There is a need for early retirement planning: HDFC Life's New Campaign

With an aim to target younger audience and change their mindset, HDFC Life, one of India’s leading private life insurance companies, has launched a new advertising campaign to increase awareness about early retirement planning. This campaign follows the launch of HDFC Life's two pension plans - HDFC Life Pension Super Plus (a regular premium unit linked plan) and HDFC Life Single Premium Pension Super (single premium unit linked plan). HDFC Life is the first private life insurer to bring back pension planning based on the new guidelines issued by the regulator.

Speaking to Adgully, Sanjay Tripathy, EVP and Head, Marketing, Product & Direct Channels, HDFC, shared some key insights and the thought behind the campaign.
Commenting on the new campaign, Tripathy said, “In India, the concept of retirement has undergone a paradigm shift in the last couple of years.  In addition to maintaining the same lifestyle individuals have had during their working years, the expectation is also to pursue their interests and even take up hobbies.”
The thought and rationale behind the campaign seems pretty simple i.e. ‘If you plan your tomorrow now, it will be exactly what your today is.’  It is to make the younger generation understand the fact that earlier they plan the better it will be for them in terms of a comfortable retirement.

When asked about the USP of the campaign, he said, “The target audience here changes from the older generation to the younger generation. The campaign talks to a younger audience, to help change their mindset and inform them that retirement planning is an exercise which needs to be taken up when he is 40-45 years old and all other financial planning objectives have been met.”
How challenging was the execution process? With regard to this Tripathy agreed that it was definitely challenging for them since in this case it is a matter of convincing and creating a thought among the younger generation for a retirement plan. He says, “We wanted to create something that convinces the younger generation to take a step as early as possible.”

“Increase in life expectancy, emotional tendency, not to depend on relatives/children for expenses, desire to maintain independent lifestyle and remain a contributor, lack of social security system and wish to opt for rest and relaxation are some of the compelling reasons to focus on a robust retirement plan during one’s prime earning years. This is because an early investor will enjoy the benefit of young age, good health and multiplier effect of money,” added Sanjay.

On completion of this campaign, KV Sridhar, National Creative Director, Leo Burnett, said, "Young professionals think retirement is too far away to worry about it today. This campaign taps into the insight that these people, all of whom grew up in a liberalized economy, prize their current lifestyle a lot and would like it to continue post-retirement. Via a lighthearted story of a young husband playing a prank on his wife about his retirement, we delivered the need to plan your future and our promise ‘Taaki kal, bilkul aaj jaisa ho’. The humorous nature of the story allowed us to be more relatable to the target and yet maintain the HDFC Life brand space.”

Speaking about the media mix, Tripathy said that the campaign will be more television centered followed by OOH and print. Television includes more news channels and movies since their core TG for the campaign lies there but they have included GECs as well. He says, “Digital medium will be used effectively and it is one of the most critical element in/of our campaign.”
The communications concept of HDFC Life’s retirement campaign is ‘a solid back-up plan,’ which signifies that ‘you will enjoy the fruits of your labour without any worries, when your future is secured. The creative expression is, ‘Retirement plan karo taaki aapka kal bilkul aaj jaisa ho.” 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 mediums such as print, OOH, and digital will have a significant focus.

Campaign Credits:

Creative agency - Leo Burnett, Mumbai
Chief Creative Office - K. V. Shirdhar
National Creative Director - Nitesh Tiwari
Copywriter – Nitesh Tiwari & Shreyas Jain
Art Director – Prasad Patil & Vallabh Yeolekar
Production House - Code Red Films
Producer - Subrat Ray
Director - Gajraj Rao