Amazon and John Hancock Announce Strategic Collaboration Aimed at Helping Customers Improve Their Health and Wellness

John Hancock Integrates Amazon Halo to Empower Life Insurance Customers to Live Longer, Healthier Lives

SEATTLE and BOSTON, Aug. 27, 2020 /CNW/ - Today, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and John Hancock, the US division of Toronto-based Manulife (NYSE: MFC), announced a strategic collaboration to provide engaging tools and resources to help John Hancock life insurance customers improve their individual health. This effort builds on John Hancock's longstanding commitment to help Americans live longer, healthier lives, while providing the peace of mind that comes with owning a life insurance policy. John Hancock is the first life insurer to integrate with Amazon Halo, as part of Amazon's latest venture into the health and wellness space.

John Hancock, combined with Amazon's innovative new technology, will help life insurance customers make connections between their fitness, sleep and other lifestyle habits to better understand their overall health through the John Hancock Vitality Program. Starting this fall, all John Hancock Vitality customers will be able to link the Amazon Halo Band to the program to earn Vitality Points for the small, everyday steps they take to try to live a longer, healthier life. Additionally, Amazon Halo Band will be the featured complimentary wearable for eligible John Hancock Vitality members, including three years of Halo membership, when Halo becomes available to the general public.*

Since the launch of John Hancock Vitality in 2015, the company has continuously made enhancements to the program to better meet customers' changing needs and expectations across physical activity, nutrition, mental health and more. This is the latest step in helping customers understand how their daily choices can help address their overall well-being.

"Amazon Halo is a new service dedicated to helping customers improve their individual health and wellness and we are excited to work with John Hancock to integrate Halo into their Vitality program," said Melissa Cha, Vice President of Amazon Halo. "John Hancock shares our belief that small changes can make a big impact on health, and we look forward to seeing how their customers use the insights Amazon Halo provides to earn rewards, and most importantly, achieve their health goals."

"Integrating Amazon Halo into our life insurance ownership experience will enable us to continue to transform the role our industry plays in our customers' lives," said Brooks Tingle, president and CEO of John Hancock Insurance. "At John Hancock, we believe a life insurance company is in a unique position to help customers live longer, healthier lives, and by integrating Amazon's new health and wellness technology into our program, we can create a more meaningful, engaging and holistic experience for our customers."

The Amazon Halo service is anchored by a mobile app which provides insights into traditional metrics as well as new-to-world tools and features to enable customers to build healthier habits. The accompanying Amazon Halo Band is a wearable health and wellness device that quietly measures your activity, heart rate, sleep, and tone of voice to provide insights into your individual health within the Halo app. John Hancock Vitality customers can sync the Halo Band with their Vitality account to earn points, including:

Activity

• Amazon Halo measures activity based on a combination of motion and heart rate. Informed by global physical activity guidelines and the latest medical research, Halo scores activity based on the intensity and duration of movement. John Hancock customers will be able to earn Vitality Points using Halo for physical activity by meeting step count or target heart rate thresholds.

Sleep

• Amazon Halo measures time asleep, time awake, and time spent in the various phases of sleep including deep, light, and REM. Each morning Halo members receive an overall score rating their sleep, with a hypnogram showing sleep cycles. John Hancock Vitality customers will be awarded points for a good night's sleep as measured by their Amazon Halo Band.

Labs

• Amazon Halo Labs are science-backed challenges or experiments that allow Halo members to discover what works for them individually. At launch, Halo will offer more than 100 labs developed by experts from some of the world's leading health and wellness brands and research institutions across activity, sleep, nutrition, and mindfulness, with new labs added regularly. John Hancock Vitality customers can earn Vitality Points for completing Halo Labs.

"Integrating this kind of innovation to the customer experience continues to fundamentally transform the value customers can get from their life insurance," added Mr. Tingle. "We are excited about our work with Amazon and think our shared customer obsession, combined with innovative technology, incentives and rewards, can positively impact our customers' lives."

Over time, Amazon and John Hancock, together with Manulife, will explore additional opportunities to expand the program. John Hancock life insurance customers can also earn Amazon gift cards, and for those who reach the highest levels of Vitality engagement, an Amazon Prime membership.**

For more details on John Hancock Vitality, please visit https://www.johnhancockinsurance.com/vitality-program.html.

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About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit Amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

About John Hancock and Manulife
John Hancock is a unit of Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. We operate primarily as John Hancock in the United States, and Manulife globally, including Canada, Asia and Europe. We provide financial advice, insurance and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. Assets under management and administration by Manulife and its subsidiaries were CAD$1.2 trillion (US$0.9 trillion) as of June 30, 2020. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as MFC on the TSX, NYSE, and PSE, and under 945 on the SEHK. Manulife can be found at manulife.com.

One of the largest life insurers in the United States, John Hancock supports more than 10 million Americans with a broad range of financial products, including life insurance, annuities, investments, 401(k) plans, and education savings plans. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at johnhancock.com.

About Vitality Group
Guided by a core purpose of making people healthier, Vitality is the leader in improving health to unlock outcomes that matter. By blending smart tech, data, incentives, and behavioral science, we inspire healthy changes in individuals and organizations. Vitality brings a global perspective through successful partnerships with the most forward-thinking insurers and companies around the world. More than 20 million people in 24 markets engage in the Vitality program. For more information, visit https://vitality.international/.

*The complimentary Amazon Halo device and three-year Halo membership are only available to new Vitality Plus Members and are not available with policies issued in New York, Puerto Rico and Guam. Amazon Halo allows Vitality members to earn Vitality Points for physical activity, sleep and Labs. The Amazon Halo health and wellness membership is required in order to earn Vitality Points for Amazon Halo sleep and the full suite of Halo Labs. Other features of Amazon Halo are not eligible for Vitality Points with the Vitality Program. The Amazon Halo health and wellness membership is complimentary for the first three years, after which charges will apply automatically to the credit card on file with Amazon.com unless the membership is opted out of. Amazon and all related marks are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

**Amazon Prime membership available to Vitality PLUS members who have reached Platinum Status for three consecutive program years. Amazon gift cards and the Amazon Prime benefit are not available in New York.

Vitality is the provider of the John Hancock Vitality Program in connection with policies issued by John Hancock. John Hancock Vitality Program rewards and discounts are only available to the person insured under the eligible life insurance policy, are subject to change and are not guaranteed to remain the same for the life of the policy.

Insurance policies and/or associated riders and features may not be available in all states. 

Insurance products are issued by: John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.), Boston, MA 02116 (not licensed in New York) and John Hancock Life Insurance Company of New York, Valhalla, NY 10595.

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SOURCE John Hancock