'Downton Abbey' premiere to host innovative Aviva idents

The premiere of the new series of ITV's hit drama Downton Abbey this weekend is to host a range of innovative sponsorship adverts from insurance giant Aviva.

Aviva intends to "underline the importance of protection" via a new series of television idents - basically short adverts - to appear alongside the return of Downton Abbey this Sunday.

The 10-second idents, which form part of Aviva's sponsorship of ITV Drama Premieres, feature actors portraying real-life situations of customers who have claimed on their insurance.

The short films will run before, during and after the commercial breaks, each one featuring a different element of the customer's story. A second series of idents showcasing another customer's a story will air on ITV1 later in the year.

Louise Colley, the head of protection for Aviva, said: "Nobody really likes to think about the 'what if' scenarios, but the reality is that the unexpected can happen to anybody - so we want to help advisers make sure that their customers are adequately protected.

"Advisers have told us that our TV life insurance campaign helped them to engage with their clients because they were now aware of the need for protection. These latest idents will hopefully help to build awareness with consumers and therefore make it easier to open up further conversations.

The stars of Downton Abbey recently told Digital Spy at the 2011 TV Choice awards about their positive feelings ahead of the show's highly anticipated new series.

Watch Lesley Nicol and Amy Nuttall discuss the return of Downton Abbey below: