MxMIndia

Tag: SBI

  • The Cred-isation of Advertising. But not everyone gets it

    The Cred-isation of Advertising. But not everyone gets it

    Sanjeev KotnalaCred has evolved from its previous style of communication, which was often misunderstood but has been effective. Though forced, there has always been an attempt at being humorous and there is a storyline that delivers the message. Here is the recent ad, sharing the longer version of the Rajamouli ad. The other ads featured Illa Arun and Leander Paes.  The Cred way of advertising indeed has a history of consistency.

     

     

    Learning from Cred

    TheCcred way of advertising has a history of consistency. Remember Govinda  and other star auditions, the Goof for Great, Cred bounty and even something I just discovered and had not watched earlier- typical Cred- the claw  (is that really Cred?!).

     

    Meanwhile, many brands have learned from the Cred Institute of Advertising and are attempting to make advertising simple.

    Have a message.

    Maybe have a celebrity.

    Create communication that repeats what you want to say.

    Say it simply enough.

    In the name of creativity and humour – try a condescending tone.

    And most likely, there will be enough consumers who will try you out.

    If you have the budget, you can attempt multiple edits or celebrities. However, that is not an essential requirement.

     

    Make My Trip

    Have you seen the Real Hero campaign of Make My Trip, where celebrities are hinted at but don’t show their face? It is where Cred was ages back. I am surprised at the campaign- which keeps spraying bullet point statements from a PowerPoint presentation – and even has to point out that Make My Trip is the real hero. So they have their Moves Don’t Lie, Breathless, Steamy and  Bhidu Shakespeare- Jackie Shroff. Why, when you have such a great pair of Alia and Ranveer Singh doing a great job? Not that I liked their latest ad for first international travel. But every brand is allowed some goof-ups.

     

    HDFC PayZap

    HDFC is one of these advertisers that uses the Cred strategy of plain, iterative, repetitive, simplified, and no-storyline advertising. I must agree that Cred always had a storyline holding its creativity, and hence, the HDFC PayZap act with Virat for its payment platform is an innovation. However, one can cite the various restrictions one faces while using IPL association for advertising, and really making a good ad is sometimes difficult.

     

    MRF ZLX

    Talking of Virat, MRF, another brand endorsed by the celebrity, has recently made some friendly additions to the message, but it is still MRF ZLX or whatever that is supposed to meet.

     

    Many brands have believed that the punch line- an end dialogue that can be repeated sticks and makes the brand memorable. Well, the SBI ads are trying to do the same – ‘I will upgrade to Cred’ with ‘Janata hai uska Bank kaun hai’ almost like ‘Mera baap kaun hai’.

     

    Net-net 

    Now, before you get me wrong, the ads may be working, or the metrices must be showing them to be working. Maybe Cred-isation is the need of the hour in the shortened attention span and fragmented media reach. I am not sure, but I would love to know your point of view. However, I must say that the excitement, the humour, the smile and the aha moments are missing from these communications- maybe that is not what advertising is expected to do anymore.

  • Bias by Exclusion: News in the Times of Elections

    Bias by Exclusion: News in the Times of Elections

    Shailesh KapoorWe are exactly three weeks away from the first phase of polls in the General Elections. Expectedly, elections are dominating news coverage, and the action is only going to heat up over the next two months, leading up to the results on June 4.

    Historically, pre-elections and elections coverage on television news has been about programming ideas and access to the top politicians. The psephology part stopped being a differentiator a while ago, with opinion polls and exit polls being commoditised over time. Channels that could create engaging formats, have more feet on ground, and connect their viewers to the biggest names on the ballot, performed better than their competitors.

    Early indicators suggest that programming formats may not be the differentiating factor this year. Channels have maintained their typical debating formats, focusing on election-related topics, but barely breaking the template in the process. Yes, there is ground coverage, and it will pick up as we get closer to actual polling, but a lot of that is restricted to specific timeslots, often outside the primetime.

    What is striking is that channels have well-defined narratives, and are engineering their programming around it. In an election where most experts believe the outcome is a foregone conclusion, the narrative is easier to script. Yet, it is difficult to miss the political agenda behind these set narratives.

    For example, the electoral bonds data released by SBI a few weeks ago was arguably the biggest political story of March, till the arrest of the Delhi CM. But it was hard to find a debate on the electoral bonds on mainline news channels. Even as YouTube news channels covered the story in considerable detail, TV channels chose to turn a blind eye, barring a token story or two.

