Edelweiss Tokio Life's new TVCs directed by Shoojit Sircar tell you why you need a backup of your backup plan

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it's... Mom? In Shoojit Sircar's new ad films for Edelweiss Tokio Life insurance, Moms save the day...

In Edelweiss Tokio Life's new series of ads, the mother literally plays the role of a superhero who swoops in and saves the day. The ads promote their term insurance offering titled 'Zindagi Plus'. This plan offers an optional 'Better Half Benefit' which enables the policyholder to insure not just his/her own life, but also provide a cover for their spouse.

Moms save the day in Edelweiss Tokio Life's new ad commercials

Two other aspects to the Zindagi Plus offering include options to increase your cover in case your salary increases or to decrease the premium you pay post retirement. "We decided our communications will be rooted in the 'Better Half Benefit' feature. The brief to Shoojit was that we don't want to be preachy. We want to keep it simple; we wanted it to be showcased in a relatable way," says Abhishek Gupta, chief marketing officer, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance.

The ads emphasize on the importance of a backup plan

Discussing the concept of the film, Director Shoojit Sircar says, "The script was interesting, yet simple and gave me ample room to work with music and infuse a comical tonality into the picturisation. The idea was to succinctly bring out the insight that prompted Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance to design a product like Zindagi Plus."

Abhishek Gupta

Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar

Gupta points out that the life insurance category has always played heavily on the psychosis of fear. "We wanted to keep it new age and relevant. All our campaigns have stayed away from generating fear in the minds of the consumers. Insurance is a heavy subject, but that doesn't mean the communication needs to be heavy too. Our previous communications have also always been light-hearted and that's the style we've stuck to," he tells us.

Commenting on the scripting process, Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, chief creative officer, Contract India, says, "We were working towards a dual objective - bringing out the core benefit of Zindagi Plus and also demystifying the complexity associated with life insurance in general. It was executed with a light-hearted tonality to deviate from the usual heavy aura that life insurance category uses."

Gupta tells us that the brand believes women play such an influential role in real life, hence, they decided that women needed to play a key role in the films as well. "In one of our first ads that came out 5-6 years back, we were the first ones to show a woman life insurance adviser in our communication. In all our previous communications for Zindagi Plus insurance, we have shown women buying the insurance. What we believe is that since women play a central role in protecting the family, they must be shown as equal partners in the entire decision-making process. That is why we went with the metaphor of the first protection failing and the second protection saving the child," he explains while also pointing out that in both situations, the ultimate beneficiary is the child.

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When asked about the core target group (TG), Gupta explains that the company's TG can be divided into two parts -TV and digital. "The TV audience is typically male, between the ages of 30-40 years. They are likely to have young kids and that is the right time to buy a term plan. We'd also like to address the lady of the house, who plays a huge role in influencing the decision of buying protection," he tells us.

He also talks about how the entire digital plan is divided into two phases, "We want to reach users who are always on the move and always on digital. For them, TV may not be the first medium on which they consume content. The second leg of this platform is also to focus on user-generated content."

Gupta goes on to explain that user-generated content will focus on social media posts about the "backup of backups" that users create in their daily lives. "We will be creating memes with comical moments from the ads and we will invite people to comment on the memes with what 'backup-ka-backup' they've created in their lives. We will probably create a platform where users can come forward and share their comments on a microsite, but that's for phase two of the campaign," he explains.