selling Insurance with fun !

I love fun and particularly when fun can make the ad look watchable and great if it can sell the product.. here are two cases of fun and humour used well in insurance ads.. I am not sure about the selling part but sure it generates interest... see it !!!

Bingo masala remix - awesome !!!

Now that is an ad... I would call it tangy and tasty to the core and serves all that an ad is supposed to be... no rocket science here but this guys have made me ( I am sure everyone of the TG) get stunned for a moment, then awed by the gun men, the kidnap ,the gun fight and the police and then shocked by the sudden breaking and then laugh when the whole MASALA drama starts again with the Bachaooooo sound reverberating .... No logic here and thankfully the makers of this ad hasnt analysed the idea and killed it... Ideas like this are funny, or it's not.... As Mark Twain said, "Trying to figure out why something is funny is like dissecting a frog. You'll come up with answers, but the frog always dies."... I loved this ad for the same reason and more...

Bingo and O&M team believes in entertaining and here again they have done that .. who does not love to be entertained? And that too, thought provokingly and without being offensive to any one ... This ad respects the imagination of the viewer and the fact that their imagination may be bigger and better than the ad makers... Even when one laughs , the fact that is clear is that- the business of snacking thrives on constant insertion of excitement and thrill on the image value of the brand. . I love this ad for all this, plus still managing to stay in track ( with all the guns, thieves and bachaooo)and sell the product idea.. at the end of all the laughing if the brand and its images are not staying in the mind of the TG , what is the great fun in making ads?

Finally this ad , as many of the previous Bingo ads, breaks the limit... they know for sure that the best of humour comes from the edge,where simply there is no limits...

Kudos BINGO and O&M....

Metlife Dada & Dadi Ad - Simply Sweet !!!

A drunk wanders into a bar and yells, " I think all insurance guys are crooks".

A man quickly rushes up to the drunk and shouts "You take that back."…..

The drunk replies, "Why ....are you an insurance agent?",

The man, in a rage, hollers back, "No, I'm a crook".

One ad that really did amuse me and would find irresistible to see again and again is this one, this real delightful and lovely Metlife ad … in the heat and sweat, the dust and din of the IPL season and the influx of ads into channels, on every category from atta to underwear and from mobiles to 3D TV’s this one for me, stood out… no great announcements, no bombastic discoveries and no VAS or ATTRIBUTES standing in line to catch your attention..

Just a simple and plain fact of life that “who knows when will this regular income game come to an end ?” ("life mein regular income ka khel kab khatam ho jaye- kaun jane?”) said in just the colour and tone that happens in every family… the dad, the mom ,the parents, the naughty, brainy , blackmailing and finally disappointed kid.. I loved this ad for its simplicity for sure and for keeping the KISS rule alive and kicking but more for its lack of creative pretensions that make most ads of today either look like art films ( made for metals) or like worn out, also made creatives that come out of exhausted and underpaid ad agency labour camps…

Ever since they had (guess its was in 2001-02) this "have you met life today?" ads, MetLife as a brand has used a combination of hope, humour and humanity to talk about its variety of offerings for financial needs of ordinary people which are often complex (including life insurance, long-term care, banking and annuities) and hence often avoided…. The beauty is that through their approach they made it look simple but the needs were put forward to us as so inevitable to be left unattended…

Some time back to make sure that their voice is heard above competition Metlife took the same campaign outdoors….a mascot by the name 'Calendar Man', who did hold a cheque, signifying a guaranteed monthly income to the investors and meeting people from billboards and bus shelters in Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh made a good impact… The campaign was devised by McCann Erickson (the longtime agency for Metlife) and executed by Platinum Outdoor, Madison's OOH arm.

Now this ad has come in regional versions (dubbed ones) too and thankfully they too look and sound good and the song is retained, at least in the Malayalam version I saw.. would love to see the Tamil version...

Using premises like "create your own pension plan" and "guaranteed income for life," these ads stands and sticks exclusively with the economic apprehensions of baby boomers - individuals between 35-55 years old - who may be troubled about outlasting their nest egg….. Since I fall in the category may be, I loved the ad, it stayed in my mind for long and even after all the TV watching, it started pricking the spend thrift in me who lives for today, so much so that for the first time in 36 years I thought of some savings and I told my wife that ‘we need to start some saving’ … ‘who knows when will this regular income thing come to an end..?’

I haven’t bought the product yet but have made the first step, have asked an executive to meet me.. I guess if I am a sample, this ads are working… and that’s what they make ads for..

Three cheers to the Suhasini Mulay (the actor who portrayed Dadi) ,team Metlife and McCann-Erickson Delhi for the work…!!!

Tail piece :- "The insurance guys keeps us poor all our lives so we can die rich"

Lays.. Only young can have fun?

People over 65... are grossly underrepresented on television. Correspondingly, heavy-viewing Annenberg respondents believe that the elderly are a vanishing breed, that they make up a smaller proportion of the population today than they were two decades ago. In fact, they form the nation's most rapidly expanding age group. (Waters, H. F. (1982, December 6). Life according to TV. Newsweek, 136-140.)

