HDFC Standard Life's new TVC says 'Prepare for unforeseen events'

HDFC Standard Life has launched a new campaign that continues the brand's positioning of 'financial independence and self respect'.

The spot opens on a woman entertaining her friends at home, when her young son runs into the room saying his remote controlled car is lost. His mother asks him to take some time looking for the car, saying it must be somewhere around the house. Her guest turns around and tells him that he doesn't need to worry and that he will buy him a car. The young boy asks him why he would need to buy him a car when his father is there to buy it for him. In turn, the guest asks him, "What if your father gets lost?" The young boy now looks crestfallen as he did not think of such a possibility. The guest realizes that perhaps he has said too much. Right then, the father of the boy walks into the room and reassures him that even if his father ever did get lost, he will still be able to buy his child whatever he needs.

Commenting on the new campaign, Sanjay Tripathy, executive vice president and head, marketing, HDFC Standard Life, said, "In a cluttered category of life insurance, where communication has largely been in the space of growth, great investment option, unit linked insurance plans, all dimensions of the core category benefit - protecting one's family's future & happiness - had not been explored.  So we decided to create a campaign for our life insurance plans, which focuses on the basics and brings to life, this core benefit."

Nitesh Tiwari, executive creative director, Leo Burnett, explained, "The task was clear. We needed to speak to the insurance buyer - the chief wage earner in a family of dependents -- about how his family's happiness and pride can be ensured even in his absence. The bigger challenge, however, was to be able to make the point of his 'absence' positively, without venturing in the territory of creating fear and paranoia about death." 

Tiwari says that the creative idea of the campaign, stemmed from the insight that whenever people misplace anything, they get anxious. And, the more precious and dearer the thing lost, the more the anxiety. Superimposing this onto the context of human relations, Tiwari says, led them to the creative thought of 'Ghum Nahi Hona' (don't ever get lost). 'Ghum' has been used as a metaphor for undesirable eventualities in a very subtle way. So, while the television commercial shows the undesirable eventualities from a kid's point of view, the surround campaign explores the idea through the perspective of other members of the family.

The new campaign has been conceptualized and scripted by Leo Burnett and directed by Shoojit Sircar from Rising Sun Films.

The TVC will be supported by other mediums such as print, radio, OOH, Internet, mobile, and on-ground initiatives.