HDFC Life shows parents the 'birthday' route to secure their child's future

The new campaign, conceptualized by Leo Burnett, shows the correct time and way to plan for a child's future

Sohini Sen | Mumbai | December 5, 2103

Click on the image to watch the TVC.

A child's secure future is perhaps what any parent wishes for the most. It is the best gift one can give his or her child. Reminding people of this opportunity, HDFC Life has brought out a new campaign for the Young Star Plans.

Created by Leo Burnett, the campaign tries to urge parents to make their child's birthday a perfect occasion for long-term financial planning for the child's secure future. The campaign drives the need for early planning, when the child is between 3 to 9 years so that a 10-15 –year investment horizon is available for a bigger corpus when the child turns 16, 18 or 21, ready for under/post graduation.

Sanjay Tripathy, Senior Executive VP - Marketing, Product & Direct Channels, HDFC Life, said, “HDFC Life was one of the first brands to advertise and encourage buying child plans during school admissions and summer vacations to inculcate systematic and disciplined planning. We wanted to take this concept further and establish and own an occasion for buying a child plan similar to a few other categories.  A child's birthday emerged as a perfect occasion as parents with young children usually invest a lot of time and money planning, but may not be necessarily thinking about the child's secure future during this early period. We wanted to use this occasion, which occurs year-on-year, to speak to both parents and encourage them to opt for a long-term financial plan for their child's future. Our internal research also reiterated that for parents, 'birthdays' are relevant to their lives and buying a product on their child's 'birthday' will remind them to pay premium every year.”

The campaign, while showing the need for proper financial planning for a child, also focuses on the mother's role and influencing power for making investment decisions about the child's future.

"Our research also showed that most parents do not buy child plan at the right time. We needed our communication to cue in financial planning at the right time. We did this by showing in our film a younger kid and young parents and one of our contextual ads also shows age for buying the product, which is between 3-9 years so that parents can have a long investment horizon of 10-15 years for a bigger corpus being available when the child turns 16, 18 or 21, ready to take up under or postgraduation," Tripathy added.

The TVC opens with a couple sitting at a table filing the invitation cards for their daughter's birthday. The father asks his daughter what she would want as a gift. The daughter replies that she wants a princess doll. The father is happy and agrees. The daughter, however, is not done yet. She counts off a number of things she wants, including a cycle and a Disney world tour. The father cuts her off saying that he hasn't planned as much as she has. The mother, however, smiles and confidently replies that they have planned much more, including a vacation in America followed by her education. The film closes with both parents happily celebrating their kid's birthday, having given her the substantial gift of a secure future for her birthday.

KV Sridhar, Chief Creative Officer, India Sub-Continent, Leo Burnett, said, “Most of the times, the important parenting decisions are overshadowed by urgent ones. Through our campaign, we've tried to communicate to parents that investing in a child plan at the right time is equally important. And we thought that what better day than a child's birthday to remind parents to start investing for their future. After all, only when they invest on time will their children get the support they need to fulfil their dreams when they grow up.”

HDFC Life plans to take its new campaign through different platforms and intensify the brand experience. Apart from television, this film will be supported by other media such as print, OOH, radio, and digital.

Credits:

Client: HDFC Life

Agency: Leo Burnett

Chief Creative Officer, India Sub-Continent: KV Sridhar

Creative Director: Nikhil Mehrotra

Copywriter: Nikhil Mehrotra and Siddharth Mehta

Art Director: Prasad Patil and Amit Thakur

Production House: Chrome Pictures

Director: Hemant Bhandari

Sohini.Sen@BestMediaInfo.com

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