Banking on emotions

CAMPAIGN LOGIC

Bank of India's first multimedia campaign emphasises the human aspect.

A boy, about five years old, carries his piggy bank to his grandfather for the daily contribution. His grandfather shares a rupee and some advice, "Keep it carefully or someone may take it."

Alarmed, the little one takes his treasure to bed and early next morning, picks it up and leaves on an expedition. After braving high winds, rain and a boat ride across a river, the young hero reaches his destination "" the teller window of a bank.

The attending clerk recognises him, and promptly takes the boy to the bank's locker section. Having secured his money in a large safe, the boy is finally reassured. The film ends with a familiar, five-point star logo and a tagline: Bank of India. Relationships beyond banking.

The Bank of India advertising campaign isn't the park-your-money-here-and-watch-it-grow ads that you would otherwise associate with public sector financial institutions. Instead, the high decibel campaign created by Ogilvy & Mather "" complete with television commercials, print ads, hoardings and radio spots "" emphasises the human side of banking.

"We have long standing relationships with most of our customers and our officers interact with them on a first-name basis. That's what we portray in our ads," explains D Krishnamurthy, general manager, marketing, publicity and PR, Bank of India.

It's been over a year since Bank of India's last advertising campaign, but that one was nowhere as prominent as this. You don't have to look too far for the reason: rivalry for accounts has exploded and all banks are worried. Bank of India is the country's fifth-largest bank, with advances of over Rs 65,000 crore. Still, it is nowhere near global scale.

"Today the competition in banking is very fierce, which is why we are trying to bring better visibility to our bank," agrees Krishnamurthy.

"Better" visibility is a bit of an understatement: Bank of India is spending close to Rs 20 crore on the campaign. Apart from the usual TVCs, radio spots, print and outdoors, it is also splurging on theatre ads and the Internet (on popular sites such as Yahoo!, Hotmail and MSN).

Emotional banking is more easily associated with multinational financial institutions, which usually seem to know the right buttons to press. For Bank of India, the theme of this campaign was decided after research last year showed that its level of service is one of the most-appreciated features.

Krishnamurthy points out that the bank's branches extend helping hands to customers, often going above and beyond the call of duty.

Earlier this year, for instance, Bank of India held an exhibition in Mumbai to showcase the designs made by its jeweller customers at the Krishnagiri (Tamil Nadu) branch. It also helped them import specialised machines and get proper training on them.

At the bank's Vijaynagar branch in Indore, front end employees were trained in sign language, since many customers came from a nearby institute for speech- and hearing-impaired people.

Once the focus of the campaign was decided, Bank of India called for a pitch. After looking at presentations from eight agencies, it zeroed in on Ogilvy & Mather's piggybank idea.

Says O&M Creative Director Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, "The common perception was that Bank of India is an old bank. We wanted to correct that perception by promoting its area of strength and, at the same time, not overpromise anything."

In September this year "" the hundredth year of its operations "" the bank unveiled its first multimedia corporate advertising campaign. It kicked off with the piggybank ad, which is being shown on over 20 television channels (a mix of business, such as CNBC and NDTV Profit, as well as mass entertainment, such as Zee, Sony and Star Plus). The 50-second commercial is also being screened at 10-15 theatres in Mumbai and Delhi.

Meanwhile, 200 hoardings across India show soft-focus images of couples "" young and old "" a new mother, a father and son at play.... all with poetic one-liners about the relationship.

Sample these: "Sometimes, your biggest weakness is your biggest strength", "Sometimes, love at first sight can happen everyday" and "Feels like someone took a part out of you and yet made you complete". The same ads are being repeated in print as well.

The current campaign is expected to continue until March 2007. While shorter edits of 30 and 10 seconds of the piggybank ad will play for a while, Bank of India is also planning a second television commercial in a few weeks' time.

This one shows a man searching worriedly for a friend, only to find him flying kites on the roof. The ad ends with the revelation that the first man is a Bank of India employee, searching for a customer.

Says Mahabaleshwarkar, "Unlike most multinational banks that position themselves as being at the cutting edge of technology, we are trying to position Bank of India as a bank that values relationships over money."

The power of relationships was driven home for both the agency and the client during the shooting of the adfilm. On location in Alleppy, Kerala, the little boy got cold feet when it came to crossing the river in a small boat.

Mahabaleshwarkar recalls that the day was saved finally by the director, who had spent a week before the shoot building a rapport with the boy.

"He spoke with the little boy, explained the shoot and cheered him up," he says. The film was finally completed in just three days in Kochi, while the last scene was shot in Mumbai at the bank's Zaveri Bazaar branch.

Like the TVCs, the radio ads, too, are a blend of humour and emotion. The 45-second spots resemble conversations between friends. An old woman asks "Why didn't you attend my grandson's thread ceremony?"

A younger voice replies that she had been away and the conversation continues in the same vein. It finally ends with the younger woman saying, "Your pension has arrived. Please come and collect it", revealing her to be a bank employee. Similar "conversations" emphasising the bond between Bank of India employees and customers can be heard on FM more than 20 times a day.

The dependence on television and radio is quite new for Bank of India. In the past, its advertising has been a mix of print and outdoors. And these have always been largely product-centric. This time, the bank has opted for a mix of product- and emotion-based advertising: specific product-related ads are scheduled to appear in print and outdoors soon.

Says Krishnamurthy, "We have identified areas where the savings bank accounts and deposit market is experiencing rapid growth and also areas where we are losing market shares. We plan to use product specific hoardings in these areas."

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WHO DID WHAT

Client: Bank of India
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Creative: Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar
Client servicing: Hephzibah Pathak