IT’S the season for BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) ads and several insurance ads are crowding our television screens these days. Given the narrow window of opportunity —the last three months of the financial year when everyone is scrambling to save on taxes—it would seem that brands would be vying with each other to catch the viewer attention and project a distinct personality. And given there are more than 20 insurance brands, it becomes an imperative. But is it happening?
Quite a few ads have been released in the last few weeks. Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. was the first off the block with its sensitive portrayal of a father and his autistic son. The ad, created by advertising agency Taproot India, tracks the journey of one family for over 15 years in dealing with everyday uncertainties. Instead of crumbling under the burden of raising a special child single-handed, he accepts the situation and moves from strength to strength. With the tagline ‘Khud ko kar buland’ the ad urges the viewer to face adversities head-on and stand strong against uncertainties. Given that brands in India typically shy away from depicting grim realities, this one really stands out.
Moving on to the second campaign, this time from HDFC Life, it does seem that it is the father-child bond that brands are emphasising this time. Taking forward its philosophy of ‘Sar utha ke jiyo’, HDFC Life has launched a new brand campaign—‘Apno ko apne dam pe jeena sikhao’— after a gap of five years. The ad agency here is Leo Burnett. So here we have a story about a father and his attempts to make his daughter who wears a prosthetic leg, stand on her feet, literally and figuratively.
And finally, the third campaign—Tata AIA Life’s ‘Daddy aur Jooey’ series. The campaign breaks with a four-minute story of a slightly clumsy father and a not-so-easy to-please son, the unique relationship they share, and what the father does to get the hero’s badge from his son. Made by JWT, the film has echoes of the relationship between Shah Rukh Khan and his son as portrayed in the movie Ra.One.
Each of these ads is endearing in its own way. But what does strike us is the uncanny similarity in the underlying thought behind all these ads. All of them talk about the father—child bond, the father as a financial provider, and finally, the father’s role in his child’s life.
Harish Bijoor, brand consultant and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults, puts it down to the fact that advertising in the insurance sector is still in the evangelical stage. “The stress is on convincing people about the existence of insurance. It is still early days and therefore everybody looks the same. The ability to break out and do things differently is less as the category is seen as ‘serious’. A few try to do things differently but do not get much response and therefore fall back on the tried and tested,” he says.
However, Sanjay Tripathy, senior EVP—marketing, products, digital and e-ccommerce, HDFC Life has a different view. He says while all advertising has to remain true to the category and thereby strongly connect with the customer, at the same time, each brand tries to stand out in the clutter. “That is where the brand message becomes important. For us, the critical point is the brand motto—Sar uthake jiyo—all our ads have worked on that premise, adding new nuances to it, as in this time’s Aapne dumpe, sar uthake jiyo’. And that is our differentiator.”
Speaking on the creative insight behind the HDFC Life campaign, RajDeepak Das, chief creative officer, Leo Burnett, says, “The brief given was to create something different and relevant at the same time, in tune with the philosophy of ‘Sar utha ke jiyo’, and at the same time, not lose the financial connect in the campaign.” He says that brands have come a long way from the days of Life Insurance Corporation’s ‘widow ads’. “The ads of those times talked about the functional features of the product. Today’s ads now aim for an emotional connect with audiences and look at brand building.”
While conceding that there have been TVCs in the life insurance space on the father-child relationship, Ravi Vishwanath, Deputy CEO of Tata
AIA Life Insurance, says the similarities for Tata AIA Life end there. “The campaign reminds us that “making Good Happen” for our loved ones is a strong emotion that goes beyond the transactional.”
Tripathy says his campaign indicates the new realities of the customer’s world. With the customer spending more time on digital, brands are trying to engage better with customers through better content, and what better than long format storytelling. “The story is engrossing, the music memorable, and the characters etched finely, thus ensuring that the warm feeling remains long after the last scene fades away,” he says. There are three elements to the story—the family’s financial independence, the father’s role in the family in ensuring financial independence, and finally, his role in enabling the daughter to lead her life independently.
Long format story-telling is what Tata AIA has also adopted for its campaign. The film was released on television as the first ever ‘branded short film’ by an insurance company. It has also been released as a shareable internet film on YouTube and promoted on Twitter with the hash tag #daddyaurzooey. The soundtrack from the film ‘Tu hai mera’, a soulful melody, has been released as a full-length song for radio listeners and will be available as a free digital download. Commenting on the campaign, Tata AIA’s Vishwanath says, “With this campaign, we have broken every rule of category convention. We want to remind the people that life insurance is nothing but doing right for your family and ‘making good happen’ for them, no matter what.”
Agent provocateur is what Birla Sun Life believes a brand’s role should be to shake up the category and ensure that viewers convert into customers. “In keeping with our marketing mission across all businesses at Aditya Birla Financial Services Group to be an agent provocateur in low penetration categories, we have gone a step ahead with this campaign to reposition the fragmented perception of the life insurance category, in the minds of mass India,” says Ajay Kakar, chief marketing officer – financial services, Aditya Birla Group in a statement.
Explaining the raison de etre behind the campaign, Agnello Dias, chief creative officer, Taproot India, which created the Birla Sun Life campaign, says, “Insurance communication usually harps on how vulnerable we are in the face of destiny. Never about how strong the human spirit can be. Emotionally empowering one to stay resilient in the face of whatever is in store is a bold, powerful stance by Birla Sun Life. “
The good part is that all the campaigns are talking about new social realities—single parents, differently- abled children, the absence of social security, etc., — albeit, in a roundabout way. Hope that insurance companies will design plans more suited for the special needs of such individuals, instead of pushing the one-size-fits-all kind of plans.
In the West, the category is highly segmented as the brands have graduated from fundamental appeal to higher-end appeal. “People are self-actualising on that category and it is reflected in the advertising that plays out,” says Bijoor. “There is higher involvement of the customer in buying insurance,” he says. That is something that Kakar had pointed out in a recent article in Brandwagon when he said that is one reason why insurance in India is still sold, and not bought.
All over the world, the insurance sector, and thereby its advertising, is highly regulated by law and that at times does act as a dampener. In such a situation where the products are very similar, and there are more than 20 brands fighting for the customer’s wallet, the only way the brands can differentiate themselves is through the values they espouse for, and that can only be portrayed through their advertising. Tough, but that’s life! And that’s what our insurance brands are saying in their latest campaigns!+
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The critical point is the brand motto – Sar uthake jiyo – all our ads have worked on that premise. And that is our differentiator.”
Sanjay Tripathy, Senior EVP – marketing, products, digital and e-ccommerce, HDFC Lifel
With this campaign, we have broken every rule of category convention. We want to remind the people that life insurance is nothing but doing right for your family.” Ravi Vishwanath, Deputy CEO, Tata AIA Life Insurance