Summary
The owner also eats here! At Motilal Oswal, promoters and company are the largest investors in their own funds. This 'skin in the game' provided a strong reason to trust the brand. Assets under advisory grew 40% & Mutual Fund AUM grew 23%. In fact; 10 months after the campaign; the industry regulator (SEBI) made the criterion of ‘skin in the game ‘a norm across the industry.
Challenge
Ordinary product performance can be gauged upfront or on immediate use. In an investment product like mutual funds, however, while past performance helps you decide to some extent; it is not the absolute barometer. You are handing over your savings in the hope that the brand is able to deliver in the future. This bet on future performance is typically based on which brand you TRUST to grow your money. As a result of COVID related stock market volatility; the need to trust was even furthur accentuated. When it comes to trust, actions speak louder than words. You may do all kinds of the campaigns to convey the message about the philosophy followed by the fund house, experience of Fund Managers, celebrity endorsements etc; but it won't work unless you back it up with actions. Trust can't be bought . It has to be demonstrated.
Objective
By giving people a reason to trust the brand, we aimed to reduce redemptions and acquire new clients leading to an overall increase in sales and hence assets under management by 10%
Strategy
PROPOSITION: DEMONSTRATING TRUST- 'SKIN IN THE GAME' The best way to get investors to TRUST us is through affirmative action by the brand. At Motilal Oswal, promoters and the company are the largest investors in their own funds with over Rs 31 billion of their own money invested (and continue to stay invested despite COVID related market volatility). A true case of putting your money where your mouth is! This 'skin in the game' proposition was an opportunity to demonstrate our conviction in our mutual fund products and why investors should trust the brand. MEDIA STRATEGY TV: Targeted only the leading Business News channels. Took spots during stock market hours to capitalise on peak equity investor interest Branded Content & PR: Published the 25th Motilal Oswal Wealth Creation Study and also created a website that demonstrated our approach and commitment to equity over the past 25 years. Telecast live on CNBCTV18 and published in The Economic Times Digital Campaign: With the existing investors to prevent redemptions & new investors to expand our business in the top 12 cities Laptop branding of all CNBCTV18 anchors - targeted 24x7 brand reminder Social Media posts in synch with the campaign idea
Data
Rs 36.32 billion (as on 31st Oct, 2021) of our own money translated into 10.85% of the total AUM of our mutual funds. This provided a quantifiable reason to trust the brand for investors From a media planning perspective; BARC data for business and financial news viewership ( core media for equity investing) is very limited. We hence conducted our own research among equity / equity mutual fund investors to determine their viewership in TV, print and digital. This research showed that CNBCTV18, CNBC Awaaz, Zee Business (56%) were the main TV channels while moneycontrol and et.com were the main digital channels (65%) Separate campaigns targeting existing investors to prevent redemptions & new investors to expand our business in the top 12 cities. While the longer edit (50 Sec) was served to new audiences, the shorter version was served to retarget the existing audience from the pool to achieve a better completion rate.
Solution
The creative idea to communicate this proposition was inspired by signs we see across various food outlets in India. To instil confidence and trust, many restaurants put up a sign - "The owner of this restaurant also eats here". This acts as a testament to the conviction the owner has of quality and hygiene of the food served. We used this popular and relatable phenomenon as a visual metaphor to demonstrate our ‘skin in the game' proposition. Care was taken to create the video in such a way that it was also comprehensible without sound/ on mute as that's how it is seen on business news TV many times. The campaign was conceived while working from home as Mumbai was in complete lockdown. By early July 2020 when parts of India unlocked, we shot the campaign in the Indian city of Bangalore using minimal infrastructure; while supervising the production remotely. Campaign released on 14th July and went on till 30th September
Results
While currently, markets are at all-time highs, in July 2020 there was a lot of uncertainty. Our efforts to assuage this uncertainty and build trust through our ‘skin in the game' campaign has paid back handsome dividends when markets bounced back recently. Assets under advisory grew 40% to 2,06,435Cr Mutual Fund AUM grew 23% to 25,847Cr Group client base increased 12% to 2.9mn Average Daily Turnover increased 65% to 54,698Cr No.1 in Top of Mind awareness 18% (Brand Track) 24% equity investors considered us an "Equity Investing Expert" (No 1) (Brand Track) Media coverage : No.1 in terms of print media coverage with 24% SoV (Cirrus Research)/7 average daily TV interactions (Gold News monitoring)/No.1 in terms of online news SoV of 25% (Konnect Insights) Digital : YouTube Brand Lift Survey: Search uplift 35.69%/ Ad Recall lift 17.14%. Brand Favourability Lift 13.85%./1,300% Hike In Organic website Traffic & 1,400% Hike In Direct Traffic During Campaign Period Over 10 million customers and prospects reached In 30 Days 12 million complete Video Views At ~70% View To Completion Rate Awards: Asia-Pacific Stevie (Silver) & International Business Awards( Global) Stevie ( Bronze) Best BFSI Campaign (Silver) - Brand Equity Shark Awards 2021 Motilal Oswal wins a Blue Elephant in the best film (TV & Cinema) Category at Kyoorius Creative Awards 2021 Motilal Oswal wins two awards at The Campaign Media 360 Summit & Awards Motilal Oswal wins 2 gold awards for the marketing excellence during lockdown at "The Unlock Awards 2021" Motilal Oswal wins two awards at The Video Media Awards & Summit. Motilal Oswal wins 2 gold at the MCUBE Awards 2021