    Story selection is the most potent instrument of bias with a news channel today. Because if you choose to not show something, that’s the end of that anyway. One could argue that certain stories, like Manipur riots in 2023, do not generate ratings, and hence, are not commercially viable on mass television. That is a contentious argument anyway, given that principles of sound journalism would demand a separation between editorial and business. But with electoral bonds coverage, or the lack of it, even that argument doesn’t hold.

    It will be a pleasant surprise to see one of the mainline TV news channels stand out in the election clutter with an original and thought-provoking programming approach. Thankfully, there’s online news to fall back on!

  • 'Their support adds immense value to our vision of creating a cultural extravaganza'

    SBI, Signpost, Aerion & EaseMyTrip partner with Mumbai Festival 2024

    By Our Staff

     

    The ‘Mumbai Festival 2024’ has announced its partnership with State Bank of India, Signpost, Aerion Group and EaseMyTrip.com. The inaugural edition of this annual event, promoted by the Department of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra, will try establish Mumbai as an “evergreen tourist destination”. The inaugural edition will include the Kala Ghoda Festival as well as the Mumbai Marathon. Happy Streets, Yoga By The Bay and the Aarogyam Kidzathon will also be part of the nine-day offering which starts on January 20.

     

    Said Sabbas Joseph – Founder-Director at Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt. Ltd: “We are thrilled to welcome State Bank of India and Signpost India as our partners for the Mumbai Festival 2024. Their support adds immense value to our vision of creating a cultural extravaganza that resonates with the spirit of Mumbai. With SBI as our banking partner and Signpost India as our strategic partner, we are confident in delivering an unparalleled experience to our audiences.”

     

  • As Brand Ambassador

    MS Dhoni partners with State Bank

    By Our Staff

     

    The State Bank of India (SBI) has announced Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the bank’s official Brand Ambassador. Dhoni, will play a key role in various marketing and promotional campaigns of SBI.

     

    On the occasion, Dinesh Khara, Chairman, SBI said: “We are pleased to onboard MS Dhoni as Brand Ambassador of SBI. Mr. Dhoni’s association with SBI as a satisfied customer makes him a perfect embodiment of our brand’s ethos. With this partnership, we aim to reinforce our commitment to serving the nation and our customers with trust, integrity, and unwavering dedication.”

     

  • To strengthen its position

    SBI General Insurance launches a new brand campaign

    By Our Staff

     

    SBI General Insurance has unveiled a series of three brand films to boost awareness about insurance by portraying relatable real-life situations.

     

    Commenting on the brand film launch, Rathin Lahiri, Head Marketing and CSR, SBI General Insurance said: “Insurance is a complex category with low consumer penetration. Our brand communication aims to own the category benefits of protection and trust which are the key benefits that the consumer is seeking from leading brands in this category. The insight behind the film is that unexpected situations can arise at any moment, and being prepared with the right insurance plan from a trusted brand can help you live your life with confidence. SBI General Insurance provides you ‘Suraksha aur Bharosa’ which lets you lead your life with confidence.”

     

  • Launches musical logo (MOGO) and MOGOSCAPE (sonic palette)

    SBI celebrates 66th Foundation Day with new campaigns and initiatives

    By Our Staff

     

    Marking the occasion of its 66th foundation day, SBI has announced several initiatives and campaigns for its customers and employees. The bank has introduced a musical logo, launched a visual campaign dedicated to its 45 crore customers and unveiled its familiar tagline ‘The banker to every Indian’, with a refreshing look.

     

    In an innovative brand strategy, SBI has taken a step towards sonic branding and launched its musical logo and sonic palette.

     

    Said Dinesh Khara, Chairman SBI: “Music can connect at a deep emotional level, and we intend to leverage the power of musical melody to create a holistic brand identity that all our customers can relate to, across demographics and psychographics.”

     

  • To address negativity and trolling on social media platforms

    Kreativ Street campaigns for SBI to check internet troll

    By Our Staff

     

    State Bank of India launched its #KindnessIsCool campaign to address the negativity and trolling on social media platforms. The campaign is curated by Gurugram-based integrated marketing agency, Kreativ Street.

     

    Said Rana Ashutosh Kumar Singh, DMD (HR) & Corporate Development Officer, SBI: “State Bank of India has always been at the forefront for taking up initiatives that drive innovation and societal change. With the advent of social media, many users fond a convenient way to express themselves. While many use these platforms to interact, exchange ideas and share positive vibes, some choose to misuse the anonymity that these platforms offer and communicate in a negative and sometimes abusive manner. This is what made #KindnessIsCool a timely and much-needed campaign. Executed with the simple objective of making all of us introspect if our online persona is an accurate reflection of our true selves.”

