Kotak Mahindra Bank gets 'Subo' to communicate new interest offering

In order to leverage on RBI's month old deregulation of Savings account interest rate, Kotak Mahindra Bank has launched a new campaign to communicate that it's Savings bank deposit interest rate is now 6% instead of 4%.

The TVC created by Cartwheel Creative stars actor Vinay Pathak who plays the character of 'Subo', the guy who apparently knows everything ('Subo sab jaanta hai!).

The TVC begins with Subo smoothely solving a puzzled Rubik's cube while the voice-over strengthens that he is the know-it-all man. You spot him in the center of an aggregation of people in a park where he uses his statements on recession during a laughter therapy exercise. He continues to share his wisdom with people around him at various levels when one of them asks him if the recent increase in savings deposit interest rate provided by Kotak Mahindra Bank is worth any benefits to which he responds in affirmation and encourages them to make the most of it.

Karthi Marshan, head marketing, Kotak Mahindra Bank, elaborated on the new campaign's intent and said, "Usually when the monetory policy rates increase or decrease, the end consumer doesn't really get a chance to make use of it. At the same time, we, as a service provider to that end consumer, hardly ever get a chance to communicate in a highly differentiated manner owing to the category we operate in. But RBI's recent announcement gave us that opportunity to build on our USP and so we released this campaign within three to four days of the deregulation."

Marshan shared that their consumer research results brought in a few significant insights that they kept in mind before releasing the campaign. He said, "First finding was that an average consumer has no or less understanding of the concept of interest on savings account. Through this campaign, we are not only underlining the fact that there's an interest, we are also communicating that we provide 6% instead of 4% to make it an alluring offer."

But why does Vinay Pathak have to play a 'Subo'? He answered, "We found out that the biggest influencers on an average consumers financial decisions is the word-of-mouth. You always have that one person who you look up to in such matters, who is well versed with the subject and who has your trust. Hence, we brought in the character of a Subo who is adept in all walks of life."
Commenting on their communication strategy, Marshan explained that the campaign is directed at three to four segments specifically. These are the salaried people, retired people, entities like schools, trusts and NGOs that get lump sum of cash at once that has to be managed throughout the year where an additional interest is of great value.

Along with outdoor initiatives, the campaign involves two 30-seconders, four or more 20-seconders, some innovations around the cricket season. 

Credits:

Client: Kotak Mahindra Bank
Agency: Cartwheel Creative
Creative: Prem, Kiran, Sourabh, Ajay, Sagar, Ramki
Film: Shumon, Labony
Account management: Shaun Pereira
Client (marketing): Karthi, Khushnum
Producer: Jamic Films
Director: Nikhil Rao