Cannes Contenders 2022: HDFC Bank, TVS Raider, SOS power Kinnectâ€™s entries

After a successful on-ground edition of Goafest 2022, now the eyes of the ad industry – global and Indian – are on Cannes Lions 2022, which will be held from June 20 to 24. The competition has always been fierce for the coveted Cannes Lions awards and this year the excitement is even more palpable as the festival is being held after a gap of two years due to the global pandemic.

This year, Kinnect, part of the FCB India Group, has sent three entries for Cannes Lions – ‘Add An Ad 3.0’ for HDFC Bank, ‘Fight For What’s Right’ for TVS Raider, and ‘Chatpat’ for SOS Children Village.

‘Add An Ad 3.0’ – HDFC Bank

HDFC Bank was launching its 3rd annual shopping festival called ‘Festive Treats’. It offered a bouquet of discounts and offers to customers for their festive shopping. From smartphones to clothes to loans, it had a vast array of offers to communicate and an equally large competition vying for the top-of-mind awareness during the festive season.

Its objective was to encourage Indians to avail HDFC Bank offers on card purchases and loans. Having successfully done this for the past 2 years, Kinnect set out to make it a hat-trick of standing out from the crowd by ‘adding an ad’, this time on YouTube. Through social listening, they identified that while watching vlogs and even on zoom, audiences were eyeing and discussing objects in the background. Moreover, these items had a higher recall than the actual content. They found an uncontested advertising gold mine – the background.

The products that HDFC Bank had festive discounts on were naturally spotted in the background of YouTube vloggers’ videos. So, in their next vlog, instead of talking about the Festive Treats’ offers, they added an ad on the products in their background. They directed the viewer to buy what their eye spied without interrupting the video. All with a simple arrow pointing to a YouTube information card.

Leveraging these YouTube info cards, they showcased the vast range of discounts available through HDFC Bank's Festive Treats. At its heart, all was an ad that didn’t intrude on the creators’ storytelling while driving higher conversions for the campaign.

Link: https://vimeo.com/681691294/fbffb050ae

‘Fight For What’s Right’ – TVS Raider

Early evidence during the pandemic suggested that domestic violence complaints had risen by 131%. Violence against women is deeply entrenched and widely prevalent in India, fueled by patriarchy and toxic masculinity. Most bike brands try to embody an outdated concept of masculinity in their positioning to appeal to male audiences. TVS Raider did not want to fuel this trend. They wanted to take a stand against the prevalent toxic masculinity in Indian society.

Men have a unique, empathetic relationship with bikes and cars, such that a small scratch can cause them mental distress. When men can feel pain towards the harm of an inanimate object, why do they remain silent spectators to the brutal assaults on women? On 25th November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, they launched a video that showed the brand-new bike being brutally assaulted.

Link: https://vimeo.com/681695761/3583b4bcc7

‘Chatpat’ – SOS Children Village

Kinnect and FCB India came together to create an influencer, #chatpatkagyaan, to help childcare NGO SOS Children Village in creating awareness and helping it raise funds and build awareness about the homeless and destitute. This social movement has been fairly successful, with multiple brands coming on board. On Children’s Day '21, a 10-year-old boy - Chatpat, from the streets of Mumbai, shares ‘Gyaan’ videos around the quirks he learned on the streets. The videos feature him and his friends, all of whom live on the streets. While his videos instantly started winning hearts, there was an underlying message of the harsh reality of a 10-year-old living and surviving on the streets that got noticed.

The influencer campaign has helped the NGO raise funds and increase awareness, but it has also helped brands get the right kind of recognition and appreciation from the public for their active participation in a social cause.

Link :https://www.instagram.com/p/CYiiJDIs_9M/