Mumbai, India – Insurance provider Ageas Federal Life Insurance (AFLI) in India has launched a one-of-a-kind integrated campaign featuring a youthful legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. Developed with VMLY&R, the campaign was created using bespoke DeepFake AI video regeneration technology to transform the cricket legend into an 11-year-old version of himself.
The campaign wants to inspire parents to invest in their children’s future by allowing them to follow their greatest aspirations. Tendulkar overcame numerous obstacles as a child, yet he trusted his instincts and went on to become one of the best batsmen in cricket history.
DeepFake recently arose in buzz on the internet to the delight of the general public and professional creators, and customer experience agency VMLY&R revealed that they designed a new approach that combined AI, CG, and live shoot to obtain the desired result in the campaign. There were also no existing videos of the young Sachin which pushed the team to utilise a few existing pictures.
Mukund Olety, chief creative officer, VMLY&R India, said that it’s amazing what they can do with technology, that they can tell stories that could have never been told before.
“We wanted an inspiring figure to convince parents to overcome their fears with better financial planning from Ageas Federal Life Insurance, and who better than our protagonist – the 11-year-old Sachin. While we knew this was something we could achieve using technologies such as DeepFake AI, unfortunately for us, we didn’t have any pre-existing videos of Sachin as a child. Instead of letting that stop us, we found our way through custom tech innovations,” Olety said.
“This is perhaps the first time a person or celebrity is being de-aged by so many years. Not just that, even the voice is de-aged. We recorded the adult Sachin and de-aged his voice to make sure it had realistic notes and nuances, things people recognize about him today,” Olety adds.
Karthik Raman, chief marketing officer, Ageas Federal Life Insurance, said that their brand ambassador, Sachin Tendulkar is the perfect embodiment of being #FutureFearless. Un-deterred by any hurdles that life threw at him, he persevered with determination to achieve his dreams and build his future.
“Our aim through this campaign is to use Sachin’s example to encourage parents to wisely plan for their children’s future. We are going through uncertain times but with financial discipline and timely investment in life insurance, parents can help fulfil the fearless dreams of their children,” Raman said.
Raman underscored, “We were excited to work with VMLY&R on our brand film which uses DeepFake AI video regeneration technology to portray a young Sachin at the age of 11 years. While we have watched the Master Blaster innumerable times as an adult, we did not have any pre-existing footage of him as a child. Hence, we completely relied on this technology to de-age him and create the video.”
