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| Celeb riding the sine curve | | Birla Sun Life rides on cricketer Yuvraj Singh?s personal insecurities to drive home the fickle nature of life |
| Sayantani Kar / Mumbai Jan 30, 2012, 00:55 IST |
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 Netting a celebrity endorser who believes in his endorsement is nothing short of a casting coup. Advertisers and celebrities alike will insist that it is true for all their ads but the audience knows better. Then that’s a different story. What about signing an endorser when he is down and out?
When a cricketer is out of form or a Bollywood hero lands a box-office dud, endorsement deals are the first to fly off the window. When you look against this background, Birla Sun Life Insurance, Aditya Birla Financial Services’ life insurance arm, seems to be taking the contrarian route in a new campaign.
To begin with, cricketer Yuvraj Singh remains the protagonist in the latest ads. Taking forward the 2009 refrain of ‘Jab tak balla chalega...’, the new ad has Singh talking about the sine curve that has been his life lately in an uncharacteristically pragmatic tone. “The message is as much about my audience as it is about me. I used to be carefree and thought that nothing untoward could happen to me. But after the trials of the last two years, including the hardest time of my life after my illness, now I am trying to be careful and make myself understand that I can’t simply take my life for granted. That is the message I want to send across — to not take the good things in life for granted,” says Yuvraj Singh.
Singh should know. After playing in the World Cup finals last year — Singh was adjudged the Player of the Tournament for ICC World Cup 2011 — he has been beleagured with injuries and then a benign tumour in his lungs. Missing tournaments since the World Cup, recovery still eludes him. If the earlier ‘Jab tak...’ series was straight out of a script, Singh says the current one is less of a script and aludes to his real life. So much so that the ad even has a dialogue suggested by Singh.
The television commercial (TVC), shot in an empty stadium, begins with Singh comparing the daily drill of our lives, the hard work we put in. If the viewer races to the office, he races on the training track. He quickly moves on to reminisce about the World Cup win and his Player of the Tournament trophy, only to be reminded of the injuries which pulled him out of the team. He then says the line he suggested at the shoot, “To baat to phir wohi a gayi na...” before uttering the earlier refrain, “...jab tak balla chale ga thhaat hai, nahi chalega to...”.
Ajay Kakar, chief marketing officer, financial services, Aditya Birla Group, says, “Yuvraj had mentioned in passing how he never got the time to celebrate a win for which the players and the country had waited 28 years. First, there was the IPL and then his illness reared its head. That is what gave us the idea of the new communication. The cues such as his personal tribulations are contemporary, the highs and lows fresh in everyone’s minds.” Kakar says the ad is to jolt the confident Indian into giving his or her vulnerability a thought. “These ads might even provoke those with 85 per cent of India’s savings who are not even contemplating taking an insurance into thinking about it, and is not just for the remaining with 15 per cent of retail households which are the ready audiences.”
JWT Mumbai Vice-President and Executive Creative Director Nandita Chalam, who oversaw the TVC, says, “Showing that even cricketing Gods could have feet of clay builds a strong connect. This time, we suggested continuing with the successful campaign. Reports have shown that using a few good properties consistently helps a brand rather than constantly changing the message.” She recalls how at the shoot Singh’s mother had thought that the script was true to her son’s life.
The TVC does not have Singh mentioning an insurance product or even the category at all. It stems from a lesson Kakar brought with him from his days of launching the financial practice at O&M a decade ago and marketing financial services since then. “An insurance company can give nothing but a piece of paper at the time of purchase. So the same consumer who is more comfortable with tangible buys becomes a simpleton when it comes to insurance. Hence, sounding credible to nurture trust among consumers is critical. That is why our ads don’t push the product,” points out Kakar.
“The attempt is to remind people that insurance can help them live the highs and the inevitable lows of life comfortably,” says Kakar. The earlier series on the same theme had won Birla Sun Life a host of awards, including one at the Effies (advertising effectiveness awards), organised by the Advertising Club Bombay every year.
Singh had then spoken about his six 6s during the 20-20 World Cup, followed by a lack of form when he had to sit out a few matches/tournaments. “What I liked about the ad was that the more human face of the celebrity was shown, rather than his stardom,” says Agnello Dias, founder of the creative hotshop, Taproot.
Singh not only sounds pensive in the ad, shot by Chrome Pictures, but also in real life. He is aware that his image in these ads is different from the erstwhile carefree and flamboyant sportsman. “Earlier, even though I would train for fitness, I seldom thought about my health. Now, people know how I have been struggling to get it back. I am more pragmatic and I don’t mind portraying that on the screen. Life changes and at 30 years, I am not the same Yuvraj anymore — there are more responsibilities.”
Coming of age for Yuvraj Singh, shall we say?
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