“Humour works as an ice-breaker as we help millennials fix their broken relationship with money”: Fi's Aparna Narayan Leon

Most of the popular marketing campaigns of February are all painted in the colour of love and dripping with mush. Of course, it is Valentine's month and the air is full of romance. In this cacophony, who would want to address those who have loved and lost? And especially those who have not only lost a loved one (broken up) but also lost a lot of cash.

After a break up, amongst the many hurt and pain that millennials go through is the regret of having spent a lot on their ex-partner. It is the realisation that what they thought would be an investment for the future turned out to be only a massive expenditure with no returns.

In its Valentine’s Day campaign, Fi, a neobank, addressed this misfortune and promised youngsters a severance package. In a campaign on Instagram, Fi asked its followers to share the one thing that they regretted buying for their ex. And the comment with the most number of likes receives a ‘severance package’. For the winners of this package, ‘Tis better to have loved and lost’ (as Alfred Lord Tennyson writes in the poem ‘In Memoriam’).

The campaign is a result of a brainstorming session of the in-house social team. Aparna Narayan Leon, marketing head, at Fi, says when they were brainstorming on the Valentine’s Day campaign they were thinking of the investments that go into a relationship and while everybody is talking about the mushy aspects of Valentine’s, they wanted to turn it on its head and address something that people were not talking about.

“There is a lot of love and mush in the air. There's no need for us to add on to that. We wanted to be relatable. We were fully cognizant of the people for whom that return on investment has not panned out. And hence, we decided to talk to one core set of users who didn't find Valentine's day that mushy and strike a chord with them,” she says.

The campaign has got some hilarious responses on Instagram and Fi has responded back in equal jest. There’s a comment that says ‘I bought him a watch, don’t think it works, since he was supposed to call me at 10 pm on November 5, 2018.” Fi has replied, “better ‘watch’ out for 2 am calls.” Another one rants “I spent 8k to buy him a tennis racket, only to see him play mixed doubles with his new GF.” Fi’s response to it goes, “Love is a sport and we are not getting any grand slams.”

This humour is typical of Fi. Its Instagram page, full of memes, reels and hilarious videos, doesn’t look like the regular social media page of a financial institution. It doesn’t have the usual promotional content and moment marketing posts.

In fact the neobank started its marketing initiatives last year with a similar campaign. It asked people to apply to become a chief broke officer that would help them fix their broken relationship with money. Through this campaign it gave people early access to the app. “It actually powered about 60 per cent of our waitlist signups,” Leon says.

A neobank is a digital bank without any physical branches. It is entirely online. It is a fintech firm that provides digital and mobile-first financial solutions payments and money transfers.

Being a neo bank, it is targeted to millennials and is being marketed by millennials. Describing its TG, Leon says, “It is someone who is in the initial years of earning money. The first few years have gone in enjoying the independence that it brings. But now they are in that phase where they want to grow the money. They want to save more, invest it and grow the money. But for this they don't want to go to a bank, stand in a line and fill forms. They may not be saving for marriage, car, house and education. It could be to go on a holiday in Maldives or buy an iPhone.”

Most of the early adopters are males in the age group of 25 to 40 years. The brand resonates more with urban salaried working professionals. But the brand intends to expand beyond the urban audience.

In one of its early posts the bank made it clear that they will speak to their TG in their own language and steer clear from the usual financial jargons. Humour forms an important part of this communication strategy.

Quoting a Deloitte millennial survey from 2020, which said that four out of five millennials don't understand their money, she says they find it boring and complex. “They don't engage with it. Either it is too boring or it is something that they procrastinate, or it is something that they will outsource. They don't have a conversation about it. And even our financial institutions are not designed to make people feel smart. Questions and conversations are not encouraged,” she says.

That is the core problem that Fi attempts to address. It’s mission statement is to help millennials get better with their money. “So for us the first step was to start these conversations and humour was a great way to break the ice. We also want to establish ourselves as a very relatable brand. So we speak the same language,” Leon explains.

Since its audience is completely digital, it’s communication is largely restricted to digital platforms like social media, OTT apps, YouTube, etc. “I don't see us using traditional media anytime soon,” she says.

However it advertised on the IPL last year with a unique TVC that appeared in the form of a Powerpoint presentation.

“Our objective was to break the clutter and stand out. Because IPL is a highly competitive space and it is difficult to differentiate one brand from the other, even within this neo banking financial services for millennials space. We wanted to put out a clear concise communication on who we are, our features and what you can get out of us,” she shares.

The brand is still considering its association in the upcoming IPL. However, it is clear that if it does, it will only be on Disney+Hotstar and not on television as its TG is watching on OTT.

“As our product evolves and we have newer propositions, we will start ramping up our spends as well,” she says.

It also does collaborations in content and strategic promotions on platforms like Swiggy, Amazon and Myntra. Since there is a need for more financial literacy among the millennials, when it comes to content, Fi’s primary focus is to put out useful information to help them make better decisions. “We already have a community for Fi users. We will start expanding that over the next six to seven months so more people can discover us that way.”

As per a KPMG report, the global neo-banking market size is expected to reach USD 333.4 billion by 2026, a market growth of 47.1 per cent CAGR over the next five years. In India, these firms don't have a bank licence of their own but build services on existing banking infrastructure. NiYo, RazorpayX, Open, Jupiter, Chqbook, and Finin are among other neobanks in India. In this competitive space, Leon says, it is the product and its features, like ‘Ask Fi’ and ‘Fit Rules’ that differentiates them from the rest.

Though the traditional banks are also in the users’ consideration set, Fi doesn’t consider them as rivals. “Our business model is to partner with traditional banks and not to replace them. Our intention is to serve a gap, creating smart tech on top of the existing banking infrastructure. We're trying to add to the ecosystem to make a better proposition for the user,” she explains.