How Parkinson's led The Calling to partner Income SG for its biggest campaign in 2023

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When you think of a strongly local and practical brand such as Income Insurance, one typically would not immediately think of an international rock band. Recently though, Income Insurance upped their marketing efforts with a collaboration with American superstars The Calling for a new protection campaign.

The insurance company worked with the band on a new original single and music video for its campaign to encourage conversations around the underinvestment in health and critical illness coverage in Singapore. Titled Fallin Apart, the single was created with agency BBH Singapore and begins with a man finding out he has cancer over a phone call with his doctor as his surroundings start to crumble to convey the mental stress caused by an unexpected health issue.

As the protagonist is surrounded by his family members, he receives a message from his insurance agent that lets him know that he is adequately covered all while The Calling's new song plays in the background. The song also conveys the themes of resilience and courage to face life, even when it is falling apart.

Don't miss: Income Insurance partners rock band The Calling for heartwarming insurance ad

Considering that this is The Calling's first collaboration in Asia of this nature, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE was keen to find out more about the partnership and was invited to sit down with the band for a chat.

Over a Zoom call with vocalist Alex Band, bassist Dominic Michael Liberati and guitarist-keyboardist Daniel Damico, the trio spoke passionately about how important a role insurance has played in their lives and how they wanted to make sure other people were aware of how crucial it was.

Band started off by revealing that in 2011, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease which is a chronic and degenerative brain disorder that will eventually result in motor impairment.

“My whole life changed at that moment. Were it not for insurance, I don’t think I would be here,” he said candidly before sharing that shortly after he overcame the disease years later, he was beat up by some people following a show the band played in Michigan, the United States.

"My face was smashed with a baton, and I had to get a lot fixed like my jaw and teeth. And of course, overcoming this was crazy, and I don’t think I would have been able to do it without insurance." said Band. He explained that it also helped that he was signed to a record label during these close calls which meant that he had people around him who ensured that he had life, health and car insurance as well as all other protection he might possibly need.

“You can’t predict when you get jumped and beaten up, or you get a disease out of nowhere,” he said, adding that with insurance, he felt “broke, but safe”.

It was this desire to make sure that everyone was as informed and protected with insurance as possible that made the band decide to take some time out to create the track, Fallin' Apart.

Conceptualising the song

Dhiren Amin, Income Insurance’s chief customer officer, who was also on the call, added that the company knows that a lot of Singaporeans are under protected, He explained that talking to people about it is not the easiest thing to do. He said:

We needed to do it in a way that was entertaining, and we decided to rely on music to get that message across.

He added that Income Insurance chose to go with an international artist such as The Calling because they needed a big enough artist to carry out the gravitas of the message.

"We pulled it all together pretty quickly as well," said Damico when asked how long it took to craft the song. He said:

It took us about three to four weeks to pull the song together and to structure it to fit the music video and the message.

"We loved the ad's idea of chaos and that that music was the universal glue that brought it all back together," added Band. "It was a very empowering feeling as well which is why we wanted to do this," he said.

Remaining authentic

Considering that this was the first time The Calling has worked on a project of this nature and with a Singaporean brand no less, it was important that the song retained the authenticity of the band's voice as well as appealed to Singaporeans.

"The Calling has such a distinct voice that I think you don't have to do much for something to sound awesome and authentic. So, we used that as a base and started figuring out what kind of new sound we wanted to tackle," said Damico.

He added that as a musician, you are always trying to communicate with as many people as possible which is why it was important the song was relatable and recognisable.

"The song needs to be hummable you know," added Amin.

Amin went on to say that while he could not share the exact investment into this campaign, the brand does a lot of different marketing pushes in a year and that this was the largest campaign they have put out in terms of value.

The music video is currently available on YouTube, Income Insurance’s website and will span across various media platforms such as outdoor, digital, social, cinemas and cable.

At the end of the music video, users will be directed to the campaign’s microsite where they can assess the potential size of their own insurance protection gap via a “protection gap calculator”.

To amplify the campaign's message, Income Singapore will also be collaborating with a number of local artists to create and put out their own renditions of Fallin' Apart.

Additionally, members of the public will be invited to submit their own renditions of the song alongside their personal stories of overcoming life’s adversities on social media platforms as part of a 'Fallin' Apart Cover Contest. Three winners will receive a prize of up to SG$3,000.

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