The Netherlands is still relatively tame when in comes to branded content. The Dutch are notoriously direct and down to earth, therefore easily disengaged by in-your-face adverts.

After the financial crisis the Dutch have become very sceptical of the financial industry, including insurance companies. This means any communication arising from this industry is easily subject to criticism, seen as superficial or manipulative. With these facts in mind, we decided to focus on the people, not the institutions. By portraying real stories of real people, DELA shows what it truly means to pass things on, from one generation to the next. This message sets DELA apart in the funeral insurance industry; DELA focuses on life, rather than death.

The first challenge we faced was finding couples who were expecting a baby in our production period and who were willing to cooperate. It took 6 researchers, one month of research, 89 notes at Midwifery Practices, 178 messages on different pregnancy forums, 873 phone calls, 1283 Facebook messages and 1939 emails to get 22 couples to say yes to filming the birth of their child.

But how were we going to film all these births without taking over delivery rooms with complete film crews? We made the dads the D.O.P. of the birth. The director made a training video explaining the basics of filmmaking. This film was put on a handycam that was delivered to every couple.

To celebrate this new life, we set out to find the fascinating backstories that hide behind these new homes, to turn into documentaries. The next challenge occurred: filming at the homes of parents who had other things on their minds than hosting a film crew.

The crew had to be virtually invisible. By acting as a fly on the wall, the families (in some cases 3 or even 4 generations) opened up and shared their most intimate moments and revealed their family history.

The Dutch are private people, they prefer not to draw attention to themselves and are often seen as sober, thrifty and egalitarian. They prefer not to boast about their wealth, possessions and accomplishments as this runs counter to their egalitarian beliefs. As such, we overcame considerable difficulty in finding participants willing to film the most private of affairs. Our search encompassed an exhaustive 900 phone calls, 1300 Facebook messages and 2000 emails. The final hurdle was to crack the surface of Dutch social norms and to encourage these couples to open up and share their intimate thoughts in the public space.

Just before entering Cannes Lions festival we launched this new Campaign. Unfortunately we cannot provide any results yet.