BACKGROUND
HDFC Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, was launching their 3rd annual shopping festival called ‘Festive Treats’. A bouquet of discounts and offers exclusive to HDFC Bank customers for their festive shopping.
Research suggested that, despite a few tough months in 2021, 72% of Indians were looking forward to the coming festive shopping season, and 62% were keen on shopping online, making it a massive ‘Digi-fest.’
With consumer shopping spends likely to increase, brands too were expected to increase their ad media spends by 40% in comparison to 2020. Every medium of advertisement was expected to be cluttered and overflowing with monotonous ads.
Competitor banks had their own campaigns underway to tap this enormous festive business. So no matter how great our deal was, we would still need some standing out, to ensure top-of-the-head recall when the time came to make a purchase.
OBJECTIVES
Our primary objective was to make sure that HDFC Bank Cards were the ones used to shop during this festive season.
In the clutter of festive ads, we needed to do something truly unique to leave a lasting impression in the minds of the viewer.
Festive Treats offered shopping discounts and cashbacks on a vast range of products. From clothes, to electronics, to loans for buying a car, home decor, etc. We had to feature this extensive range of offers individually so that customers wouldn’t miss out on a deal.
Insight from Consumer Behavior
Increased screen time during the pandemic months, resulted in consumer purchasing behavior being significantly influenced by content.
Through a cursory reading of comments on a few content pieces, we realized that viewers weren’t only paying attention to the vlogger/influencer, but they were equally cognizant of what’s there and is happening in the background. Eureka!
Willingly denouncing the spotlight
Brands are paying premium bucks to have their products in the spotlight by getting them in the hands of influencers. But since the viewers were paying equal attention to what was happening behind the influencer, we decided to leverage that uncontested advertising space in the background.
We contacted India’s most-watched content creators and vloggers from Youtube and asked them if, in their upcoming vlog video, they would allow us to place an Ad on a few products in the background. They would NOT have to talk about Festive Treats, nor the product we would be placing the ad on.
This meant if you went to YouTube to watch your favorite content creator talk about styling tips, without interrupting them or getting them to talk about our offers, we added an ad on the products in their background.
Audience POV
While the audience was seeing a casual vlog from the creator, they were surprised with an arrow animation appearing from a product behind the creator. This arrow would lead their attention to the information banner on the top right corner which said - ‘You can get it now!’ or “Buy this now’.
Upon clicking the information banner, the viewer would see Youtube Cards with the Festive Treats discount offer on that product. Clicking the Youtube Card would direct the consumer to the Festive Treats discount page for that product category, giving details on how to avail the offer while buying the product.
An Unexpected, yet Unique Shopping Experience
The masterstroke of creativity for us was to make it a unique shopping experience for our viewers by integrating Youtube's interactive information Cards. We perfectly timed them to appear with the offers and they allowed us to showcase the multitude of product categories on which Festive Treats offers were available.
For people who came purely to watch the creators’ content, still had a non-disruptive experience as there were only 3 ad placements in each video, and no script or talking points were added to the creators’ video.
A pure content bait! Audiences were lured in by their love for the creators' content, while our seamless plug-in of the Festive Treats discounts and offers in their backdrop amassed the collateral reach and strong recall, thanks to its unexpectedness.
We collaborated with 23 Youtube content creators
70 Ad Placements on products
12 Million Video Views (no paid promotions)
72 Million Impressions on Youtube
Compared to other channels, the Youtube amplification of Festive Treats and the strategic placement of our ads strengthened our recall factor, making HDFC Bank cards synonymous with festive shopping to earn better deals.
8.79 Million Unique Visitors came to the Festive Treats discount microsite
25% Increase in Credit Card Spends
18% Increase in Debit Card Spends
23% increase in Volume of Personal Loans
