YES BANK: Forget mushy visuals, bank on a money plant

Think of any advertisement by a financial services company, and immediately done-to-death images of hand-holding, smiling faces and other reassuring gestures come to mind. YES BANK, thankfully, has decided not to take that beaten path. It has chosen a money plant instead to connect with its target customers.

Though the Kotak ad campaign treads on similar territory (of money growing on trees) YES BANK makes a departure by using a money plant to figuratively convey growth of money.

The YES BANK TVC by Triton Communications begins with the sprouting of a sapling and as it grows into a mature money plant, the commercial draws a parallel between the growth of money with the growing plant. The base line of the ad 'Experience our Expertise' seeks to invite potential customers to bank with YES BANK.

The campaign highlights the latent strengths of YES Bank – professional entrepreneurship, strong investors and excellence in human capital, knowledge expertise, focus on select industry sectors, optimal and innovative use of technology, strong commitment to corporate governance and transparency, and a novel approach to corporate social responsibility.

The launch film will be followed by TVCs on individual sectors such as food & agribusiness, life sciences, telecommunications and infrastructure development, textiles, commodities, manufacturing that the bank is targeting.

The creative for the TVC was inspired by a direct mailer that Triton had conceived for the bank. Triton had sent over 5,000 direct mailers to business heads of top companies in the form of a real money plants in ceramic pots. The tick in the logo of YES Bank was used as a support for the plants. And, according to the agency, the corporate czars were thrilled.

Such was the response to the money plant mailer that the creative team decided to adapt and adopt it for the launch film. “Money plants are considered auspicious in India. The mailer's positive response convinced us that the plant could be further exploited for a television commercial,” says Renton D' Souza, national creative director, Triton Communications.

That the idea was liked by the target group was one point, the other was the idea's simplicity. “The growing money plant is a simple idea, which makes the communication likable. Also, we were clear from the beginning that we did not want to use those smiling faces and reassuring gestures – done to death by brands in financial services. Therefore, the money plant idea made a perfect fit with YES BANK,” says D' Souza.

The advertising campaign exemplifies and reinforces the ‘YES’ brand attributes of positive attitude, dynamism, business approach and a strong service oriented philosophy. The campaign consists of five print advertisements which have already been realeased in leading business publications. It will be supported by an outdoor campaign and TV commercial which is about to hit the airwaves shortly. The TVCs will be appearing on business and news channels with a skew towards high networth individuals. The total budget earmarked for this campaign is Rs 2-3 crore.

Yateesh Srivastava, executive director, strategic planning of Triton Communications, said, “Right from the time of the pitch, the brief for YES BANK was focused and remained so during the conceptualisation and execution of the campaign. This focus helped us in developing alternate creative expressions around the same core positioning. Through the campaign we wanted to communicate ‘expertise’ in a way that was refreshing and differentiated, and yet build the brand as a ‘trust-mark’ indicating solidity and knowledge.”

YES BANK is envisaged to be a high quality, knowledge based, technology driven, state-of-the-art private Indian bank catering to “Emerging India”. The Indian promoters jointly hold 52 per cent of the bank's equity, while 20 per cent of the equity is held by Rabobank, Netherlands, a part of the Rabobank Group, which is the only ‘AAA’ rated private bank in the world.

Three other high quality private equity institutional investors: CVC-Citigroup – New York; AIF Capital – Hong Kong; and ChrysCapital – San Francisco collectively own 25 per cent of the equity. The balance 3 per cent is being subscribed by top management executives.

YES BANK is commencing operations from its Nehru Centre corporate headquarters in Mumbai. It plans to gradually target wholesale banking, financial markets, corporate and transactional banking, retail and private banking business lines across the country.

© 2005 agencyfaqs!