SBI begins 2018 by crafting heart- warming series by the DDB Mudra Group

India's diaspora population is the largest in the world with over 15 million Indians living abroad, according to a United Nations survey in 2017. In chasing their dreams by living far away from home, NRIs often bear the pain of missed moments with their families. This desire to spend time with their families is what drives their much anticipated trips back home.  In reality, however, NRIs often find themselves spending most of their time in a completely unexpected place – the bank, taking care of their financial chores. Digital banking, for many NRIs travelling back home, has substantially reduced their time spent on financial transactionsmaking it a preferred choice of banking.

SBI has been a frontrunner in understanding the changing consumer needs and evolving its personal banking services and technologies accordingly. Their enhanced NRI service in the personal banking space is supported by a strong digital infrastructure that provides a world-class service to clients, at the click of a button. The NRI service offerings include instant fund transfer, loan credit against fixed deposits, home and car loan application, among many others.

SBI and the DDB Mudra Group wanted to drive home the positive impact that the bank’s NRI services have on a user’s life and what better theme to showcase this than a big fat Indian wedding. Featuring a typical Indian modern family comprising of an overtly critical father, a supportive mother, a chirpy bride-to-be and her responsible elder NRI brother; this five- part ad series takes the viewers through situations that every NRI sibling/ child faces when there is a wedding back home.

Right from the first episode where the viewer is introduced to the characters, to the last one, where the celebrations have been successfully completed; each story has a benefit from SBI’s NRI banking servicessubtly spun into the story line.

The series begins with a light argument between a father in India and his New York based son, who is scheduled to come home just two days before his sister’s wedding.

When the father indicates his unhappiness over his son’s absence, the latterreassures him that with his banking needs conveniently taken care of through SBI NRI services, he will be able to contribute more quality time to his family. In the second part, the sister playfully taunts her brother for not being there during her wedding shopping and he surprises her with an instant fund transfer aided by SBI, to help her buy her dream wedding attire.

The third episode talks about a common concern in any big fat Indian wedding- unexpected guests, and shows how the son has been able to plan for this with SBI’s banking service. In the fourth episode, the son surprises his sister with the news that the family is shifting to a new home; thanks to the easy home loan that he applied for before coming to India. The series finale takes the viewers throughthe son surprising his parents with a new car, bought with the help of SBI easy car loans under NRI services. Each film ends with a tagline - Gharaayentohsirfgharkeliyeaayen’ (Translation- Come home for home).

The appeal of these films have led to them garnering over a million views on YouTube since their launch in Jan 2018. 

Quoting on the campaign, Mr. Dinesh Menon, CMO, SBI, said, “Communication of NRI services have mostly been centered around a bank’s international network / presence and the range of services a bank provides. So, it’s largely been at a very rational level. 

The insight, based on which this campaign was developed by the DDB Mudra Group truly reflects the consumer truth of what an NRI goes through when s/he visits India on holidays. Quite a bitof their holidays is wasted tending to their banking needs – be it a new home loan, managing FDs and so forth. These films are an attempt at positioning SBI NRI services as a smart, convenient solution. The other objective we intend to achieve through these films is to change SBI’s brand perception among NRIs and raise awareness of SBI’s digital offerings. Early feedback has been very encouraging from all quarters.”

Quoting on the campaign, Shagun Seda, Group Creative Director, DDB Mudra West said, “Everybody knows what SBI does, but what people don’t know is the subtle ways in which it touches our life and makes it easier. This becomes even more evident when you are working and living abroad. So instead of selling the NRI services to customers, we sold them a relatable family, a tricky situation and then everything else just fell into place.

Agency credits

Agency: DDB Mudra Group

Creative: Shagun Seda, Manish Darji,  Rahul Mathew, Fritz Gonsalves, Prasad Rao, Durgesh Singh, Apoorva Sharma, Akshay Keluskar

Account Management: Sanjay Panday, MakarandGholba, Mousumi Haldar, Zenia Patel

Accounts Planning: Amit Kekre, Toru Jhaveri, Sanchari Chakrabarty

Films: Vishal Sane, Siddhi Bhopale