Max New York Life delivers some advice to a country of advisers

Of the two things, which we Indians are absolutely passionate about, one is, of course, cricket. What's the other great passion for Indians? You and I may vote for movies or sex, but Max New York Life believes that we Indians have a great penchant for giving free advice.

With Rahul Dravid, as its brand ambassador, insurer Max New York Life has decided to capitalise on two of our unique traits to communicate its message through a series of humorous TVCs.

The film opens with Dravid exercising on a jogging track. A portly middle-aged lady runs past him, and then quickly turning around, pats on his back. Introducing herself as Dolly, she says, “Please tell your boys to run a little bit faster between the wickets.”

Speaking into the camera, Dravid responds, “Everyone gives you advice. The point is, who you take it from. For life insurance, I chose Max New York Life. Their agent advisor said, life is like cricket. You never know when life can run you out. So I took his advice.”

The new advertising campaign of Max New York Life aims to promote the insurer's brand values of being a solid, dependable and an inspiring life insurance company through Dravid, who is looked upon as an icon and symbolises qualities like integrity and humanity.

Debashis Sarkar, marketing director, Max New York Life, says, “The new brand communication strengthens our brand positioning of being a quality life insurance advisor. Our agent advisers are widely recognised as the best in India. They are carefully selected and are well-trained to build enduring relationships with our customers. We saw the campaign as a great opportunity to strengthen the brand by using different humorous situational episodes.”

The campaign, which primarily uses television to start with, and communicates the message through as many as eight different slick 30-seconders, is humorous in style and appeals to different regional customer segments.

Ram Madhwani, the director of the films, adding his perspective, says, “The challenge was to create films that told a wacky story and yet effectively mirrored the brand personality of both Max New York Life and Dravid.”

The Max New York Life campaign made its debut on Ten Sports recently during the ongoing tri-series in Sri Lanka, involving India, West Indies and the hosts. The ads will be telecast across multiple television channels over the next few months. The campaign will also be used in outdoor, cinema and cable networks over time.

The 'Quality of Advice' campaign is Max New York Life's second TVC. The first campaign served to introduce the Max New York Life and the heritage of its global parent in the Indian marketplace by positioning life insurance as an instrument that could enable customers to make their wishes come true.

Max New York Life, a joint venture between Max India Limited and New York Life, a Fortune 100 company, is one of India's leading private life insurance companies.

Max New York Life has sold well over 509,000 policies with more than Rs 16,700 crore in sum assured. It has more than 9,000 agent advisers offering 14 products and nine riders that can be customised to over 400 combinations.

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