Categories Name : Social Media

Sub-Category : Leveraging Social Media to boost brand ROI and engagement

Entry Name (Campaign) : Add An Ad

Covering Note / Overall Experience

Understanding India's shopping behaviour

A 2019 survey report by the Retailers Association of India revealed that 89% of Indian consumers shop during the festive season. The same report stated that offers and discounts are the most prominent factors weighing on purchase decisions.

We wanted to make an offer that one couldn't refuse

In this cluttered space of brands launching festive discounts and offers, we offered to make our consumers' every wish come true, by taking a road less traveled. So, when every brand promoted offers to ensure festive sales, we had something special up our alley as well – HDFC Bank Festive Treats. Our offer was to make them save on their spending. Discounts and cashback on purchases made by an HDFC Bank Card user, over and above what the brand was offering. Why compete with all these offers, when you can ride on them?

Use Instagram as a platform, and repurpose its most used 'Instagram story' feature.

Presenting - Add an Ad, a highly targeted, contextual campaign that promoted Festive Treats onto the many influencers' Instagram stories promoting other branded offers. We capitalised on this by making sure that every brand influencer promotion Instagram story was followed by one with the same influencer telling how the product on sale in the previous story could be purchased via HDFC Bank debit/credit cards to enjoy exclusive offers.

Our communication was simple: buy from the many brands that are offering discounts and offers, but pay using an HDFC Bank card to avail additional cashback on all your purchases.

A seamless integration, non - intrusive and with a high recall value, the campaign ensured the cards were swiped even long after Diwali.

Concept

Every year, the festive season is when India willfully spends a lot on shopping. This period, spanning across October & November is when every brand comes out with its best offers & sales, hoping to get a right swipe from the consumers. In this mix, we had something special up our alley as well – HDFC Bank Festive Treats, through which we wanted people to make their every wish come true.

To every brand ad, we simply 'Add An Ad'

With brands spending a whopping budget around festive campaigns to promote their offers and discounts, we decided not to compete with them but instead piggyback on these ads and simply 'Ad An Ad'.

Innovation

Creating a seamless recall for HDFC Bank's Festive Treats

Ambushing brand advertisements is passé. We wanted to do something impossible - piggyback on brand advertisements to promote our festive offers. The sequencing of our ad immediately after the branded ads ensured that at that particular moment of exposure:

• the messaging had a high relevance for the viewer,
• communication was seamless, which ensured higher retention rates, & when done at scale across categories, it strengthened the recall factor.

Execution

We had a specific strategy for each audience touchpoint and knew from a social media perspective, Instagram would be highly critical given the high affinity with our target audience. And here, we wanted to get maximum actionable traction – which zeroed down our focus to Instagram stories and the swipe up feature.

Next, we looked at the prevailing pattern of information dissemination. There were two ways brands were doing so – one, running their own ads, and two – partnering with influencers. Research showed that the latter approach had a stronger resonance with the audiences.

Then we reached out to the influencer network to know about the brands they were going to do promotions for. Since we were not a direct competitor, this was perfectly legal & ethical. This allowed us to identify the influencers across key categories where debit & credit cards would be relevant.

Next, we ensured a minimal, to the point information was shared by these influencers that focused on two things only – the what – the user benefit and the how - the desired user action. This was packaged in a visual manner that further strengthened recall for HDFC Bank Festive Treats.

Most importantly, we ensured the influencers put up these stories immediately after their branded story to make the campaign that much potent.

Results

Reach: 24+ million

Impressions: 28+ million

Increase in website traffic: 107%

Swipe Ups: 102k

Brands covered: 80+