HELPING HDFC LIFE REFRESH THEIR PRODUCT VIDEO STYLE

End Client - HDFC Life

Intermediate Agency - Leo Burnett India

Name of Video - HDFC Systematic Retirement Plan Video

The Client:

Leo Burnett India, a multi-disciplinary solutions company specializing in brand consultancy, communication, direct, digital, mobile, social, ecommerce, retail and shopper marketing, approached us to explore the possibility of creating a video for their client - HDFC Life.

Established in 2000, HDFC Life is one of India’s leading long-term life insurance solutions providers. Their portfolio includes a range of individual and group insurance solutions that meet various customer needs such as Protection, Pension, Savings, Investment, Annuity and Health.

The Challenge:

Video has always been a core part of HDFC Life’s marketing efforts over the past decade. Over the years though, the brand and marketing teams identified a visual fatigue setting into the video brand language.

The challenge faced by the team was in cracking a new look and feel that would be fresh and appealing to the end audience, without diluting the messaging.

Leo Burnett India approached Studio Dialogbox with this problem and tasked us with finding an out-of-the-box solution, while adhering to brand guidelines.

The Solution:

In order to break this mold, our team recommended a minimalist design approach based on line art. This design philosophy was extended to characters and background as well.

Blue was the dominant line art color, while red was used sparingly to create contrasting accents and to make key visual elements pop.

Additionally, production schedules and timelines were drawn up to accommodate multi-tier approvals from Leo Burnett and HDFC Life. Since the idea was to break away from a decade-long video design legacy, managing customer experience across agency and end-client stakeholders was prioritized to ensure seamless collaboration and delivery.

‍

The Approach:

Studio Dialogbox relied on its tried and tested methodology to develop and compile the assets necessary for this video. It all started with the conceptualization stage, where our ideation team visualized a screenplay to go with the voice-over narrative provided.

This led to the creation of a sketched video flow to understand the visual storyline.

Alongside, we auditioned voice-over artists for the video based on the client’s preferences for gender and accents. A set of these auditions were shared with the client.

‍

‍

With multiple, time-bound feedback rounds with the client, the video flow was finalized, and our team launched into the next key stage - creating full-color illustrations.

Our illustrated video flow was met with much delight, as the client could now form their first impressions about the look-and-feel. With their mutual consensus and approval, our team flagged off the last stage of video production - motion design.

During motion design, care was taken to maintain a natural pacing for all animation elements, such that viewer relatability and understanding were not compromised at any level.

The Result:

The end result was a video that was met with great satisfaction and appreciation. It turned out to be exactly the shot in the arm that HDFC Life’s video brand language needed.

Collaboration and review tools like Wipster were used to allow different teams to mark up their feedback on the video timeline, providing us with the consensus we needed to expedite production in the last stage. Here’s how the video turned out:

The Feedback:

‍

"We have received great feedback from everyone in the team. It has come out well and very different from our usual films. We will definitely reach out to you again for future projects."

‍

~ Prateek Mathur

 Senior Marketing Manager

HDFC Life