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At the Emvies 2006, mediaedge:cia has been short-listed for its work for State Bank of India in the Best Media Innovation—Radio category
State Bank of India (SBI), the largest bank in the world and one of the oldest, was facing a communication gap with the young generation or, more precisely, the ‘multiplex generation’. mediaedge:cia, the media agency for SBI, decided to solve this problem innovatively. The agency has now been short-listed for its work for SBI in the Best Media Innovation—Radio category.
The agency’s first task was to identify the problem areas. The words, ‘State Bank of India’, just did not appeal to the younger generation, it found. With more modern and private banks such as ICICI, HDFC, HSBC and Standard Chartered available, the younger people never really felt the need or the inclination to deal with a bank that was perceived by them as an old and slow bank.
The mission for mediaedge:cia was to position SBI as a bank that was in pace with the times and youthful needs. It also needed to inform the youth, and others, about SBI’s strengths and various product offerings without alienating its existing customers.
The agency kicked off an interesting two-phase campaign for SBI. The first phase had a series of questions in the form of teasers, such as ‘Which bank has more customers than the population of Australia?’ and ‘Who does 80 per cent of corporate India bank with?’ These questions certainly raised eyebrows.
The trick was to get people to answer these questions through radio. mediaedge:cia created a contest on radio after Phase 1 of the campaign went outdoor. Radio jockeys across various radio stations posed questions that were similar to those on the hoardings to their listeners. The prizes were Apple iPods, which were sure to catch the fancy of young consumers.
Later, in Phase 2 of the campaign, the answers to all the questions were put up on the hoardings: ‘Surprisingly SBI’. The response, as mediaedge:cia says, was enormous. In just three days, they got 10,000 messages. But, ‘not so surprisingly’, only 10 per cent got the answer correct.
More importantly, this interesting educational campaign led to a stir in the market. As a result, the campaign achieved about 90 per cent top of mind recall in six out of seven cities. The top of mind brand recall was reported to be 75 per cent.
After this exercise, mediaedge:cia has inferred that consumers can be engaged and involved in the communication process and they will react in a positive way.
© 2006 agencyfaqs!