The Last Telegram
Birla Sunlife Insurance
Issue 29 | December 2013
Agency
DDB Mudra Group
Creative Team
Idea Aneil Deepak Sandeep Mishra Gaurav Kamath Copy Venkatgiri Rao Sonia Arora Pratap Bose
Other Credits
Business Head Nitin Rastogi Client Servicing Jesal Parikh
Date
July 2013
Background
On July 14th 2013 the 163 year-old telegram service in India was closed down. Dating back to 1850, the service had first been offered to the public in 1854. However, it had ceased to be meaningful in a world of instant messaging by SMS, BBM and telephone calls.
Idea
The agency was quick to see that there was an opportunity for Birla Sun Life Insurance in the story of the telegram being retired.
5,000 people who had shown interest previously in Birla Sun Life's retirement plans but who had forgotten to do anything about it were identified.
On July 14th, the last day the telegram service was in operation, a team of 15 people went to the Telegram Office in Mumbai and from 9am to 10.30pm wrote and dispatched individual telegrams to those 5,000 prospective customers. The message read: : "The Telegram retires today. With no plans for the future. Do you have a plan for your future? - Retirement Solutions from Birla Sun Life Insurance"
Results
5,000 telegrams were delivered and the message struck a chord with many of
its recipients who took to Facebook and Twitter to talk about this reminder of the past about the future. @goodbyetelegram became a trending topic with over
2,500 tweets and 60% retweets. Media including Times of India, Indian Express, Rediff News etc took up the story generating around 1.6 million impressions in a week.
21.6% of those delivered a telegram contacted Birla Sun Life and 17.7% converted into customers.
Our Thoughts
When you are aware of the news you can make the news. This would not have worked as well as it did if the message had been merely topical. The fact that it was also entirely relevant was what made it memorable. Relevant, branded, memorable – irrespective of your media choice that’s what you want your idea to be. It is amazing how seldom advertising meets those three requirements.
Full marks then to DDB MudraMax for being aware of the demise of the telegram and for making the connection with their client.