Adgully Exclusive | Its good 2b 25 at Kotak Mahindra Bank

Celebrating 25 years, Kotak Mahindra Bank launched its brand new campaign this week communicating the same. The strategy in place is focused and intensive in a concentrated period of time. It is going to be a visible campaign having a large impact in print, outdoor and digital initiatives including blocking primetime slots on television with its various commercials. Kotak is fairly a young brand when compared to others in the same space. With communication partners Cartwheel Creatives, Starcom MediaVest Group, Interactive Avenues and Genesis Burson-Marsteller, the bank has designed a strategic campaign to mark the occasion. Another very crucial thing that Kotak emphasis on is their internal management. In an exclusive interview with Adgully, Karthi Marshan, Executive Vice President & Head Group Marketing, Kotak Mahindra Bank, dwelled upon the strengths of Kotak and the journey so far.

"Turning 25 is a historical event. Now we are plus 25 years old firm. It was an opportunity to celebrate that. And the celebration in our assessment, it has benefits in the minds of those employees as well as customers and all other allied stake holders. So letting people know that we had reached a remarkable milestone was of value. That was the first level. In the second level, just as a textbook marketing thought, it is actually a USP opportunity, because no other financial firm has the opportunity to say this, in this year. Therefore we saw it as a differentiation opportunity as well, which is pure marketing. One remarkable opportunity to do something different, disruptive and distinctive," Marshan said.

25 years is a significant and relevant milestone. For internal audience this is not only a celebration opportunity but a re-affirmation and motivation opportunity as well. "20 years ago, Kotak in terms of employee strength was a much smaller place with only around 5000 people, now in its 25th year, we grew to 20,000 employees. We have grown quite dramatically in the last five years. The 15,000 employees who have joined, including me, we may not necessarily have a deep understanding of the culture and history of the firm. It was important for the employees to feel a sense of belonging with the firm's history, a history that has had its ups and downs. It was important to celebrate that journey as well," he further added.

The focus internally is strong and always maintained. "We have been running a campaign internally for the last 12 months. We had the contest among our employees first. So at least four of our ads are inspired by our employees itself. We will be doing an event and will also run nationwide cricket contest. Other contests include. "Tell your Kotak story' and so on," he further added

Talking about the marketing spends, Marshan said, "I would like this to look like a 100 crore campaign and deliver the impact of a 100 crore campaign but obviously I haven't spent anything close to that."

One aspect to which Kotak didn't want their 25th year being associated with was the traditional ways of celebrating this milestone with floral ribbons and flowers and bouquet handing. "We were clear that we didn't to be in this space. We didn't want this to be the fact that we had reached 25 but be relevant to the world at large. The world at large to us would include, stake holders, customers and prospects are the key parts of the stakeholders, apart from shareholders. It is a huge journey though we are young in a larger perspective. We want to enhance all our attributes. We thought the campaign would raise the bar of all our attributes like trustworthiness, reliability etc.," he said

"We were different because we were not advertising a product here, we grabbed the opportunity about being 25 and did research on being 25. It is a huge journey though we are young in a larger perspective. It had to be relevant to our customers as well, so based on these researches we designed the commercials. "Coming of age' is a phrase that we want to communicate through this campaign," he further said.

As it is known from their history, Kotak is not a big spender on marketing. "Our consumers and our target audience see us in the same peer group of ICCI and HDFC. They obviously outspend us by many folds. We had to give a layer of media clarity as input to creatives. We will only be doing this concept which was this that the ad had to come immediately after the programme before any other ads come to ensure visibility. Conveying the message in 10 seconds was the brief given to the agency. The agency struggled but used these constraints to come up with something so very engaging," he commented on the brief given to the agency.

He further added, "A version of this campaign is on print, where now we are asking world at large why it is great to be 25 and we are rewarding them for their participation. On the internet and radio the same thing is done. Now we want to take the idea of 25 and engage it with the world at large and make it interactive."

The attempt to connect with the youth comes across strongly in the campaign. The TVCs showcase different people from all aspects of life talking about how it was in their time, when they were 25 years of age.

"We are a young brand, we are a brand which will be investing in tomorrow. The youth is obviously a growing segment. We are building for the future. We have to grow our business by acquiring new customers as they arrive into the marketing space. Being a young brand we want to tell the young people we connect better with them than other brands," Marshan further said.

This week will see a series of 10-second commercials created by Cartwheel Creatives that will go on-air across television channels. The basic aim is to create an instant buzz around the bank, keeping it youthful and memorable. | By Janees Antoo [janees(at)adgully.com]