The campaign’s expression ‘Jab tak balla chalta hai, thaat chalte hain. Warna…’ gives meaning to the insurance product being sold on the proposition that all one's plans will come true despite the ups and downs of life.
The agency says the communication challenge was to capture the insecurity that one goes through when confronted with a ‘what if’ in case the planning that we do does not materialize.
"We wanted a successful person to communicate his insecurity," says Tista Sen, executive creative director, JWT.
To make that possible, cricketers were chosen considering their short careers and the fact that a player in good form can come down crumbling with poor form, injury or competition. It is these insecurities that Yuvraj and Sehwag are seen talking about – taking a leaf from their own careers - in separate TVCs.
Birla Sun Life from Campaign India on Vimeo.
Pradyumna Chauhan and Shweta Iyer, senior creative directors, who conceptualized and wrote the campaign say, "Everything fell into place after we came up with the expression – ‘Jab tak balla chalta hai, thaat chalte hain… Warna...’ Even while scouting for the right director, it was amazing to see how all who read the script took to this line. They gave it a two-thumbs up and showed a lot of interest in doing the films. But after many meetings we chose Nikhil Rao (Chrome Pictures) because of the vision he created for these TVCs."
After several attempts to finalize the narrative, the creative team agreed upon a 'no script' format for these films. The ads show the cricketers at a shoot, facing a camera to talk candidly about their career highs and lows, even as sub-plot shows glimpses from their life as a popular icon.
Sen adds, "The use of cricketers goes beyond just a brand endorsement and truthfully echoes an insight everybody identifies with. The fact that life is uncertain and we should be prepared for any eventuality, is heightened even further when we hear it from the very cricketers we admire and emulate."