Even a poppadum can demonstrate a smarter savings habit
Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund
Issue 27 | July 2013
Agency
M&C Saatchi Direct and Digital
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director: Deepak Agarwal Creative Director, Art: Prasad Acharya Associate Creative Director: Ganapathy Ramachandran Production Head: Navin Pandey CEO: Sumantra Sengupta Senior Copywriter: Gauri Gokam
Date
January 2013
Background
Tier-2 towns are a huge untapped market for investments. A majority of the audience in this segment believes only in nationalised savings banks, even though the rate of interest is low and one's savings don't multiply. Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund's Recurring Savings Plan is ideal for this conservative audience, as it allows them to save small amounts of money regularly (in safe debt funds) which can grow into a larger corpus. But how could they demonstrate these benefits to the Tier-2 audience in an easy-to-understand, relatable manner?
Idea
The insight they worked with was that the woman of the house regularly saves a small amount of money from her household budget, but doesn't really invest it. The strategy was to vividly demonstrate to her how these small amounts, when saved regularly, had the potential to grow. The innovative solution was to send her a packet containing piggy-bank shaped papads, with an eye catching impression of the Rupee symbol. In its original state, the papad is small but when fried in oil, it grows significantly larger (as does the rupee symbol on it). This effectively symbolised regular growth through small regular investments. The branding was chosen carefully, as the word Laxmi means the goddess of wealth.
Results
Of the 50,000 DMs sent to 8 Tier-2 towns in North India as a test case, responses for most of these towns were between 12% to 18%. Over Rs. 1 Crore was pledged in the Recurring Savings Plan in these towns, at a mailing cost of Rs. 6.5 Lakhs (Rs. 13 per pack).