No more sharing, says Angel Broking

The broking firm promotes its personalised services, through the new television commercial created by TBWA India

An investor, more often than not, requires sound advice from a financial expert for decision-making related to investments, stock trading and other financial transactions. With big money at stake, nothing is of more help than unique advice and personalised services from investment advisors.

Broking house, Angel Broking conveys this very message in its new television commercial, promising personalised services to investors, so that they do not have to deal with multiple advisors.

The TVC shows a person in a flight seated between two other men, with whom he continues to struggle for elbow space. A touch of cheeky humour comes from the background sound of a ping-pong ball bouncing on a table, which depicts the individual's state of mind as the three men jostle about. A voiceover then suggests that with Angel Broking, one can enjoy individual attention and would not have to share.

The commercial has been created by TBWA India. Shagun Seda Sengupta is the copywriter. The film has been directed by Amit Sharma of Chrome Pictures.

"Angel always had the same baseline -- 'Service Truly Personalized'. While we ask who the middle seat belongs to on a plane, we are attempting to bring out further the features of personalised services," says Rahul Sengupta, national creative director, TBWA India.

"In the financial category, advertising is more often than not, about products. However, this is about service. The delivery mechanism of the service is the product advertised here," adds Nirmalya Sen, managing director, TBWA India.

This is the broking house's first major direct advertising campaign on television. The current TVC will be aired for about three months, and more situations will be created around the same creative thought. The television campaign is being supported by print promotion and selective online activity.

"With this campaign, we are addressing the fact that where most companies offer the call centre concept, we actually offer a personalised human touch, by having dedicated relationship managers for customers," says Amit Majumdar, chief strategy officer, Angel Broking.

Personally speaking

The commercial has elicited mixed responses from the advertising fraternity. While some appreciate the execution and the situation that one can easily relate to; others feel that the connection between an ordeal in a flight and investment advice is a bit vague.

Nilesh Vaidya, executive creative director, Euro RSCG India says, "I started liking this ad about 20 seconds before I even knew what it was for. A very well-executed film that shows a situation you would relate to, whether your preferred mode of travel is air or local train."

"Personal attention is a strong and relevant promise to make, if you are trying to wean people away from the friendly neighbourhood broker," he adds.

Ankur Khurana, brand partner, planning, Orchard Advertising, Bengaluru has his reservations though. According to him, in a category that already deals with services and products that are not very simple in nature, advertising needs to be clear and subtle.

"Almost through to the end, I thought it was a flight commercial. Financial products, by itself are complicated in nature; hence, the messaging must be simple. Somewhere right from the beginning of this ad, the messaging was lost both strategically and creatively," says Khurana.

The parallels that are drawn in the commercial should have had a better connect and do not relate to the industry, he feels.

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