Max New York Life: Banking on sound advice

Giving advice is central to the Indian psyche; that's the wisdom that forms the core of the latest communication from Max New York Life. The ad campaign featuring Rahul Dravid makes light of the average Indian's favourite pastime: giving unsolicited advice.

And then goes on to advise you that when it comes to taking advice on insurance, you can bank upon Max New York Life. 'Quality of advice' is the core proposition here.

The campaign, which includes eight 30 seconders, features Dravid being offered cricketing advice in the most unlikely of situations: at the barber shop; over the counter; while jogging; on the phone while talking to a stock broker; in a library; at the gym; and in a restaurant. Dravid then makes an analogy between the vagaries of cricket and the game of life and explains that while people are always ready with unwanted advice, when it comes to matters related to life insurance, he only trusts Max New York Life.

"The chief communication objective before us was to establish Max New York Life as the life insurance expert," explains Debashis Sarkar, Director of Marketing, Max New York Life, adding, "The insight that we gathered from research was that most people were confused over matters related to life insurance, which was still viewed more as a tax saving measure. They needed advice from a credible source. Interestingly, our creative strategy stemmed from the fact that Indians love giving advice on everything from sports to cricket to relationships, although their knowledge may be limited on the same. We used that quirk to deliver the message in a humorous manner to establish that Max New York Life was the expert to turn to, when it comes to making decisions related to life insurance."

Says Swapan Seth, Co-CEO, Equus Red Cell, the agency that handles the account, on the brief received by the agency, "It was felt that this time around, the communication ought to centre around the unique kernel of the brand: the agent advisors and the definitive quality of advice that they provide. At the same time, it was decided that Rahul Dravid would be the brand ambassador. He best typified the brand's values of reliability, performance, trust and expert advice."

To read the entire story, grab your copy of Impact Advertising and Weekly magazine issue dated August 8-14, 2005