ES of 152.81, their posting was erratic, dumping batches of videos in a single day and then vanishing for weeks.
The most troubling detail, however, is the comment section. On Facebook, comments are filled with intense customer anger, with July 1, 2026, marking a wave of customer complaints. It leads to a clear strategic question: why invest millions of rands into high-level economic research units if you do not use those same skills to find out why everyday policyholders give you an NPS of -70? Old Mutual is operating like a legacy corporate caught in conventional habits, creating pretty graphics while turning a blind eye to the friction upsetting its customers.
5. Momentum
Momentum ranks fifth on our leaderboard with a Hello Peter rating of 1.46 and an NPS of -63. This customer dissatisfaction creates a sharp contradiction when set against both the group's record financial profits and its creative marketing skills. Momentum Group delivered record results, with normalized headline earnings jumping 41% to R6.26 billion and operating profit surging 52% to R5.48 billion, powered by improved underwriting in Momentum Insure, reliable fee revenue from Guardrisk, and substantial contractual service margin releases.
From an artistic standpoint on Instagram, Momentum put on the most impressive visual masterclass across the corporate landscape. They earned an incredible Instagram Engagement Score of 669.30 across 38 posts, completely outshining every other financial institution in the region. Their #SheOwnsHerSuccess campaign, aired on SABC 3 for Women’s Month, was a smart creative move. Flipping their iconic logo upside down into a "W" was an undeniable creative victory. The styling, fashion, and presentation of everyone appearing in their creative assets were top-notch; the women featured were polished professionals who grabbed total attention online. To someone discovering the page for the first time, Momentum looked less like an insurance house and more like a luxury fashion label.
Yet behind all this high-fashion polish sits deep consumer frustration. On Facebook, where ordinary policyholders talk about claims, funeral payout turnaround times, and paperwork bottlenecks, the comment sections tell a very different story. While their marketing team was setting engagement records on Instagram, their Facebook page crawled along with an ES of just 34.01, weighed down by regular complaints from frustrated clients. On TikTok, despite having 146,300 followers, their content failed to click (ES of 91.86). Momentum has shown it can build an attractive lifestyle aesthetic, but stylish visual marketing cannot mask operational friction on retail channels.
6. AVBOB
AVBOB sits sixth on our leaderboard with a Hello Peter rating of 1.35 and an NPS of -76. AVBOB functions as a unique mutual society in South Africa, commanding a dominant presence in funeral insurance and mortuary services with a physical branch footprint that serves millions of working families. Operating as a mutual, AVBOB regularly returns surplus profits to its members through boosted policy benefits, free basic funeral services, and community funding.
Digital tracking shows that AVBOB maintains a dedicated social development focus. Their community work concentrates heavily on early childhood education, school libraries, and literacy initiatives, helping build a Facebook following of 260,000 people. On Facebook, AVBOB pulled an apparently fantastic Engagement Score of 101.43 across 29 posts, the highest raw Facebook score in the sector.
Looking past the numbers, however, reveals a brand under heavy strain. That high score was driven not by applause for educational projects, but by a stream of distressed policyholders complaining about claim delays, service bottlenecks, and policy handling issues. Across May and June, AVBOB’s social output swung visibly from proactive marketing into reactive damage control and crisis management. Their high Facebook score represents negative engagement, serving as a public complaint desk for unresolved operational bottlenecks. Outside Facebook, the brand shows little momentum, with an ES of 22.48 on LinkedIn, a low ES of 17.50 on Instagram, and an uninspiring TikTok score of 28.60. AVBOB does not run an intentional social media marketing strategy; it runs an overloaded emergency helpdesk trying to manage deep client friction.
7. Liberty Group
Liberty Group ranks seventh on our leaderboard, logging an alarming Hello Peter rating of 1.21 and an NPS of -65. Liberty serves as the life, savings, and investment engine within the Standard Bank Group family. While Standard Bank’s backing provides capital stability and broad corporate distribution, Liberty has had to navigate tight margins, internal system mergers, and a complex retail claims environment in the post-pandemic market.
On social media, Liberty Group feels like it is merely drifting. Over the 105 days, they posted 37 times on LinkedIn (ES 30.81), 70 times on Facebook (ES 6.60), 67 times on Instagram (ES 32.55), and 8 times on TikTok (ES 0.00). Despite pushing out high volumes of content on Facebook and Instagram, their messaging fails to make a dent. During our audit, they ran campaigns like #WomenCFOs for Women's Month, along with community initiatives like #DriveHope and #FeetOfStrength.
Liberty works hard to project deep corporate empathy. But empathy without clear communication or fast operational resolution falls flat with digital consumers. An ES of 6.60 on Facebook across 70 posts proves that their community of 72,000 followers is largely scrolling past their updates. The publishing schedule feels mechanical and detached from daily consumer needs. They put out safe, well-meaning corporate messages that say almost nothing about their actual insurance products, payout speeds, or competitive advantages. Liberty needs a complete overhaul of its digital playbook. Pushing generic corporate empathy while sitting on an NPS of -65 is a losing game that slowly wears down brand equity.
8. Sanlam
Sanlam anchors our leaderboard in eighth place, carrying a Hello Peter rating of 1.21 and an NPS of -69. In terms of pure balance sheet size, Sanlam is a giant. The company posted strong numbers in its annual report, recording a massive R496 billion in group new business volumes, with net results from financial services per share rising 20% on a normalized basis, and maintaining a solid group solvency cover ratio of 183%. The group continued closing large Pan-African and Indian acquisitions, cementing its position as a major multinational financial force.
