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Extorting money from thieves: ABN AMRO
ABN AMRO promises cash back to its customers with its ‘One’ Credit Card in the most ironic situations. That’s what its television commercial portrays
An army of thugs hijacks a moving train compartment full of various kinds of people – a banana seller, a newly wed couple, an old couple, and a trumpet-laden music band among others. It’s a scene straight out of a Bollywood masala movie, when the mustachioed goon threatens commuters with his gun and merrily extorts all their wealth. Even the golden tooth that the old man is sporting is extorted.
Newly wed couple in the train |
The thug extorting commuters |
Young guy being threatened |
Guy showing his ABN AMRO card |
Thug giving the guy money |
“Light hearted and exaggerated” is how Deepesh Jha, creative director, Publicis India, describes the television commercial. Cash back service is an offering most banks boast of, but V Vasantha Kumar, head, marketing and communications, ABN AMRO points out the difference. “The key differentiator with our cash back offering is that it is valid for a lifetime and at anytime, anywhere.”
Jha says that the ‘dacoit in the train’ concept portrayed a great irony and reinforced the message of cash back anywhere, anytime. “The usual cash back on shopping and money walking on its legs and coming to you was done to death, so we explored this idea,” he explains. He confesses that the creative team was skeptical about the reaction from ABN AMRO because of the bizarre idea, but was astonished to see the company assent the creative at once.
“Since it was the launch TVC, we really wanted to create a communication that would break through the clutter and establish the proposition rather forcefully, which this one convincingly did,” Kumar says. Unlike ABN AMRO’s other premium products, this one is aimed at a wider audience and hence the TVC has been devised to render a mass appeal.
What looks like a real moving train is indeed a set created by Black Magic Films for the television commercial. Abhijit Chaudhary is the man behind the camera.
Kumar is overwhelmed with the kind of response the TVC has generated. “If the data from our response device is to go by, we have received a lot of enquiries about the credit card. The message has been delivered efficiently,” he believes. It’s ‘paisa vasool’ for the company.