Ashwini Gangal
Advertising

Effies 2010: JWT spells out how Gods feel insecure

On Day Two of the case study presentations, JWT made a fair case for its campaign for Birla Sun Life Insurance that aimed at rattling optimistic, secure consumers into comprehending the salience of life insurance.

In the Services category, under the sub-category of Financial Services (including banking and insurance), JWT made case study presentations for ING Vysya Bank and Birla Sun Life Insurance for the Jiyo Easy and Even Gods Feel Insecure campaigns, respectively.

The campaign for Birla Sun Life Insurance (part of the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group) aimed to surpass category clichés such as the use of jargon in ads and rise above the prevailing issue of low consumer involvement in the category of insurance. The task was to sell wealth with protection plans from the client, which was the No. 5 player in the market at the time.

Effies 2010: JWT spells out how Gods feel insecure
The agency aimed to create both distinction within the category and relevance amongst the TG (target group), namely, the ambitious 30-35 year old Indian who was optimistic and confident. This TG had seen the good times of the post-liberalisation era and was prone to taking good things for granted.

Mere 'feel good advertising' was not deemed sufficient and goals included creating a brand based on realism and honesty. The prevailing consumer belief that the agency tapped into was the notion that once one becomes successful, the subsequent journey took care of itself. Thus, the idea was to portray successful and wealthy individuals feeling insecure about their future. The tool of empathy was used in order to provoke people into action.

Effies 2010: JWT spells out how Gods feel insecure
Cricketers Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh were selected as the two main 'Gods' who would spell out their insecurities on screen. Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma were also part of the communication. This was done for three reasons. Firstly, because both players belong to a sports field that is equated with a religion in India and would hence have that kind of 'God' status in the minds of the target audience.

Secondly, cricket, as a career, is more uncertain than other regular ones as it has everything to do with a player's consistency. It's a sport in which wealth and fame are a function of performance and stand a chance of coming crumbling down in an instant. Thirdly, both Singh and Sehwag had experienced the roller coaster of success and had faced unmatched fame as well as bad times.

The advertisement presented the real side of these players, unlike the manner in which other brands typically utilised cricketers for their product endorsements. In the campaign, the players addressed the highs and lows of their career and confessed their sense of vulnerability on the field, while putting out the question 'When you are performing, life is great but what happens when you stop performing?' to the audience. The aim was to make consumers think 'If Gods can feel insecure - what about me?' and consequently realise the importance of insurance in their lives.

Results were great. As per IRDA data, as opposed to the previous year's figures, while the industry (private players) grew by just 3 per cent, Birla Sun Life Insurance did so by 38 per cent. These figures hold true for the period September -December 2009, the time during which the campaign was on air.

Nielsen studies showed that the campaign significantly impacted brand scores as well, moving brand consideration from 17 per cent in September 2009 to 20 per cent in November 2009. Ad saliency also increased from 68 per cent to 75 per cent, as per the objective.

Moreover, as claimed by the agency, the campaign resulted in 23.4 million impressions and 48,488 clicks on the Internet.

In the same category, the third presentation was made by BBDO India for Aviva Life Insurance Company. The agency spoke about the advertising campaign titled The Great Wall of Education, where consumers were encouraged to donate old books to under privileged children.

About 130,000 books were collected in a matter of five days and the campaign helped more than 170,000 underprivileged children.

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