Modern Banking meets Modern Love: DBS Bank India took a completely unique approach to their global campaign “Different Kind of Bank” by partnering with Amazon Prime Video on the launch of their series in India – Modern Love. They bank stayed true to their philosophy – showcasing their take on modern banking and how the company is less like a traditional bank.
The campaign aligned DBS’s offering of “intelligent and intuitive” banking, with being the perfect partner, much like the characters in the show Modern Love. The business objective of this campaign was to build an audience in the southern region of India through localized content that would resonate with them. The brand objective was to enter the consideration set for a new group of customers who were seeking more from their banking partners.
The campaign aimed to develop top-of-mind awareness for DBS Bank India in the minds of its target audience in Mumbai and Hyderabad (focus metro cities in India) and reiterate the bank's positioning as a modern bank that offers customers the ability to live more and bank less. The campaign targeted local audiences with different languages, including English, Tamil, and Telugu, to resonate with its target group.
With the recent acquisition of the erstwhile LVB, with a strong presence in the south markets, DBS was able use this association with Amazon Prime’s Modern Love to hit the right target and resonate with its English, Tamil and Telugu speaking audiences.
The campaign was designed to find new and effective ways to reach its target audience and achieve an exceptional return on investment (ROI). One of the strategies was to build co-owned and co-created content IPs as brand publishers with external and established partners to expand content distribution. The campaign also aimed to optimize its digital efforts through always-on analysis to generate better results.
“Live more, Bank less” is a very bold proposition for any bank to make, and this is what sets DBS Bank India apart. The customer insight was that using local celebrities and tying in the DBS Bank India messaging with the Amazon prime series would help both brands deliver meaningful communication to the digitally savvy, young, metro audience.
We wanted to draw an analogy between the theme of the show and DBS Bank India as being trusted partners for their customers so that they can ‘Live More, Bank Less’. The use of celebrities and influencers in the co-branded DBS Bank India videos and hoardings featured actors from both Modern Love Mumbai and Hyderabad. The partnership with Amazon Prime helped to further meet the objectives by increasing reach and engagement and helping the message be more localised.
The challenge was to take the “modern banking” and “Live more, Bank less” proposition of DBS Bank India, marry it with “Modern Love”, and help it resonate with a new audience in the south.
Hence, the strategy here was to extend the brand message that - DBS Bank India is ‘More like a partner, less like a Bank’. This message was integrated very well into the videos, using the popular Modern Love characters. Our approach was further differentiated by expanding into new ways of content distribution- i.e. partnering with an OTT player and delivering the message from the characters that are widely loved by their audience.
After expanding into co-owned and co-created content space with our partnership with Amazon Prime for ‘Modern Love Mumbai’, we went live with the follow-up series ‘Modern Love Hyderabad’ to tap into local and regional languages and resonate with our target audience. The videos, shot in Tamil and Telugu, highlight how the bank acts as a perfect partner who can make you feel secure and with whom you can build a long-term partnership so that you can ‘Live More, Bank Less’.
The billboards, which had both DBS Bank India and Amazon Prime branding, were strategically positioned in key OOH sites in Mumbai and Hyderabad, targeting the existing billboard locations of Amazon Prime Modern Love so that recall and recognition for DBS Bank India would be further enhanced. Modern Banking for Modern cities was the clear message.
The digital campaign went live on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Semantica at the same time to achieve a higher overall lift.
Here at DBS, we are always pushing boundaries, thinking, and acting less like a traditional bank. We believe that is how we become a bank for the times — for a different kind of world calls for a different kind of bank. Defying the status quo, while staying true to our purpose. With this campaign, we set out to innovate and serve our customers better by defying the status quo — breaking boundaries, reimagining banking, refusing to be bounded by conventional notions of what a bank should be.
Learnings from promoting Modern Love Mumbai led to increased efficiencies and overall reach for Modern Love Hyderabad, with the same budget.
Campaign metrics for Modern Love Hyderabad with Modern Love Mumbai as a benchmark
The campaign was a success as with this initiative, we were able to continually optimize, improve performance, test and learn and achieve more than what we estimated by successfully tapping into insights. Improvement in brand awareness of DBS Bank India rose by 6% post campaign, in a scenario when other banks' brand awareness was falling. (Acorn Brand Health Monitor). Our thought-through integration of the brand message with the well-loved series, using local actors and regional languages resonated with our target audience effectively.
In line with our larger campaign, ‘Live More, Bank Less’, we were able to showcase our message that DBS Bank India is a modern bank, collaborating with Amazon Prime Modern Love and aligning with the show’s theme of modern unions, targeting a customer base in modern cities.
