Religare, promoted by brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, wants to become a global financial services group straddling broking, investment banking, insurance, lending and so on. It might still be early days for the company, but it has come out with a campaign that projects it as one: Global financial services growing with you, everyday.
“Our company’s brand was defined by a few businesses. Through this campaign, we are conveying more to the consumers about Religare than what they thought about it. It gives us the opportunity to showcase the width and breadth of our products and services,” says Religare Director (brand and corporate communications) Subhrangshu Neogi.
To give the television commercial a holistic approach, no voiceover has been used. The 60-second commercial revolves around creative analogies, where kids enact sequences on loans, broking, investment banking, mutual funds, insurance and wealth management. According to Neogi, voiceovers often take away the message of the film. The creative brief to Ogilvy & Mather, says Neogi, was to underscore the change that has taken place over the past few years by communicating what Religare does in the world of financial services.
The film opens with a wide-angle shot with the two characters in the frame. Two kids (a boy and a girl) are in a garden where the girl is trying to fly a kite and the boy is riding his bicycle. As he passes by, the girl envies him. The boy notices her expression and he helps her ride the bicycle. Next appears Religare’s logo, and the sequence closes with highlighting ‘loan’. There are sequences for broking, mutual funds, insurance and wealth management. In the last sequence, there is the voiceover: “Ten counties, over 500 cities in India, millions of dollars of assets under management: Religare global financial services, growing with you every day.”
The ads will be aired across major English and Hindi news channels, movie channels and leading general entertainment channels during primetime. Ogilvy & Mather Group President (North & East) Sanjay Thapar says: “There is one master television commercial and multiple edits of the same. The plan is to air the 60-seconder and the edits across various channels in the right frequency. The production house is The Sweet Shop and the directors for the film are Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland (winners at the Sundance Film Festival). The shoot took place in Wellington, New Zealand. While the shoot took just two days, the post-production work took longer.”
Also on the cards is some extensive advertising for its life insurance vertical, Aegon Religare. “For our mutual funds, we will have product orientation by this year-end or anytime soon next year,” adds Neogi. According to industry sources, the financial services industry spends around Rs 500 crore every year on advertising. While ICICI Group’s advertising spend is estimated at Rs 100 crore per annum, HDFC spends close to Rs 35 crore. Religare is planning to invest 40 to 50 crore in the next few months on its marketing activities.
