Look at life through clay eyes

Tata AIG’s latest commercial tells you that you can change the features of your insurance plan whenever you please. It’s as easy as moulding a piece of clay

Life is tricky. You plan for everything, you think it’s all been covered, but then something goes just so off. In short, you cannot always pre-plan life, you have to be flexible. Tata AIG Life highlights the flexible nature of its new insurance plan in a television commercial (TVC) with a little child, his big dreams and lots of clay!

The cycle he wants

The real bike to vroom to college

Big fat wedding

Total 'aaram'

The Invest Assure Flexi plan

The TVC

starts with the shot of a small boy getting out his clay pot to play. He makes a red cycle first – that’s the cycle he wants. Next, he makes a motorbike – his first real bike when he grows up, which he will ride to college. A big wedding cake is rolled out next as the little boy talks about the big fat wedding he will have one day. He will also have a big house with “two-two doggies”. And after it all, the boy will not do any work, but rest (‘aaram’), which he depicts with an armchair made of clay. After ‘claying’ with his life, he goes to an armchair in his house and rests a while.

The TVC ends by depicting the flexibility that the Tata AIG Invest Assure Flexi plan offers. While listing the features, a clay graphic of the bike keeps morphing into various other things like the cake, house, dogs, and so on. The voiceover says, “Whatever your dreams, you can now mould your insurance plan to realise them.” (Submit your opinion on this ad.)

Bates David Enterprise created the ad. Sharing the insight on the campaign, Rajeev Raja, executive creative director at Bates, says, “Life is never fixed and needs to keep changing as one grows up. You might need an education loan today or a marriage loan tomorrow. So, your insurance plan needs to offer you flexibility in a crisis moment.” Since this product offered by Tata AIG Life considers these twists in life and is hence flexible, there seemed no better way than the malleability of clay to depict it.

Since a child plays with clay and keeping in mind the theme of Tata AIG, ‘A New Look at Life’, it seemed only right to deliver the ad through a child’s perspective, explains Raja. The plan offers multiple permutations and combinations in the premium rate that one pays, the time period for which one pays, the particular kind of investment that can be made, etc. A total of nine features are offered in the plan and can be accessed any time during its course. This seamless and painless transferring was best explained by the painless transforming of the clay into the bike, cake, house, dogs and armchair.

The campaign started off with a teaser campaign within the offices of Tata AIG. Balls of plasticine were kept about a week prior to the launch of the ad; each day, the plasticine was converted into a scooter, a measuring tape and other similar shapes. Competitions were organised in which the employees were asked to make anything that came to their mind with the clay.

The campaign also includes print, outdoor, posters, banners and danglers. The clay graphics have been carried forward in the sales aids and brochures as well.

The film was made by Brown Skins.

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