Yet on digital channels, Sanlam’s relationship with retail consumers looks shaky. On LinkedIn, where they have 388,418 followers and pulled an ES of 70.54 across 37 posts, Sanlam treats its page like an executive notice board. Their feed focused on the Sanlam Financial Journalism Awards, the Sanlam Leadership Conference, the CEO Awards. When they highlighted real grassroots talent, such as their Sanlam Inside Graduate Program videos and their support for local rugby through the Sanlam Carlton Rugby Campaign, engagement improved immediately.
On Instagram, Sanlam showed creative promise, delivering an ES of 51.13 across 32 posts by building a youthful, energetic vibe around the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon (#SCTM2026). But this creative work falls apart on Facebook. An ES of 21.14 across 35 posts shows the same familiar sector pattern: an indifferent audience dotted with frustrated clients voicing complaints about basic policy administration. To make matters worse, Sanlam’s TikTok account, holding over 71,400 followers, appeared geo-locked or unreachable to regional observers during the audit, blocking regional and international African audiences from viewing their video assets. Sanlam’s leadership team and board of directors need to recognize that pristine balance sheets and record new business volumes cannot make up for a public customer sentiment rating of 1.21.
Overall Industry Commentary
Reviewing the data across this 105-day audit leaves a clear sense of professional disappointment. Having watched South Africa's corporate sector for years from across the border, I expected to find clever, multi-tiered digital marketing strategies that met prospective policyholders at every stage of their journey. Instead, what emerged was an industry defined by low digital effort, generic corporate comfort, and an open disregard for public customer sentiment.
The most glaring strategic failure across the sector is the near-total absence of product clarity. If an ordinary consumer landed on the social media pages of these eight companies without knowing them beforehand, they would struggle to figure out what specific policies they sell, what makes their cover better, or how to actually sign up. OUTsurance leads the sector on Hello Peter, but from their organic social feeds alone, you cannot spot their core value proposition unless you take the time to read through external blog posts.
The entire sector seems to have convinced itself that social media should only be used for sanitized corporate social responsibility clips, complex economic reports, sports sponsorships, or generic lifestyle quotes. While brand storytelling should not be a constant hard sell, marketing still needs to guide people toward making a purchase. Right now, South African insurers run digital channels that float in the clouds, failing to connect actual insurance solutions to everyday consumer problems.
This dynamic leads straight into the customer service breakdown playing out across public feeds. When five out of eight leading insurers in an advanced economy record Net Promoter Scores between -63 and -76, the sector has a deep credibility problem. Looking at this from the outside, an ordinary observer could easily wonder whether buying insurance in South Africa feels like a bad deal.
Looking at this reality, we have to ask the difficult question: does any of this actually matter to these corporate giants? If a company is posting billions in headline earnings, if profits are climbing by double digits, and if group balance sheets keep expanding year after year, does executive leadership simply conclude that social media marketing and a few thousand angry comments online are completely irrelevant? After all, if the bottom line keeps growing regardless of public outrage, why should the board care?
Taking this thought further, is the market witnessing a form of institutional indifference, or even corporate bullying? When five out of eight major players sit with disastrous Net Promoter Scores, the entire sector shares the exact same operational problems. In a market where consumer options are limited and having insurance is an absolute necessity, do these companies know that their clients have nowhere else to run? If every alternative looks just as messy, institutions can easily fall into the trap of believing they can treat customer service as an afterthought, knowing policyholders will simply stay because moving elsewhere offers no better guarantee.
Relying on captive customers, however, is a dangerous strategic gamble. The modern consumer does not live in an isolated bubble. When an ordinary person faces an unexplained claim rejection, endless administrative delays, or radio silence on a basic query, that frustration does not end on a review site. It gets screenshotted, shared in family WhatsApp chats, debated on Reddit and X, and repeated whenever that insurer’s name comes up in conversation. A consumer looking for insurance today does not make up their mind based on a glossy television commercial; they check what everyday peers are saying online.
When a company lets hundreds of unresolved grievances gather beneath its promotional posts, it creates immediate negative social proof that quietly turns prospective clients away. Community managers and frontline customer service agents are left to act as human shock absorbers. They post polite, automated holding messages that treat the surface symptom while the internal administrative engine remains slow and unresponsive. Over time, this unresolved frustration wears down digital brand equity, hurts policy persistency, increases client churn, and eventually chips away at net earnings and market valuation. South African insurance boards need to step out of the boardroom, open their consumer-facing social pages, and read the comment sections for themselves.
Conclusion
Tracking South Africa's insurance sector across this 105-day audit points to a clear takeaway: social media marketing success cannot be measured by follower numbers or raw engagement scores when the real customer base is airing deep frustration. Established giants like Old Mutual and Sanlam control enormous balance sheets, extensive Pan-African operations, and deep pools of market research. Momentum proves that world-class creative styling can win big attention on visual networks. Yet the split between top-line financial profits and retail customer sentiment remains a critical vulnerability.
OUTsurance stands as living proof that when an insurer pairs clear, punchy copywriting with dependable customer service, high consumer trust follows naturally. For the rest of the market, the road ahead calls for serious operational honesty. Brand equity is not built on television screens; it is protected every single day in the digital customer experience. So long as corporate boards treat social channels as an afterthought, their massive advertising budgets will continue to be swallowed by growing consumer skepticism. In the modern African financial landscape, lasting brand relevance and commercial endurance will always belong to companies that keep their promises.