4Ps B&M cuts across the honchos within HDFC Standard Life, as well as the whiz kids of Leo Burnett, the creators of their campaign, to understand why a simple, staid, standard message may actually get the numbers running along for the financial behemoth
But first, why in heavens didn’t HDFC Standard rub the money into some electrifying campaign with loads of, say, sfx... or comedy perhaps, or better, celebrity branding? Alright, they have some part of the celebrity stuff, but surely, not much of the rest. Take your pick – the latest Indian Premier League’s Sar Utha Ke Khelo, Sar Utha Ke Jiyo ad campaign in association with the Rajasthan Royals; or the Kal Ki Socho, Sar Utha Ke Jiyo campaign, which urges people to look at insurance in a new light and get them to do proper financial planning for themselves and their families; the Chanda Mama campaign, which suavely shows a small child aspiring for an expensive profession and subconsciously assumes her dad not being able to support her; the ‘dependable papa idea’ based around the insight that whatever the child’s need may be, she can depend on her father to provide for her; or the Simplelife Plan ‘Big Car’ ad campaign; the insurer has always promoted messages that are not, for the lack of a better word, shocking.
In fact, one would even accuse them of looking more towards developing the insurance sector in their ads rather than plumping in for their brand. Sanjay Tripathi, Executive VP and Head of Marketing, HDFC Standard Life, tells us, “The need for life insurance – either protection or saving – is universal, and thus, there is a tremendous need to increase awareness about life insurance.”
But that’s not to take anything away from one of their campaigns that clearly has moved a lot of minds. That’s the IPL ad campaign; the communication strategy was to convey the brand philosophy through individual stories of players (Shane Warne, Yusuf Pathan, Swapnil Asondkar, Munaf Patel, and Kamran Khan). The campaign celebrates pride and self-respect of individuals who, while others see adversity and despair, see a challenge and hope and strive and struggle to reach their chosen goal against all odds. Creditably, one has to accept that the campaign seems to have integrated cricket and insurance well.
“The campaign has been received very well. Through that campaign, we blended the common values (to both HDFC Standard Life and Rajasthan Royals) – self respect or living life with head held high with each of the success stories of these players,” says Tripathi. And one strong reason for that could be the fact that all the so-called ‘struggles’ that you see the featured players revealing in that particular ad-series are in fact real issues that the cricketers have experienced in their life. We jump across to Rupesh Kashyap, Creative Director, Leo Burnett (the agency credited with the ad campaign), who lets us on to the huge challenges in making the players open up, “When we started working on this brief, we had not one or two, but almost four challenges. The first challenge was to bring out the personal story and experiences of the players, which they knew better than anybody. The second challenge was to make them feel comfortable as they were going to share their personal stories with the world for the first time. The third was to shoot five individual films within five hours. And the fourth challenge,” Rupesh adds amusingly, “was to make them act!”
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But first, why in heavens didn’t HDFC Standard rub the money into some electrifying campaign with loads of, say, sfx... or comedy perhaps, or better, celebrity branding? Alright, they have some part of the celebrity stuff, but surely, not much of the rest. Take your pick – the latest Indian Premier League’s Sar Utha Ke Khelo, Sar Utha Ke Jiyo ad campaign in association with the Rajasthan Royals; or the Kal Ki Socho, Sar Utha Ke Jiyo campaign, which urges people to look at insurance in a new light and get them to do proper financial planning for themselves and their families; the Chanda Mama campaign, which suavely shows a small child aspiring for an expensive profession and subconsciously assumes her dad not being able to support her; the ‘dependable papa idea’ based around the insight that whatever the child’s need may be, she can depend on her father to provide for her; or the Simplelife Plan ‘Big Car’ ad campaign; the insurer has always promoted messages that are not, for the lack of a better word, shocking.
In fact, one would even accuse them of looking more towards developing the insurance sector in their ads rather than plumping in for their brand. Sanjay Tripathi, Executive VP and Head of Marketing, HDFC Standard Life, tells us, “The need for life insurance – either protection or saving – is universal, and thus, there is a tremendous need to increase awareness about life insurance.”
But that’s not to take anything away from one of their campaigns that clearly has moved a lot of minds. That’s the IPL ad campaign; the communication strategy was to convey the brand philosophy through individual stories of players (Shane Warne, Yusuf Pathan, Swapnil Asondkar, Munaf Patel, and Kamran Khan). The campaign celebrates pride and self-respect of individuals who, while others see adversity and despair, see a challenge and hope and strive and struggle to reach their chosen goal against all odds. Creditably, one has to accept that the campaign seems to have integrated cricket and insurance well.
“The campaign has been received very well. Through that campaign, we blended the common values (to both HDFC Standard Life and Rajasthan Royals) – self respect or living life with head held high with each of the success stories of these players,” says Tripathi. And one strong reason for that could be the fact that all the so-called ‘struggles’ that you see the featured players revealing in that particular ad-series are in fact real issues that the cricketers have experienced in their life. We jump across to Rupesh Kashyap, Creative Director, Leo Burnett (the agency credited with the ad campaign), who lets us on to the huge challenges in making the players open up, “When we started working on this brief, we had not one or two, but almost four challenges. The first challenge was to bring out the personal story and experiences of the players, which they knew better than anybody. The second challenge was to make them feel comfortable as they were going to share their personal stories with the world for the first time. The third was to shoot five individual films within five hours. And the fourth challenge,” Rupesh adds amusingly, “was to make them act!”
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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