     

  • Executed by WatConsult, the film featured four frontline mother protagonists namely Minal Dakhave Bhosale (Virologist), Neelam Ingale (Pilot), Shanmuga Priya T (Banker) and Shalini (Doctor)

    SBI Life’s #MummyKahanHain salutes mothers

    By A Correspondent

     

    SBI Life’s Mother’s Day film focused on mothers serving communities in face of the pandemic. Conceptualised by SBI Life and executed by WatConsult, the film featured four frontline mother protagonists namely Minal Dakhave Bhosale (Virologist), Neelam Ingale (Pilot), Shanmuga Priya T (Banker) and Shalini (Doctor). Encapsulating the rigorous routine that these ‘frontline warriors’ go through every day, by presenting a slice of life of these four strong mothers who continue to make India proud with their fortitude, persistently working behind the scenes to help the ones in distress amid the pandemic.

     

    Said Ravindra Sharma, Chief of Brand & Corporate Communications, SBI Life Insurance: “There is nothing as powerful as mothers love, the exemplary courage displayed by mothers working in essential services on the frontlines of this battle against Covid-19 is praiseworthy. We recognise the need to acknowledge the honorable roles played by mothers and the impact they have in our lives and on the world.  #MummyKahanHain is our humble heartfelt tribute to all the mothers who are untiringly working towards protecting the distressed, while risking their own lives and staying away from loved ones. We hope that the real life real stories of our frontline warriors will inspire the larger communities to recognize the silent sacrifices done by mothers and generate for them the much deserved appreciation from all sections of the society.”

     

    Added Heeru Dingra, CEO, WatConsult: “On the occasion of Mother’s Day, we wanted to salute and thank the mothers who are at the forefront, compassionately standing for the entire nation, in this battle to fight against Covid-19. Serving in the best of their capacities as doctors, police, pilots or more, they are selflessly and relentlessly working day and night to fight the ravages of this pandemic. Though the digital video showcases stories of just a few of these heroes, but this step is in reverence to each one of them out there struggling to combat the global crisis, setting another brave example.”

     

     

  • The campaign aims to reach out to aspiring home owners

    SBI says #HoSaktaHai for its latest home loans campaign

    By A Correspondent

     

    State Bank of India has launched a new multimedia campaign titled ‘#HoSaktaHai.’ The campaign – created by Rediffusion – aims to reach out to aspiring home owners with a slew of innovative solutions.

     

    Speaking on the campaign, Dinesh Menon, Chief Marketing Officer, SBI said: “While home loan is a highly involved product category, most advertising in the category lacks adequate engagement and appeal from a communication perspective. Hence, it was important for us to not only ensure the brand story gets heard but discussed and recalled as well, amidst all the clutter and fragmented media consumption.  We are delighted at this bunch of films which have a poetic charm to them and are certainly clutter breaking.  We adopted a digital first approach and are happy to see that it has resonated well with different target audiences each piece of communication has been designed to address. We are optimistic this campaign will certainly augur well for our home loans business and stir some category conversation.’’

     

    Added Rahul Jauhari, Joint President & Chief Creative Officer, Rediffusion: “While the intention was to be different and clutter-breaking, we focused on bringing alive the constraints faced by aspiring home buyers. Very often they don’t take the plunge because they don’t have a loan option that suits their specific challenges. It was refreshing to have the client not just demand, but also back a brave idea to the hilt.”

     

    Said Navonil Chatterjee, Joint President & Chief Strategy Officer, Rediffusion: “This campaign is all about the strange ‘mathematics of emotion’. We are promoting something like home loans which are worth lakhs and crores, with small, inexpensive objects like dancing dolls and toy elephants that cost just a few hundred bucks! But these inanimate objects are what people dream of decorating and enlivening their new houses with. And this is where emotion trumps mathematics by loosening the purse-strings, by tugging at the heart-strings!”

     

     

  • The bank has consolidated its strategic advisory and creative services mandate with Rediffusion Y&R

    Rediff bags State Bank mandate

    By A Correspondent [updated]

     

    State Bank of India has consolidated its strategic advisory and creative services mandate with Rediffusion Y&R. The mandate was until now handled by a seven-agency panel. The agency, it is said, won the mandate following a rigorously contested pitch, which lasted four months and saw several top agencies of the country competing.The mandate includes supporting brand and marketing communications of SBI and its portfolios with strategic and communication planning, messaging development and execution.The mandate will be handled by the agency’s Mumbai office, and will include full-service creative responsibilities encompassing retail, ATL and BTL communication.

