ETMONEY demonstrates shock value of their tax savings proposition for millennnials

As March 31st approaches, taxpayers scramble to opt for tax saving schemes before filing their income tax returns. ETMONEY has launched their new ad campaign with a unique tax saving proposition that allows customers to eke out the most from their tax savings product. Conceptualised by DAIKO FHO and produced by Cellardoor in partnership with the marketing team at Times Internet, the campaign is currently live on digital.

The financial services app has launched a high decibel multi-media campaign that will be led by TV and digital. They have released three creative cuts (20 seconds, 15 seconds and 10 seconds) in both horizontal and vertical formats. 

The brand has roped in Biswapati Sarkar, a standup comedian and comedy writer often associated with The Viral Fever, and actor Namit Das who has appeared in films such as ‘Wake Up Sid’, ‘Sumit Sambhal Lega’, and ‘Bombay Talkies’, as the face of the campaign.

There is a clear millennial connect in the campaign, which is targeted at the male audience, usually the primary target audience for any financial product.

Santosh Navlani, COO & Head of Marketing, ETMONEY, explained, “As you progress towards the late 30s or early 40s, the chances of you requiring a tax saving product is slightly lesser because usually at that stage of life most people have got some kind of financial product for tax saving purposes. The need for a tax saving product offered by a 3rd party platform like ETMONEY becomes lesser when you are 30+. The need is extremely high for employees who are in their early 20s and in middle management.”

The communication of the campaign is singular – by using the ETMONEY app, taxpayers can double their savings from Rs 46,000 to Rs 78,000, a value proposition that Navlani claims is one of a kind in the industry.

How does it work?

Based on the user's current life stage and investment, the ETMONEY app devises a personalised tax plan. It details the maximum tax someone can save and lists products like ELSS, NPS, Term and Health Insurance, which they can invest in. Then it makes sure that the products that the user wants are available for purchase via the app.

Though investing in a financial product is important, it can be pushed to the back of the mind for the financially unaware consumer. That’s why ETMONEY has employed comedy in their creative strategy.

According to Navlani, “Tax and finance have been boring or overly emotional on television advertising. Tax saving is important, but given the mobile-first Indian millennials we want to target, we wanted to drive home the point through shock or humour. Shock has been demonstrated through one not even being aware that Rs 78,000 tax saving is possible. When not shock, we have used humour through the ‘crazy happiness’ one gets when they find a sum of lost money.”

The campaign will run till March 31, 2020 and will be rolled out in several phases. The high impact launch will be followed by TV and OOH blitz. On TV, properties such as Live Sports (Cricket), News, Movies and high-reach weekend programming will be advertised on. OOH will target the commuters in Metros, Airports, Trains and Buses. Mobile media such as buses will be branded with the proposition of the app. The campaign will be subdued after February 13, when the Delhi election results are announced, and will be on again from February 25 after a hiatus of 10 days.

The creative strategy during the month of March will change to reflect the approaching deadline and create a sense of urgency in the taxpayer. YouTube and OTT platforms will be part of the 360-degree approach, and to keep digital natives engaged, the brand will release a music video on YouTube, called ‘Tax Wrap’.

“Millennials love music and ‘Tax Wrap’ is a funny take on the troubles that people go through while paying taxes. We eliminate friction in the path to purchasing financial products and users can buy all four of our tax saving products via the ETMONEY app in under 10 minutes,” Navlani added.

Significant monies have been invested in the campaign. Navlani revealed that 60 per cent of the budget is spent on traditional media, while 40 per cent is spent on digital. “None of it is on performance oriented; all of it is invested in building the brand,” he shared.

ETMONEY has set a personal goal for itself to measure the success of the campaign. As Navlani informed, “We have set a personal goal to help the millennials save Rs 300 crore in aggregated tax savings between January 2020 and March 2020.” “It’s an obnoxious target,” he admits, adding, “but we’ve had some success in the past.”

ETMONEY has met with success for a similar campaign in the past when they were offering ELSS Mutual Funds as their only tax saving product, which they claimed, helped their consumers save taxes to the tune of Rs 100 crore.

Campaign Credits:

Devdas R Nair, Creative Director, DAIKO FHO
Gautam Bardhan, Creative Director (Art), DAIKO FHO
Chandy Mohapatra, Executive VP, Digital & Advertising, Business Head, DAIKO FHO
Pran Jan, Account Director, DAIKO FHO
Rishav Rastogi, Director of TVC, Cellar Door Productions
Sourav Bangotra, Producer, Cellar Door Productions

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