Now I cannot help but agree to an extent in todays context and even in the Indian way of life where elders are supposedly respected and revered, the scene is not different or great. nevertheless this ad is funny and did make ripples in the TG. Simple but crafted superbly and the climax takes one to the peak of hilarity !!!!

The MAD agency -Part 1

While on a car trip, an old couple stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch. The old woman unfortunately left her glasses on the table, but didn't miss them until they were back on the highway. By then, they had to travel quite a distance before they could find a place to turn around.....
The old man fussed and complained all the way back to the restaurant, telling his wife how she needs to be more responsible about her belongings.
When they finally arrived, as the old woman got out of the car to retrieve her glasses the old man said, "While you're in there, you may as well get my hat, too."
***************************************************************
Ram panicked!!

He wanted to tell it to some one about this new googly that their real estate client ( whom they had won after a gory pitch-ing battle with other majors, minors, creative hot shops, creative labs, boutiques and who not in war with daggers and swords drawn out… ) was now throwing…

Dream homes had been a demanding client ever since Ram and team won the account for their agency who off late had been seeing a lot of client turnover and hence the wrath from their management sitting at distant Mumbai. This as usual let to a scramble for clients, big or small, good or bad… anyone who had some money that was left out after meeting their expenses was a client. Business development was a function that the client service execs were expected to do, the logic being “what to service if we do not have clients?”

Ram was a seasoned player and why not ….
As the director of client services, he had seen most of them, dealt with the good, the bad and the ugly pigs...
Had been through the whims and eccentric fancies of the clients whose demands many times had less to do with their brands in question and their future , and more to do with persons simple and stupid idiosyncrasies ...
Fought with them knowing very well that it was he who was getting dirty, and not the pig ,also knowing that the last laugh is not going to be his…
Had been tortured by the simple “change the colour demands” to “make the logo bigger” tothe worst "I Know Everything" and "what the bloody FUCK you think YOU are doing with MY brand" ? types…
Have survived his impulses to quit the gruesome thankless job were dreadful and blood thirsty clients shouted and shouted often for no reason and sometimes for foolish reasons…
Have grown above the old ramblings and grumbles as to how unrealistic clients could be….

Guru…. He shouted from his 5*4 cabin where the whole world seemed to have dumped its garbage, and from where he tried executing his ideas on strategic branding and positioning on the brands at his disposition, often in vain being shot down by the brand managers who had thousand reasons versus one or two that his team would demonstrate …

Yes Ram … pat came the reply…. I am busy in a game…

Ram banged out, just to see his protégé, Guru the CSE, who also doubled up as the BDO engaged in a serious round of bridge game with the beautiful and young copy writer trainee whose days in the agency was just handful…

What the fuck? Ram lost his temper…

Guru… Dream homes want to see us….

Bloody losers .. Guru whispered in scant attention to what Ram said …

And we will loose even that bloody looser unless we put our acts together…. Rambled Ram…

What man? Guru lost interest in his game with the gratuitous aggression launched by his senior and the belligerence with which Ram seemed to be persisting…

And what happened to the eat n pack hotel copy? Ram asked the damsel who, had by the time learned the tricks of the trade, inspired by the likes of Guru ...

Its going on …she said with a smile as Guru chucked in mirth happy at the development that the girl had in a weeks time…She had come to write and write and was happy at the writing skills that she thought she had possessed, and was even more happier to get her dream ad agency job, in spite of the pittance that she would be taking home at the end of the month….

No one works here…shouted Ram…. bloody goofers….

As he thundered back to his office Guru followed him signaling the girl to go back and pretend to be working, until he gets back and restart another game…

Now what boss.. Guru asked feigning gravity, sitting in a chair opposite Ram whose face looked like a harvested field with worries and qualms, written large as wrinkles and lines…

You look older than what you are.. said Guru in a pacifying tone… and that is because you get worried unnecessarily ….

WHAT? Ram almost stood up, this time really frightening Guru ...

Are you selling some anti ageing crème to me? asked Ram sarcastically... and what the fuck you mean unnecessary?

Guru sat grim faced, waiting for his Boss to take the actual topic….

Dream homes have sent back the latest copies that we send …. the Brand Manager says kuch masti nahim aya … kuch rang missing hai !!!

ah… guru gasped for a second and then tried for words… it was he who had at last managed to get a verbal approval of the worst client in the history of advertising ( according to Guru himself who was the frontline army from Rams team dealing with the account)…. Is that a reason Ram ?...... masti ….M%%^&&*

Anything is a reason man… why should we debate over that again? Said Ram who sank into his chair…

Now what? asked Guru…

Ram sat there like a question mark literally and figuratively …

What are the changes that they want? Asked Guru the bold, he knew the answers but he also knew he had to face it….

Every time an ad was made..right from the vague client brief dissection to ideation ,brain storming and blame storming to the execution of wild ideas, the brains cluttered together, confused, confessed and confined, astray and astute, wild and vivid, varied and voracious, vocal and vociferous....everyone thought thought and thought.. crap and holy crap evolved and some sense was churned out at last which went to the design stage......

Now to get back to the same process again was unthinkable for guru… it was a circus, a MAD one at that.....every advertising agency… the monkeys and the bears and the parrots and the lions and the ringmasters… you should live in one to know it…..

To be continued >>>>>>>>>>>