     

    Said Dinesh Menon, Chief Marketing Officer, SBI:  “We are delighted to engage with an extremely passionate bunch of people at Rediffusion. We are confident that this partnership will further strengthen our endeavour  to enhance the quality and focus of our marketing communications.Their appreciation and deconstruction of the pitch brief, articulation of the marketing challenge in a very lucid manner combined with some of the ideas shared left a good impression on the panel.”

     

    Added Dhunji S. Wadia, President, Rediffusion Y&R:  “This is the biggest pitch, so far, this year.  But more than size it is the iconic status of SBI and the pride of our association with them.  Our pitch focus was on how we can make the bank’s imagery more contemporary and youthful, to ensure a better connect with the millennial youth, without alienating any of the their vast target segments.  And that is not an easy task for a bank that’s almost two hundred years old! But I think we had a very interesting approach to how the new-age audience can connect with this ageless bank – and I think that’s what made the difference in the end.”

     

    Said Rahul Jauhari, Chief Creative Officer, Rediffusion Y & R on the win: “To work on a brand that touches more lives than most brands do, is a challenge creative people actively seek. The sheer scale of the task at hand is inspiring and humbling. Our team at Rediffusion is more than delighted to handle the brilliant canvas of opportunities that SBI presents.

     

     

  • The NRI service by SBI include instant fund transfer, loan credit against fixed deposits, home and car loan application, among many others

    SBI exhibits benefits of its NRI banking services in latest campaign

    By A Correspondent

     

    Given the Indian diaspora being the largest in the world with over 15 million Indians living abroad, according to a United Nations survey in 2017, State Bank of India and its agency DDB Mudra have unveiled a new campaign.

     

    Said Dinesh Menon, CMO, SBI: “Communication of NRI services have mostly been centered around a bank’s international network / presence and the range of services a bank provides. So, it’s largely been at a very rational level.

     

    Added Shagun Seda, Group Creative Director, DDB Mudra West: “Everybody knows what SBI does, but what people don’t know is the subtle ways in which it touches our life and makes it easier. This becomes even more evident when you are working and living abroad. So instead of selling the NRI services to customers, we sold them a relatable family, a tricky situation and then everything else just fell into place.

     

     

  • The intent of the campaign is to promote the ease of cashless transactions via various facilities of SBI

    SBI propagates benefits of going cashless with DDB Mudra

     

     

    State Bank o India SBI has been offering different modes of digital payments even before demonetisation. It introduced ‘State Bank Buddy’, a digital wallet in August 2016.Given its ambition of a cashless society across the nation, the concept of #CashKiAadatBadlo was conceived by DDB Mudra West. The intent of the campaign is to promote the ease of cashless transactions via various facilities of SBI and thus to make cashless transactions a habit for every SBI account holder.

     

    The campaign #CashKiAadatBadlo is being led by three TVCs which have also transpired on the digital medium. The campaign also consists print activation over the coming months. The three 20-seconder films showcase SBI’s various digital/ cashless products namely State Bank Buddy- a mobile wallet, State Bank Debit Card, and SBI Pay. The films pull a slice of life and take the viewers through various real life situations where people can adopt to cashless mode of payments, which are simple and safe, for all their daily needs and change their habit.

     

    Speaking about the campaign, Dinesh Menon, Chief Marketing Officer, SBI said, “Given its stature and responsibility the SBI brand carries with it, it was only natural that the brand took the initiative of being the harbinger of change in the backdrop of demonetisation. The #CashKiAadatBadlo campaign is an effort to encourage people to adopt SBI’s digital payment solutions such (SBI Buddy and SBI Pay and Debit Cards) by communicating its simplicity and safety of use. Through this campaign we intend to bring about a pre-disposition to adoption of digital currency among those consumer segments that are habituated to using cash. Early feedback has been encouraging, both from an awareness and response perspective. This campaign has also generated most engagement with Twitter users as rated by the Brand Equity ‘Twitter index’.”

     

    Talking about the campaign, Sonal Dabral, Chairman and CCO, DDB Mudra Group added: “Post demonetisation, cashless economy is becoming the order of the day and is impacting everyone in a variety of ways.  SBI’s various offerings are a great aid to the consumers across the country for carrying out the day to day transactions. With this campaign, we intended to drive home the ease and comfort of doing cashless transactions with SBI’s various digital products through simple, to the point communication that is informative and engaging at the same time.”